(continued from Part 1)
2. The problem of citing selective facts.
Audrey Truschke, in a number of instances, omits mentioning facts salient to her narration. This list is not exhaustive.
For instance, she mentions Aurangzeb's imposition of jizya tax on nonMuslims in 1679 ('perhaps in part to employ the ulama in its collection' p 88).
Given that she touts that in Aurangzeb's vision of justice, 'divisive concepts such as... jizya...were less important than the ideals of akhlaq and adab (political conduct and ethical conduct, respectively)'(p. 12), she omits mentioning the economic burden that the jizya put on the populace. She also doesn't mention that his royal order specified
that the manner of its collection was required to humiliate the giver of jizya. She does not mention that Aurangzeb had, from since 13 years before, also imposed a discriminatory 5% excise tax on Hindus.
More information on the issue of jizya and Aurangzeb's discriminatory taxation is presented below for a reader to judge its relevance to the subject:
Soon after beginning his reign, he abolished all inland transport (octroi) taxes said to amount to ten percent of revenues. (http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/ikram/part2_15.html)
In the eighth year of his reign (1666), the Mirat i Ahmadi reports an imposition of, "an octroi of one fortieth [2.5%] from a Muslim and two-fortieth [5%] from a Hindu according to the price of the article".
In the tenth year of his reign(1668)(Mirat i Ahmadi) he issued a royal order to the effect that "the one fortieth tax imposed on goods of merchandise of the Muslims and collected by the Government is abandoned and abolished.. A duty of two fortieth should continued to be exacted from goods of merchandise of Hindus."
In the sixteenth year of his reign(1674) Mirat i Ahmadi, reports "a royal order is issued after receipt of which jagirdars of the mahals of the Subah of Gujarat should recover taxes from Hindus in the manner they used to do in the twentieth year of His Late Majesty Shah Jahan. ...The Muslims are exempted from those taxes. ... Annual, seasonal, monthly, weekly, daily, wintery on festival day, turban counting, man counting, house counting, taxes collected from the Hindus."
In the twenty first year of his reign(1679) he imposed jizya on nonMuslim men (Christians, Parsis, Hindus) in three 'slabs' of rates depending on the wealth of the nonMuslim:
Rich person defined as >10000 dirhams wealth: 48 dirhams per year (works out to <= 0.48%)
Middle Class person defined as 200-10000 dirhams wealth: 24 dirhams per year (works out to 0.48%-12%)
Poor person defined as 0-200 dirhams wealth: 12 dirhams (after allowing for sustenance of a man and his wife), (works out to 6%-(100%-subsistance) )
While officers had discretion to remit jizya due to indigence or crop failure for instance (and Aurangzeb did remit jizya for some periods in famine stricken regions), it was also a cause of harassment by collection officials. The rate was particularly harsh on the poor. Satish Chandra quotes 40 dirham as the yearly savings of a poor person. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3596130 Chandra, Satish. “Jizyah and the State in India during the 17th Century.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, vol. 12, no. 3, 1969, pp. 322–340.)
"Nearly five lacs of rupees were collected annually in the department of jizya from the zimmis of the Subah of Gujarat." (Mirat i Ahmadi)
Aurangzeb's attitude to jizya was strict. He completely disregarded a protest by Hindu subjects in Delhi in which masses of people blocked his way to the mosque and had to be cleared with the trampling of elephants. One another instance:
" The Emperor learnt from the letter of Firuz Jang Khan, who was appointed to take care of the Base Camp (bungah) at Islampuri and to guard the road from Burhanpur to the place of the Emperor's stay,—“...It is necessary to increase the population of the grain-market of the place, and thereby ensure the copious arrival of provision at the imperial camp. But this [peopling of the place] cannot be effected without abolishing the poll-tox (jaziya) on the Hindu residents of the place. Please order that Inayetullah Khan may send a letter patent (sanad) of exemption [from the jaziya].”
The Emperor wrote, “I do not accept helpers from among the infidels. Your wish for the colonising of the grain-market at the tomb, and your upsetting the command contained in the text of the holy Quran concerning jaziya,—which is ‘[Chastise them till they pay jaziya from the hand because] they are humbled’, by substituting for it the words ‘they deserve to be excused’,—are a thousand stages remote from the perfect wisdom and obedience to the august Religious Law which are possessed by this trusted servant aware of my sentiments. Evidently, a group of your companions, —the habit of which party, more despicable than sweepers, is to create suspicion in the hearts of men, —have made you blind and go astray, and have, through immature greed, given to this worthless idea a place in your heart which is receptive of allurements. How can this old man, stricken in years and experienced in affairs [i.e., Aurangzib], be deceived? (Verse)" (Ahkam-i-Alamgiri (Anecdotes of Aurangzib), Jadunath Sarkar)
On the manner of collection of jizya, his royal order specified:
"Fourthly, the collector of jizya should collect it from a zimmi in this manner. A zimmi should himself come to pay it. He should come on foot.The collector should sit while the zimmi should stand. The collector should place his hand over the hand of the zimmi saying "I take jizya, oh zimmi" It should not be accepted when sent indirectly through his deputy. The collector should not levy it without seeing the man." (Mirat i Ahmadi)
In the same year (1679) he reimposed the one fortieth rate of taxes(zakat) on Muslims "'As it is the royal intention and regal desire that the Muslims may be distinguished with obligation and kindness from vicious unbelievers, a royal order was issued before this in respect of forgiveness of zakat on their wealth out of kindness and regard to them. His Majesty has now heard that many Muslims mix up their own wealth with that of the unbelievers for the sake of worldly trash for non-payment of zakat. They exempt themselves from payment of zakat on ground that it does not belong to them. Great cheating occurs and loss occurs to the Bait ul-Mal on which the Muslims have claims... administrators.. and managers.. should collect zakat from the Muslims at the rate of one in forty.." (Mirat i Ahmadi)
The discriminatory 5% excise tax on Hindus levied from the eighth year of his reign was levied over and above the jizya.
In another example of citing of selective facts, Audrey Truschke mentions that the Hindu share in Mughal administration at the elite level rose from 1679-1707. She omits mentioning that in previous years, Aurangzeb issued orders of wholesale dismissals of Hindus.
For example, in 1667, he ordered dismissal of Hindu officials in (probably) the police and clerks:
"Hindu Chowkinavis and Amins of the Haft-chowkis to be replaced by the Musalmans. Siyaha Akhbarat Darbar Mu'alla, Julus (R. Yr.) 10, Zilhijja 16/30 May 1667
“Orders were issued by the Sublime Court to dismiss the Hindu Chowkinavis and to appoint in their place Musalmans, and, likewise, a way should be found for replacing the Amins of the Haft-chowkis by the Musalmans.” (http://www.aurangzeb.info/)
In 1671, he ordered provincial viceroys to dismiss all lower level Hindu clerks and accountants and to give employment to those who had converted to Islam. (Maasir i Alamgiri)
If he reinstated Hindus into the bureacracy in later years, there was a reason mentioned in Siyar al-Mutaʾaḫirīn perhaps quoting an earlier historian:
"Nevertheless, the Emperor with all his prejudices came to open his eyes at last. Finding that the ecclesiastics troubled and overset the whole administration, and that nothing would go forwards unless he employed the Gentoos[Hindus] again in his service, a set of men who, either as powerful Princes, or as keeping the books and registers of the Revenue, were the axle-trees of the wheels of Government, he contrived to take his revenge of that loyal submissive people, by loading them with new impositions, exacting double duties from those of that description, and submitting them to a poll-tax—innovations which after all gave him a deal of trouble, and produced nothing but repentance. For such ordinances require a strong hand, and a great exactitude, so as to subdue equally the highest and lowest of mankind; and when they affect only the impotent, without having any energy over the headstrong and refractory, they cease to be laws and they dishonour all Government."
[The editor/translator of Sirat i Mukhtheterin comments on its author, Ghulam Husain Tabatabai:
"This unexpected sortie upon Aoreng-zib should not surprise the reader. The author was a Shyah and a bigoted fanatical one. The Emperor was a zealous Sunni, and moreover one who had put an end to two Shyah kingdoms, and to two Shyah Dynasties."]
In mentioning Aurangzeb's curbs on Hindu worship, Diwali and Holi, Ms. Truschke misses some of the essence of the same royal order. Along with 'public safety', there was also the element of Aurangzeb ordering curbs on Hindu religious practices in temples and public places.
From order issued in the eighth year of his reign(1666)
"Twenty, temples were demolished in Ahmedabad and other paraganas before the Royal Ascension, they are repaired and idol worship continues. Action should be taken on what has been stated in the body of the Farman ["Demolished temples which have been repaired should be pulled down. It should be regarded urgent and emphatic"].Twenty One, Hindus have given false currency to false customs in cities and paraganah, they light lamps on the night of Diwali and use obscene language during Holidays. They light Holy in every chakla and bazar. They throw into Holi fire firewood of any one they get hold of either with force or with theft. They should arrange that diwali lamps are not lighted in bazars and that firewood of anyone should not be stolen or seized with force and thrown into fire of Holi. They should not use obscene language." (Mirat i Ahmadi)
On the number of temples destroyed by order of Aurangzeb, the exact number is indeed unknowable. Compiling a more complete list than Ms. Truschke writes of is possible but is an exercise for another day.
She writes (p 107) "Other scholars have pointed out additional temple demolitions not counted by Eaton, such as two orders to destroy the Somanatha Temple in 1659 and 1706 (the existence of a second order suggests that the first was never carried out)."
The following might or might not be the same order. Mirat i Ahmadi reports, in Hijri 1114(1702) or the forty forth year of his reign (the first demolition order was issued during the first year of his reign):
"It was reported to his Majesty that the Marathas have designs to roam about near Baglana, and Surat. A royal order was issued to the Prince that preparation of the event should be made before its occurance.... Again it was ordered that the temple of Somnath situated in Saurath Sarkar in the middle of the sea was pulled down in the beginning of the year of Ascension and idol-worship was discontinued. Now it is not known as to in what condition it is. If God's creatures still engage themselves in worship of idols, the temple should again be so pulled down that there may not remain any vestige of the building and they should be expelled from the place.."
While discussing the demolition of some temples, she omits mentioning what was done to the idols in those cases.
Regarding the idols in the Keshav Rai Temple in Mathura:
"During this month of Ramzan abounding miracles the Emperor ..issued orders for the demolition of the temple situated in Mathura, famous as the Dehra of Kesho Rai. In a short time by the great exertions of his officers, the destruction of this strong foundation of infidelity was accomplished, and on its site a lofty mosque was built at the expenditure of a large sum....The idols, large and small, set with costly jewels,which had been set up in the temple, were brought to Agra, and buried under the steps of the mosque of the Begam Sahib, in order to be continually trodden upon. The name of Mathura was changed to Islamabad." (Maasir i Alamgiri, Jadunath Sarkar)
Alternate translation, Maasir i Alamgiri, Editor, H Eliot
"The richly-jewelled idols taken from the pagan temples were transferred to Ágra, and there placed beneath the steps leading to the Nawáb Begam Sáhib's mosque, in order that they might ever be pressed under foot by the true believers. Mattra changed its name into Islámábád, and was thus called in all official documents, as well as by the people."
Regarding the idols in Jodhpur temples:
On Sunday, the 25th May[1679]/24th Rabi. S., Khan Jahan Bahadur came from Jodhpur, after demolishing the temples and bringing with himself some cart-loads of idols, and had audience of the Emperor, who highly praised him and ordered that the idols, which were mostly jewelled, golden,silvery, bronze, copper or stone, should be cast in the yard(jilaiikhanah) of the Court and under the steps of the Jam'a mosque, to be trodden on. They remained so for some time and at last their very names were lost. (Maasir i Alamgiri, Jadunath Sarkar)
Alternate translation from Maasir i Alamgiri, Editor H Eliot
"On the 24th Rabí'u-l ákhir, Khán-Jahán Bahádur arrived from Jodhpúr, bringing with him several cartloads of idols, taken from the Hindú temples that had been razed. His Majesty gave him great praise. Most of these idols were adorned with precious stones, or made of gold, silver, brass, copper or stone; it was ordered that some of them should be cast away in the out-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.
Ms. Truschke probably omits these details on idol desecration because these were egregious acts of religious intolerance which cannot be contextualized as political acts or acts of 'justice/royal obligation'.
(Continued in Part 3)
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