A GLIMPSE-OF PAST HISTORY

Bernier, who visited Kashmir during the reign of Aurangzeb, was pleased with the conditions that were prevailing then. He pays a tribute to the industrious habits of the people and is impressed with the grandeur of the Mughal gardens. Shawl industry had already developed and become an important industry of the country. He mentions the prodigious quantity of shawls that was being manufactured in those days.

While discussing the period during which the Hindu kings ruled over Kashmir, we said that many of them misbehaved and tyrannized over their people. A few of them were so un-scrupulous that nothing as sacred in their eyes. They did not hesitate to lay hands upon the property of their subjects or violate the honour of women. The treatment of a few of them even towards their on parents was most disgraceful. They were corrupt and debauch and had no regard for any moral principles. Similar was the case with many Muslim rulers. It is wrong to believe that the whole Muslim community persecuted the Hindus during the Mohammadan Period.

It is unjustifiable to say that Islam or the Muslim community as a whole was responsible for this persecution, tyranny and injustice. From available historical facts it is obvious that whenever a wicked king ascended the throne, the whole country had to suffer. No section of the people could escape the effects of the misrule.

While it is true that on various occasions the Hindus were specially chosen for ill-treatment by certain fanatical Sultans and Governors under Mughal and Pathan kings, it is also undeniable that such illtreatment could not and was not intended to improve the miserable condition of the Muslim masses. The political and economic condition of the Hindu and Muslim masses had if anything deteriorated by such misrule and misgovernment of the country.

While considering the Muslim Period we must remember that during these medieval times land was, as before, the main source of income, but it had not now remained in the hands of the masses. A class enjoying political power had definitely sprung up who had divided large portions of the land among themselves. They were the feudal lords, and the masses of landless labourers served under them as serfs. It might be asked why people preferred work under these lords as serfs to possession of the land which was allowed to remain uncultivated. The reason was that freedom from extortion, undue taxes and other difficulties, such as a poor cultivator could enjoy under an influential lord, could not be had as a free peasant-proprietor. The feudal lords known as jagirdars and zemindars influenced the Government to a considerable degree.

When Islam became the state religion, Muslim feudal lords wielded greater political power than the Hindu lords. This must especially have been the case when a king or a governor was imbued with fanatic religious zeal. Hindu lords were maltreated, insulted and harassed. The tussle was between the upper classes of the Hindus and Muslims. Naturally any of the well-to-do Hindus who embraced Islam derived great benefit and advantage from conversion. The history of those days is the chronicle of the doings of these upper classes. This fanaticism of the ruler or the religious warfare of the upper classes (conducted mainly to gain political power and economic benefits) did not directly affect the masses whether Hindus or Muslims. This does not mean that when the Heads of the Administration who should have been engaged in establishing good government were so engrossed with each other's destruction, the people of the country as a whole did not suffer.

 

 

Progress could only be made when there was peace and tranquility all over the country. And this could be possible when the monarch was good and held the balance of justice evenly between the various sections of his people.

From all this it is evident that there is no truth in the common though erroneous view that during the Muslim rule in Kashmir the

Muslims as a community tyrannized over the Hindus. That reading of history is essentially and fundamentally wrong. It is a travesty of facts. The large majority of the Muslims, i.e., the Muslim masses had usually nothing to do with the persecution of the Hindus. They could not be and were not a conscious party to it. Nor is it a fact that the Hindu masses were tyrannized as a class. The brunt of the persecution had to be borne by the upper classes of the Hindus, and that mainly for political and economic reasons though religious fanaticism of the Kings and other Muslim vested interests like the mullahs and nobles did play a part in prompting and justifying such persecution.

Much harm has been done by this misreading of history. Many young men have been misled in the past by absurd views about the political and economic conditions during the period when Kashmir was under Muslim kings. Unfortunately these views continue to be held even now and, what is still worse is that on the assumption that Muslims maltreated Hindus in the past, it is believed that the to communities cannot unite now or in the future. This has brought about a reaction in the Muslim mind and so mistrust and mutual enmity continues and even waxes more and more. It is in the interests of our motherland that the past history should be analysed correctly and read scientifically, without prejudice or malice, sentimental make-believe or so called patriotic white-washing. Most of the histories were written by men who worked under the influence of the upper classes. Although their intentions were good it is difficult to believe that they could judge the events dispassionately. We must therefore sift the facts according to the principles of scientific interpretation available to us now. We must look at facts from a comprehensive and a synthetic point of view and try to find bow the masses and not only the classes fared during those days.

In spite of the bad times that people had to face during the Muslim period not much diminution was discernible in the cultural progress of the people. Thinkers and authors continued to flourish. Some valuable works in Sanskrit were produced. As soon as Muslim rule established itself, Persian became the court language. Not only the Muslims but Hindus as well began to study the language, and in course of time the country produced many indigenous scholars of it. ( by Prem Nath Bazaz )