“This region was under Muslims until now & they allowed Hindu slave trade. Now it stops. If you continue in spite of this order, my men will raid Your ships, homes and factories” – Shivaji Maharaj to Dutch in Tamil Nadu in 1677
By Nikhil Bellarykar
Link: facebook.com/10000093279274…
Courtesy: https://twitter.com/kal_chiron/status/1494923578222919680?s=21


“The men and women you enslaved from here (Hindus) will be freed by my people.”
This letter is dated 24/08/1677 (Julian).
Hindus never had concept of slavery as seen and shown by Muslims and Xians. We suffered a lot under Muslim rule.
Having a Hindu navy came in handy here.
We celebrate our festivals as per our calendar.
Shivajayanti will always be phālguna krishNa trutiyā (Chaitra krishNa tritiyā for North Indians)
Shivaji is referring to Hindus of Coromandel coast as “my people” here.
Yet, he is threatening the Dutch that his army (which at that point of time was almost exclusively made of Hindus from modern western MH) will raid their ships, homes and factories and free enslaved Hindus
He is committing Marathi men to stop slave trade of Tamils!!
And when I remember this, I laugh at those people say Hindus did not have sense of nationhood until British
What else is nationalism and nationhood if not this? That a king from MH refers to Tamil Hindus as my people