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Popular Hindu and Sikh tradition ascribes mass conversions by force to Aurangzeb’s reign. Of course it has heightened the colours in the picture. But… - Sri Ram Sharma
" "Popular Hindu and Sikh tradition ascribes mass conversions by force to Aurangzeb’s reign. Of course it has heightened the colours in the picture. But the examples quoted above prove that the emperor made it a part of his imperial duty to encourage conversions, personally admit converts to Islam and grant favours to the initiated. Of the converts it must be said that very few, if any, seem to have changed their faith for religious reasons. Desire to escape civic disabilities or worse, and to acquire material benefits formed the motive force in most cases. It may be argued that the religion which these converts shook off so easily must have been sitting very lightly on them. But the history of the world contains a few martyrs and a host of trimmers. Hindu India of Aurangzeb’s reign was no exception. The wonder is not that so many were converted but that the vast majority of the Hindus kept their faith amidst so many temptations and such persecution.
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About Sri Ram Sharma
Sri Ram Sharma (1900-1976) was a professor, historian and author. He taught history, politics and public administration at the Punjab, Bombay and Poona Universities for many years. He was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a member of the Indian Historical Records Commission. He was also the Director of the Institute of Public Administration, Chandigarh and Principal of the D.A.V.College. At the time of his death, he was editing a volume on the 'Mughal Culture and Institutions' for the Comprehensive History of India being Published by Indian History Congress, and had almost finished his portion of the work. Historian Saiyid Athar Abbas Rizvi called his work The Religious Policy of the Mughal Emperors an useful and objective study.
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Shri Ram Sharma
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To sum up, Shah Jahan was a more orthodox king than his two predecessors. During the sixth to tenth years of his reign he embarked upon the active career of a persecuting king. Several orders were issued during these years for the purpose of achieving his end. New temples were destroyed, conversions were stopped, several Hindus were persecuted for religious reasons, and probably the pilgrimage tax was reimposed. Soon however his religious zeal seems to have spent itself. Shah Jahan’s ardour as a great proselytizing king cooled down when he discovered in the heir-apparent, and his deputy in many state affairs, a religious toleration equalling that of his grandfather Akbar. Of course the discontinuance of certain court ceremonies which smacked of Hindu practices was permanent.
When his reign began, it gave no signs of the opening of a new era in the religious policy of the Mughal emperors. Almost his first act of state was to earn religious merit and the title of Ghazi (slayer of infidels) by striking at the disarmed and captive Hemu after his defeat at the second battle of Panipat. Akbar was not asked to whet his sword on Hemu because he was a rebel, but because he was a Hindu. He was to perform not the task of the official executioner, but that of a victorious soldier of Islam. Abu’l Fazl would have us believe that the boy Akbar was wiser than his years and refused to strike a defenceless enemy. But most other writers are agreed that he struck at Hemu and earned the title of the Ghazi thereby.
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The years that followed his defeat and reconciliation with Jahangir did not bring the father and the son much closer together. Shah Jahan did not, however, raise the standard of ‘Islam in danger' against his father, and when he succeeded him in 1627, he had no religious commitments. But unlike his father and grandfather, he married no Hindu princess, and thus that mellowing influence was lacking in his harem.
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