MOURNING THE DEATH OF GENERAL VO NGUYEN GIAP…

At the time when we mourn the death of the Vietnamese general Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap - the greatest general of our times – we must not fail to learn the lesson from his life. What is that? It is the value of history. We disregard history as a boring subject to learn. But we don’t realize that history has tons of valuable lessons for us to learn.

What is the relation between History and General Vo Nguyen Giap? It is surprising to know that Vo Nguyen Giap was a history teacher. He proved to the world that military education is not a must for being a great general. Simply he had learnt the art of soldiering from history books. From being a history teacher, he transformed himself to a greatest general of our times. His tactics and strategies were not new, but which had been already followed by some of the great generals that mankind had ever seen.

Along with Ho Chin Minh, Gen. Giap raised an Army from the peasants. From Guerrilla warfare to conventional warfare, that army excelled. The army he raised and commanded has defeated France, USA and China. The respect that even Americans show towards Gen. Giap shows their high regard for him.

But do we Indians have learnt anything from history? The answer is a painful no. We are not learning from history and we are committing the same mistake again and again. Be it is China or Pakistan or the colonisation, we are not learning from history. In spite of many personal tragedies that Gen. Giap endured in his life, his life stands a lesson for us. If he was able to learn soldiering from history and if he was able to defeat armies that were superior to his army, then why can’t we.

The only issue is that we have to learn that how invaders and aggressors defeated and enslaved us. It is high time that we study, debate and learn that how the Chinese humiliated us in the 1962 war. Not only the 1962 debacle, we have an enviable history. Great strategists and tacticians like Chanakya, Chandragupta Maurya, Rajaraja Chola and Rajendra Chola have lived in our land. We have to religiously learn what they did.

Perhaps the problems we may face may be of a new type. But it does not mean that known solutions could not be applied for our problems.

Thank you for the invaluable lesson General!

Rest In Peace Sir!