'Why was Alexander not Great'.....................by K J S Chatrath

 Wars have been a scourge of humanity. Alexander of Greece tried to conquer various countries. He conquered Thebes, Ionia, Tyre, Egypt, and Persia. He overthrew the whole Persian Empire killing a very large number of people and causing great misery. He was a great war-monger. And surprisingly we started calling him ‘Great’. 

And more recently when the World War-I played havoc with millions on this planet, we started calling it ‘The Great War’! By the same logic were Changez Khan and Hitler ‘great’?

How totally inappropriate! ‘Great’ can be used in a number of ways and the manner in which it is used to describe the 1914-1918 War should not be taken to mean ‘ glorious’ or ‘exalted’ or ‘distinguished’. It should be understood in the limited sense of ‘major’ or ‘momentous’. It is ironical that the same people do not call World War-II as ‘great’ though the number of dead in it was far more than in the WW-I!

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