Shivaji : Anti Muslim?
by Mohammed Osman on Feb 17, 2007 12:07 AM

Similarly Shivaji is also presented as an Anti-Muslim king. This is far

from truth. His army, especially Navy had many a Muslim soldiers and

his lieutenant Siddi Sambal is very famous for his association with

Shivaji. Similarly his confidential secretary was Maulana Haider Ali, and

the person who helped him to escape from Agra fort captivity was a

Muslim Prince Madari Mehtar. He had great regard for a Sufi Saint

Hazrat Baba Bahutthorwale and Fr. Ambrose Pinto of Surat. In front of

his fort in Raigad, while on one hand, he constructed Jagdishwar temple,

similarly he also got a mosque built. He had instructed his armies that

during their plunder campaigns if they came across some holy book, they

should not defile it but instead return it to the person belonging to that

religion. A story is told about his army plundering Kalyan and during the

plunder raids, his army abducted the beautiful daughter-in-law of the

Subedar of Kalyan. This Muslim woman, it is told, was presented to

Shivaji as a gift. Deviating from the practices of other kings, Shivaji got

annoyed with his army and equated the women to his mother. He

ordered his generals to send her back with honor to her husband%u2019s

house. Can such a person be labeled as anti-Muslim by any stretch of

imagination?

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