The Story of Islamic Imperialism - II

The Mughal Empire

The Story of Islamic Imperialism II

The Mughal Empire

Babur (1483 -1531)

The foundation for the empire was established around the early 1500s by the Timurid prince Babur, when he took control of the Doab and eastern regions of Khorasan, which controlled the fertile Sindh region and the lower valley of the Indus River. Zahir ud-din Muhammad Jalal ud-din Babur (February 23, 1483 — January 5,1531) was a Muslim conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty of India. He was a direct descendant of Timur through his father, and a descendant also of Genghis Khan through his mother.

While the king of Kabul was preparing for the realization of his long-cherished dream of the conquest of Hindustan, the Hindustan of Ibrahim Lodi offered him the most favourable circum¬stances. Outside the Lodi kingdom there were the Muslim king¬doms of Multan, Sind, Gujarat, Malwa, Khandesh, and Bengal In Northern India while in the Deccan the Bahmani empire had been split into five States, viz., Berar, Bidar, Ahmadnagar, Bijapur and Golconda. The notable Hindu States were Rajasthan and Orissa in the north and Vijyanagar in the south. The Muslim kingdoms were very weak because of their internal divisions and mutual jea¬lousies. The Rajput confederacy led by Rana Sanga of Mewar had grown to be a great political force, almost ready to make a bid for the Delhi empire. The great expansion of the king¬dom of Vijyanagar under Krishnadeva Raya (1509-1530), who had humbled the power of Orissa, caused not a little anxiety to the Muslim powers of the Deccan. Such was the Indian scene when Babur seriously turned to invade the country.
Babur claimed to be the true and rightful Monarch of the lands of the Lodi dynasty. He believed himself the rightful heir to the throne of Timur. Following the unsurprising reluctance of Ibrahim to accept the terms of this "offer," and though in no hurry to launch an actual invasion, Babur made several preliminary incursions and also seized Kandahar.
However, while the Timurids were united, the Lodhi armies were far from unified. Ibrahim was widely detested, even amongst his nobles, and it was several of his Afghan nobles who were to invite Babur's intervention. Babur assembled a 12,000-man army, and advanced into India. This number actually increased as Babur advanced, as members of the local population joined the invading army.
Ibrahim Lodhi advanced against him with 100,000 soldiers and 100 elephants; and though Babur's army had grown, it was still less than half the size of his opponents, possibly as few as 25,000 men. This was to be their main engagement, the First battle of Panipat, and was fought on April 21, 1526. Ibrahim Lodhi was slain and his army was routed; Babur quickly took possession of both Delhi and Agra.
That very day Babur ordered Humayun to ride to Agra (Ibrahim's former capital) and secure its national treasures and resources from looting. Humayun found the family of the Raja of Gwalior there — the Raja himself having died at Panipat — sheltering from the invaders, fearing the dreadful nature of the 'Mongols' from the stories that preceded their arrival. After their safety was guaranteed they gave Humayun their family's most valuable jewel, a very large diamond, which some believe to be the diamond which came to be called the Koh-i-Noor or "Mountain of Light'. It is thought that they did this to retain their Kingdom. Whether it was because of the gift or not, the family remained the rulers of Gwalior, though now under their new rulers the Timurids. Babur then marched to Agra to join Humayun.
Battles with the Rajputs
Although master of Delhi and Agra, Babur records in his memoirs that he had sleepless nights because of continuing worries over Rana Sanga, the Rajput ruler of Mewar. This undisputed leader of the Rajput confederacy was an indefatigable fighter, with one arm and one eye lost and eighty scars in his body.
The Rajput lords had, prior to Babur's intervention, succeeded in conquering some of the Sultanate's territory. The Rajputs had possibly heard word of the heavy casualties inflicted by Lodhi on Babur's forces, and believed that they could capture Delhi, and possibly all Hindustan. They hoped to bring it back into Hindu Rajput hands for the first time in almost three hundred and fifty years since Sultan Shah-al Din Muhammad of Ghor defeated the Rajput Chauhan King Prithviraj III in 1192.
Despite the unwillingness of his troops to engage in further warfare, Babur was convinced he could overcome the Rajputs and gain complete control over Hindustan. He made great propaganda of the fact that for the first time he was to battle non-Muslims, the Kafir, to the extent of taking a vow to abstain from drinking (a common fraction among his people) for the rest of his life to win divine favour, and declared the war against, Rana Sanga. Rana Sanga offered stiff resistance but was defeated due to treachery within his own ranks.
Babur now assumed the title of ‘Ghazi’.
Babur had little re¬gard for the sanctity of human life: the massacre of Bajaur, the cold-blooded murder of prisoners, and the inhuman punishments which are referred to in his Memoirs only prove that he inherited the Mongol ferocity and Turkish savagery of his ancestors.

His face, presented by himself in his Tuzuk-i-Bãburi, suffers irreparable damage if it is denuded of the rich hues of horrible cruelties in which he habitually indulged. The lurid details he provides of his repeated massacres of the infidels, leave no doubt that he was mighty proud of his performance. He was particularly fond of raising higher and higher towers of Hindu heads cut off during and after every battle he fought with them. He loved to sit in his royal tent to watch this spectacle. The prisoners were brought before him and butchered by his “brave” swordsmen. On one occasion, the ground flowed with so much blood and became so full of quivering carcases that his tent had to be moved thrice to a higher level.

Humayun (1530 - 1556)

Babur's son Humayun succeeded him in 1530 but suffered major reversals at the hands of the Pashtun Sher Shah Suri and effectively lost most of the fledgling empire before it could grow beyond a minor regional state. From 1540 Humayun became a ruler in exile, reaching the Court of the Safavid rule in 1554 while his force still controlled some fortresses and small regions. But when the Pashtuns fell into disarray with the death of Sher Shah Suri, Humayun returned with a mixed army, raised more troops and managed to reconquer Delhi in 1555.

Sher Shah Suri (1538 - 1545)

Sher Shah Sur’s name is associated in our textbooks with the Grand Trunk Road from Peshawar to Dacca, with caravanserais, and several other schemes of public welfare. It is true that he was not a habitual persecutor of Hindus before he became the emperor at Delhi. But he did not betray Islam when he became the supreme ruler.

The test came at Raisen in 1543 AD. Shaykh Nurul Haq records in Zubdat-ul-Tawãrîkh as follows: “In the year 950 H., Puranmal held occupation of the fort of Raisen” He had 1000 women in his harem… and amongst them several Musulmanis whom he made to dance before him. Sher Khan with Musulman indignation resolved to conquer the fort. After he had been some time engaged in investing it, an accommodation was proposed and it was finally agreed that Puranmal with his family and children and 4000 Rajputs of note should be allowed to leave the fort unmolested. Several men learned in the law (of Islam) gave it as their opinion that they should all be slain, notwithstanding the solemn engagement which had been entered into. Consequently, the whole army, with the elephants, surrounded Puranmal’s encampment. The Rajputs fought with desperate bravery and after killing their women and children and burning them, they rushed to battle and were annihilated to a man.

Akbar (1556 - 1605)

Akbar succeeded his father on 14 February, 1556, while in the midst of a war against Sikandar Shah Suri for the throne of Delhi. Humayun had hardly any time free from troubles to devote to the service of Islam. But his son, Akbar, made quite a good start as a ghãzî. He stabbed the half-dead Himu with his sword after the Second Battle of Panipat.

The ritual was then followed by many more “brave warriors” of Islam led by Bairam Khan who drove their swords in the dead body. In 1568 AD Akbar ordered a general massacre at Chittor after the fort had fallen. Abul Fazl records in his Akbar-Nãma as follows. “There were 8,000 fighting Rajputs collected in the fortress, but there were more than 40,000 peasants who took part in watching and serving. From early dawn till midday the bodies of those ill-starred men were consumed by the majesty of the great warrior. Nearly 30,000 men were killed” When Sultan Alauddin (Khalji) took the fort after six months and seven days; the peasantry were not put to death as they had not engaged in fighting. But on this occasion they had shown great zeal and activity. Their excuses after the emergence of victory were of no avail, and orders were given for a general massacre.

Akbar thus improved on the record of Alauddin Khalji. Watching the war and serving the warriors were re-interpreted as acts of war! To top it all, Akbar travelled post-haste to Ajmer where he offered profuse thanks to Allah and the Prophet, and his (Akbar’s) patron saint, Muinuddin Chishti, and issued a Fathnãma in which many appropriate verses of the Quran were cited in order to prove that he had followed faithfully in the footsteps of the Prophet.

Akbar had three sons, two of whom died when they were young. The last prince known as Prince Jahangir, was in constant revolt with his father. These regular battles against his own son proved detrimental for his health and the great Mughal Emperor Akbar breathed his last in the year 1605.

At Allahabad Salim gave himself up to opium and wine and committed the worst bar¬barities; he had the news-writer who reported his misdeeds flayed alive in his presence and one of his associates was castrated and another beaten to death.

The other son of the emperor, Daniyial, who had just married a daughter of the 'Adil Shah of Bijapur, drank himself to death at Burhanpur in April, 1604.

Akbar him¬self set out for Allahabad to punish his recalcitrant son, but he had to return to Agra due to the serious illness of his mother who died on 10 September. Akbar deeply mourned her loss and discon¬tinued his movement against Salim who, by the persuasion of Mir Sadr Jahan as well as due to the necessity for remaining at court to counteract the intrigues of Khusrav's partisans, agreed to sub¬mit and on 16 November arrived at court with rich presents for his father. Akbar welcomed him at the public audience but after¬wards reproached him for his misconduct and imprisoned him in a room for ten days during which he was deprived of opium and wine. Thus ends the rebellion of Salim whom Akbar.

Meanwhile at court there was a strong party led by Khan A'zam and Raja Man Singh who favoured the succession of Salim's son Khusrav and induced Akbar to set aside the claim of his father. Khusrav was Khan A'zam's son-in-law and Raja Man Singh's nephew. Besides, Salim's misconduct had created an unfavourable opinion of him as heir to the throne.


THE MYTH OF AKBAR
It is curious but true that the very historians who refuse to see the pre-Akbar period of Muslim rule as a nightmare for Hindus, hail Akbar as the harbinger of a dazzling dawn for the same Hindus. They point out as to how Akbar abolished the pilgrim tax and the jizyah, how he appointed Hindus to high positions, and how he extended to them this or that concession which they had not enjoyed earlier. One may very well ask these worthies that if these discriminatory taxes and disabilities did not exist earlier, how come you find Akbar freeing the Hindus from them? All that one is bound to get by way of an answer will be another bundle of casuistry.
On the other hand, most Muslim historians and theologians frown upon Akbar as a villain in the history of Islam in India. Ishtiaq Husain Qureshi who believes that Hindus were far more happy under Muslim rule than under that of their own princes, accuses Akbar of jeopardising Pax Moslemaica by tempering with the established tenets of Muslim polity. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad has written that if Ahmad Sirhindi had not come to the rescue, Akbar had almost finished Islam in India.
One has, therefore, to go to the original sources in order to find the truth about Akbar. The story which these sources tell can be summed up as follows:
1. There was nothing Indian about Akbar except that he lived his life in India, fought his wars in India, built his empire in India, and dragged many Indian women into his harem. He knew nothing about India’s spiritual traditions, or India’s history, or India’s culture except for what he heard from some native sycophants who visited his court for very mundane reasons. He was illiterate. No Hindu saint or scholar worth his salt cared to meet or educate him about things Indian.
2. Akbar was every inch an Islamic bandit from abroad who conquered a large part of India mainly on the strength of Muslim swordsmen imported from Central Asia and Persia. He took great pride in proclaiming that he was a descendant of Taimur and Babur, and longed to recover the homelands of his forefathers in Transoxiana. He continued to decorate his name with the Islamic honorific ghãzî which he had acquired at the commencement of his reign by beheading the half-dead Himu. In his letters to the Sharifs of Mecca and the Uzbek king of Bukhara, he protested that he was not only a good Muslim but also a champion of Islam, and that the orthodox Ulama who harboured doubts about him did not understand his game of consolidating a strong and durable Islamic empire in India.
3. The concessions which Akbar made to Hindus were not motivated by any benevolence towards Hindus or Hinduism on his part. He was out to win Hindu support in his fight with two inveterate foes of every Muslim empire-builder - the Muslim chieftains and the die-hard Ulama. Alauddin Khalji and Muhammad bin Tughlaq had faced the same foes earlier, but failed to overcome them because they could not break out of the closed circle of the foreign Muslim fraternity in India. Akbar succeeded in fixing both the foes because he tried a new method, and discovered very soon that it worked. He fixed the Muslim chieftains with the help of Rajput princes and their retinues. He fixed the Ulama partly by making them fall foul of each other in the Ibadat Khana, and partly by flirting with jogis and Jains munis and Christian missionaries in order to frighten them. They had nothing except royal patronage to fatten upon.
4. Nor did he have to pay a heavy price for Hindu support. Fortunately for him, he started functioning at a time when Hindu resistance to Islamic imperialism stood at a low ebb except in small pockets like Mewar and Gondwana. Hindu resistance had been led so far by the Rajput princes. But numerous wars fought by them with Muslim marauders for several centuries had exhausted their manpower as well as material resources. Akbar discovered it very soon that he could buy Rajput help in exchange for a few gestures which might have sounded ominous to orthodox Islam at that time but which proved only superficial in the long run. In fact, when one comes to think of it all, Hindus had to pay a very heavy price for those gestures from Akbar. He demanded Hindu princesses for his harem, which meant surrender of Hindu honour.
It is true that the main fault lay with the Hindus for not being able to see through Akbar’s camouflage, and for helping him in consolidating an imperial power which Islam had never known in India in the pre-Akbar period of Muslim rule.

JAHANGIR

Jahangir was primarily a drunkard and a sadist scoundrel. The reign which opened with Jahangir was marred by his rebellion son, Khusrav. Khusrav wished to ascend the throne after Akbar. So he escaped from Agra on 6 April, 1606. He made his way to the Punjab, raising troops on the way. Jahangir followed Khusrav in person. Khusrav had neither the capacity to organize a successful revolt nor moral and material sup¬port of any influential party in the State. His army, ill led, ill equipped and ill organized, was defeated.

Khusrav, trembling and weeping, wanted to fall on the feet of Jahangir, who sternly ordered him to stand in his place, and put him in confinement. He further directed a double row of stakes to be set up from the garden to the city and several hundred of the rebels were impaled thereon. Two leading rebels were punished more severely. Hasan Beg was sewn up in the fresh hide of an ox and 'Abdur-Rahlm in that of an ass. Others were let off with lighter punishments.

Arjun, the fifth Guru of the Sikhs, an innocent helper of Khusrav, was unwittingly drawn into the whirlpool of this palace intrigue. Khusrav on his way to Lahore had stayed at Taran and was well received by the Guru who felt compassion for him and gave him Rs. 5,000. The Guru was at first fined by the Government, but as he refused to pay the fine, he was sentenced to death. The death of the Guru sowed the seeds of hatred be¬tween the Sikhs and the Muslims which the passage of time did not diminish. The execution of the Guru was not an act of religious persecution, but it was politically unwise and the Mughuls paid a heavy penalty for it.

According to other accounts, he asked the Guru to include some sûrahs of the Quran in the Ãdi Grantha, which the Guru refused to do. In the eighth year of his reign, he destroyed the temple of Bhagwat at Ajmer.

Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi (1546-1624), the head of the Naqsh-i-bandi order, was extremely jealous of Guru Arjun's popularity and power. He greatly incited Jahanglr, when he halted at Sirhind in pursuit of Khusrav, against the Guru.

Mohsin Fani, who was born only nine years later, in 1615 A.D., writes that Guru Arjun was tied in the burning sun over hot sand and was tor¬tured. The severest heat of May overhead, hot sand under him and boiling water thrown on his naked body caused blisters all over. On 30 May, 1606, he took leave to bathe in the cold water of the Ravi flowing just below the Fort where he was kept a prisoner. Reciting his own composition, Sukhmani, and repeating God's Name, he had a dip, but being exhausted and famished, he collapsed in water. He was only 42 years old then.

He persecuted the Jains in Gujarat, and ordered that Jain monks should not be seen in his kingdom on pain of death. Finally, he sent Murtaza Khan to Kangra for reducing that city of temples. The siege lasted for 20 months at the end of which he himself went to Kangra for slaughtering cows in that sacred place of Hindus, and building a mosque where none had existed before.

SHAH JAHAN
The pendulum started swinging towards the true spirit of Islam at the very start of Shah Jahan’s reign in 1628 AD. Its outer symbol was the reappearance of the beard on the face of the emperor. Abdul Hamid Lahori records in his Bãdshãhnãma: “It had been brought to the notice of His Majesty that during the late reign many idol temples had been begun, but remained unfinished at Benares, the great stronghold of infidelism. The infidels were now desirous of completing them. His Majesty, the defender of the faith, gave orders that at Benares, and throughout all his dominions in every place, all temples that had been begun should be cast down. It was now reported from the province of Allahabad that 76 temples had been destroyed in the district of Benares.” That was in 1633 AD.
In 1635 AD, Shah Jahan’s soldiers captured some ladies of the royal Bundela family after Jujhar Singh and his sons failed to kill them in the time-honoured Rajput tradition. In the words of Jadunath Sarkar, “Mothers and daughters of kings, they were robbed of their religion and forced to lead the infamous life of the Mughal harem.” Shah Jahan himself made a triumphal entry into Orchha, the capital of the Bundelas, demolished the lofty and massive temple of Bir Singh Dev, and raised a mosque in its place. Two sons and one grandson of Jujhar Singh who were of tender age, were made Musalmans. Another son of Jujhar Singh, Udaybhan, and a minister, Shyam Dawa, had fled to Golconda where they were captured by Qutbul-Mulk and sent to Shah Jahan. According to Bãdshãhnãma again, “Udaybhan and Shyam Dawa, who were of full age, were offered the alternative of Islam or death. They chose the latter and were sent to hell.”
His son Aurangzeb led a rebellion when Shah Jahan became ill in 1657 CE (1067 AH) and publicly executed his brother and the heir apparent Dara Shikoh. Dara was the eldest of the sons and was the favorite of both the Emperor and the people. Shah Jahan was captured by his own son Aurangzeb and was locked away in a fort during the battle for succession to the throne among his sons. Shah Jahan was a helpless spectator as he was too old and weak to put up a fight against the army of his son.
AURANGZEB
As a zealous Sunni Muslim, he believed in the Islamic theory of Kingship according to which the ruler is to enforce strictly the Qur'anic law in the administration of his empire, or in other words, as a pious Muslim, he considered it to be his duty to "exert himself in the path of God" i.e., to carry on jihad (holy war) against infidels and convert his realm from dar-ul-harb (non-Muslim land) to dar-ul-Islam (realm of Islam).
Aurangzeb had started his career as a but-shikan (iconoclast) 13 years before he ascended the throne at Delhi.
In a farman granted to a priest of Banaras in 1659, Aurangzib ‘avowed that his religion forbade him to allow the building of new temples, but did not enjoin the destruction of old ones’. In 1664 he forbade temple to be repaired, and on 9 April,1669, an order was issued to the governors of the provinces “to demolish the schools and the temples of infidels and put down their teaching and religious practices strongly”. Besides innumerable temples throughout the empire, even the famous Hindu temple of Visvanath at Banaras, of Keshav Dev at Mathura, and Somanatha at Patan were destroyed. Even the loyal state of Jaipur was not spared, and 66 temples were razed to the ground at Amber.
In the month of Ramzan (January 1670) commanded the destruction of the Hindu temple of Mathura known by the name of Dehra Keshav Rai, and soon that stronghold of falsehood was levelled with the ground. On the same spot was laid, with great expense, the foundation of a vast mosques… The richly jewelled idols taken from the infidel temples were transferred to Agra and there placed beneath the steps leading to the Nawab Begum Sahib’s (Jahanara’s) mosque in order that they might be pressed under foot by the true believers. Mathura changed its name into Islamabad and was thus called in all official documents.
Maasir-i-Ãlamgîrî adds: “On 25 May 1679 A.D. Khan Jahan Bahadur arrived from Jodhpur bringing with him several cart-loads of idols, taken from the Hindu temples that had been demolished. His Majesty gave him great praise. Most of these idols were adorned with precious stones. It was ordered that some of them should be cast away in the outer offices and the remainder placed beneath the steps of the grand mosque, there to be trampled under foot. There they lay a long time until at last not a vestige of them was left.”
The year 1679 AD was the year of triumph for the “true faith”. On April 2, jizyah was reimposed on Hindus to “spread Islam and put down the practice of infidelism”. The Hindus of Delhi and around organised a protest and blocked Aurangzeb’s way to the Jami Masjid on one Friday. The mighty Mughal Emperor ordered his elephants to be driven through the mass of men. Many were trampled to death.
Various other measures were adopted to put pressure on the Hindus with a view to increasing the number of converts to Islam, By an edict in April, 1665, the customs duty on the commodities brought in for sale was fixed at 2.5 per cent, ad valorem for Muslim merchants and 5 per cent, for the Hindu merchants. In May, 1667, this duty in the case of Muslim traders was abolished, whereas it was retained at the old rate of 5 per cent, on the Hindus.
In 1671 an order was passed for the dismissal of all Hindu head-clerks and accountants, and replacing them by Muslims, but due to paucity of qualified Mohammedans the emperor, later on, allowed half of these posts to be held by the Hindus. In 1668 all Hindu religious fairs were prohibited, and in March 1695 another order was passed forbidding the Hindus to ride in Palkis, on elephant and good horses; they were also forbidden to carry arms.
Aurangzab's policy of intolerance and religious persecution rous¬ed the Sikhs to take up arms against him. He passed an order for the demolition of the Sikh temples and expulsion of the Sikh Guru's agents from the cities. Tegh Bahadura the Sikh Guru, offered open opposition and encouraged the Hindus of Kashmir in their resist¬ance against forcible conversion to Islam.

Aurangzab tried to teach the Sikhs a lesson and summoned Tegh Bahadur to Delhi. When he arrived together with five disciples he was asked to embrace Islam or Death. The Guru replied, “Give thy life, but do not give thy faith” (sar diya par sir nahi diya)
In order to terrorise the Guru into submission, one of his disciples, Bhal Mati Bias, was tied to two posts, and thus making him stand erect, his body was sawn across from head to loins. Another disciple was boiled alive. The other three fled away, but Guru Tegh Bahadur remained firm in his resolve. He was put in chains and then behead¬ed on 11 November, 1675.

The Sikhs were thus turned into bitter enemies of the Mughul government. Govinda Singh the next Guru and the only son of Tegh Bahadur, was determined to avenge his father's cruel murder. He devoted his time and energy in transforming the Sikhs into a military community and instituted the custom of baptism with a new oath. Those who accepted this baptism were known as the Khalsa (pure) and the members were required to put on a distinct¬ive dress, keeping five things on their person, viz., Kesh (hair), Kangha (comb), Kripan (sword), Kachha (underwear) and Kara (iron bangle).

In the hilly regions of the northern Punjab, Guru Govinda fought against the imperial forces in suppressing him, and won some victories over them. His stronghold at Anandapur was be¬sieged five times, and at last he had to leave it to take refuge in the plains, hotly pursued by the imperialists. His four sons were slain and he had no alternative but to proceed to the Deccan through Bikaner. He came back to Northern India after the death of Aurangzab and joined Bahadur Shah in the war of succession with his brothers. He also accompanied Bahadur Shah to the Deccan and, while encamped at Nander on the Godavarl, he was murdered by an Afghan follower (1708).He was the tenth and last Guru of the Sikhs.
MEWAR
FIGHT WITH THE RAJPUTS

Aurangzib was on the look-out for a suitable opportunity to establish direct control over Marwar one of the most powerful Hindu States in Northern India. The reasons behind his motive were that it occupied a position of strategic importance, as through it lay the shortest military and commercial routes from the Mughul capital to the rich cities and ports of Gujarat, and, secondly, such a power¬ful State was not only a menace to the safety of the empire but it might also offer stubborn opposition to his cherished religious policy.

On hearing of the Maharaja's Jasovanta Singh death, he took steps to seize Marwar and place it under direct rule of the Mughal government. He himself went to Ajmer to supervise the actions. As the State was then without a head and many Rathor officers and troops were in Afgha¬nistan, no resistance could be offered, and Marwar was easily brought under imperial control. Meanwhile, he learnt that the two widowed queens of Jasovanta had given birth to two posthumous sons; one was Ajit Singh and the other child having died a few weeks after birth

Aurangzib sent a strong force to seize Ajit and the Ranis. A band of brave Rathors opposed them with all their might, and another party under Durga Das (the son of Jasovanta’s minister ) stealthily came out of the mansion with Ajit and his mothers in male attire and rode away towards Marwar. The Rathors had taken up arms against Mughul oppression, and Aurangzab again went to Ajmer (25 September, 1679), despatching his son, prince Akbar, with a large army against the Rathors. Success attended Mughul arms and all the great towns including Jodhpur were plundered and temples destroyed.

Maharana Raj Singh of Mewar realized the gravity of the situation, and could well understand that his State would be the next victim of imperial aggression. He had been asked to pay the jizya tax for his entire State and this was as humiliating as vexatious. Added to these was also his deep concern for the safety of Marwar whose queen and mother of Ajit was a Mewar princess.

The Rajputs carried on guerilla warfare, raiding the Mughul outposts, cutting off their supplies and thus creat¬ing terror among the Mughuls. Even Akbar's camp near Chitor was once surprised at night.

A grand plan was made to enter into the hills of Mewar from three directions under the leader¬ship of three princes, A'zam, Mua'zzam and Akbar, but it did not even¬tually succeed, as the princes could not act up to the plan. As Akbar could not fare better in Marwar than in Mewar, he despaired of suc¬cess. Disgusted with censures from his father and removed from Mewar, and finding no other means of improving his situation, he hailed the invitation of the Rajputs in wresting the crown of Delhi from his father with their assistance.

Both Durga Das and Jay Singh, agreed to lend his support to the prince who, on 1 January, 1681, proclaimed himself emperor of Delhi, and on the following day, marched with his Rathor and Sisodia allies against his father who was then at Ajmer. Aurangzab had great affection for this son and was rudely shocked by his conduct.

As Akbar advanced nearer his father, desertions followed from his camp in large number, but 30,000 Rajputs remained faithful to him. Arriving at a distance of three miles from his father's camp, he halted there for the night for a battle on the next morning. During the night the shrewd emperor took to diplomacy for win¬ning over the prince's adherents. Tahavvur Khan was the right-hand man of Akbar left him also and went over to Aurangzab.

Meantime, the emperor had written a false letter to his re¬bellious son, commending him for bringing the principal Rajputs with him, according to his (emperor's) plan, so as to have them crushed between the imperial army and those of the prince in the next day's battle. As intended, the letter was dropped near the Rajput camp, and it upset Durga Das when he read it.

He went to Akbar for an explanation, but when informed that the prince was asleep, he sent men to call Tahavvur Khan only to learn that the latter had already left for the imperial camp. Believing treachery on the part of the prince, the Rajputs fell on his camp, looted as much as they could and hurried towards Mewar. After this, most of his other troops also deserted him and joined the emperor. When Akbar awoke and found himself in a helpless condition, he retreated hurriedly towards Mewar with some members of his family and the treasure he could carry.

As soon as the real matter came to light, Durga Das lent his helping hand to the prince and took him under his protection, Evading the Mughul pursuers, he escorted Akbar successfully through Rajasthan, Khandesh, and Baglana to the shelter of the Maratha king, Shambhuji.

Aurangzab's plan of action in Mewar was considerably affected by the prince's flight to the Deccan, and he was eager to patch up a peace with the Maharana for personal supervision of strong mili¬tary operations against his son in the Deccan. On the other hand, the Maharana also earnestly desired peace, specially because of ex¬tensive devastation of his cornfields by his enemies, threatening the whole population to starvation. He concluded a peace treaty with Mughal.

But Aurangzib's war with Marwar con¬tinued for about twenty-seven years more. After the treaty with Jay Singh, the emperor sent a powerful force under prince A'zam to pursue Akbar and he himself proceeded hurriedly towards the Deccan, reaching Burhanpur on 13 November, 1681, and Auranga-bad on 22 March, 1682.
SHIVAJI
During the period of Shivaji's birth, the power in Deccan was shared by three Sultanates - Bijapur, Ahmednagar, and Golconda. Most of the then Marathas forces had pledged their loyalties to one of these Sultanates and were engaged in a continuous game of mutual alliances and aggression. Shivaji Raje Bhosle (February 19, 1627 – April 3, 1680), popularly known as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was younger of the two sons of Shahaji Bhosle and Jijabai. His father, Shahaji, was a Maratha general who rendered military services at various times against the Bijapur Sultanate, Deccan sultanates and the Mughals. Shahaji appointed young Shivaji, under the care of his mother Jijabai, to manage the Pune holdings.
Shivaji along with his friends and soldiers took a blood oath to fight for the "Swarajya" at Rohideshwara temple. Shivaji espoused the ideology of Hindavi Swarajya and took a solemn oath in a Shiva temple with his friends and soldiers to directly challenge the Muslim rule of the Bijapur Sultanate and ultimately the mighty Mughal Empire. Shivaji succeeded in establishing control of a well defended segment of the present state of Maharastra in western India, during his lifetime.
Shivaji used to say “We are Hindus. These Yavans (Muslims) are inferior to us. There is none more inferior to them. I am distressed by serving them, eating food served by them, flattering them or even greeting them. It is so wrong to see the ridicule of one’s own religion. As we walk down the road we see cows being slaughtered. At that time I feel like beheading the killers and the distress grows even more. What is the use of living to see a cow being tormented? I am compelled to remain silent because of being reprimanded by my father otherwise I feel like killing the one indulging in cow slaughter. It is not at all good to be in the company of Muslims. So also it is inappropriate to go to the court (darbar) of the emperor or to visit every wealthy man.”
Prince Shivaji showed his valorous nature by chopping off the hand of a butcher who was dragging a cow for slaughter in another kingdom!
The pious Jija Bai blessed these sentiments. She daily wit¬nessed how complete darkness prevailed under Muslim government, where there was no law, no justice; the officials acted as they pleased. Violation of women's honour, murders and forcible conversions were the order of the day. News of demolition of temples, cow-slaughter and other atrocities poured upon the ears of that lady so constantly that she used to exclaim: "Can we not remedy this evil? Will not my son have the strength to come forth boldly to resist it?"

The Nizam Shah had openly murdered Jija Bai's father, his brothers and sons. Bajajl Nimbalkar, the ruler of Phaltan, a scion of the old Paramara race, was forcibly converted by the Sultan of Bijapur. The Hindus could not lead an honourable life.

This spectacle moved the lady and her son to righteous indignation. An intense feeling of revolt took possession of their minds. Shivaji prayed for strength, dreamt bright visions and entered upon a wild career full of hope and promise without caring for consequences. He possessed an in¬born capacity of judging the character of men almost at first sight. He mixed with all kinds of men and picked up suitable helpmates, and converted to his views even those who were leading evil lives.

His sympathy and selflessness and his earnest endeavor to serve his land appealed to all, so that within a few years the contrast became glaring between the improved conditions of his paternal Jagir and the disorder prevailing in the Muslim-ruled region outside. Soon a compact, well-knit geographical unit of a small swarjya came into being in which law and order prevailed, duties of officials were clearly defined, justice quickly rendered, honest work well rewarded and where life and wealth were perfectly secure. All this had pro¬found effect upon the ruling class and even Shivaji's father in far-off Bangalore.
In 1645, at the age of 17, Shivaji carried out his first military action by attacking and capturing Torna Fort of the Bijapur kingdom. By 1647 he had captured Kondana and Rajgad forts and had control of much of the southern Pune region. By 1654 Shivaji had captured forts in the Western Ghats and along the Konkan coast.
In the course of this affair, a young fair Muslim lady, the daughter in law of the governor, fell into the hands of Shivaji’s officers and was presented by them for Shivaji’s acceptance as a trophy of the war. Shivaji disapproved this wicked action of his subordinate, reprimanded them severely, and allowed the lady to return to her home. This unprecedented generosity, rare in the Muslim annals of India, enhanced Shivaji’s reputation far and wide as the great respecter of the Women.
Battle of Pratapgad
Afzal Khan, a seasoned commander and an accomplished warrior was sent to destroy Shivaji. After leaving Bijapur Afzal Khan desecrated Hindu temples at Tuljapur and Pandharpur. Shivaji, upon carefully weighing his options, strategically decided to stay in the hills and surprise Afzal Khan under the guise of diplomatic negotiations.
Agents of the two moved freely between them for some time negotiating for a personal meeting between the two for a solution. After several discussion, the Khan confident of his strength, agreed to meet Shivaji below the fort of Pratapgad.
Shivaji armed himself with weapons like bichhwa (dagger), wagh nakh (tiger claw) and chilkhat (chain-mail armour) prior to the meeting. What transpired during the meeting was not recorded by scribes, but folklore has it that Afzal Khan embraced Shivaji per their custom and attempted to stab Shivaji in the back. Shivaji's agility, strength and his armour helped to survive this attack. Shivaji counter-attacked Afzal Khan with a wagh nakh and bichhwa spilling his blood and entrails on the ground. Thereupon Afzal Khan's bodyguard Sayyed Banda responding to this incident set upon Shivaji but was intercepted by Jiva Mahala, Shivaji's personal bodyguard, cutting off one of Sayyed Banda's hands with a Dandpatta (Pata -a medieval weapon). Meanwhile, Afzal Khan stumbled out of the tent to get help and collapsed into a waiting palanquin, but was slain by Shivaji's associate Sambhaji Kavji Kondhalkar, before he could raise an alarm.
The Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, now identified Shivaji as a major threat to the mighty Mughal Empire. To counter the loss at Pratapgad and to defeat the newly emerging Maratha power, another army, this time numbering over 10,000, was sent against Shivaji, commanded by Bijapur's renowned Abyssinian general Rustamjaman. With a cavalry of 5,000 Marathas, Shivaji attacked them near Kolhapur on December 28, 1659. This battle lasted for several hours and at the end Bijapuri forces were soundly defeated and Rustamjaman ignominiously fled the battlefield.
Adilshahi forces lost about 2,000 horses and 12 elephants to the Marathas. This victory alarmed the mighty Mughal empire who now derisively referred to Shivaji as the "Mountain Rat". Aurangzeb the Mughal emperor was now actively preparing to bring the full might and resources of the Mughal Empire to bear down on the potential Maratha threat.
Aurangzeb sent his maternal uncle (brother of late Queen Mumtaz Mahal) Shaista Khan, to the Government of Deccan and sent him well-equipped to annihilate Shivaji while it was not yet too late.

The Khan's strength was irresistible, being fully backed by the whole might of the Mughul empire. For three long years, Shivaji was so hunted out in all directions that he became a homeless wanderer and was at a loss how to get out of this almost hopeless situation. In this darkest hour Shivaji's innate ingenuity alone saved him and he succeeded in turning the whole game against the Khan.

He employed secret agents to obtain minute details about the arrangements and disposition of the Khan's camp and hit upon a bold plan of a surprise attack at night. With about fifty clever and intrepid followers, he entered the Mughul general’s harem on the evening of 15 April, 1663. After midnight, when the guards and the Khan's family were asleep and enveloped in darkness, Shivaji and his companions attacked the inmates in their beds, cutting and hacking indiscriminately. The noise and con¬fusion that resulted was indescribable; several were killed and wounded; the Khan himself, it was later discovered, escaped with only his forefinger lost. One of his son and 40 attendant were killed. The incident proved eminently successful for Shivaji’s purpose. Without undergoing a large scale fighting, he stuck terror into the heart of his opponents.
Within twenty-four hours of this attack, Shaista Khan left Pune and headed North towards Agra. An angered Aurangzeb transferred him to distant Bengal as a punishment for bringing embarrassment to the Mughals with his ignoble defeat in Pune.
The fact that Mughals the most dominant power/empire in India resorted to joining forces in close co-ordination with regional sutanate to defeat Shivaji whose army barely consisted of 20,000 men is a great testament to the superior strategic, organizational and fighting abilities of the Marathas and their great leader - Shivaji.
Aurangzeb was enraged and sent Mirza Raja Jai Singh I with an army numbering well over 100,000 to defeat Shivaji. The Mughal forces under Raja Jai Singh proved to be unstoppable in the battles and Shivaji lost so many forts and large number of men that he decided to surrender for the time-being and come to terms with Aurangzeb rather than lose more forts and men.
In the ensuing treaty of Purander, signed between Shivaji and Jai Singh on June 11, 1665, Shivaji agreed to give up 23 of his forts and pay 400,000 rupees to the Mughals. He also agreed to let his son Sambhaji become a Mughal Sardar, serve the Mughal court of Aurangzeb and fight with Mughals against Bijapur. He actually fought with Raja Jai Singh's Mughal forces against Bijapur's forces for a few months. His commander, Netaji Palkar, joined Mughals, was rewarded very well for his bravery, converted to Islam, changed his name to Quli Mohammed Khan in 1666 and was sent to Afghanistan. He returned to Shivaji after ten years in 1676 and was reconverted to Hinduism by Shivaji.
Trip to Agra and Escape
In 1666, Aurangzeb summoned Shīvajī to Agra, along with his nine-year-old son Sambhajī, on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday. Aurangzeb's plan was to send Shivaji to Kandahar, modern day Afghanistan to consolidate the Mughal Empire's north-western frontier. However in the court, on May 12, 1666, Aurangzeb made Shīvajī stand behind mansabdārs (military commanders) of his court. Shivaji took offense at this seeming insult and stormed out of court and was promptly placed under house arrest, under the watch of Fulād Khān, Kotwal of Agra. From his spies, Shīvajī learned that Aurangzeb planned to move his residence to Rājā Vitthaldās's Haveli and then to possibly kill him or send him to fight in the Afghan frontier. As a result Shīvajī planned his escape.
He feigned almost fatal sickness and requested to send most of his contingent back to the Deccan, thereby ensuring the safety of his army and deceiving Aurangzeb. Thereafter, on his request, he was allowed to send daily shipments of sweets and gifts to saints, fakirs, and temples in Agra as offerings for getting well.] After several days and weeks of sending out boxes containing sweets, Shīvajī and his nine year old son Sambhaji hid themselves in two of the boxes and managed to escape. Shīvajī and his son fled to the Deccan disguised as sadhus (holy men). After the escape, rumours of Sambhajī's death were intentionally spread by Shīvajī himself in order to deceive the Mughals and to protect Sambhajī.
It was the most thrilling exploit of all his wonderful deeds, which has for ever added a super natural glow to his unique personality. It immediately resounded throughout the country, making Shivaji an all India figure, divinely ordained with extraordinary power. The incident simultaneously exposed the emperor’s craft still further adding to his evil repute for cunning and cruelty. Shivaji’s reputation, on the other hand, reached its Zenith for having outwitted the cleverest and mightiest of the emperors.
Shivaji spent two years in comparative quiet and would have possibly continued inoffensive, had not a fresh impulse of fanaticism seized the emperor once more to which reference has been made above.

On 9 April, 1669, he issued general orders for demolishing all Hindu schools and temples and putting down all their religious teaching and practices. All Hindu fairs and cere¬monies were forcibly banned. The famous temple of Kasi Visvegvar was pulled down in 1669 and that of Keshab Rai in 1670, the news of which flashed like lightning throughout India. New grand mos¬ques arose on the sites of both the temples which stand to this day, visible for miles as one travels to Banaras and Mathura.

Shivaj and Jija Bai received these reports with sorrow and consternation and stood forth boldly to resist the emperor in retaliation. As Sinhgarh was the key fort of Deccan politics personally handed back by Shivaji five years ago, he now attacked it openly and wrested it from the Mughul pos¬session. This capture of Sinhgarh was effected in February, 1670, and was quickly followed up by Shivaji's seizure of the Mughul terri¬tories of Kalyan and other places of north Konkan. In April, Shivaji collected a large plunder by raiding several important Mughul towns. He declared he was taking revenge for the emperor's attack on the Hindu religion.
The last great venture in Karnataka
At the end of 1676, Shivaji Maharaj launched a wave of conquests in southern India with a massive force of 50,000 (30,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry). He captured the forts at Vellore and Jinji that belonged to the sultanate of Bijapur and are in modern-day Tamilnadu. Shivaji soon died after this grand conquest. Shivají's conquests in the south proved quite crucial during future wars. Jinjee served as Maratha capital for 9 years during the War of 27 years.
A tribute to Shivaji
What the earnest endeavor of one man can achieve in this wicked world is illustrated in Shivaji's life narrated so far. It has not been possible, within the limited time, to give a more detailed account of all the varied activities and achievements of that unique personality. Only the main incidents and their prominent features could be attempted. But even these will doubtless prove the divine gift of genius which Shivaji possessed and which baffles analysis.
He called the Maratha race to a new life of valor and self-reliance, of honor and hope. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that he is the creator of the Maratha nation, as Sir Jadunath had aptly put it, "the last great constructive genius and nation-builder that the Hindu race has produced." Jadunath further observes:

"He called the Maratha race to a new life. He raised the Marathas into an independent self-reliant people, conscious of their one¬ness and high destiny, and his most precious legacy was the spirit that he breathed into his race. He has proved by his example that the Hindu race can build a nation, found a State, defeat enemies; they can conduct their own defense, protect and promote literature and art, commerce and industry; they can maintain navies and ocean-trading fleets of their own and conduct naval battles on equal terms with foreigners. He taught the modern Hindus to rise to the full stature of their growth. Shivaji has shown that the tree of Hinduism is not really dead, that it can rise from beneath the seemingly crushing load of centuries of political bondage; that it can put forth new leaves and branches. It can again lift up its head to the skies."

The 'people's war' in Maharashtra

It is a pity that Aurangzab could never gauge the real strength of the Marathas, neither in the early stage of their rise nor in the subsequent stage of their growth. He had been acquainted with the uncommon audacity and daring exploits of Shivaji as far back as 1657. The Maratha chief then raided not only the Mughul dis¬tricts of Ahmadnagar and Junnar but also sacked the rich city of Junnar. He was then routed and Aurangzab got him within his reach but did not take necessary steps to prevent his future growth. Shivaji thus got ample opportunities to fulfill his cherished ambi¬tion of establishing a powerful national State.

In 1690 and 1691 the emperor devoted his attention chiefly to¬wards taking possession of the southern and eastern portions of the late Bijapur and Golconda States. But he was soon faced with the 'people's war' in Maharashtra. After the flight of Rajaram to the fort of Gingee, it became the centre of Maratha activities in the east coast, while in the west, Maharashtra proper, resistance to the Mughuls was organized by the leaders there. In the eastern theatre of war Prahlad Niraji was the King's supreme agent, and in the west, the Maratha leaders were Ramchandra N. Bavdekar, Shankarji Malhar and Parashuram Trimbak. Ramchandra Bavde¬kar was created dictator (Hukumatpandh} with full authority over the commanders and other officials in Maharashtra. Two generals of outstanding ability, Dhana Jadav and Santaji Ghorpare, con¬ducted operations against the imperialists, moving from one theatre of war to another in the Deccan. By their guerilla tactics, they inflicted heavy losses on the Mughuls who, being unable to ascer¬tain the movements of their enemies, were thrown into great con¬fusion.

"The difficulties of Aurangzib", says Sir Jadunath Sarkar, "were multiplied by this disappearance of a common head and a central government among the Marathas, because every petty Mara¬tha captain now fought and plundered in a different quarter on his own account. The Marathas were no longer a tribe of banditti or local rebels, but the one dominating factor of Deccan politics, and an enemy all-pervasive throughout the Indian peninsula, elusive as the wind, the ally and rallying point of all the enemies of the Delhi empire and all disturbers of public peace and regular adminis¬tration throughout the Deccan and even in Malwa, Gondwana and Bundelkhand. The imperialists could not be present everywhere in full strength; hence, they suffered reverses in places."

The Maratha bands roving around cut off the supplies of the Mughuls and harassed them in all possible manner. By surprise attacks, Santa and Dhana harassed the imperialists with a view to wearing them out as far as possible. The Maratha roving bands were active throughout 1694 and 1695, making the position of the Mughuls very miserable and forced them to be on the defensive in Maharashtra and Kannada. Unable to follow the rapid movement of the enemies, the imperialist become bewildered and terror stricken.

The long and continuous hard labor of the emperor even in the ripe old age was too much for him to bear and he fell very ill while encamped at Devapur, on the bank of the Krishna, after the capture of Wagingera. But he recovered from this illness, and proceeded slowly to Ahmadnagar.

His long warfare in the Deccan for a quarter of a century resulted in utter desolation of the country and caused indescrib¬able misery to the people. Manucci, an eye-witness, says, "Aurangzab withdrew to Ahmadnagar, leaving behind him the fields of these provinces devoid of trees and bare of crops, their places be¬ing taken by the bones of men and beasts. Instead of verdure all is black and barren. There have died in his armies over a hun¬dred thousand souls yearly, and of animals, pack-oxen, camels, elephants, etc., over three hundred thousand. In the Deccan pro¬vinces from 1702 to 1704 plague (and famine) prevailed. In these two years there expired over two millions of souls."

The Marathas followed the emperor during his journey to Ahmadnagar, attacking his men from the rear and cutting off their food supplies. By this time they became very powerful and were no longer a band of plundering light horsemen; they were equip¬ped with artillery, musketry and other necessaries of a regular army like the Mughuls. They succeeded in establishing their mastery not only over nearly the whole of the Deccan but also in some places of Central India. Unable to cope with them, the imperialists were forced to be on the defensive. In 1706 the Marathas raided Gujarat and plundered Baroda which was then a rich trading cen¬tre. Even the emperor's camp at Ahmadnagar was not immune from attack, and it was besieged in May, 1706, when they were driven back with great difficulty. The province of Aurangabad was ravaged on many occasions, and a large Mughul convoy was plundered on the way from Aurangabad to Ahmadnagar; Dhana attacked Berar and Khandesh.

Thus the long and continuous endeavors of the emperor to crush the Marathas proved futile and Maratha nationalism flourished with all its vitality as a triumphant force. In the midst of these confusions and disorders, suffering from bereavements due to the death of two beloved daughters, one daughter-in-law, one sister and two nephews, and deep anxieties for the gloomy future of the empire, specially because of an appre¬hended civil war among his sons, Aurangzab breathed his last in his nineteenth year at Ahmadnagar in the morning of 3 March, 1707 (Friday).

Shivaji’s ideology of Hindavi Swarajya and subsequent expansion of the Maratha Empire, was partly responsible for re-establishment of Hindu rule and its re-emergent assertiveness throughout the mainland of present day India after being ruled and dominated by various Muslim dynasties for several centuries. The ideology of Hindavi Swarajya was in part the inspiration that propelled the succeeding generation of Marathas to establish independent kingdom in India prior to their eventual defeat by the British Empire.

THE DETERMINANTS OF HINDU DEFEATS: -Sita Ram Goel
It is true that Hindus resisted Islamic imperialism for a long time, and overcame it in the long run. But it would be foolish to forget that their failure for a long time in the face of an enemy, with whom they had become familiar pretty soon, was of frightening proportions. It is this failure of the Hindus and not the defeat of the Muslim marauders which invites a serious review and reflection. I will, therefore, do my own loud thinking on this subject. For I feel very strongly that the lessons we may learn from these failures are still valid for us.
It is held by almost all historians of this period, including those who neither swear by Marxism nor apologize for Islam, that the Hindu failure had its source in the Hindu social system, particularly the caste structure. But that proposition does not stand a deeper probe. Moreover, the proposition is preposterous because it reverses the chronological sequence. The Hindu social system became moribund and the caste system rigid only after Hindus had lost political power. There is sufficient evidence to prove that on the eve of Islamic invasions, the Hindu social system did not harbour the defects which it developed at a later stage. It is my considered opinion that it was their highly organic social system which saved the Hindus from extinction in the initial stages, and provided the powerful impetus which propelled them to victory in the long run. Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and North Africa were engulfed by Islam because they did not have a social structure which could withstand the storm.
The Foremost Failure: Spiritual
To start with, what strikes me most is the steep decline in the Hindu spiritual perception. The sacred and philosophical literature produced by Hindus from the 5th century onwards compares very unfavorably with similar literature of an earlier age - like Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the earlier literature Manusmriti. The earlier literature dwells naturally and effortlessly on the Himalayan heights of the human soul, but at the same time it pays due attention to every detail of terrestrial life. The family, the clan, the village, the janapada, the rãshtra - life at each of these levels is sustained by a dharma appropriate to the level and complexity of relationships involved. The janmabhûmi, the motherland, is equated with the janani, the loving mother, and endowed with sanctity higher than that of heaven. Human society in its smaller as well as larger segments is an enabling environment in which the individual seeks abhyudaya, mundane welfare, as well as nisshreyas, spiritual salvation. Society has a lot to give to the individual in terms of upbringing, education, status within the brotherhood of the varna, and livelihood in the fraternity of the jãti. But society also demands a lot in terms of self-discipline, performance of duties due from one’s station in life, and sacrifice which mostly means living for others. The rãjã, the state, is an embodiment of the protecting power of the Divine, and demands in turn taxes and obedience to legitimate laws.
In the eyes of this highly vigilant spirituality, evil is as much present in human nature as the good, and manifests itself in as many ways as the good. This spirituality is, therefore, wide awake to every eruption of evil, individual as well as collective. It can spot evil at the ideological and the psychological level as easily as at the level of its physical manifestation or concrete action. And it recommends a combat with evil, devãsura-samgrãma, in every sphere of life. In this spirituality, there is no place for suffering evil silently, or for explaining it away, or for facing it with a subjective sanctimoniousness, howsoever elevated the language that sanctimoniousness may employ. When Alexander had asked a Brahmin as to what they taught which inspired Hindu warriors to such high heroism, the Brahmin had replied in one sentence - “We teach our people to live with honor.”
While it does not lose any of its heights, its grip on life as lived in this world gets greatly loosened. There is an insistent and increasing rejection of terrestrial life, and turning one’s back upon it is termed as the highest human endeavor. Dharma is no more a comprehensive concept embracing the wide wealth of human relationships; it is narrowed down to specialized disciplines enjoined by the goal of individual salvation. In fact, human relationships start getting redefined as so many snares which entangle and encumber the individual soul in its journey towards the supreme attainment. Honor and heroism now become lower values when compared to the herculean effort of breaking the shackles of karma and getting across the ocean of rebirth. Most spiritual seekers now not only take to sannyãsa but also go into seclusion in search of samãdhi, the mystic trance. Tantra, mantra, mandala and yantra follow in sequence till spirituality in most cases gets reduced to some sort of an esoteric ritualism which is loath to subject itself to any objective test of character or performance. Those who do not feel drawn towards this highly elaborate but entirely subjective spirituality are now free to pursue artha, acquisitions, or kãma, pleasures, or both, without any guidance from dharma.
Many students of the spiritual literature of this period have hailed the medieval siddhas and the saints as harbingers of a casteless society. They do not see the perspective in which varna and jãti become irrelevant for the spiritual seekers of this period. The perspective is one of social indifference, not one of social concern. The siddhas and the saints are indifferent not only to varna and jãti, but also to the rãjã and the rãshtra. None of them tells the princes that the supreme test of their prowess and honour is the protection of their prajã. Some of them do bemoan the terror, destruction, desecration, and spoliation perpetrated by the Islamic invaders. But the complaint is addressed to God Almighty who allows such horrible things to happen. The voice which a Valmiki or a Vyasa would have raised for resistance to and destruction of the dasyu, marauder, and the ãtatãyî, gangster, is missing. Samartha Ramdas is the only exception.
It is small wonder, therefore, that Hindu saints of this period failed to see Islam with the eyes of a wholesome spirituality practised in earlier ages. They took at face value the professions of Islam that it was a religion like one of their own. Some of them were impressed by Islamic monotheism, and started denouncing the multiplicity of their own Gods and Goddesses. None of them could see that the Kalimah - there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his last prophet - could emanate only from a beastly rather than a religions consciousness. Not a single Hindu saint made the effort to see or succeeded in seeing through the professions of Islam or the piety of its sufis, and exposing the sin and the sham masquerading as religion and sainthood. The NirguNa saints did question the exclusive claims of Islam. But none of them questioned its claim as an alternate path of salvation. And all of them assailed Brahmanism and polytheism.
The thinkers and philosophers of this period proved worse than the saints in this respect. They argued back and forth on all possible positions in metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, logic, linguistics, social ceremonies, and religious rituals. But none of them made a systematic or serious study of Islam, or traced to its scriptural source its terrorism and cruelty. The saints at least soothed and strengthened their people by their songs and sermons. The thinkers and philosophers cannot claim even that much credit. They only divided their people by their highly sectarian scholasticism. A majority of the Muslims were Hindu converts who had been forced or lured into the fold of Islam which sat lightly on them for a long time. Hindu society closed its doors on them, and condemned them to permanent and progressive alienation. The results would have been radically different if Hindu thinkers and philosophers had rejected Islam, and won back the converts to Islam into their mother society.
THE SECOND FAILURE: CULTURAL
The failure of Hindu spiritual perception had something, perhaps much, to do with the failure of the Hindu cultural vision. There was a lapse of historical memory and cultural tradition about the essential unity, integrity, and sanctity of what the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, the Puranas, and the Dharmashastras had clearly defined as Bharatavarsha. This vast land which Islam has dismembered in due course into the separate states of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Hindustan, and Bangladesh had been a single indivisible whole since times immemorial. Bharatavarsha had been termed by the ancients as the cradle of varnaashrama-dharma, witness to the wheel of the caturyugas, and the kshetra for chakravãrtya, spiritual as well as political. This historical memory and cultural tradition was alive as late as the imperial Guptas. Kalidasa had clothed it in immortal poetry in his far-famed Raghuvam’a.
This failure of Hindu cultural vision had serious consequences. Hindus failed to organise a collective effort to guard the frontiers of Bharatavarsha. Hindu princes in the interior did not rally round Raja Dahir when Muhammad bin Qasim violated the sacred soil of Sindh. They made some better effort when the Hindu Shahiyas of Udbhandapur were challenged by Subuktigin. But the effort fizzled out before long, because very few of them had their heart in it. Hindu princes by now had taken a deep dose of Kautalya’s Arthasãstra. In this sterile statecraft, centred on the politics of the mandalayoni, one’s neighbour was always an enemy, and the enemy of an enemy always a friend! Hindu princes, therefore, failed to hang together in the face of a common calamity. In the event, they were hanged separately.
THE THIRD FAILURE: MENTAL
The third failure which was closely linked with the first two was the failure of mental alertness to what was happening in the world around. Hindu merchants were still selling the products of Indian agriculture and industry in all lands invaded by Islam. Hindu saints, particularly the Buddhist monks, were still practicing their austerities and preaching their sermons in their far-flung monasteries in Iran and Khorasan. But none of them could see the storm that was rising on the sands of Arabia and sowing a harvest of mass slaughter, pillage, plunder and enslavement, not even when it swept over neighboring lands. They waited where they were till they were slaughtered and/or plundered in their own turn, or, if they fled back home, they did not say the word that could have served as a warning. Nor were the Hindu princes in a mental mood to heed any warning even if it had been tendered to them. An awareness of what was happening in neighboring lands was no more needed by them. Each one of them was busy with his immediate neighbors. There was no lack of martial spirit, or sense of honour, or sentiments of chivalry in them. But all this wealth of character was wasted in proving their prowess over primacy of the right to a first dip in holy rivers and tanks, or to the hands of pretty princesses. What they lacked was statesmanship which is always an outcome of an alert and wide-ranging mind. They learnt neither from their own defeats, nor from the victories of the enemy. They mended neither their statecraft, nor their system of revenue, nor their military establishment, nor yet their art of warfare.
It cannot be maintained that Islam did not provide an ample opportunity to Hindu saints, philosophers and princes to understand its true character and role. Before the armies of Islam invaded India, the sufis had settled down in many parts of India, built mosque and khanqahs and started their work of conversion. They were the sappers and miners of Islamic invasions which followed in due course. Muinuddin Chishti was not the first “saint” of Islam to send out an invitation to an Islamic invader to come and kill the kãfirs, desecrate their shrines, and plunder their wealth. He was following in the footsteps of earlier Islamic “saints” functioning as fifth-columnists for Muhammad bin Qasim and Mahmud Ghaznavi. There was an interval of two and a half centuries between the Arab demonstration in Sindh of what Islam had in store for the Hindus, and the horrors let loose by Mahmud Ghaznavi. Again, there was another interval of a century and a half between the invasions of Mahmud Ghaznavi and those of Muhammad Ghuri. But neither the Hindu saints, nor the Hindu philosophers, nor the Hindu princes could see the sufis for what they were in essence, or draw any worthwhile conclusions about the character of Islam.
This triple Hindu failure on the spiritual, cultural, and mental levels prevented Hindu society from evolving and pursuing policies which were imperative in the unprecedented situation, and which would have saved it from the permanent scourge of a malignant fraternity embedded in its very heart.
THE POLICIES WHICH WERE NOT PURSUED
The first need of the situation was a centre round which Hindus could rally, and from which Hindu resistance to the Islamic invasion could be directed. The effectiveness of such a centre was demonstrated first in Mewar under Maharana Pratap, secondly in the South under Vijayanagara, thirdly in Maharashtra under Shivaji, and lastly in the Punjab under Banda Bahadur. But these centres crystallised too late. A nationwide centre established earlier could have contained Islamic imperialism at the borders of Bharatavarsha, or defeated and driven it out from wherever it had secured a foothold. Chandragupta, Vikramaditya, and Skandagupta had headed such a centre, and saved the motherland by hurling back the barbarians as soon as they came.
The second need of the situation was a forward policy which would have taken the war into the heartland of Islam, instead of being fought over the length and breadth of Bharatavarsha. But the Hindus during this period were afflicted by a fortress psychology. They waited for the invader till he arrived at Panipat, or shut themselves into citadels which could be stormed or starved into surrender while the unprotected populace outside was slaughtered. Nor did they ever pursue and destroy the invader even when he was defeated and made of flee. If the Chaulukyas of Gujarat had pursued and destroyed Muhammad Ghuri and his hordes when he was defeated by them in his first expedition in 1178 AD, he would not have come back to Tarain in 1191 AD. Again, if the Chauhans had pursued and punished Ghuri after his defeat in the first battle of Tarain, there would have been no second battle of Tarain, and perhaps no more Muslim invasion of India, at least for some time to come. The effectiveness of a forward policy was demonstrated first by the Marathas under Shivaji, and later on by the Sikhs under Banda Bahadur. But that was against an Islamic state already established in India. Meanwhile, Islam had succeeded in doing very severe damage to the self-respect and self-confidence of Hindu society, particularly to the psyche of its elite.
The consequences of this damage to the Hindu psyche came to the surface during the days of the Mughal empire. Hindu generals like Mansingh Kacchwaha, Jaswant Singh Rathore, and Mirza Raja Jaisingh, to name only the most notable, proved their great calibre when employed by an alien imperialism. Hindu administrators like Raja Todarmal streamlined the revenue system of an alien state. But they could not use their abundant talents for establishing their own leadership in the service of their own nation. The Marathas who finally occupied Delhi in 1771 AD provide an excellent example of this loss of elan. They could not muster the courage to proclaim their own sovereignty over their own motherland, and continued to function in the name of a phantom whom they had themselves freed from British captivity. They were frightened of their own greatness. The notion of an independent nationhood no more informed their vision.
The third need of the situation was a policy of reciprocity which nations have to follow when they are faced with gangsterism. Islam was suffering from the high fever of self-righteousness, and was badly in need of some strong medicine. If the Islamic invaders had been made to understand that what they intended to do to Somnath could also be done to the Ka’bah, they would have paused to think and shed some of their self-righteousness. But Hindus never tried to cure Islam of its iconoclastic zeal. On the contrary, they used every opportunity to convince Muslims that their mosques, mazars, and khanqahs were absolutely inviolable. No wonder Muslims came to the conclusion that while Somnath was built from bricks and mortar, and the Sivaliñga made of mere stone, the Ka’bah was hewn out of some spiritual substance and the sang-i-aswad hallowed by the Almighty Allah. Muslims felt sure that while Hindu images had no power to protect themselves, their own idol in Mecca was capable of hurling into hell whole armies of infidels. Their sense of surety would have been shaken and done them immense good if it had been demonstrated by Hindu armies that the Ka’bah was also built from bricks and mortar, and that the sang-i-aswad also had no power to save itself, not to speak of sending even a mosquito to perdition.
Europe saved itself from the depredations of Islam because it had a centre in the Catholic Church which gave a call for action to Christian princes, and followed a forward policy in the Crusades. It did not allow Islam to retain any of its self-righteousness. Spain was ruled by Muslims for several centuries. But today there is no Muslim “minority” in Spain to poison its body politic, and no Muslim “places of worship” from which Muslim hooligans can hurl stones on Christian processions or in which they can assemble arsenals.