The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c11.s6.10

c11.s6.10

Some feeble attempts were sometimes made by some kings to put a stop to this inhuman practice. The Mughal emperor Akbar, for example, abolished the custom of enslaving helpless women and children in times of war.¹²⁴ *Jahangir* ordered that a government collector or Jagirdar should not without permission intermarry with the people of the *pargana* in which he might be¹²⁵ for abduction and forced marriages were common enough. But there was never an abjuration of the policy of enslavement as mainly it was not the Mughal emperors but the Mughal nobility who must have taken the lions share of the states enslavement, deportation and sale. To make the long and painful story short, it may just be mentioned that after the Third Battle of Panipat (1761), the plunder of the (Maratha) camp was prodigious, and women and children who survived were driven off as slaves - twenty-two thousand (women), of the highest rank in the land, says the *Siyar-ul-Mutakhkhirin*.¹²⁶