The Religious Landscape of the Indian Subcontinent Would Have Been Different Had Dara Shikoh Become the Emperor, Instead Of Aurangzeb
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
10 January
2023
Gentle, Genial and Generous Mystic Philosophy
Of Rumi And Dara Shikoh Could Bind Mankind Together And Act As A Panacea To All
Religious Differences And Divisions.
----
Amartya
Sen is right in stating that Taj Mahal and Dara Shikoh are the finest
examples of Hindu-Muslim collaboration in the sub-continent.
Legendary
British historian Sir Arnold Toynbee famously stated in his 'Oxford Memorial
Lectures' that, “Though ifs and buts remain speculative till the end, at times
they help build a broader picture and a larger reality.”
Dara
Shikoh
-----
The broader
picture and a larger reality is that had Shahjahan's eldest son and
heir-apparent Dara Shikoh become the emperor, the history of the sub-continent
would have been different.
Different
in the sense that Hindus en masse wouldn't have been converted to Islam.
Aurangzeb had his brother executed and unlawfully become the emperor. According
to the French columnist, writer and Historian Francois Gautier, “The Hindu
forefathers of nearly 90 per cent of today's sub continental Muslims were
forcibly converted to Islam at the behest of Aurangzeb." From July 1658
till his death in 1707, Aurangzeb brutally ruled for nearly 50 years and
converted Hindus at will. According to Sarkar and Sardesai, “Almost all the
Muslims of north and central India had Hindu ancestry which may not have been
older than four hundred years” (courtesy, ' Shivaji and his times' and ' Mughal
invasions in Deccan', simultaneously published by Cambridge University Press,
1951).
But Dara
was correspondingly different. He was the most benign, liberal and evolved
Mughal who never liked the rigidity of Islam and its condescending supremacy.
He was drawn to eastern mysticism (not organised Hinduism) which proclaimed and
propounded the Supreme Brahmin (not the hierarchical Brahmin of today's
polluted Hinduism) which's the formless, purest consciousness as described in
Upanishads and later followed by the Iranian mystics and Sufis. A threatening,
warning and brow-beating Allah of Islam or god of Semitic faiths was alien to
the enlightened Dara Shikoh who wrote in Majma-ul-Bahrain (The
co-mingling of two oceans) and Sirr-e-Akbar (The great mystery) that punishment
and condemnation had no place in any faith and god or a Supreme being/Brahmin (derived
from Brahma-leen: Merged in super consciousness or transcendental reality) was
all love. Such subtle and serene idea of divinity was alien to Aurangzeb and is
still foreign to most of the Muslims, steeped in Quranic mumbo-jumbo. So,
Aurangzeb got his enlightened brother beheaded. Famous historian Professor Syed
Hasan Askari was also of the same view that had Dara Shikoh become the Mughal
emperor, he'd have tried to forge a greater and deeper bond between the Hindus
and Muslims and the mutual bad-blood wouldn't have been so intense.
Here, I
must add that my introduction to Dara Shikoh's Persian and Sanskrit treatises
on Quran, Hadees, Upanishads and Puranas egged me on to learn Sanskrit while
growing up in Tehran and London. Iranian scholar and philosopher of mysticism
like Abdolkarim Soroush wrote a few years ago that the gentle, genial and
generous mystic philosophy of Rumi and Dara Shikoh could bind mankind together
and act as a panacea to all religious differences and divisions.
Today, all
the converts who're condemning me on this forum wouldn't have existed or would
have been mellowed down as much more liberal Muslims, had Dara been the emperor
in lieu of Aurangzeb. Alack, one act of extreme perfidy on the part of
Aurangzeb proved to be a festering wound for both the communities forever at
loggerheads with each other.
----
A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul
is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He
has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several
languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/interfaith-dialogue/religious-landscape-dara-shikoh-aurangzeb/d/128840
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