The Timeless Ideal of Courage: Lessons from Horatius
Mythology and Faith: Abhimanyu and David vs Goliath
Classical Antiquity: Thermopylae and Masada
Karbala and Chamkaur: Faith, Sacrifice, and Resistance
Indigenous Resistance: Native American Struggles Against Expansion
India’s Freedom Struggle: Rani of Jhansi and the Spirit of 1857
Military Legend: The Battle of Saragarhi
Revolutionary Warfare: China and Vietnam Against Powerful Adversaries
World War II Turning Points: Sevastopol and Stalingrad
A deep historical analysis of legendary battles and figures who faced overwhelming odds—from Horatius and Abhimanyu to Karbala, Saragarhi, and modern conflicts—highlighting the enduring human spirit of resistance.
Facing fearful odds
By Justice Markandey Katju
The brave, heroic fight by the Iranians in the recent war imposed on them by the USA, the nation with the most powerful military in the world, reminded me of the lines in the poem 'Horatius' in Thomas Babington Macaulay's 'Lays of Ancient Rome' :
''Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better?
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods."
The poem describes how a Roman soldier, Publius Horatius Cocles and his two companions held the Sublician bridge, crossing the river Tiber at Rome, against the huge army of Lars Porsena, King of Clusium. The three heroes were willing to die in order to prevent the enemy from crossing the bridge and sacking the otherwise ill-defended city. While the trio fought bravely with their enemy, Roman engineers hurriedly worked to demolish the bridge, leaving their enemies on the far side of the swollen river, and thus saved the city of Rome
But the valiant fight of the Iranians has also reminded me of several other heroic fights against fearful odds, which may be mentioned
1. The heroic fight of Abhimanyu, son of Arjun, when he was surrounded by the Kauravas in the Mahabharata war. Though he perished, his bravery against superlative odds has become immortal.
2. David's fight against Goliath, recounted in the Book of Samuel in the Bible
3. The battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC, in which 300 Spartans held off 70,000 Persians for 3 days, providing crucial time for Greece to organise its defence
4. The fight of 960 Jews against the 10,000 strong Roman army in 72-73 AD in the siege of Masada
5. The battle of Karbala in 680 AD in which Imam Husain with 72 followers refused to surrender to the huge army of the tyrant Yazid, preferring death to dishonour
This is commemorated every year by Muslims, particularly Shias, on the day of Ashura
6. Battle of Chamkaur saheb in 1705 in which 40 Sikh soldiers fought a Mughal army of 10,000
After this battle was born the legend that one Sikh is equal to sava lakh ( 125,000 ) men, often attributed to Guru Gobind Singh by his statement '' Sava lakh se main ek ladaun ''
7. The valiant fight of Native Americans from the 17th to the 19th centuries to defend their ancestral lands against their vicious encroachment by white settlers, characterized by strategic unconventional warfare by heroic leaders like Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Geronimo and many others
8. The heroic unequal fight by the Rani of Jhansi against the British army during the Great Indian Rebellion of 1857
9. The Battle of Saragarhi in 1897 in which 21 Sikh soldiers fought 10,000 Afghans
10. The heroic fight of the Chinese Red Army against the much stronger and numerically several times bigger armies of Chiang Kai Shek and the Japanese
11. British Prime Minister Winston Churdhill's historical speech in the House of Commons on 4th June 1940, when German invasion was looming and Britain stood alone in the world :
''We shall go on to the end, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."
12. The heroic Russian 250-day defence of Sevastopol (October 30, 1941 – July 4, 1942), which was a pivotal World War 2 siege where Soviet forces held the strategic Crimean port against the overwhelming German attack. Led by Vice Admiral Filipp Oktyabrsky and Gen. Ivan Petrov, the garrison of 52,000 held out for 8 months before perishing, against German Field Marshal Manstein's much larger forces, thus delaying the Axis advance, and giving the Russians valuable time to prepare for the defence of Stalingrad and the Caucasus.
13. The battle of Stalingrad in which by their heroic defence of the city, the Russians turned the tide of World War 2
14. The brave, almost superhuman, fight of the Vietnamese people, led by their great leader Ho Chi Minh, for independence, first against the French, and then against the Americans
Many more such examples can be given of people who fought fearful odds, preferring death to surrender, like the brave Iranians.
(Justice Markandey Katju is a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India, and former Chairman of the Press Council of India. The views expressed are his own.)
