Bengaluru: On December 1, a retired district judge Vasantha Mulasavalagi in Karnataka’s Vijayapura made several controversial remarks at a seminar. The topic of seminar was – Has objectives of the Constitution been fulfilled?
Mulasavalagi claimed that Hindus survived in India because Muslim rulers chose not to harm them. He also tried to portray Akbar as a secular Mughal king, whose wife remained a Hindu and Akbar had built a Krishna temple in his courtyard. He further stated that Gods– Lord Ram and Lord Krishna, are just characters in a novel, and not historical personalities. Mulasavalagi tried to indirectly blame Hindus for breaking Buddha viharas and building temples on them.
He sounds more like hate preacher Zakir Naik than a retired Judge. Naik has been peddling the lie that Islam did not spread by the power of Sword. He contends that had that been the case, no Hindu could have survived.
Challenging Mulasavalagi’s comments
These incorrect comments have gone viral on social media, hence, we must challenge them. Mulasavalagi has made himself a laughing stock by making such ridiculous comments. Apparently, he does not know history. As a matter of fact, Mughal army had a large number of Hindu chieftains, therefore Mughals could not eliminate the Hindus. Moreover, the Mughals never ruled whole of India. They mostly ruled the Northern parts. They could not subdue Kerala and Tamil Nadu regions, because the Hindu kings offered spirited resistance. Marathas ruled parts of Western and Southern India — including Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj–who kept the Mughals at bay.
Under these circumstances, Mughals could have faced a rebellion from Hindu kings, Chieftains and their Hindu subjects. A ruler can wage a battle against an army of rival king, but it’s an herculean task and nigh to impossible to fight millions of rebellious people.
And, yet, this is half of the story. Hindu warriors never ceased their resistance. The entire period of Islamic invasion from eighth century to eighteenth is full of Hindu valour. Unmatched valour in face of overwhelming odds.
Best evidence of this fact comes from the chronicles of Muslims themselves. Jahangir rues the fact that Hindu warriors have been relentless. Here it is Mr. Mulasavalagi:-
And here I am compelled to observe, with whatever regret, that notwithstanding the frequent and sanguinary executions which have been dealt among the people of Hindustan, the number of turbulent and disaffected never seems to diminish; for what with the examples made during the reign of my father, and subsequently of my own, there is scarcely a province in the empire which, either in battle or by the sword of the executioner, five and six hundred thousand human beings have not, at various periods, fallen victims to this fatal disposition of discontent and turbulence. Ever and anon, in one quarter or another, will some accursed miscreant spring up to unfurl the standard of rebellion; so that in Hindustaun never has there existed a period of complete repose.
Jahangir, in Tarikhe Salim Shahi, tr. by Major David Price, page
While reading these horrifying confessions of a despot, bear in mind Jahangir is one of the most benevolent and romantic. So much so, for Muslim largesse.
Jodhabai: Myth or fact?
Mulasavalagi seems to have taken inspiration from third-grade Bollywood films glorifying Akbar and Jodhabai’s relationship. He has scarcely bothered to understand the true history.
Here is what even leftist historian Prof. Irfan Habib has said
There was not any historical character called Jodha Bai. It’s true that Akbar married Amber ruler Raja Bharmal’s eldest daughter but her name is not mentioned anywhere, and she was certainly not Jahangir’s mother.
Prof Irfan Habib
Even Jahangir in his memoirs (Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri) does not mention anything about his mother’s side. Former president of Indian History Congress and chairman of history department, Aligarh Muslim University, Prof Iqtedar Alam Khan has corroborated Habib’s version.
NR Farooqi, HoD of Allahabad University History department, confirms this when he says, Jodha was not Akbar’s wife but Jahangir’s and she was Shahjahan’s mother. Bagh-e-Jahan Ara, an 80-acre garden in Agra, used to house her mausoleum. Later, the British sold it for Rs 5,000. Subsequently it was razed to ground.
Destruction of Buddhist Monasteries by Hindus?
In fact, research should be conducted on how people like Mulasavalagi, with such distorted views, manage to reach such high positions in the judicial system. Mulasavalagi’s comments that Hindus demolished Buddha viharas is equally funny. Famous historian, Sh. Sita Ram Goel had challenged Romila Thapar to cite just one instance of Hindu king razing a Buddhist place of worship. Romila never could accept the challenge.