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If any gradation is at all possible among the alien sultans who infested Hindusthan for a millennium spilling Hindu blood in fanatic fury, then Sikandar Lodi should rank among the fiercest.
This handsome, half-caste satan was born as the third son of his father Bahlol from the abduction and rape of Ziba, the daughter of a Hindu goldsmith of Sirhind. But as though to make up for his mongrelness, Sikandar spared no effort in doubling the score of any of his predecessors in the massacre of Hindus. So appalling were these slaughter orgies that even a partisan co- religionist like Niamatullah cannot help referring to them, time and again in his chronicle "Tarikh-i-Khan Jahan Lodi", as "butchering".
This son of a Hindu goldsmith's daughter had a face as alluring as gold. But from his father he had inherited a heart as base as lead which derived immense satisfaction from the shrieks of those pierced with cold steel in mass massacres.
Though Sikandar was third in seniority among the sons of Bahlol Lodi, yet he obviously ranked first in scheming and villainy as is apparent from his success in grabbing the throne and confounding all other claimants. His title to the throne was not undisputed. A group of courtiers had tried in vain to obstruct his accession.
So far as ferocity, treachery, lechery and depravity of nature were concerned, there was hardly anything to distinguish one claimant from another; and yet some courtiers preferred Bahlol's other son, Barbak or a grandson, Azam Humayun to Nizam Khan. But Nizam Khan outwitted and suppressed them all and grabbed the throne. He assumed the grandiose title "Sultan Sikandar Lodi."
On page 154 of his book "Crescent in India", S.R. Sharma observes: "Bigotry was Sikandar Lodi's arch weakness, as it was that of Firoz Tughlak and Aurangzeb. The desecration and destruction of Hindu temples (e.g. at Mathura, Dholpur and Nagaur), whenever he could lay hands on them, was the routine in his campaigns. He prohibited the Hindus from bathing at the sacred ghats on the Jumna, and even banned barbers from shaving them. A Brahman of Bengal had aroused the indignation of orthodox Muslims by publicly maintaining that Islam and Hinduism were both true religions, and were but different roads by which God might be approached. The Muslim governor of Bihar was directed to send the offender to the Court, where Sikandar asked the jurists whether it was permissible thus to preach. They decided that since the Brahman had admitted the truth of Islam, he should be invited to embrace it with death as the alternative. The decision commended itself to Sikandar and the penalty was exacted from the Brahman, who refused to change his faith."
Author : Shri Purushottam Nagesh Oak
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