What Aurangzeb did to protect Hindu temples (and protect non-Muslim religious leaders)

by Guest Sun Feb 26, 2017 10:54 am

Hindu and Jain temples dotted the landscape of Aurangzeb’s kingdom. These religious institutions were entitled to Mughal state protection, and Aurangzeb generally endeavoured to ensure their well-being. By the same token, from a Mughal perspective, that goodwill could be revoked when specific temples or their associates acted against imperial interests. Accordingly, Emperor Aurangzeb authorised targeted temple destructions and desecrations throughout his rule.

Many modern people view Aurangzeb’s orders to harm specific temples as symptomatic of a larger vendetta against Hindus. Such views have roots in colonial-era scholarship, where positing timeless Hindu–Muslim animosity embodied the British strategy of divide and conquer. Today multiple websites claim to list Aurangzeb’s “atrocities” against Hindus (typically playing fast and loose with the facts) and fuel communal fires.

There are, however, numerous gaping holes in the proposition that Aurangzeb razed temples because he hated Hindus.

Most glaringly, Aurangzeb counted thousands of Hindu temples within his domains and yet destroyed, at most, a few dozen. This incongruity makes little sense if we cling to a vision of Aurangzeb as a cartoon bigot driven by a single-minded agenda of ridding India of Hindu places of worship. A historically legitimate view of Aurangzeb must explain why he protected Hindu temples more often than he demolished them.

https://scroll.in/article/829943/what-aurangzeb-did-to-preserve-hindu-temples-and-protect-non-muslim-religious-leaders

by Guest Sun Feb 26, 2017 11:06 am

i don't think Aurangzeb can be called communal because he destroyed a few hindu temples. Clearly the vast majority of hindu temples in his kingdom were left alone by him and so he may have had political reasons for destroying a few hindu temples.

However, Aurangzeb can be deemed communal because he reimposed jaziya (special tax imposed on non-muslims which had been abolished by Akbar and the abolishment upheld by Jahangir and Shah Jahan).

What Aurangzeb did to protect Hindu temples (and protect non-Muslim religious leaders)

What Aurangzeb did to protect Hindu temples (and protect non-Muslim religious leaders)

There are, however, numerous gaping holes in the proposition that Aurangzeb razed temples because he hated Hindus.

Re: What Aurangzeb did to protect Hindu temples (and protect non-Muslim religious leaders)