Aurangzeb, Temples and Jaziya

Mughals ruled India for about 3 centuries in which they were on peak of his power for about one and a half century. It was not easy to rule for such a long period outside one's home land without the support of majority of native population. As earlier we have seen the Delhi sultanate in which 5 dynasty had ruled a much smaller territory then on what Mughals had ruled on in the same span of time. 

The destructive era of Mughals begins with Babur's arrival to middle of 1560s although some peace time comes under Sher Shah and Islam Shah but they never hesitated in using religion in the political affairs. 

Temple demolishion policy

After the abolition of jaziya by Akber hardly any decission were taken which affect the religious sentiments of other community. The peace period remains till Jahangir's rule but after his death Shahjahan reverse his ancestors policy and  ordered to demolish the newly built temples but after rise of his son Dara shikoh we hardly find any evidence to temple demolishion except in Deccan which was under Aurangzeb. Aurangzeb continued his policy after conquering the throne. In the beginning he banned Nowroj celebration,profane many non islamic places and many such works which was against shariyat. Under this policy many famous temples were demolished such as Somnath in 1665,many temples of Multan and Varanasi where people(muslims too) come from different parts of the country to seek knowledge in 1669. This campaign includes the demolition of famous vishwanath temple in kashi and keshavrai temple in Mathura.He had also named Mathura as Islamabad. Reason for the campaign has been mentioned in the book Maasir-e-alamgiri by Mustaid khan(close friend of Aurangzeb). He mentioned  "Aurangzeb aimed to 'establish Islam' and the emperor ordered the subedars to demolish all the temples and ban the public behavior of these Kafirs, that is, the religion of the Hindus."  He had too demolished many temples in rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. However we find less examples of temple demolition after 1681 but meanwhile he had reimposed jaziya on non muslims.

Jaziya on non muslims

Aurangzeb reimposed jaziya in 1679 I.e 21th year of his rule. Although it was not a big tax but non muslims were usually humiliated by the maulvis and other eho recieve the tax. Many Hindu traders had protested against it as town were the most affected area. But Aurangzeb remained adamant and hesitating to free the farmers from the payment of Jaziya even when the goods tax had to be exempted due to natural calamities.  At last he had to stop the collection in 1705 due to the war against Maratha as now he need rajpoot's support and it may help him in a Treaty with Maratha. Finally jaziya was reabolished in 1713 by Jahadar Shah.

These policies of Aurangzeb proved to be very harmful as it not only give rise to the Maratha power but the Rajputs also turned away from the empire. Jat revolt also took place due to his policies which finally end with by separating them from the empire.