The North-West Frontier Policy
Out of political and economic considerations, Aurangzeb had to follow a forward policy on the north-west frontier, where the turbulent Muslim tribes had all along proved a source of great anxiety to the Mughul Empire. The scanty produce of the fields of that region forced upon the growing numbers of the hardy. Afghan clans living there the habits of highway robbery and of blackmailing the rich cities of the northwestern Punjab. In order to keep the northwestern passes open and the valleys at their foot safe, the government of Aurangzeb first tried to win over these hillmen by payments of money. But “even political pensions were not always effective in securing obedience “. Troubles began early in A.D 1667, when the Yusufzis rose in arms under one of their leaders named Bhagu. A large number of them crossed the Indus above Attack and invaded the Hazara district, while other bands began to ravage the western Peshawar and Attock districts. The Yusufzai rising was, however, suppressed in the course of a few months.
But in 1672 the Afridis rose in revolt against the Mughuls under their chieftain Akmal Khan, who crowned himself king and summoned all the Path,na to organise themselves in a sort of national war. In the month of May the insurgents inflicted a crushing defeat on Muhammad Amin Khan at ‘All Masjid. Muhammad Amin, and some of his senior officers, escaped, but the Mughuls lost everything else. This victory increased the prestige and resources of Akmal Khan and lured more recruits to his side so that “the whole of the Path,n land from Attock to Qandahar” rose in arms. The Khattak clan of the Pathans also joined the Afridis, and Khush-hal Khan, ,.he poet and hero of the former, “became the leading spirit of the national rising and inspired the tribesmen with his pen and sword alike “. In February, 1674, the Afghans assailed an imperial force under Shuja at Khan, who was killed, though the remnant of his army was rescued by a Rathor contingent, sent by J”want Singh to support the Mughuls.
This disaster convinced Aurangzeb that more serious efforts were necessary to restore imperial prestige in the north-west. He went in person to Hasan Abdal, near Peshawar, early in July, 1674, and by a clever combination of diplomacy and arms achieved much success. Many Afghan clans were bought over with presents, pensions, jagirs, and offices, while the more refractory ones were subdued by arms. When the situation had considerably improved, the Emperor left the Punjab for Delhi by December, 1675. The success of Aurangzeb was confirmed by the wise policy of Amin Khan, the capable governor of Afghanistan from 1677 to 1698, who followed a tactful conciliatory policy under the wise advice of his wife, Sahibji, a daughter of ‘Ali Mardan Khan. Thus the Mughul Emperor was able to suppress the Afghan age, and restore imperial prestige in the north-west, “by following the policy of paying subsidies, or by setting up one clan against another, to use his own metaphor, breaking two bones by knocking them together”. The Khattak hero, Khash-hal, continued to fight for several years more, till his own son proved to be his worst enemy and betrayed him to the Mughuls. There is no doubt that the frontier wars of the Mughuls were brought to a successful conclusion. But their indirect effects were prejudicial to the interests of the Empire. As Sir J. N. Sarkar observes: “Ruinous as the Afghan war was to imperial finances, its political effect was even more harmful. It made the employment of the Afghan in the ensuing Rajput war impossible, though the Afghans were just the claw of soldiers who could have won victory in that rugged and barren country. Moreover, it relieved the pressure on Shivaji by the Deccan of the best Mugbul troops for service on the north-west frontier. The Maratha chief took advantage of this division of his enemy’s strength to sweep in a dazzling succession of triumphs through Golkunda to the Karnatak and back again through Mysore and Bijapur to Raigarh during the fifteen months following December, 1675. It was the climax of his career; but the Afridis and the Khattaks made his unbroken success possible.”
Relations with the Muslim World outside India
Between 1661 and 1667 Aurnagzeb received “complimentary embassies” from some foreign Muslim powers, such ” the Sharif of Mecca, the Kings of Persia, Balkh, Bukhara, Kashghar, Urganj (Khiva) and Shahr-i-nau, the Turkish governors of Basra, Hadramaut, Yaman and Mocha, the ruler of Barbary, and the King of Abyssinia. From Constantinople only one embassy came during his reign, in June, 1590. ” His policy at the g was,” remarks Sir J. N. Sarkar, “to dazzle the eyes of foreign princes by the lavish gifts of presents to them and their envoys, and induce the outer Muslim world to forget his treatment of his father and brothers, or at least to show courtesy to the successful man of action and master of India’s untold wealth, especially when he was free with his money.”
Aurangzeb’s Religious Attitude and Policy
Aurangzeb was above all a zealous Sunni Muslim, and his religious policy was not influenced by any consideration of worldly gain. As one who secured the throne as the champion of Sunni orthodoxy against the liberal Dara, he tried to enforce strictly the Quranic law, according to which it behoves every pious Muslim to “exert himself in the path of God”, or, in other words, to by on holy wars (jihad) against non-M lands (dar-ul-harb) till they are converted into realms of Islam (dar-ul-Islam). This made him extremely puritanic in temperament, so that he took several steps to enforce “own ideas of the morose seriousness of life and punctilious orthodoxy”. He simplified the customary celebrations on his birthday and coronation day. From the eleventh year of his reign he discontinued the practice of Jharoka-darsan, a practice by which his predecessors appeared every morning on the balcony on the wall of the palace to accept the salute of the people, who then gathered on the ground in front. In the same year he forbade music at court and dismissed the old musicians and singers. But music, though banned from the court, could not be “banished from the human soul”. It continued to be secretly practised by the nobles, and the imperial prohibition had some force only in important cities. In the twelfth year the ceremony of weighing the Emperor’s body on two birthdays against gold, silver and other commodities was given up, and royal astronomers and astrologers were dismissed. But the belief of the Muslims in astrology was too deeply rooted in their minds to be removed by an imperial ordinance; it remained active till late in the eighteenth century. In order to avoid the Klima (Muhammadan corfession of faith) on the coins being defiled by men of other faiths, he forbade its use. He also abolished the Nauroz, which the Mughul Emperors of India had borrowed from Pasia. He appointed Censors of Public Morals (Muhtasibs) to “regulate the lives of the people in strict accordance with the Holy law”.
Aurangzeb personally practised what he sought to enforce on others. His private life was marked by a high standard of morality, and be scrupulously abstained from -the common vices of his time. Thus he was regarded by his contemporaries as a “dervish born in the purple” and the Muslims venerated him as a ” Zinda Pir ” or livin(r saint. To ” promote general morality”, he issued a number of regulations. He passed an ordinance prohibiting the production, sale and public use, of wine and bhang. Manucci tells us that the dancing girls and public women were ordered either to get them. selves married or to leave the kingdom. The Emperor strict orders against singing obscene songs, and stopped the burning of faggots and processions during certain religious festivals. It is mentioned in the official “‘guide-books” of Aurangzeb’s reign that he forbade Sati (December, 1663), but “the evidence of contemporary European travellers in India shows that the royal prohibition was seldom observed”.
The Emperor, however, did not rest satisfied with these regulations only. He issued other firmans and ukases, which marked the inauguration of a new, policy in regard to important sections of the people. The year 1679 saw the reimposition of the jizya tax on ” unbelievers
