Sri Ram Sharma Quotes

It is wrong to say that Sher Shah did not destroy a temple or break an image. His conquest and occupation of Jodhpur was followed by the conversion of the Hindu temple in the fort into a mosque. The Thrlkh-i-DnUdl ascribes his attack on Maldev, Raja of Jodhpur, partly to his religious bigotry and a desire to convert the temples of the Hindus into mosques. His treachery towards Puran Mall was not, as Qanungo tries to assert, the result of a fanatic religious leader forcing his opinions upon an unwilling king. It had been planned by Sher Shah beforehand, discussed by him with his officers and was deliberately done to earn religious merit by exterminating this arch-infidel. Sher Shah said prayers of thanks after this ‘religious’ deed. No amount of mere rhetoric can enable us to get over the accounts of the expedition, especially when we find Sher Shah, who got ill on the eve of the battle, inviting his officers and confiding to them that ever since his accession he had been anxious, in the cause of his religion, to defeat Puran Mall. All accounts give this expedition a religious significance which no argument can destroy. Sher Shah was only a product of his own age as far as his religious policy was concerned. Like Feroz Shah before him, he combined administrative zeal with religious intolerance. His place in history does not depend upon his initiating a policy of religious toleration or neutrality. He had no more to do with founding a united nation in India, which is yet in the making, than any other successful ruler before him.

Babur inherited his religious policy from the Lodis. Sikandar Lodi’s fanaticism must have been still remembered by some of the officials who continued to serve when Babur came into power. Babur was not a great administrator. He was content to govern India in the orthodox fashion. He projected no great changes in the government of the country except the design of a royal road from Agra to Kabul. But the Hindus, he met with, occupied no humble position. Rana Sanga, a Hindu, led a host wherein even Muslim armies were present under disaffected Pa than chiefs. It was Babur’s success at the battle of Khanava against Rana Sanga that enabled him to remain in India as her ruler. These two factors seem to have governed his religious policy. Babur, the born fighter against heavy odds, knew he was at a great crisis in his life on the eve of his battle against Rana Sanga. In order to conform strictly to the Muslim law he absolved Muslims from paying stamp duties thus confining the tax to Hindus alone. He thus not only continued, but increased, the distinction between his Hindu and Muslim subjects in the matter of their financial burdens. One of his officers, Hindu Beg, is said to have converted a Hindu temple at Sambhal into a mosque. His Sadr, Shaikh Zain, demolished many Hindu temples at Ghanderi when he occupied it. By Babur’s orders, Mir Baqi destroyed the temple at Ayudhya commemorating Rama’s birth place and built a mosque in its place in 1528-29. He destroyed Jain idols at Urva near Gwalior. There is no reason to believe that he did anything to relax the harshness of the religious policy which he found prevailing.

But Firoz himself claims here that he built only 40 mosques in his entire reign. His language seems to emphasize that whereas his predecessors allowed temples to be built, he razed 40 temples to the ground and built mosques in their places rather than that he destroyed all temples and built mosques in their places.

Sikandar Lodhi has been credited with following the law by some of his chronicler to such an extent that Nizam-ud- Din finds those accounts hard to believe. He is willing to assert however that he destroyed all Hindu temples, released offenders if they embraced Islam, admonished a Muslim officer showing consideration to a Hindu and prohibited pilgrimage to sacred places.

Under some Muslim rulers there were series of fierce persecutions. Forced conversion to Islam took place, sometimes in thousands, as it did under Sikandar Butshikan of Kashmir. Those who defied their fanatic persecutors were slain or had to seek safety in death. Jalal-ud-Din of Bengal (1414 to 1430), a convert himself, with a new convert’s zeal, forcibly converted hundreds of his Hindu subjects and persecuted the rest. Most of the Tughlaqs possessed a persecuting strain and Sikandar Lodi suffered from the same defect. It is consoling to find, however that very few Muslim rulers tried to play the part of fanatical persecutors.

It is safe to hold, however, that Hindus were usually excluded from all high offices and were employed otherwise only when their employment was unavoidable.

As we have discussed below,’ the Jizya was a very heavy burden to the masses. But it was not its burden alone which was irksome. It was a badge of inferiority round the necks of the unfaithful reminding them constantly that they formed a subject people under an alien rule. The payment of the Jizya guaranteed the non- Muslim subjects a second class citizenship in the state. The non- Muslims were invariably prohibited from criticising the Quran, the Prophet and Islam. They could not marry a Muslim and forfeited the protection granted to them on committing adultery with a Muslim woman. Similarly they were not allowed to make converts. Old temples were not to be repaired nor new temples built. The ruler could prescribe a special dress for the non-Muslim and forbid them from riding good horses. Their religious ceremonies had to be performed in such a way that neither Muslim eyes nor ears could be profaned thereby. They could be prohibited from building houses higher than those of their Muslim neighbours.

The Sultanate in India was based on the distinction between its Hindu and Muslim subjects. The Muslims formed the ruling caste. Naturally, the position of the Hindus differed in many respects from that of their Muslim neighbours. Ahkam-ul-Salatinya of the Almawardi lays down 6 compulsory stipulations for non- Muslims living under a Muslim ruler : (i) no criticism of the Quran, (ii) nor of the Prophet, (iii) nor of Islam, (iv) no marriage or adultery with Muslim woman, (v) no seduction from the true faith, and (vi) no help to the enemies of Islam. The non-compulsory demands include a special dress for non-Muslims, prohibition against religious propaganda among Muslims, the sounding of ‘Nagus’ so loudly as to reach Muslims ears, building houses higher in height than neighbouring Muslims houses, drinking in public and riding fine horses and the stipulation that they should bury their dead without openly chanting religious prayers. The building of new temples could be prohibited. The non-Muslims were permitted to have their cases decided by their own judges.