Naturally when Golkanda was conquered, the emperor justified its conquest by ordering the destruction of the temples in Hydera- bad and their convers… - Sri Ram Sharma

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.

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.

Thus Aurangzeb deliberately worsened the position of the Hindus in the public services. Higher offices were closed to them ; the Muslims were openly preferred. A wholesale dismissal of the Hindus from the revenue department was attempted without much success.