The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c20.30

c20.30

It would of course be an overstatement to suggest that the Memeluke king maintained a perfectly impartial attitude towards Hinduism; the state’s indifference to the people’s religion is a principle that even in the twentieth century is not universally practised. But the Turk was a materialist; he served his religion only to the extent upto which his material interest carried him. Alauddin Khalji’s famous reply to *qazi* Mughisuddin that he judged his actions solely by the critirion of expediency, typifies also the Memeluke king’s attitude. It was a matter of policy for Balban to talk of exterminating the enemies of the religion of Muhammad, for in actual practice, as Barani tells, us, he looked only to the state’s interest².