Vijayanagara empire was so rich that once it was defeated by all the Sultans, who joined together to attack this empire, EACH of the army men who fought the war were allowed to keep the gold, precious gems, tents, horses, slaves etc. that they plundered. Robert Sewell, the well- known author of 'A Forgotten Empire' describes this episode as follows: “Never perhaps in the history of the world has such havoc been wrought, and wrought so suddenly, an so splendid a city; teeming with a wealthy and industrious population in the full plentitude of prosperity one day and on the next, seized, pillaged, and reduced to ruins amid scenes of savage massacre and horrors beggaring description”.

There can be individual books written on the achievements of each of these empires and this is just south of India. Reading such great things about our country gives such a sense of pride and dignity to be a part of this country. There are so many books written by authors around the world about our country but, we Indians do not know about our own country. Isn’t that shameful? 

Till date the history which is being taught in schools are based on books written by foreign authors and were mostly written to divide our country, to make us feel insecure about our own beliefs and practices. Today the school history books say a lot about the Mughals and British. There is one chapter for each of the Mughal. But, what about the works of great Kings who have contributed so much to the glorious past of the country. Don’t you think their sacrifice and their contribution isn’t worth reading about? Shouldn’t we study more about how great we were than how great our conquerors were?

India has been plundered by so many countries, but India has never felt the need to conquer other countries. India's rich and glorious history can be compared to that of any other.

Not being taught history of this magnificent country is the reason behind the lack of patriotism among many Indians. They are so awestruck by the Westernization and their achievements that everyone second person plans on leaving their country for a foreign country. We would call ourselves US citizens more proudly than being an Indian citizen.

I have hardly mentioned a few lines about our political and architectural history of South India. We can find many scripts on different fields, like sculpting, dancing, painting, science, commerce, mathematics, medicine, astronomy and many more. Sushrutha was the first one to perform plastic surgery. Aaryabhatta was a well-known mathematician who has contributed a lot in the field of Mathematics.

There are so many temples which have so many amazing features. The structure of Konark sun temple helps us in telling time, seasons, etc. We have a system in place to predict the solar eclipse, lunar eclipse, new moon, full moon and what not? If we were smart enough to develop science as such many years ago, don’t you think that we would have known about the basis of many scientific concepts before the western scientific revolution even started? It is time we revisit our history and tell it right.

Independence is not just a physical relief from the clutches of someone it's also relief from our mental clutches. There are a lot of us who still believe that other countries are better and that we are poor and not capable of change. So, ask yourself this, are we living in an Independent country? If not, let's fight for our freedom.