Jizyah in India – Jizyah Series – Part 5

 

Jizyah in India – Jizyah Series – Part 5

Pankaj Saxena

Jizyah was allowed to Hindus in special circumstances. Yes, even a punitive tax was considered a boon for Hindus by Muslims, because Hindus were ‘filthy idolaters’ for them and considered only death or conversion to Islam.

It was impossible to kill all of Hindus, who were in crores. So Jizyah was allowed to them. Muhammad bin Qasim started with it in Sindh in early 8th century. And from him to Aurangzeb almost every Islamic ruler kept imposing Jizyah on Hindus, barring Akbar.

The Qaḍi of Alauddin Khalji wrote: “'If the Jizyah-collector asks a Hindu for silver, the latter should offer gold in all humility. If the collector wishes to spit into his mouth, the latter should open his mouth without demur, so as to enable the former to spit into it.”

Firoz Shah Tughlaq wrote that because of Jizyah, “'the Hindus thronged in clusters after clusters and groups after groups and were glorified by the glory of Islam. And likewise to this day of ours, they come from far and wide, embrace Islam, and Jizyah is off from them.”

 Aurangzeb reimposed it after Akbar had abolished it and Jehangir and Shahjahan had followed him. But even then local Muslim princes kept levying Jizyah. Aurangzeb restarted it. When Hindus opposed the imposition of Jizyah he had them trampled with elephants.

He also demanded that the Hindu Dhimmi should carry Jizyah in his hand and come on foot. He should pay it standing, while the Muslim Jizyah collector is sitting. His hand should be below that of the collector who should snatch it from him, saying ‘Pay Jizyah, O Dhimmi!’

Clearly the goal was to humiliate the Hindu so much that ultimately he would convert to Islam. In Aurangzeb’s reign, even roaming mendicants and sannyasins had to pay it. Dr. Harsh Narain assesses that it was Jizyah which led to conversions of Hindus to Islam in India.

Reference (Diya' ad-Din Barani, Tarikh-i Firozshahi, Sayyid Athar Abbas Rizwi, selected Hindi tr., in his Khalji-Kalina Bharata, Aligarh, 1955, p. 70.)

(Firoz Shah Tughluq, FuthuHat-i Firozshahi, ed. by Shaikh Abdur Rashid, Aligarh, 1954, pp. 1617.) 

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