Islam, like the other two religions of the Judaic family, is exclusive-minded and intolerant by comparison with the religions and philosophies of Indian origin. Yet the influence of India on Akbar went so deep that he was characteristically Indian in (his) large-hearted catholicity.
Read More...by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 16, 2020 | Created on June 16, 2020
[Akbar is reported to have said:] “My dear child… with all of God’s creatures, I am at peace; why should I permit myself, under any consideration, to be the cause of molestation or aggression to any one? Besides, are not five parts in six of mankind either Hindus or aliens to the faith; and were […]
Read More...by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 16, 2020 | Created on June 16, 2020
The same spirit of intolerance was shown by the Jesuit fathers in the Moghul court. The Emperor Akbar took great interest in religious discussions and summoned to the court scholarly Jesuit missionaries from Goa. They were received with great courtesy, but the free discussions in the Ibadat Khana (House of Worship), where the debates on […]
Read More...by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 16, 2020 | Created on June 16, 2020
Akbar’s court was essentially foreign, and even in his later years the Indian element, whether Hindu or Moslem, constituted only a small proportion of the whole.
Read More...by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 16, 2020 | Created on June 16, 2020
The first revolutionary step of Akbar was the abolition of the Jiziyah, the hated discriminatory tax paid by Hindu Zimmis. The Hindus, as Zimmis, had become second class citizens in their own homeland and were suffered to live under certain disabilities.
Read More...by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 16, 2020 | Created on June 16, 2020
Akbar had prohibited enslavement and sale of women and children of peasants who had defaulted in payment of revenue. He knew, as Abul Fazl says, that many evil hearted and vicious men either because of ill-founded suspicion or sheer greed, used to proceed to villages and mahals and sack them.
Read More...by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 16, 2020 | Created on June 16, 2020
This hall was, by order of the Emperor Jehanguire, the son of Acbar, highly decorated with painting and gilding; but in the lapse of time it was found to be gone greatly to decay; and the Emperor Aurungzebe, either from superstition or avarice, ordered it to be entirely defaced, and the walls whitened.
Read More...by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 16, 2020 | Created on June 16, 2020
Akbar was the first emperor to abolish Jizyah with one stroke of pen, along with all its associations and implications, including the distinction of Muslim and Dhimmî into the bargain. His son and grandson followed his example in regard to Jizyah, generally speaking, but reimposed upon the Hindus all the other restrictions and disabilities suffered […]
Read More...by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 16, 2020 | Created on June 16, 2020
[Brahmans] surpass other learned men in their treatises on morals….His Majesty, on hearing… how much the people of the country prized their institutions, commenced to look upon them with affection.
Read More...by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 16, 2020 | Created on June 16, 2020
[The people also got busy collecting] “all kinds of exploded errors, and brought them to his Majesty, as if they were so many presents… Every doctrine and command of Islam as the prophetship, the harmony of Islam with reason… the details of the day of resurrection and judgement, all were doubted and ridiculed.”
Read More...by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 16, 2020 | Created on June 16, 2020