Are Indians Peace Mongers?

Satyagraha won India it's independence from the British. I noticed that based on this, we tend to conclude that Indians have a predisposition for peace. On reading about relatively high incidence of communal violence, caste politics and associated killings, rapes, and gang violence in major cities, I disagree with this conclusion. However, like the majority, I too believe that Gandhi was a true lover of peace, and was a great leader. Here is my point.

Historically, when Moguls came to India, we didn't just hand them over our kingdoms (out of our peaceful nature) in a silver platter - we fought (rightfully so), lost, and let them have their way, as we had no choice. Now, hypothetically, let us say that in the midst of our independence struggle, Germany offered Indian National Congress some powerful weapons that our Sepoys could have used to annihilate the British army. Would we have used them against British? May be, or may be not. Would we have taken these weapons to the bargaining table with the British to tell them "leave, or you will be toast"? Very likely, but we can't be 100% sure.

When we were fighting British, fighting peacefully was our only choice. They had guns and tanks, and we didn't. Also, they had superior generals and negotiators who managed to divide us and rule. Whereas our Rajahs and Mantris were mostly failures (for their inability to plan long term, and see what was coming). Basically, we had a lemon, and Gandhi made one hell of a lemonade.

We can truly claim that we are peace seekers, when we have multiple options for winning quickly, but we choose a non-violent option knowing fully well that it would be a lot tougher path. We knew that we were too weak to fight British. It is not that we could have fought a war and won - they would have royally kicked our butts if we had decided to fight with aggression. Also, if we are peace mongers, why didn't we try Satyagraha with China, Pakistan, and at Babri masjid?

After British invasion, our situation was analogous to a lone unarmed man coming across a grizzly bear in the wild. He knows that he stands no chance if he confronts the bear. He would shoot it if he had a gun. But for now, playing dead would be a safe bet, as this would offer him some chance for survival. We did the exact same thing with the British. Our strategy was, sooner or later, they will get tired of kicking our butts and they would leave. Our strategy worked like a charm. They sure got tired and left, after kicking our butts for 90 years:-)

During independence struggle, Satyagraha was our only choice. Credit goes to Gandhi, but not necessarily to the janata in general. Let us not try to glorify our inability to envision and stop British invasion, by falsely claiming that we allowed invasions because we love peace; because, our so called peaceful nature has not been consistent.

On a side note, I wonder why didn't this idea of Satyagraha occur to Lord Krishna prior to Kurukshetra war? I mean, instead of telling Arjuna "they are bad guys, they took your land, kill them, and take your land back", why didn't He suggest Pandavas to demonstrate Stayagraha? May be because His diplomatic efforts have failed, and the Lord knew that Kauravas wouldn't change their mind.