Taxation & Revenue Collection
It is a blatant lie propagated by ‘Eminent Marxist Historians’ to allude revenue and taxation system to Mughal despots particularly Akbar. System of revenue collection and taxation existed since time immemorial instituted by Hindu Kings based on Hindu scriptures and Kautilya’s Arthasastra which Delhi Sultanate, followed by Mughals institutionalized to brutally oppress Hindu-s. It is unimaginable, barbarian tribal warlords roaming around Central Asian deserts had any knowledge of taxation and revenue collection that they could implant in other countries, least of all Bharata, a highly advanced civilization.
Health Care
Fa-Hian wrote in 400 AD about Magadha empire, a well-organized health-care system existed in Bharata –
Nobles and householders of this country had founded hospitals within the city to which the poor of all countries, destitute, crippled and diseased may repair.
They receive every kind of requisite help. Physicians inspect their diseases and according to their cases, order them food and drink, medicines or decoctions, everything in fact that contributes to their ease. When cured they depart at their ease.
Fa Hian’s account coupled with Maharsi Caraka’s treatise on medicine and hospitals, reveal that Bharata was the first country to institutionalize public health care. During Mauryana rule, Emperor Asoka in 300 BC had institutionalized hospitals, established veterinary clinics in towns and villages as well as on busy highways. Marathas had built series of Chatramas as rest and recovery places for travellers and pilgrims.
Chatrams were not mere boarding places. They provided food, health facilities and space for animals that accompanied travellers. It took one day travel to arrive at a Chatram from another.
Old resting places for travellers are found in other countries too, but what makes these Chatrams different from the caravan serais is that they cater to all kinds of travellers — not merely traders. In southerb Bharata, trade and pilgrim routes coexisted and inns served both pilgrims and travellers. Endowing pilgrims, pilgrimage was considered important and special care, facilities were provided. Most important pilgrimage route in southern Bharata was the one that led to Rameshwarama. Along the route, 18 Chatrams were raised and patronized by Maratha Kings during 18th / 19th centuries. Most elaborate and ornate of them are Mukthambal Chatram at Orathanadu and Yamunambal Chatram at Needamangalam.
Chatrams were also built by Maratha ruler of Thanjavur, Maharaja Serfojee who wrote to British to continue the service –
‘Chatrams have Doctors, skillful in the cure of diseases, swellings and the poisonous bites of reptiles. Travellers who fall sick at Chatram or before arrival, receive medicines and proper diet for them and attended with respect and kindliness until their recovery’.
This letter of Sarfojee Maharaja has been complately reproduced in Annam Bahu Kurvita. The author also mentioned, he had not met any other people as generous as Hindu-s in Bharata. These institutionalized public health-care services were not stray, isolated acts of charity. It was entire knowledge of medical science that was transferred to Arabs during peacetime earlier, was brought back to Bharata by Mughal invaders. Hence, Mughals did not contribute to health care facilities during their occupation of Bharatavarsa. They privileged themselves with it and destroyed it ultimately.
Arts & Culture
1000 year long presence of Islam in Bharata from 713 AD to British occupation in 1857, Islam contributed NOTHING towards advancement of fine arts. Islam failed to introduce anything unique that did not already exist in Bharata. Dance and music was banned except in a few royal palaces or in brothels. Drama, dance and music were not encouraged under Mughal occupation and these continued to be patronised by Hindu Kings, village and town folks. What Muslims practised was entirely a Hindu heritage of classical music and they re-named Guru-Sisya Parampara as Gharana !!
All great Muslim musicians were originally Hindu-s and they have continued with the tradition of singing an invocation to Devi Saraswati or some other deity before commencement of every performance. Similarly, dance is as elaborate as music based on Hindu Natya-Sastra. Sculptures of dancers and musicians carved on ancient and medieval temples, now mostly surviving in southern Bharata, bear testimony to their excellence, popularity and widespread practice. Mughal paintings were one-dimensional renderings of poor quality which failed to evolve after 10th century whilst Europe was mastering and perfecting painting in the same era. Silpakari i.e. sculpting was banned so was temple construction. No literary works were authored except panegyrics of Mughal occupiers, Nawabs and Darbara chronicles. Urdu, an assortment of Khadiboli of northern plains, Persian and Turkish was implanted, Urdu couplets were composed. However, for Bharata with their own vibrant, rich traditions of literature, languages, absence of Urdu wouldn’t have really mattered at all.
Medieval Monuments
Monuments of medieval period revive bitter memories in Hindu psyche. All these have been Hindu temples, demolished and vandalised to exist in the shape of Masjids, Idgahs, Dargahs, Ziarats, Sarais, Mazars, Madrasas and Maktabs. Throughout Muslim occupation, destruction of Hindu shrines and construction of Masjids went on as a normal practice. From Quwwal-ul-Islam Masjid in Delhi raised out of 27 Hindu and Jain temples during 12th century to Taj-ul-Masjid raised from hundreds of Hindu and Jain temples at Bhopal during 18th century, story of destruction and plunder is same everywhere. Temples were broken not just during war but in times of peace too. Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq writes, “I destroyed their idol temples and instead thereof raised mosques where infidels and idolaters worshipped idols, Musalmans now, by Allah’s mercy, perform their devotion to the true God.” So said and did Sikandar Lodi, Shahjahan, Aurangzeb and Tipu Sultan. They destroyed temples because it is so enjoined upon them by their Koran. They derive their justification and validity from Koranic revelation and Prophet’s Sunna.
Commerce & Economics
Bharata has always been an agrarian trading economy. Trade within Bharata as well as with other countries were highly developed and well organized since ancient times. Bharatiya traders invented promissory note prevalent even today. So many Bharatiya trading families settled in Arabian Peninsula, Damascus, Persia, Jerusalem, Rome, Alexandria, South East Asia and other trading hubs around the globe. Trade was carried out through sea and land routes across an extensive trade network. International trade can be traced back to Sarasvati-Indu civilization and some of the oldest ports, dry docks have been unearthed. These are marvels of civil engineering of those centuries.
Thus, even in this field Bharata was not benefited at all by those Islamic conquerors / Mughal despots that might have value-enhanced had they knew it already. In reality, Islam exerted destructive impact on trade and businesses with their anti ‘usury’ dictate. All trading families in ancient Bharata were Hindu’s with Muslims having no role to play at all. Islam had no impact on trade, nor did Islam open newer markets nor did Islam bring in new systems of commerce. Several Hindu traders of Bengal were multiple times bigger than even East India Company and all their shareholders clubbed together.
Ancient Bharata had been a highly successful civilization. Not a single Islamic conquest ever led to any value-addition at all as Islam and Mughal despots had NOTHING to offer except to loot and destroy what ancient glorious nation of Bharata already possessed. Bharatiya Muslims gloat over the dubious glory of Mughal era without realising that it was foreign Mughal occupiers who had ruled over Bharata and not Hindus-forcibly-converted-to-Islam !! These foreign invaders never ever considered Bharatiya Muslims as Muslims at all and treated them as “Ajlaf”.
In South Asia, Muslims are divided as Ashrafs and Ajlafs. Ashrafs claim superior status derived from their Mughal ancestry while non-Ashrafs are purported to be converts from Hinduism, therefore inferior. Turkish scholar Zaiuddin Barraniin declared in the court of Mohammad Tughlaq that “Sons of Mohammed” i.e. Ashrafs must be given a higher social status than the low-born Ajlaf. In addition to the Ashraf/Ajlaf divide, there is an Arzal caste among Muslims who were regarded as untouchables. The term “Arzal” stands for “degraded” who are also called Muslims with whom no other Muhammadan would associate, forbidden to enter mosques or use public burial grounds.
