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It is a matter of great regret to me that I am unable to be present personally to represent the army in India at the un of the Memorial to the hero of the Marathas-the great Shivaji, That the qualities of courage, hardiness and disregard of danger which were so conspicuous in Shivaji and his Maratha Warriors of three hundrld years ago are still alive in the Maratha soldier of to-day is plainly written in the records of the Great war. The Maratha Sepoy of the Indian army showed a steadfast bravery and unflinching loyalty which were an example to all. It is indeed fitting that the Indian memorial to Shivaji should be erected in the Capital of the Deccan near the scenes of his greatest efforts and in the Chief Military centre of the South where it will stand in memory of the past and as incentive of bravery to the Maratha Soldier of the future.
H. E. Field-Marshal Sir V. Birdwood.
A Child of the rugged soil and of the western India renaissance he played his part in the popular movement for freedom and self-expression at a time when a wave of religious nationalism passed through many parts of India and Europe. Shivaji was rather the symbol of the century which produced him. If he was an expression of the new tide of life he was also a life-giver. The giants of the Deccan of the middle ages were carpenters, potters, and even scavengers by birth. They made history. Shivaji had no great advantage of birth or position. That a Hindu son of Mabarastra should become a nation-builder and in the teeth of three great powers, weld a weak and scattered people into a nation was a noteworthy achievement and his life a source of perennial inspiration for us all in India, which had long suffered from invasion and oppression. I do not believe that undue hero-worship is wholly good, and if the hero was a man of violence his circumstances made this inegitable. We do harm to ourselves and society by idealising him as a soldier. An ideal has always its limitations, and in his stormy career they were many and obvious.
Shrimant Sayaji Rao Gaikwad ( On the oceasion of the unveiling of the Shivaji Statue at Baroda ).
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
| SR No. | 034490 |
| Book Title | Chatrapati Shivaji Charitra |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Vaman Sitaram Mukadam |
| Publisher | Vaman Sitaram Mukadam |
| Publication Year | 1934 |
| Total Pages | 720 |
| Language | Gujarati |
| Classification | Book_Gujarati |
| File Size | 45 MB |