History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c45.s9: §15. Discriminating custom duties in favour of Muhammadans.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c45.s9
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§15. Discriminating custom duties in favour of Muhammadans.
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By an ordinance issued on 10th April, 1665, the CUSTOM DUTY on all commodities brought in for sale was fixed at 2½ p. c. of the *value* in the case of Muslims and 5 p. c. in that of Hindu vendors. This was called the *mahsul* or duty, and must not be confounded with the *zakat* or tithes which all Muslims had to pay on the annual *increase* of their wealth, and the proceeds of which could by the Quranic law be spent on Muhammadans alone.
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On 9th May, 1667, the Emperor abolished the custom duty altogether in the case of Muslim traders, while that on the Hindus was retained at the old level. Apart from the political immorality of favouring one creed above all others, the direct sacrifice of public revenue was very great, and the
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service is not borne out by history, for it was as late as 10th May, 1855 that ‘‘the *jaziya* as a tax on the free exercise of religion was replaced by a tax for exemption from military service’’ even in European Turkey. (*Encyclo. Islam*, i. 1052.)
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real loss to the State was likely to be still greater as the Hindu traders had now a strong temptation to pass their goods off as the property of Muslims, in collusion with the latter. The danger was not unknown to Aurangzib, as this very ordinance warns the local officers to guard against such fraud. And yet, in defiance of the laws of economics and the teaching of sound statesmanship, he put his tariff on the basis of religious discrimination alone.*
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A third instrument of the policy of putting economic pressure on unbelievers, was the granting of rewards to converts and the offering of posts in the public service on condition of turning Muslim.† The revenue drawn from the entire population was spent in aiding the mission propaganda of the dominant minority. Infidels were bribed into accepting the royal faith by the offer of money allowances, robes of honour, posts, liberation from prison, or succession to disputed property.
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∗ With regard to the custom duty I have followed Mirat-i-Ahmadi, 272 and 280. But Khafi Khan, ii. 229-230, puts it in the inverse order. M.A.
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⁵³⁰ Storia, ii.
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⁶¹ For the zakat or tithe, Hamilton's Hedaya, 2nd ed. (1870), xli. 1; Hughes, 699-700. Aurangzib's regulations on the zakat are given in Mirat, 312, 315, 317, 336.
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† For rewards to Hindus on conversion to Islam, Elliot, iii. 604; M.A., 528; Akhbarat, 9/10, 10/14, 13/13. List of converts, M.A. 94, 220, 270, 273, 396; K.K. ii. 461; M.U. ii. 281; Inayetullah's Ahkam, 197b; Mirat, 314, Tod, i.
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⁴¹³ Posts and zamindaris given to converts, Akhbarat, 10/8, 10/9, 13/15, 13/17, 13/18, 13/19. Storia, iv. 439.
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§16. Hindus excluded from public offices.
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From time immemorial, service in the revenue department had brought daily bread to middle class Hindus able to read and write. Under Aurangzib, "qanungo-ship on condition of turning Muslim" became a proverbial expression; and several families in the Panjab still preserve his letters patent in which this condition of office is unblushingly laid down. Several other instances of it are also recorded in the extant news-letters of his Court.
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In 1671 an ordinance was issued that the rent-collectors of the Crownlands must be Muslims, and all viceroys and taluqdars were ordered to dismiss their Hindu head clerks (peshkars) and accountants (diwanian) and replace them by Muslims. As the official historian of the reign exultantly points out, "By one stroke of the pen he dismissed all the Hindu writers from his service." (M.A. 528.) It was found impossible to run the administration after dismissing the Hindu peshkars of the provincial governors, but in some places Muslims replaced Hindu kroris (district rent-collectors). Later on, the Emperor yielded so far to necessity as to allow half the peshkars of the revenue minister and paymaster's departments to be Hindus and the other half Muhammadans.[*]
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∗ K. K. ii. 249, 252. Khafi Khan gives the date as 1082 A. H., which if meant for the 14th year of the reign would correspond to
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There were other temptations as well for seducing Hindus from their own faith. Some of the converts were, by the Emperor's orders, placed on elephants and carried in procession through the city to the accompaniment of a band and flags. Others got daily stipends, four annas at the lowest. Most of the new Muslims, however, were only granted food money for the month following their conversion and circumcision, and then dismissed with robes of honour. There was a general rule to this effect in the provinces.*
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In March 1695 all Hindus, with the exception of the Rajputs, were forbidden to ride palkis, elephants or thorough-bred horses, or to carry arms. (K. K. ii. 395; M. A. 370.)