History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c84.s5.t1.8

v5.c84.s5.t1.8

True, there were some Muslim scholars and saints in Kashmir who enjoyed the patronage of the Mughal nobility,—but this was not the class from which civil servants and army captains were recruited. No Kashmir Hindu gained any office under the Mughal empire, and as for the common Muslims of the province, if they were villagers, they were despised as ignorant savages, and if townsmen as lying flatterers and cowardly cheats. In this universal closing of honourable and responsible careers to talent, the intellectual cleverness of certain classes of the natives developed into glibness of tongue, low cunning, and skill in treacherous intrigue,—so that, in Mughal India a Kashmiri came to be a by-word for a smooth-spoken rogue, as the Græculus was in the early days of the Roman empire. Ignorance, poverty, and the feudal organisation of society,—which kept the masses in a servile condition, also accounted for their Mongoloid disregard for the honour of their wives and daughters.