From calling Akbar ‘the great ruler’ to naming Shah Jahan as a connoisseur of Architecture… History books in India paint a very rosy picture about Mughals. The truth, however, is quite the opposite. Mughals were barbaric and discriminating. Their blood-thirsty approach and behaviour is known to the rest of the world yet children in our own country are told that right from Babur to Humayun, Akbar, Jehangir and Shah Jahan were fair and competent rulers.
I am sharing some of the eye-opening truths about Mughals which I gathered from Sikh history and the books written by travellers other than those who were funded by Mughals during that time.
Mughal emperor Jahangir himself wrote in his autobiography Tuzk-e-Jahangiri that too many people were becoming persuaded by Guru Arjan’s teachings and he was scared of Guru Sahib’s presence. He forced Sri Guru Arjan Dev ji to convert into Islam and upon Guru Sahib’s refusal, he tortured and executed Guru Sahib. Sheer cowardice of a Mughal ruler!
Even Akbar was responsible for the massacre of 30,000 captives during the Siege of Chittorgarh (20 October 1567 – 24 February 1568) followed by Rajput women committing Jauhar.
Akbar was a womanizer who had more than 300 wives. The actual number of women in the harem was nearer to 5,000. Many of these were older women, but there were also young servant girls, or Amazons of Russia or Abyssinia as armed guards, all with the status only of slaves.
Aurangzeb, the cruelest of all, destroyed temples and Gurdwaras in India. It was he who ordered Brahmin Pandits of Kashmir to convert to Islam. Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur came forward to protect Kashmiri Pandits from the torture of Aurangzeb.
The sad part is – our History books do not even mention about the supreme sacrifice of Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur for the protection of the most fundamental of human rights – the right of a person to freely practice his or her religion without interference or hindrance.
Mughals were known for their inhumane torturing methods. Such was their cruelty that they made Baba Banda Singh Bahadur watch his own son’s heart getting carved out by the executioners which was thrust into Baba Banda Singh’s mouth!
Mughals were known for destroying temples and Gurdwaras and erecting mosques in their place like Mughal emperor Shah Jahan desecrated the sacred Sri Baoli Sahib in Lahore, Pakistan and erected a mosque in its place. Babri Masjid follows the same pattern.
The fanaticism, cruelty and dogmatic behaviour of Mughals has been known worldwide; still we continue to call them the great rulers in our History books – a fact I truly dislike!
Let us demand CBSE to change the curriculum and at least include real heroes of our history rather than these inhumane rulers.
Manjinder Singh Sirsa 