The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c28.27

c28.27

Professor Sri Ram Sharma has recently added to the complexity of the problem by propounding yet another theory, namely, that Khusrav Shah on his accession repudiated Islam and attempted to re-establish Hindu domination in the country, though he did not assume for himself Hindu name and title. “It is but natural,” writes Professor Sharma, “that on his accession to the throne he should go back to his original faith. He lived in the royal palace of his predecessors, and with the accession of a Hindu king, Hindu rites of worship displaced Muslim rites in the palace. Like Ajit Singh of Jodhpur in the eighteenth century, Khusrav did not take a Hindu title as a reigning king…”²⁴ This view is not based on any contemporary or even later record and betrays a desire to read in the Persian texts more than what their authors intended to convey. No writer from Amir Khusrav down to Farishta anywhere says definitely or even by implication that Khusrav Shah had forsaken Islam or that he wanted to set up a Hindu Raj. On the contrary, the historian Nizam-ud-din Ahmad writes in clear terms that “as most of the Bharwars were Hindus, Islamic ways received a setback and the rites of the Hindus got encouragement and propagation. Idol-worship was publicised and the mosques were desecrated.”²⁵ This categorical evidence knocks the bottom out of Professor Sharma’s theory and proves conclusively that Khusrav Shah remained a Muslim as before, and the Hindu worship in the palace was conducted by those of his relatives who were Hindu by faith.