Fortunately, in recent years quite a few Hindu historians have come out in the open disputing those allegations. For example, historian Babu Nagendranath Banerjee rejected the accusation of forced conversion of Hindus by Muslim rulers by stating that if that was their intention then in India today there would not be nearly four times as many Hindus compared to Muslims, despite the fact that Muslims had ruled for nearly a thousand years. Banerjee challenged the Hindu hypothesis that Aurangzeb was anti-Hindu by reasoning that if the latter were truly guilty of such bigotry, how could he appoint a Hindu as his military commander-in-chief? Surely, he could have afforded to appoint a competent Muslim general in that position. Banerjee further stated: "No one should accuse Aurangzeb of being communal minded. In his administration, the state policy was formulated by Hindus. Two Hindus held the highest position in the State Treasury. Some prejudiced Muslims even questioned the merit of his decision to appoint non-Muslims to such high offices. The Emperor refuted that by stating that he had been following the dictates of the Shariah (Islamic Law) which demands appointing right persons in right positions." During Aurangzeb's long reign of fifty years, many Hindus, notably Jaswant Singh, Raja Rajrup, Kabir Singh, Arghanath Singh, Prem Dev Singh, Dilip Roy, and Rasik Lal Crory, held very high administrative positions. Two of the highest ranked generals in Aurangzeb's administration, Jaswant Singh and Jaya Singh, were Hindus. Other notable Hindu generals who commanded a garrison of two to five thousand soldiers were Raja Vim Singh of Udaypur, Indra Singh, Achalaji and Arjuji. One wonders if Aurangzeb was hostile to Hindus, why would he position all these Hindus to high positions of authority, especially in the military, who could have mutinied against him and removed him from his throne?
RE:LIES AGAINST THE GREAT MOGHUL EMPEROR AURANGZEB
by Secular Indian on Mar 13, 2007 03:57 AM Permalink
From: "Mughal warfare: Indian Frontiers and Highroads to Empire 1500-1700" by Jos J. L. Gommans. Page 40.
... even in the more settled regions of empire we find a gentry thar is never sure about it's position and, in case of need is ready to shift habitation, allegience and identtity... for the Mughals to gain access to India's immense resources and rural production and military labour, they had to come to terms with the powerful Indian zamindars, who mediated the payment of the land revenue. ... Although at times Muslims and Hindus plublicly pledged to fight each other, in practice the were more usually fighting amongst themselves in one or the other pragmatically inspired alliance... a great deal of power had to be delegated to numerous administrator warriors (Rajputs). [even clerks and accountants had to enrol in the army because the Mughal administration was military in origin] .. every high [administrtive official] had to be enrolled in the armylist as he was given a mansab, or rank as the nominal commander of a certain number of horsemen which determined his pay or status. For there military rank-holders wielding the pen was considered as useful for military purposes as wielding the sword...for about two centuries, the Mughals successfully managed to seduce these peoply with imperial ranks (mansabs) into becoming dedicated co-shares in their realm and taking part in its prodigious wealth in cash and land...the empire could not do without the [Hindu] zamindars as the chief mediator between the court and the village.... the Mughals attempted to co-opt the zamindars into the mansabdari system..
