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Introduction > Page1
Accounts of Initial Muslim Invasions And Of Later Regimes Of Sultans And Badshahs who had made Delhi (or Agra) their capital, is presented in this volume.
Most of these appeared earlier as a series of articles from 1966 to 1968 in the Mother India, edited by the renowned Baburao Patel of Bombay.
Muslim regimes throughout the world have an unrelieved record of unparalleled terror and torture described in gory detail by contemporary Muslim chroniclers themselves; subjecting all non- Muslims to abject atrocities, plundering their wealth, abducting their women and usurping their houses of worship to be used as mosques and tombs, has been considered a sacred duty of every Muslim, in Islamic practice. Such acts earned for the tormentors the coveted title of Ghazi, to be paraded as a citation of great Islamic glory and greatness.
William Durant1, author of the voluminous Story of Civilization has described the Muslim conquests in India as constituting the saddest and goriest chapter in human history.
Foot Notes :
1.Writes Paul Kennedy on page 13 of his renowned treatise THE RISE AND FALL OF THE GREAT POWERS : "But the Mogul rule could scarcely be compared with administration by the Indian Civil Service. The brilliant courts were centers of conspicuous consumption on a scale which the Sun King at Versailles might have thought excessive. Thousands of servants and hangers-on, extravagant clothes and jewels and harems and menageries, vast arrays of bodyguards, could be paid for only by the creation of a systematic plunder machine. Tax collectors, required to provide fixed sums for their masters, preyed mercilessly upon peasant and merchant alike; whatever the state of the harvest or trade, the money had to come in. There being no constitutional or other checks - apart from rebellion - upon such depredations, it was not surprising that taxation was known as 'eating'. For this colossal annual tribute, the population received next to nothing. There was little improvement in communications, and no machinery for assistance in the event of famine, flood, and plague - which were, of course, fairly regular occurrences. All this makes the Ming dynasty appear benign, almost progressive, by comparison. Technically, the Mogul Empire was to decline because it became increasingly difficult to maintain itself against the Marathas in the south, the Afghans in the north, and, finally, the East India Company..."
Author : Shri Purushottam Nagesh Oak
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