AKBAR’S RELIGIOUS POLICY

BY-
TANMAY KULSHRESTHA
M.A.HISTORY
UNIVERSITY OF DELHI
“History does not repeat itself. The historians repeat one another”

-Max Beerbohm {English caricaturist}

Akbar had been brought up in an atmosphere

surcharged with conflicting religious influences. His father was a Central
Asian Sunni given to belief in superstitious mysticism. In his childhood he
came in contact with Sufism and from 1562, for eighteen long years, he
made annual pilgrimage to the shrine of Sheikh Muinuddin Chishti at Ajmer.
His Rajput wives, his Hindu officials like Todarmal, Birbal and Man Singh,
scholars like Faizi and Abul Fazl and the Bhakti movement of the sixteenth
century helped in molding his religious views. He developed a passionate
love for philosophical discussions and spiritual quest, which led to the
foundation of the Ibadatkhana (Hall of Worship) at Fatehpur Skirl.

It is argued and widely debated that all of Akbar’s religious

policies were in fact initiated to gain popularity from the masses, both
Hindu’s as well as Muslims (even though, technically speaking, there were
no “Hindu’s” at that time, but for the sake of simplicity, and to get a
panoramic view of the situation, I have used this term). But if this was a fact
then he would have gained mass popularity instantly only on the basis of
religious reforms and need not introduce several other reforms relating to
revenue, military, diplomacy etc. But he did all those not because he wanted
to but because he had to. It was one of his notions of Sulh-i-kul, which we
will be discussing later.

The exposition of Akbar’s religious policy was not the

sudden outburst of an idea nor a calculated political move. Its growth and
development was spread over the years. His policies would be discussed
under four stages each one, a step further than the last.
 1. GOING AGAINST THE TRADITIONAL ISLAMIC LAW AND
PRACTICE

It is widely known that the Rajputs’ were known for

their bravery and the vigor with which they fought at the battle field. Akbar
saw their zeal and was so much impressed by their undaunted courage and
valor that he forthwith stopped the practice of enslaving the prisoners of war
and their forcible conversion to Islam. This was the first step of its kind
taken purely on humanitarian considerations by a Muslim ruler of India.
Akbar won great applause from the people, especially the non-Muslims, for
this noble gesture.

Akbar took the, most revolutionary step on March 15 1564, in

granting religious freedom to Hindus by abolishing jaziya. This was a poll
tax, charged from the Hindus in their capacity as zimmis, whereby they were
denied full-fledged citizenship of the state under their Muslim rulers. The
Hindu population was divided into three grades on the basis of their
economic standing: richest paid 48 dirhams, the middle class 24 dirhams,
and the poor 12 dirhams per annum. Akbar didn’t discriminate between his
subjects on the basis of religion; instead, he was eager to establish his
reputation as an impartial ruler of all the people.

The abolition of jaziya caused a tremendous financial

loss to the state exchequer. Akbar was even opposed by Muslim ministers
and bitterly criticized by the orthodox ulama for having violated the age old
tradition of the Islamic polity.

2. IBADAT-KHANA

Akbar’s next desire was to create a spirit of love and

harmony among his people by eliminating all the racial, religious and
cultural barriers between them. Under the influence of Sheikh Mubarak, he
ordered in January 1575, the construction Ibadat khana- the house of
worship at fatehpur sikri. Here he initiated the practice of holding religious
discourses with the learned and the saints of the age. To begin with Akbar
used to call only the Muslim theologians, including the ulama, sheikhs and
sayyads.

Muslim theologians were divided into two groups who

did not see eye to eye with each other in the matter of interpretation of the
Islamic canon. Sheikh Makhdum ul mulk and sheikh abdun nabi were the
leaders of the orthodox Sunni party while Sheikh Mubarak, faizi and abul
fazl represented the group of free thinkers and liberal minded theologians.
They failed to arrive on at agreed opinions on many Islamic belief and
practice.

Akbar when he realized that that the mullahs have failed

to give satisfactory answers to his yearnings for spiritual enlightenment. In
disgust he threw open the gates of ibadat khana to the priests and scholars of
other religious faiths, including Hinduism, jainis, Zoroastrianism, and
Christianity.

3. MAHZAR

As a result of religious discourse held at the ibadat

khana, Akbar’s belief in the orthodox Sunni Islam was shaken. And it was
the orthodox Sunni mullahs who were holding predominant position in the
state politics. As a the first step toward curbing the power of the ulama, he
removed the waiz (the head priest) of the Jami masjid at fatehpur sikri and
mounted himself as the pulpit, and read the khutba in his own name as the
prophet Muhammad and his succeeding khalifas used to do.

The mullahs did not like the emperor to establish

direct rapport with his subjects, who according to them, were expected to
communicate with the mass only through the agency of the imams. Akbar
did not pay any attention to their voices and went ahead with his plans to
reduce the power of the mullahs in the state politics.

This led to a proclamation, called the mahzar in

September 1579. It was prepared by Sheikh Mubarak, and signed by almost
all the prominent Muslim theologians and divines of the Mughal Empire. It
recognized Akbar in his capacity as the just monarch, to be the imam-i-adil
(supreme interpreter of Islamic law). Previously the mullahs used to act as
the sole arbiter of all such disputed questions in their capacity as mujtahids
(the interpreters of Islamic law). The mahzar declared Akbar to be higher in
rank than the mujtahids. It is however clear from the mahzar that it did not
deprive the mullahs of their basic right to act as the mujtahids, nevertheless,
Akbar placed himself at their head as the chief judge.

It in fact placed several limitations on Akbar which

were as follows:-

--should there a religious question come up,

--regarding which the opinions of the mujtahids are at variance,

--his majesty in his penetrating understanding and clear wisdom will be able
to adopt any of the conflicting opinions existing at that point of time,

--provided always, that such order be in accordance with some verse of

Quran and be of real benefit to the nation

--and that his judgment be based on sound arguments and reasons advanced
by various mullahs.

While acting in accordance with each and every one of

the above conditions, will Akbar’s decision be considered valid. The ulama
fumed with anger against Akbar and started accusing Akbar of having
assumed the role of the prophet. Abul fazl refutes the charge by saying that
his theory of divine rights of kingship should not be considered as playing
the prophet.

According to J.L Mehta the mahzar was wrongly called

as the infallibility decree by Vincent smith. The mahzar did not give any
original powers to Akbar to proclaim a new religious law. Akbar was not
permitted by the mahzar to violate the fundamental principles of Islam.
 4. DIN-I-ILAHI

Akbar was a religious minded and god fearing person, but

being a man of action, his attachment to the worldly affairs was very much
real. He had established himself as the impartial ruler of his subjects- Hindus
as well as Muslims, and had adopted secularism as hi state policy.

He was eager to weld all the Indians, irrespective of their

castes, creeds and religious beliefs and practices, into homogenous society.
Thus national integration was the ultimate goal of Akbar’s actions.

The outcome of his deliberations was din-i-ilahi in the

beginning of 1582. It was not a new religion, nor did Akbar attempt to play
the prophet. His real objective was to unite the people of his empire into an
integrated national community hy providing a common religious-cum-
spiritual platform for the meeting ground. The din-ilahi, according to
J.L.Mehta, was a social religious association of the likeminded intellectuals
and saints who had transcended the barriers their orthodox religious beliefs
and practices. Abul fazl does not attach any importance to the din-i-ilahi as
being worthy of mention in Akbar-Nama. Instead he has mentioned other
titles for din-i-illahi, namely muridi (disciple), ikhlas-i-chahargana (order
of four) and tauhid-i-illahi. This way he formalized this institution so that
more people would come to know about it.

A person who wanted to become a member of this

organization approached abul fazl for the purpose. They applicant was
presented to Akbar with turban in his hands; he performed the sijdah. The
latter blessed him by raising him up, placed the turban back on his head and
gave him the shast (his own portrait) on which was engraved the phrase-
Allah Hu Akbar. The illahias (member of the din-i-illahi) greeted each other
with the words like Allah Hu Akbar and Jalle Jalal-E-Hu. An illahia
celebrated his birth anniversary by throwing a feast to his associates and also
gave a dinner once in his lifetime. There were four grades of devotion to
Akbar as the spiritual guide of the illahias; these were in ascending order of
importance-property, life, honor and religion.
 Akbar was an absolute monarch who claimed himself to
be the shadow of god on earth on the basis of “theory of divine rights of
kingship”. That is why that he had introduced sijdah as a custom in his
capacity as the zil-li-illahi, and not as a religious commander as founder of
the din-i-illahi.

Din-i-illahi was not a new religion, it had no holy book

of its own, no priests or missionary organization to propagate it, and no
religious dogmas or beliefs to be enforced by it, he never compelled
anybody to adopt the new creed although it would not be difficult for him to
do so. According to abul fazl the total number of the illahias of all grades did
not exceed a few thousands.

CONCLUSION

An aspect of Akbar's religious policy that began several

years after the acrimonious debates of the House of Worship was on a
different footing. His attempt to set himself up as a jagat guru, the spiritual
leader of the people, was a political interpretation. His acts such as
providing jharoka darshan to his people every day before sunrise and that of
proclaiming allah hu akbar were seen as a way of popularizing himself and
providing himself legitimacy from his people. But he in no way wanted to be
next to god. Therefore he calls himself many a times as zil-li-illahi or the
shadow of the god, and the god himself.

Muslims were greatly offended by this and a reaction began

against Akbar's policy which was to destroy much that he had created.
Akbar's failure was also due to forces operating outside the court. At this
time a great Hindu religious revival was sweeping the country. It
commenced in Bengal, but under Chaitanya's successors, Mathura in
northern India became the great center of resurgent Hinduism. With such
developments in the country Akbar's efforts at religious synchronization
were doomed to failure. Akbar however, extricated India from the clamps of
theocracy and endeavored to fuse together the different classes of his
subjects by bonds of common citizenship and to establish a secular state.
REFRENCES:-

Mehta, J.L. - Advanced Study in the history of Medieval India Vol.2;

Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi, 1984,

Sharma, S.R. - Mughal Empire in India part I [1526-1781]; Karnataka

printing press, Bombay

Ali, Athar- Mughal India: Studies in Polity, Ideas, Society and

Culture; Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2012,

Chandra, Satish- Medieval India:From Sultanate to the Mughal

Empire (1526-1748) Part-2; Haranand Publications Pvt. Ltd (2006)