Was British Rule a God Send for the Hindus?
I had in an earlier post pointed out that the great Hindu warrior Hemu was struck by an arrow in his eye in the third battle of Panipat and lost the battle against the Muslims. This was at a time when he was on the verge of winning the battle. I said it was an act of providence and perhaps the Muslims were destined to rule India. Similarly the destruction of the Muslim rule over India and the arrival of the British in the garb of the East India company, was also an act of providence as the Hindus had been reduced to being slaves during Muslim rule.
Many persons these days feel that perhaps Muslim rule was not bad. I will advise them to read the book on Indian history by the famous historian Will Durant who died in 1981. Durant in an extensive study concluded that the Muslim rule over India was a nightmare. He also states that the Hindu population decreased by 80 million during Muslim rule. He brings out the fact that all Muslim rulers and that includes Akbar, made large pyramids of skulls of Hindus with glee and displayed them as a trophy to over awe other hindus.
The Muslim rulers also levied the Jizya tax on Hindus and abduction of Hindu girls for their harems was the norm and rule during almost 900 years of muslim rule over North India and about 400 years over the South as well. Jizya is a tax that is a sacred duty to be levied on non-muslims and finds mention in the Koran.
The Muslim rulers used some Hindus and appointed them to important positions, but all this was done in the ambit of superiority of Muslim rule. Such Hindus were also exempt from paying Jizya and as the Indian History shows, there have been no dearth of collaborators and sycophants, right from the time of the invasion of Alexander the Great in 326 BC.
The Muslim rulers also never brought out a universal law or spread education among the masses. There is not a single record of the Muslim rulers establishing any seat of learning. However all Muslim chronicles like the Babur Nama and Akbar Nama note with glee the conversion of Hindus to Islam and destruction of Hindu temples.Partly the Hindus themselves were to blame for this state of affairs as their class ridden society could not present an effective challenge to the Muslim invaders.
Many other historians and writers along with Will Durant like VS Naipaul, Richard Eaton, Sita Ram Goel and Arun Shourie and tens of others have confirmed that the Muslim rule over India was a dark age for the Hindus. Who was to stop this rampage ? Providence took a hand and brought in the English. They defeated the Muslims and became the paramount power in India. British rue was a god send as the Hindus were freed from obnoxious taxes like the Jizya and the Sharia. They had access to education and the freedom to worship their religion. This brought in the age of emancipation for the Hindus who along with great help from the English could move forward. I shudder to think what would have happened in case the British had not come to India. I am however saddened to note that our history books as taught to children falsify history and present Muslim rule in a different light. Who but Nehru and the Congress are to blame for this.
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