Two of the highest ranked generals, Jaswant Singh and Jaya Singh, in Aurangzeb%u2019s administration 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? Most Hindus like Akbar over Aurangzeb for his multi-ethnic court where Hindus were favored. Historian Shri Sharma states that while Emperor Akbar had 14 Hindu Mansabdars (high officials) in his court, Aurangzeb actually had 148 Hindu high officials in his court. (Ref: Mughal Government) But this fact is somewhat less known. It does not require much intelligence to understand the difference between 14 and 148. But when truth is hostage to bigotry, facts are substituted for fiction, 148 may appear to be smaller than 14 to disingenuous historians, and that is an unfortunate reality we face.
RE:THE GREAT MOGHUL EMPEROR - AURAGAZEB
by JATIN HALDANKAR on Jul 27, 2007 04:11 PM Permalink
While its true that aurangzeb had many hindu generals, that was because he was cunning and one of the earliest proponents of 'Divide and rule' policy.he hired them purely for political goals and not because he loved hindus.besides many of these hindu generals were hereditory servants of mughals,their grandfathers having served akbar and shahjahan. aurangzeb had very little trust on his hindu generals, he poisoned to death his commander-in-chief Mirza Raje Jaisingh and when Jaswant singh died,he invaded his kingdom and destroyed all the temples there. Many smaller hindu kings served him purely out of fear of being invaded. Many others served him to settle scores against rival hindu kings. many others served him to get mansabdari. this switchover of loyaly was very common in those days's especially among some rajputs and maratha's for example when Sambhaji Maharaj insulted his brother in law Ganoji Shirke, the latter immediately joined hands with aurangzeb and helped him in capturing Sambhaji. the king of jaipur joined akbar because of his rivalry with Rana Pratap. So there were multiple reasons why hindu generals were working for aurangzeb and he tolerated them because he could use their armies against one another. 3. He did donate some land / grants for some temples, most of these were in kingdoms of his hindu generals and this may have been done to please them and portray himself as secular.
RE:RE:THE GREAT MOGHUL EMPEROR - AURAGAZEB
by JATIN HALDANKAR on Jul 27, 2007 04:11 PM Permalink
4. having hindu generals and giving grants to temples in no way negates the evil acts he performed. even the nazis employed jewish security guards in jewish labour camps and ghettoes,not because they liked jews, but they wanted to make use of the jewish manpower.
5.He also had to employ hindus in his empires backoffice, because only hindus possesed the skills like calculating taxes, revenue,income,expenditure, accounting,loans,salaries etc. hindus had long experience and skills since thousands of years in managing empires something the illiterate arabs and turks lacked. muslims excelled only in warfare and were not educated,hindus on the otherhand were skilled in mathematics , accounting , business and trade etc so he was forced to rely on them.but that does not mean he liked them. Even today in gulf the rich but illiterate arabs employ hindus to do these tasks,but they hate hindu religion.
6.aurangzebs empire was larger than that of akbar and without the help of hindu kings he would not have been able to rule this vast country. so he had to rely on the hindu kings and generals ,to use their armies and keep them fighting among each other, in this he was a cunning and brilliant strategist but definitely not secular. thats precisely the reason why the moghul empre collapsed after his death, those hindu kings who had joined him out of fear immediately shifted loyalties and no longer supported his sons, so mughals lost control over much of india.
