C. Fill in the blanks.
1. The half-brother of Akbar was
2. Babur defeated the Rajputs at the battles of
and
3. Abul Fazl helped Akbar to frame the idea of
so that he could govern
the society composed of many religions, cultures and castes.
4. Aurangzeb was an orthodox
Muslim.
5. The Mughals were proud of their
ancestry
Answers
Answer:
The Mughal Empire, which was established following the defeat of Ibrahim Lodi in 1526 at the First Battle of Panipat and consolidated over the time with expansionist policy of its rulers, derived its strength from its nobility which was hypergamous and included the Turks, Afghans, Uzbegs and even Hindu Rajputs and Khatris. The Mughal rulers were successful in reigning over a long period of time over the vast area of the subcontinent because of their administrative and religious policy, which provided for the cohesion among various sects and creeds. Both Babur and Humayun were busy throughout their regnal years in wars and conquest apart from suppression of revolt and couldn't devote enough time for the administration and policies formulation. It was Akbar (who promoted the syncretic religion called Dīn-i Ilāhī ) during whose reign the religious policy of the Mughals were formulated. The later Mughals followed Akbar but violation of his policy went unbated many a times leading to the complete downfall of the theory of "divine religion" propounded by Akbar during the regnal years of Aurangzeb.[1]
Abu'l-Fazl, one of the disciples of Din-i-Ilahi, presenting Akbarnama to Akbar, Mughal miniature.
Jahangir Edit
When Jahangir ascended the throne there was a hope among theologians that Akbar's policies of Ṣulḥ-i-kul will be brought to an end. Jahangir's initial farmans presented an indication of the conversion of the Mughal Empire into a truly Islamic empire. He asked the Ulemas to prepare a set of distinctive appeals to the god which might be easy to remember as he wanted to repeat them while using his rosary. He also met the pious and religious persons on Fridays and distributed the alms and gifts to the dervishes. But in no way Jahangir was an orthodox though he often showed the incidents of narrow mindedness. Jahangir was habitual of drinking and he writes in his memoirs to have reduced the intake of distilled spirit from 20 cups to five cups after his accession to the throne and that too on night.[2] Meanwhile, he also used to invite his nobles while drinking and music and dance were common in his courts. All these practices were considered as un-islamic for the orthodox Ulemas.[3]
He is said to have prohibited cow slaughter in Punjab and extended it to the Gujarat. The various Hindu festivals were celebrated in the court and he himself used to participate in them and carried out distribution of gifts. But there are many incidents which presents an opposite view of his religious ecclesiasticism. The war against Mewar was declared as Jihad. The Mughal army while marching towards Mewar destroyed many Hindu temples but Jahangir had warned strictly to prince Khurram to treat Rana Amar Singh I as a friend if he prepares to submit. Thus, when Rana submitted and sued for the peace he was given an honourable treatment as Jahangir notes:
When Rana clasped his (Khurram's) feet and asked forgiveness for his faults, he took his head and placed it on his breast and consoled him in such a manner as to comfort him.[4]
In 1621, the Kangra campaign was also declared as a Jihad though from the side of the Mughals, Hindu Raja Bikramjit commanded it. Jahangir while his visit to Haridwar founded that Hindus who renounced the worldly life were seeking pleasure on the path of god here and he distributed gifts to them. In Ajmer also he distributed gifts and money to entire village of Pushkar while the Varaha image of Vishnu was ordered to be broken. Perhaps he was not satisfied with the manifestation of god in various forms, as no step was taken to destroy various other images of Vishnu. In his reign people like Vir Singh Bundela erected grand temples at Mathura. Jahangir himself visited Brindawan and distributed alms to the Mathas of Chaitanya sect. According to Historian R.P Tripathi, he was less tolerant than Akbar but more than Shah Jahan on the ground of religion.[3]
There are incidents when he showed his narrow level of tolerance and inflicted heavy penalties upon some of the notable people. In the case of Guru Arjun Dev, Jahangir saw his support of Khusrau as trason. Jahangir is said to have inflicted heavy dues upon him and the excessive torture inflicted upon him to realise the dues led to loss of his life. He also imprisoned his son and successor, Guru Hargovind. The Emperor