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एक दुखी परिवार –  44

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Promotion of Islam

One of Aurangzeb’s main goals was to bring true Islamic governance to the Mughal Empire. Previous emperors, while all Muslim, had not all ruled according to Islamic law. His great grandfather Akbar, for example, regularly went against Islamic beliefs by adopting many non-Islamic religious beliefs and practices in his personal life as well as in his rule of the empire. Aurangzeb’s insistence on Islamic rule was based on his previous education and his strong religious convictions.

Al-Fatawa al-Hindiya, the book of Islamic law compiled by Aurangzeb

Aurangzeb took power before his father, Shah Jahan, had passed away. Despite the respect he had for his father, Aurangzeb vehemently disagreed with many of his father's actions, considering them to be wasteful and extravagant. An example of his religious mindset was his criticism of the Taj Mahal, which was a tomb built by Shah Jahan for Aurangzeb’s mother, Mumtaz Mahal. Aurangzeb considered it to be against the religious laws of Islam to build a structure over a grave, particularly one that was so ornate and expensive. He declared “the lawfulness of a solid construction over a grave is doubtful, and there can be no doubt about the extravagance involved.” He also made it a point to publicly oppose excessive veneration of the graves of Sufis, as he noted that it was developing into a cult-like practice, away from the beliefs and practices of Islam.

In order to practice Islamic law in the empire correctly, Aurangzeb insisted on compiling Islamic law into a codified book that could be much more easily followed. He thus brought together hundreds of scholars of Islam from all over the Muslim world to organize such laws. The result was a landmark text of fiqh (jurisprudence) in the Hanafi school, known as the Fatawa-e-Alamgiri, meaning “The Religious Decrees of Alamgir”. It was known as the Fatawa al-Hindiya (الفتاوى الهندية) in the rest of the Muslim world and is well-respected as a compendium of Hanafi law.

Using the Fatawa-e-Alamgiri as a guidebook, Aurangzeb sent officials throughout the empire to enact Islamic law and end socially corrupt practices. As such, alcoholism, gambling, and prostitution were combated by the imperial government. Taxes that were not in line with Islamic law were also abolished, a policy that was very popular with the Mughal Empire’s subjects.

To make up for the loss in tax revenue, Aurangzeb adopted a very simple lifestyle and did not live in a lavish manner as his father had. Royal traditions that he considered extravagant were abolished, such as court musicians and festivities on the emperor’s birthday.

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एक दुखी परिवार –  45

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Relations With Hindus and Sikhs

While the accomplishments and religious-mindedness of Aurangzeb’s reign is indisputable  there are those historians and academics who insist that the lasting legacy of Aurangzeb is intolerance and oppression. He is commonly cited as a temple-destroyer and someone who attempted to eliminate non-Muslims in his empire. 

With regards to his attitudes towards Hindus and Sikhs in general, what is argued by the Muslim scholars in support is that he was clearly not prejudiced nor discriminatory, as dozens of Hindus worked in his royal court as officials and advisers. More non-Muslims in fact were part of his court than the court of Akbar, who is commonly cited as a the most religiously tolerant Mughal emperor. With Hindus and Sikhs occupying positions in his government and military, clearly Aurangzeb was not simply a religious bigot that refused to acknowledge the contributions of his non-Muslim subjects, they argue.

The second issue that comes up in analysis’ of Aurangzeb’s rule is instances of him destroying Hindu and Sikh temples and refusing to allow new ones to be built. That he ordered such actions is a historical fact that cannot be disputed.

Preservation of temples with Islamic religious justification is a long-running tradition in India. The first Muslim army to come to India in 711 under Muhammad bin Qasim promised religious freedom and security of temples to Hindus and Buddhists. The same policy had been followed for hundreds of years before the Mughals. However, Aurangzeb did not disregard the Islamic laws regarding protection of religious minorities. Aurangzeb himself even noted that Islamically, temple desecration was not permitted when in 1659 he wrote, “According to the Shariah [Islamic law], and the exalted creed, it has been established that ancient temples should not be torn down.” 

So if Aurangzeb did not demolish temples for religious reasons, why did he do it? The answer, according to the admirers of Auranzeb, lies in the political nature of temples in the 1600s.

Hindu and Sikh temples (unlike Muslim mosques) were not just places of worship, they say. They also had political significance. Temples acted as political offices and state property, and the priests that were in charge of them were in the employ of the government. When seeking to get the support of Hindus in a particular area, Mughal emperors (and even Hindu kings in non-Mughal areas) would rely on the priests to rally the local population through the temple. As such, a temple was more than just a religious building, it was also a potentially powerful political tool. These scholars do not place mosques in the same bracket, thereby testifying to its piousness in apolitical sense.

With this understanding of temples and their significance, Aurangzeb’s destruction of certain temples is argued out in justification, asserting that no historical records show that he had an indiscriminate policy of temple destruction across India. The temples he chose to destroy were carefully selected as being a small fraction of the total Hindu houses of worship in India. This is because when Aurangzeb chose a temple for destruction, it was a politically motivated act, not a religious one, they say in defence.

Seeing the opulence and subsequent financial strain of the Mughals during the reign of Shah Jahan, numerous local governors and priests decided to rebel against Mughal authority during the reign of Aurangzeb. When a rebellion broke out in one part of the empire, the local temple was the natural political entity that rebels could rally against. So long as the rebel leaders and their client temples existed, the threat to the Mughal government existed.

It thus became a policy when fighting rebellions against central authority, that the temple that spawned that rebellion also be destroyed. An example of this was a 1669 rebellion in Banaras led by a political rival, Shivaji, who used the local temple to rally support to his cause. After capturing Shivaji, Aurangzeb destroyed a temple in Banaras that was used as a political recruiting ground against his reign. Another example occurred in 1670 in Mathura when Jats rebelled and killed a local Muslim leader. Again, to end the rebellion Aurangzeb had to destroy the temple that had supported it.

Overall, the policy of desecrating temples was used as a political punishment for disloyal Hindu officials, not as a sign of religious intolerance , they argue. 

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एक दुखी परिवार –  46

Mughal skirmishes with Portuguese  

Portuguese, British and French traders had increasingly endeared themselves to the Mugals who were greatly enamoured by the fire arms, spices and rarities they brought abd presented in Mugal darbar.

Their pretty interactions covertly turned into petty trading activities , to further enlarge itself into acquisition of strategic space and platorm that transmuted their trading platform into an outfit of private army.
Initially it esaped Mugal empire's notice what hidden threat lay inside the above so called trading activities.
What was given to the Mugals to understand was that the entire ocean route that those traders voyaged, were highly susceptible to sea piracy, necessitating high level security.
But when it transpired to Shahjahan, probably for the first time, Shah Jahan gave orders in 1631 to Qasim Khan, the Mughal viceroy of Bengal, to drive out the Portuguese from their trading post at Port Hoogly, the trading post was heavily armed with cannons, battleships, fortified walls, and other instruments of war.The Portuguese were accused of trafficking by high Mughal officials and due to commercial competition the Mughal-controlled port of Saptagram began to slump. The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan was particularly outraged by the activities of Jesuits in that region particularly when they were accused of abducting peasants.On 25 September 1632 the Mughal Army raised imperial banners and gained control over the Bandel region and the renegade garrison was punished.
That is how a a goody goody set of traders had begun to establish foothold on the Indian soil as covert invaders in the outfit of traders.
The belated identification of their dubious intents apart from capturing trade and commerce of the land cost India dearly , for twin reasons.
They were not conventional kind of invaders as were the then ruling class, the Mugals. Secondly, the areas which they had begun to dominate were generally Godforesaken coastal areas where the Mugal's found little interest until those areas got developed into something sort of an army base or an infrastructural base for onward expansion of power.
Another important factor which few noticed , was the abatement of resistance to the Mugal empire from Rajputana. Much of its agression and repugnance toward the Mugals had dissipated, following twin major developments.
One was cut thriat competition among the fragmented power structures there accompanying interstate rivalarirs. Second was dilation of intolerance against the Mugals, as a consequence of generations of marrital alliances coupled with the extinguishment of emotional fireworks due to women's addition to the luxary and fringe benefits accruing to an inmate of the Mugal Harem. The Mugal Harem which originalky accounyed for the Sati Pratha taking its heavy toll during the predecessor reigns, had lately become a coveted place to acquire and for which rival families vied with one another.
The trends turned a Maharana Pratap into a utopia, Mansingh into an ideal practicality to emulate. Parting with women's honour , no longer fetched social despisation, in that the rewards that a woman , served on a silver platter to the Mugals, fetched , far exceeded emotional injuries inficted  on the abstract human values .

Bahadur Shah who ruled from 1707 until his death in 1712, was the third son of Aurangzeb with his Muslim Rajput wife Nawab Bai and the grandson of Shah Jahan.
These Rajput wives, sub-wives, harem members and  concubines etc., had turned fragmented and fierce Rajputana kingdoms into a green pasture for the Mugals to relish its taste and flavour.