Dr K Prabhakar Rao
4. DISCRIMINATION OF HINDUS.
Once Muslim invaders occupied territories in India after
the defeat of Prthviraj chauhan at Thneswar at the hands of Mohd Ghori,
persecution and discrimination started in all fields of life. Hindus
were treated as third rate citizens. They were discriminated at every
instant and at every moment. Islam considers believers as supreme and
permits infidels to exist under their rule for which they have to
pay special tax. The tax is called Zizia Tax. However all efforts are
made to weaken Hindu society by all means, like threats, persecution,
luring, violence ,excessive taxation, discrimination. and curtailing
freedom. The slave sultans were no doubt masters in this art.
However during certain periods this phenomenon reduced as some rulers
realized that they could not rule without support of Hindus. But such
atmosphere was short lived. When ruler or dynasty changed invariably
policies also changed mostly to worst. Every sultan believed that he
was the god sent man to uphold Islam.
The discrimination in society was mostly under following forms;
1.Right to own property
2. Right to practice religion
3. Right to receive education.
4. Right to own horses
5. Right to bear arms
6. Rights for conducting certain trades
7. Rights over produce from fields
8. Right to wear expensive attire
9. Rights for justice
Note. These were apart from other forms of repression such as
abduction. Mass killings, rapes, forcible marriages, looting, forcible
conversion etc
Alauddin Khilji from Khilji dynasty( 1296-1316)
was definitely intolerant towards the Hindus, and he tried to suppress
them by every possible measure. However historians have calimed that he
was the first person to introduce systematic administration.. He
believed that wealth in the hands of people would lead to rebellions and
thus he practiced oppression and heavy taxes. People had to survive
with barest minimum. The local leaders among them were severely
persecuted and they remained poor. Though historians are not unanimous
on the issue of his anti-Hindu policy and its causes, yet it is sure
that he never paid attention to the welfare of the Hindus. His dialogue
with Qazi Mughisuddin highlights his attitude towards the Hindus when he
enquires of him about the position of Hindus as taxpayers in an Islamic
state ( 1).
The Qazi answered,
“According to Shariat, they are called payers of tribute (Khiraj Guzar)
and if the revenue officers demand silver from them, they should with
all humility and respect tender gold. If the officer throws dirt into
their mouth, they must without reluctance open their mouth wide to
receive it.”
The Qazi, further, emphasized that even the great Iman Abu Hanifa has
told that Jaziya, should be levied on the Hindus and they should be
permitted to follow their religion. Some other religious dignitaries of
Islam have suggested only two alternatives for the Hindus living in an
Islamic kingdom.
They should either be put to death or forced to embrace Islam. Alauddin
Khalji followed the advice of the Qazi and adopted oppressive measures
against the Hindus. He enhanced the load of revenue and other taxes on
them. He imposed 50 per cent land revenue and snatched away the
privileges of Khuts and Maqaddams. It reduced them to poverty but Dr. U.
N. Dey does not agree to it. He remarks,
“The Khuts and Muqaddams at no stage of Indian history ever reached the stage of poverty as is told about them in his reign.”
Dr. Dey does not agree also with the view of Barani that the wives of
Khuts and Muqaddams were compelled to seek jobs in the houses of Muslims
in order to earn their livelihood. In fact, Dr. Dey is of the opinion
that Alauddin’s policies were not against the Hindus. But this opinion
of Dr. Dey is condemned by many other historians and they consider the
policies of Alauddin anti-Hindu. Dr. K. S. Lai remarks,
“Alauddin’s measures were truly oppressive. His chief aim was to make
the Hindus poor, so he abolished all the privileges of Hindu revenue
officers.”
Besides levying heavy taxes, he destroyed, Hindu temples, broke the
images of Hindu pods and kilfedi” Hindu war prisoners as they did not
embrace Islam. Thus, Alauddin adopted an unjust and severe policy
towards the Hindus on the advice of Qazi Mughisuddin. But if we want to
know the reasons behind it, we shall have to read bet¬ween the lines of
the pages of history. Hindus were not allowed to wear good clothes ride
horses wear swords. They were not permitted to cry when some one died
among them. Whenever Muslim travelers demanded they had to be
accommodate by Hindu families. At every stage Hindus were reminded that
they were slaves and oppressed class. Constantly they were coerced to
embrace Islam if they wanted to improve themselves.
The number of Hindu subjects was quite large and they often revolted
against the Muslim sultans due to their religious fanaticism and
economic suppression. He wanted to stop these revolts, so he inflicted
poverty on them. Dr. K. S. Lai also writes, “Alauddin wanted to
impoverish his countrymen so that the word ‘rebellion’ should not come
on their lips.”
But Sir Wolseley Haig does not agree, with Dr. Lai. He writes, “Alauddin
next framed a special code of laws against Hindus who were obnoxious to
him partly by reason of their faith, partly by reason of the wealth
which many of them enjoyed and partly by reason of their turbulence,
especially in the Doab.”
To sum up, we may quote Dr. S. Roy about his attitude to¬wards Hindus,
“There are, however, good grounds to believe that in dealing with the
Hindus, Alauddin was also actuated by communal considerations.” In fact,
the anti-Hindu policy of Alauddin made the position of Hindus quite
deplorable and led the Hindu society towards decline from economic,
social and moral points of view. There is no doubt that Allauddin Khilji
was the oppressive Sultan of India who went all out to ensure that
Hindus are deplorably crushed.
The sultans also levied house-tax and grazing tax.
According to the contemporary chronicler Ziyauddin Barani, all
milk-producing animals like cows and goats were taxed. According to
Farishtah, animals up to two pairs of oxen, a pair of buffaloes and some
cows and goats were exempted. This concession was based on the
principle of nisab, namely, of leaving some minimum capital to enable
one to carry on with one s work. But it was hardly any relief, for
there were taxes like kari, (derived from Hindi word Kar), charai and
Jiziyah. The sultans of Delhi collected Jiziyah at the rate of forty,
twenty and ten tankahs from the rich, the middleclass and the poor
respectively.
Persecution by Mohd bin Tughlaq who came to power
after fall of khilji rule was severe.Mohad bin Tughlaq came to throne
after engineering the murder of his uncle and mentor Ghyasuddin Tughalaq
. He got made a welcome arch that collapsed when Gayasuddin was passing
under it. His very high taxation resulted in people leaving their
fields and cultivation in dejection. Many ran away to forests. People
were forced to cultivate fields. Those who ran way to forests were
hunted like wild animals using bows and arrows. The sultan was eccentric
and was off the center. People suffered greatly. His successor like
Feroz sah Tughlaq was no less in persecution. In short, a substantial
portion of the produce was taken away by the government as taxes and the
people were left with the bare minimum for sustenance. For the Sultan
had directed that only so much should be left to his subjects (raiyyat)
as would maintain them from year to year without admitting of their
storing up or having articles in excess. Sultan Alauddin s rigorous
measures were taken note of by contemporary writers both in India and
abroad. In India contemporary writers like Barani, Isami and Amir
Khusrau were inclined to believe him to be a persecutor of the Hindus.
Foreigners also gathered the same impression. Maulana Shamsuddin Turk, a
divine from Egypt, was happy to learn that Alauddin had made the
wretchedness and misery of the Hindus so great and had reduced them to
such a despicable condition that the Hindu women and children went out
begging at the doors of the Musalmans. The same impression is conveyed
in the writings of Isami and Wassaf. While summing up the achievements
of Alauddin Khalji, the contemporary chronicler Barani mentions, with
due emphasis, that by the last decade of his reign the submission and
obedience of the Hindus had become an established fact. Such a
submission on the part of the Hindus has neither been seen before nor
will be witnessed hereafter. In brief, not only the Hindu Zamindars,
who had been accustomed to a life of comfort and dignity, were reduced
to a deplorable position, but the Hindus in general were impoverished to
such an extent that there was no sign of gold or silver left in their
houses, and the wives of Khuts and Muqaddams used to seek sundry jobs in
the houses of the Musalmans, work there and receive wages. The poor
peasants (balahars) suffered the most. The fundamentalist Maulana
Ziyauddin Barani feels jubilant at the suppression of the Hindus, and
writes at length about the utter helplessness to which the peasantry had
been reduced because the Sultan had left to them bare sustenance and
had taken away everything else in kharaj (land revenue) and other taxes
(2).
An important aspect during the rule of Delhi sultans was the
elevation of slaves and eunuchs. Malik Kafur was a slave eunuch and
originallya Hindu and was much patronized by Allauddin Khilji and he was
soon elevated as his General and was sent on military campaigns. His
successor Mubarak Khilji was of the worst type and spent time in the
company of eunuchs who were mostly Hindu slaves. He spent time in sexual
orgies. Finally he was murdered to a great relief of all ..
As Muslim rule progressed some of the rulers came to
terms with Hindus. Baber had no time for consolidating his
administration. Humayuan too had a tragic life when he was driven out by
Shersha sur for 14 years. Although Humayun regained Delhi after 14
years, he died soon and was succeeded by his young son Akbar. Real
consolidation and administration of Mughal empire started only with
Akbar who realized that he would not be able to run administration
with only Muslims and had to take Hindus also along. Some of the Rajput
rulers also fell in line accepting Mughal overlordship except Rana
Pratap singh of Mewar. They made marriage alliances with Akbar. Many
Rajput families sent Doli to Mughal harems. In turn many Rajput nobles
were given high positions, titles, honors in the court and army. Rajput
soldiers were recruited into Mughal army. Raja Man singh brother of
Akbars wife Jodha Bai was made the commander in Chief of Mughal army.
Raja Birbal, Todar mal also occupied high positions in the
court.Musicians like Tansen were honored by Akbar. Tansen in all
probablilities converted to Islam and he married sister of Akbar. The
practice continued during the succeeding emperors such as Jehangir,
Sahjehan and Aurangzeb. Amar singh Rathore was an important Rajput
commander in Shahjehans army. Aurangzeb also had many Rajput chieftains
in his army and Raja Jai singh was a very important military commander
during Deccan campaigns. Aurangzeb however reintroduced zizia tax on
Hindus which is discriminatory. He also dismissed all court singers and
musicians as music was against tenets Islam. Aurangzeb never trusted
any one including his own shadow.. He always sent a Rajput and a Muslim
General together in his campaigns. In his Deccan campaigns Raja Jai
singh and Diler Khan fought together against Shivaji Maharaj.
In provincial kingdoms too Hindus held high positions. In Bijapur army
many Marathas were given important positions. Kulkarni a Maharshtrian
Brahmin was the secretary of General Afzal Khan of Bijapur who was slain
at Pratapgarh by Shivaji Maharaj along with Afzal Khan. Raje Shahji,
father of Shivaji Maharaj served Nizamshahi Sultnas at Ahmednagar
against Mughals. Later Shahji joined Mughals and he also served Bijapu
sultans after some time. Shitab Khan ( Seethapathi Raju) served Sultan
Kuli of Golconda before he became independent ruler of Waranagal. Aliya
Rama Raya also served Golconda sultans in his younger days before he
shifted to Vijay nagar. He was the son in law of Emperor Krishna deva
Raya of Vijay nagar in 16 century. Akkanna and Madanna the brothers
were elevated to very high positions by Sultan Abul Hasan Kutubshah of
Golconda. Madanna was made the Prime Minister ( Mir Jumla) while Akkanna
was made the Army chief ( Sar E lashkar). Tupaki Krishnudu was also an
important military Chieftain. Rustum rao Linganna was also a military
commander in Golconda forces. Aurangzeb however was critical of this and
wanted them to be removed. Finally they were assassinated in Golconda
fort by the conspirators during the seize of Golconda by Mughals in
1686.Their heads were cutoff and sent to Aurangzeb at Ahmednagar who got
them crushed under the feet of the elephants in the presence of his
army at a parade. This shows the much hatred of the bigot emperor
Aurangzeb towards Hindus. Then why glorify such persons in the history
and text books?
When Europeans gained military power, Hindus were occupying
important positions in Tippus kingdom at Mysore. In the modern Asifjahi
rule at Hyderabad Hindus and Mulsims both occupied important positions.
However Hindus in important positions were far less in number compared
to Muslims. Sadashiva Reddy of Medak was an important Chieftain during
the rule of Nizam II. Eminent personalities like Raja sir Kishan pershad
was the Prime Minister of Hyderabad during Nizam 6 rule.There was
surely discrimination during Asifjahi rule. Persecution of Hindus became
rampant during the rule of last Nizam 7 during 1948 and they were
suppressed harassed and killed by Razakar forces of the Nizam till
Indian army invaded Hyderabad and deposed the Nizam 7.
Thus we notice that persecution and discrimination in
society was very severe during Delhi sultan period that however
reduced during the Mughal rule. Provincial rulers at various places
were no different and by and large Hindus greatly suffered under them.
The Razakars repression in 1948 at Hyderabad is the glaring example for
intolerance among Muslims against Hindus even in the modern period.
Although at times Hindus also enjoyed patronage of Muslim rulers, it
was at the cost of selling themselves for a consideration.The history
conclusively proves that Muslim rulers discriminated Hindu subjects in
all walks of life. One has to feel sorry for the pseudo secular and vote
catching politics by the political parties today in India who appear as
if Hindus enjoyed very much under Muslim rule and there was nothing
to prove that it was contrary. MK Gandhi always claimed that Hindus
and Muslims were his both eyes. Sadly one of his blinded him by
engineering creation of Pakistan for which MKG had no answer. No one
listened to him to prevent it. Sadly even after creating Pakistan
millions stayed back in India and many of them failed to accept this
country as their own. The country is engulfed in terrorist activities
whose aim is to divide India further and achieve ultimate Moghalistan.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Allauddin Khiljis anti Hindu policy
http://www.shareyouressays.com/114664/alauddin-khiljis-anti-hindu-policy...
2 Lower classes and un mitigated Exploitation.
http://voiceofdharma.org/books/tlmr/ch7.htm
