Twilight of the Sultanate c14.s7.16

c14.s7.16

The reason for this statement is not far to seek. It has been pointed out earlier that a silver lining in the dark invasion of Tīmūr was that it had helped to bring Hindus and Muslims nearer to each other. The process of unity not only continued but was augmented with the passage of time. In the political sphere Hindus and Muslims were collaborating fully. Raja Trilok Chand of Baksar (near Unnao) and Raja Pratap of Bhongaon sided with the Lodī kings while their Sharqī adversary was supported by Rajas of Baghelkhand and Gwalior. In the social sphere in Sikandar's days not only had the Hindus started learning Persian, but there were Hindus like Raja Mān Singh who held extremely cosmopolitan views. Writing about him Ni'āmatulla says: "Though Raja Mān professed himself to be a Hindu, he had inwardly accepted the nobility of the Islamic creed and owing to the sincerity of his belief in Islam, no Muslim ruler could gain an ascendancy over him".¹⁷² Similarly there were Muslims of the type of Ahmad Khan, son of Mubārak Khan Lodī, governor of Lakhnor near Sambhal,¹⁷³ who was associating with the Hindus to such an extent that it was believed that he had “turned from the religion of Islam” and “had adopted the practices of unbelief.¹⁷⁴ Even the attitude of the ‘Ulama was strikingly refreshing as is clear from the case of Miān ‘Abdulla of Ajodhan.¹⁷⁵ Indeed Indian society was undergoing a change. This change was also due to the teachings of the fifteenth century socio-religious reformers like Kabīr and Nānak, about whom we shall study in detail in the last chapter. In such an atmosphere the few acts of intolerance on the part of Sikandar Lodī appeared to be so much out of tune with the spirit of the age that they shocked even the Persian chroniclers. In the fourteenth century, Sikandar Lodī’s attitude would have caused no surprise. He would have been considered one among the common run of monarchs. But in the fifteenth century his bigotry was particularly noticeable. Hence the assertion of the chroniclers.¹⁷⁶