Dedicated to Arpit. One of very few who seemed to agree with this viewpoint.
I often fail to see how we can classify old rulers or leaders as barbaric or revolutionary! Be it Ashoka, Akbar, Alenxander or Hitler. One might argue that what they did was wrong. We must not kill any one like this. But if they were this wrong, why did they have an entire empire of millions of people ready to do anything at their command? And are we in a better position to judge Alexanders deeds as compared to those who were alive at that point of time?
Genghis Khan took Mongols from a point of starvation to one of the largest empire on Earth. Was he wrong in doing that? We all say that what he indulged in was senseless murder. But don’t murders become senseless when all of us wanted India to wipe Pakistan from the face of this universe after 26-11?
Every powerful person, even Hitler, has had an entire army and population at his command. And I think that we should trust intelligence of those people to atleast judge what is justified. I don’t see a person whom we discard as barbaric or senseless rising to helm of an empire and making it the most glorious kingdom of that age. But that is what Alexander did, Genghis Khan did and Hitler did.
It is because we have been ruled by England for so long that we all think of any European expansionist as great and any non-European expansionist as barbaric. It has always been the winners or the more powerful ones who have written the history.
True, some of the things which they did are not concurrent by today’s rules because today we value human life more than anything else. But they were justified by rules of those days. How can we judge those who lived 1000 centuries or decades back on the basis of today’s values? And tomorrow, when future generations regard forests above all, will the era of industrialization considered as Dark Ages?
This idea is good man....i agree with your points.
ReplyDeletebut i suggest european expansionists are loathed too because we have an antagonist painted in front of us.... the people who enslaved us will remain the reminder of our slavery
Good Thought... But I would like to point out why we called these leaders barbaric... whereever they went they use to destroy all the art and culture monuments of the previous rulers. I dont think England did any such thing.I am not a British supporter, but yeah Hitler too was barbaric. He tried to exterminate a whole race, also he did some really horrible things to Gays and people revolting at that time, ofcourse this is what is written in History, but I seriously doubt the ethics of the people who have written all this.
ReplyDeleteCan we really trust them and think them to be independent and free from all biases?
Every society has some rules that govern our deeds. They may be time-dependent or culture dependent, like the burqua culture of Muslims or the liberal culture of the West. But there is a sense of rationality, of what is right, that goes beyond the limitations of time and culture.
ReplyDeleteOne of them, as you pointed out, is that human life ought to be valued more than anything else. Many of them are in the Preamble of our Constitution: Right to live, express opinion, etc. These rights may be accepted by any civilized society as fair and just. You would want these rights given to humans. You wouldn't want women to be treated like slaves, be whatever era you live in, do you?
But what the 'so-called' barbaric rulers did was that they ill-used their power, their influence, their wealth to mercilessly massacre millions. No doubt that they built glorious empires, but were they just with other humans? And if the rulers' own people supported them, it may either be out of fright or perhaps they were out of their minds, or the culture then was so.
And the question of today's globalization being called dark age by the future ages, it may be so! We do live in the Kalyug. There are vices going all around us. Nuclear warfare, corruption, nature pollution of all sorts, forbidden gay marriages, rape and murders - the world is seeing it all. You may call that too as barbaric.
Again u r judging those actions by todays rules... all m saying is, in those days, glory and fame were much more worthy than human lives... And hence the kings lived upto it... We cannot berate them for doing what the society expected them to do..
ReplyDeletei agree wid the article...why do people panic on seeing the tag dictator.... analysis on this thought can be and shud be done without crying about the evils....it is a view point not a campaign
ReplyDeleteu said :It is because we have been ruled by England for so long that we all think of any European expansionist as great and any non-European expansionist as barbaric
ReplyDeleteHitler was European, right ? And he was born in 19th century actually @20th arpil 1889.....1000 century back!!!
Obviously he was barbarian..no doubt in it!!!
And valuing human life more than any other thing is actually related with human psychology....at that time also we had cannibals and today also we have same ppl who value dead human more than live one.
So saying definition of "barbarian" is society dependent is blunder!!!
Its not a blunder. For Hitler, the German Prestige was more than any other thing in this world. Much more important than life of individuals... and this wasnt just for Hitler.. it was even so for Americans.. OTherwise hw do u explain nuking two cities.. The only reason was to show its dominance... and even though he did more damage than any concentration camps, Roosevelt is not considered to be as great an evil as compared to Hitler...
ReplyDeleteFirst of all he was austrian...he just used anger of Germans against Jews and made German fool.For him Germans were foolish. And he was barbaric cuz he has also did nuisance with his relatives.
ReplyDeleteOkie what will u say about Idi-ameen!!!
And I m not in favor of nuking...and if u ask japanese about Roosevelt they can give better answer.
all this is the view which others hv had on him and hv written that way... but his autobiography gives a real second perspective...
ReplyDeleteHow can u expect Hitler to tell truth about himself in his autobiography!!! Read others view...best is read views of his own ppl.
ReplyDeletethink logically!!!
and u think ppl who turned against him or his enemies to be rational?
ReplyDeleteM not justifying what he did... All m saying is that he shld not be painted all black. He had his reasons, which atleast for him and for many others, was justified!
All barbaric rulers have one thing in common - sooner or later, they turn against their own people and/or do wanton killing. That is what is common between Hitler, Aurangzeb and Gengiz.
ReplyDeleteWhile British, French etc, though cruel, did not kill their own people. In Britain, they had books explaining on liberty, equality etc., reading which our leaders rose and got us freedom. The point is - they had different concepts regarding their people and the people whom they are ruling.