The aged Emperor, his father knew that his sons would fight for power after he died. This was the Mughal custom. Therefore, taking precaution, he divided his empire into four regions for each of them to rule. They all had their own government, army, etc. Dara was given governorship of Multan and Kabul in the extreme northwest. Shuja, the second son got Bengal the eastern most province. Aurangzeb was in Deccan in extreme south and Murad, the last son, had Gujerat in the west.
In early September 1657 CE, Shah Jahan fell ill. For a whole week, he was at the state of death. The report spread that the emperor was dead. Dara began acting as if he was emperor. Meanwhile, Shuja, who said that the Emperor had been poisoned by Dara, claimed himself emperor. Murad too, crowned himself Emperor and also struck coins with his name. Both, Shuja and Murad wrote letters to Aurangzeb for support against Dara. Aurangzeb strongly advised them not to start a civil war because their father was still alive and improving in health.
After much fighting, the administration of the empire passed into the hands of Aurangzeb. He looked upon power as a mean to reform an corrupt society. The pious Emperor did much to improve the life of common people. He abolished all illegal taxes, etc. His measures brought relief to common men. He didn't seem to care about his own comfort.
So we can understand from this that, after theirs fathers death, there was a political struggle and Aurangzeb finally was Victorious. What he did to his brothers was somethinh anyone whould do during a rebellion. People kill their own family members for a piece or land or other property dispustes in India lol....
We have to view his actions keeping in mind his time, his circumstances etc. Dont use colored glasses given by anyone to jude a 1000 year old history.
History is never fool proof and what we know today might change tomorrow depending on availability of new evidences. So study history with a pinch of salt lol... It is not admissble in Court of Law lol.....Jokes apart, we seriously need to restore Aurangzeb to the position he deserves. We have certenly been very unfair to him.
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, Jas
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Reasons for Dara Shikohs Killing!
by kanakadurga murali on Sep 16, 2008 06:35 PM Permalink
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?
