Gandhi is clearly trying to delink the heroic Indian rulers (especially who defeated Muslim and

European invaders) from the Indian masses. He is trying to present the case that the majority of
Indian people had no connection to their great kings. Observe that he has also internalised the
British classification of ‘martial races’ and is using that here to suggest that only some Marathas,
Rajputs and Sikhs did the fighting. It shows a servile acceptance of British racial theories and a
complete lack of knowledge of Indian history. Even school children know the vast scale of Indian
resistance to foreign rule against which even forest tribes fought valiantly and victoriously.