Barring Sisodias of Mewar-Udaipur and Hardas of Ranthambhore, many of the Rajput rulers of Jaipur-Amber- Jodhpur preferred to enter into matrimonial alliances with the Mughals. It was considered a strategic move by the Rajputs. The British rulers in India tried to create rift on communal basis after 1857 revolution, which was jointly carried out by Hindus and Muslims against the foreign rulers. Unfortunately, even after the English left India in 1947, the communal divide has continued to pay dividends to the Desi political parties.
Prime Minister, Theresa May, while celebrating Diwali at 10, Downing Street, prefers to call it “the part of UK’s national life”. The US President Donald Trump hosts a Diwali celebration in the White House, reaffirming Indian-Americans and Hindu-Americans as “truly cherished, treasured and beloved members of our great American family”. Prime Minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, greets the Hindu community on the occasion of Diwali and calls upon “the religious scholars to play their role in interfaith harmony in the society”. Likewise Diwali was one of the important festivals of Hindus during the Mughal period too.
Diwali, also known as Dipawali or “row of lamps” is celebrated in the month of October-November every year. The celebration is in memory of the victory of Hindu God, Rama, over the Demon King, Ravana, who forcedly captured Sita, wife of Rama, for nearly one year. When Rama took back Sita from the captivity of Ravana and defeated the Lankapati, the people of Ayodhya were very happy to see Rama and Sita along with Lakshmana back to their State. They welcomed them by lighting the lamps. The age-old festival is being celebrated all over India. Even the Mughal rulers did not lag behind. Emperor Akbar(Reign:1556-1605), the third King after Babur and Humayun, started Diwali celebrations in Mughal Courts, others followed him. Irrespective of what the religion of the ruler was most of them participated in the Diwali
celebrations and Emperor Aurangzeb was no exception! Of course, unlike Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb(Reign: 1658-1707) did not participate in the open celebrations but did receive gifts from his Rajput Generals like Raja Jaswant Singh of Jodhpur and Raja Jai Singh I of Jaipur. The grandson of Aurangzeb, Jahander Shah, who ruled for just a year(Reign: 1712-13), celebrated Diwali at Lahore with Lal Kunwar(Imtiaz Mahal), a former dancing girl turned the Empress. Diwali was always considered, even by the orthodox Muslims, a festival of natural joy of God’s creation.
The Mughal attitude to Diwali could be gauged from what Abul-Fazl writes in the first volume of Ain-e- Akbari: “His Majesty (Akbar) maintains it is a religious duty and divine praise to worship fire and light; surely, ignorant men consider this forgetfulness of the Almighty and fire worship.” The historian, Harbans Mukhia, states : “ The Mughals patronized Diwali. It became a court festival from Akbar’s time. It became a festival for everyone, not just Hindus.” Recently when the Supreme Court of India ordered to ban sales of crackers in Delhi NCR, some of the propagandists raised the issue that Mughals had banned the crackers. Dr.Katherine Butler Schofield who teaches at Kings College, London disputes the propaganda against the Mughals and the Muslim rulers of Avadh and Bengal. She says: “Fireworks became inherent to Diwali from the late 18 th century. There are Lucknow Nawabi paintings of fireworks at Diwali and European paintings of fireworks at Durga Puja in Murshidabad and Calcutta. The Mughals and their Rajput contemporaries used fireworks extensively, especially in the dark months of the year-late autumn and winter…The chronicles of the reigns of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb describe fireworks being used for weddings, birthday weightings (Tuladan), coronations (including Aurangzeb’s), and religious festivals like Sab-e- Baraat.” Dr. Schofield refutes the claim that Emperor Aurangzeb banned the fireworks. She is quoted as saying in ‘The Times of India’: “His supposed ‘Farman’ floating on social media is at best a modern copy or an outright fake (it’s on modern paper and uses contemporary Urdu orthography)…There is no religious reason why Aurangzeb would have banned fireworks. Holi was celebrated in Aurangzeb’s war camp in Deccan in 1693, according to the Italian traveler Gemelli Careri, so why not Diwali?...There is , in fact, a painting of Aurangzeb’s daughter, Zebunnissa celebrating Shab-e- Baraat with fireworks in Delhi in the late 17 th century.”
There is another reason for the Mughals celebrating Diwali and Hindu festivals. Right from Akbar to Aurangzeb, most of the Emperors had married Hindu wives. Emperor Jahangir was born to a Hindu wife of Emperor Akbar. Emperor Shah Jahan’s mother was also a Hindu wife of Emperor Jahangir. Even Aurangzeb and his sons married Hindu wives. The Mughal Emperors had not only married Hindu wives, they had so many Hindu ladies in their harems too. All the Mughal rulers had Hindu officials in their court and army as well. Hence, the celebrations of Hindu festivals like Diwali were not uncommon. Even the Queen Jodhabai (Mariam-uz- Zamani), the Princess of Raja Bharmal of Amber, who married Akbar, performed Puja of Hindu God in her Palace on regular basis.
When Shah Jahan built the city of Shahjahanabad, Dilli became famous all over the world and attracted many European travelers. C.F. Andrews was a Church of England priest, educator, missionary, who came to India in 1904 and became great friend with Munshi Zakaullah, an alumnus of Delhi College, a mathematician and social historian. Zakaullah had seen life inside the Lal Quila and had described it to Andrews. Andrews in his book, Zakaullah of Delhi, describes the Mughal Court and life in Shahjahanabad. He writes : “The intimate residence together side by side in the same city of Musalmans and Hindus had brought about a noticeable amalgamation of customs and usages among common people.. It was quite common, for instance, in those days, for the two communities to join together in different religious festivals. Hindus would go to a Muslim festival, and Musalmans would go to a Hindu festival. This had become a natural local custom.” On the main Diwali day, the Emperor was to be weighed in gold and silver and a huge weighing scale was put up. The Badshah would sit on one side and the other is filled with gold and silver to his weight. This was to be distributed among the poor. One black buffalo, black blanket, mustard oil, satnaja(mixed grains), gold and silver were taken out as the Badshah’s sadqa (sacrifice to avoid misfortune) and was distributed among the poor people. The entire Mughal Court was involved in the preparations. This was Delhi’s Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb, unfortunately, people tend to forget these days!
Next Column: Agony of the Nobel Laureate Sir CV Raman
( The writer is a Socio-political Historian. E-mail : [email protected] )
