Remembering Munich Agreement — A lesson against appeasement
On this day, the Munich Agreement was signed between Hitler and his British and French counterparts. According to it, Czechoslovakians, who here allies of the French and British were made to surrender the frontier regions to the Germans. They did this in order to appease Hitler, so that he won’t unleash a war in Europe. But, as history tells us, Hitler did it nonetheless. WWII was unleashed! Hence, to this day, Munich Agreement is synonymous to appeasement.
Back in the 19th century, Abraham Lincoln had a similar dilemma. The southern states were trying to secede. But Lincoln did not appease them. He went to a civil war. As a result, America solved the problem once and for all and moved on.
History gives us enough examples that appeasement doesn’t work. Yet, back in India our leaders made the same mistake. In 1946–47, to appease certain section of the society, our leaders divided our land. Did it solve our problems? We know the answer. It’s bleeding us dry for the past 75 years. As we near Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary, we ought to remember some of the disastrous decisions/policies adopted by him.
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Liked the Article? Consider buying the writer’s book Aryaa
History has been at large ‘His’ story. ‘Her’ story hasn’t received that due attention. Hence, Indic Academy has come up with Aryaa — An Anthology of Vedic women. And, the author of this article is one of the writers. This is an Anthology of women in India’s past, who shaped/reshaped the civilizational ethos for the good.
My story revolves around the famous character of Shakuntala. We usually see her story from Kalidasa’s angle; the famous love story of Dushyanta and Shakuntala. However, my story focuses on Shakuntala, the mother. After all, she was the mother of the man whose name our civilization draws: Bharatvarsha.
She was a wife, a mother, a queen-mother, friend, or anything she wished to be.
She protected the king, shaped an emperor, challenged a sage, etc.
A manifestation of eternally present Shakti, she was Aryaa.
Go to this link to read more and buy the book.