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60 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
but remained unfinished at Benares, the great stronghold of infidelity. The infidels were now desirous of completing them. His Majesty, the defender of the faith, gave orders that at Benares and throughout all his dominions in every place all temples that had been begun should be cast down. It was reported from the Province of Allahabad that 76 temples had been destroyed in the district of Benares.” *
It was left to Aurangzeb to make a final attempt to overthrow idolatry. The author of ‘ Ma’ athir i-Alamgiri dilates upon his efforts to put down Hindu teaching, and his destruction of temples in the following terms :
“In April, A. D. 1669, Aurangzib learned that in the provinces of Thatta, Multan and Benares, but especially in the latter, foolish Brahmins were in the habit of expounding frivolous books in their schools, and that learners, Muslims as well as Hindus, went there, from long distances….The ‘Director of the Faith’ consequently issued orders to all the governors of provinces to destroy with a willing hand the schools and temples of the infidels; and they were enjoined to put an entire stop to the teaching and practising of idolatrous worship….. Later it was reported to his religious Majesty that the Government officers had destroyed the temple of Bishnath at Benares.” †
As Dr. Titus observes ‡—
“Such invaders as Muhammad and Timur seem to have been more concerned with iconoclasm, the collection of booty, the enslaving of capatives, and the sending of infidels to hell with the ‘proselytizing sword ’ than they were with the conversion of them even by force. But when rulers were permanently established the winning of converts became a matter of supreme urgency. It was a part of the state policy to establish Islam as the religion of the whole land.
“ Qutb-ud-Din, whose reputation for destroying temples was almost as great as that of Muhammad, in the latter part of the twelfth century and early years of the thirteenth, must have frequently resorted to force as an incentive to conversion. One instance may be noted: when he approached Koil (Aligarh) in A. D. 1194, ‘those of the garrison who were wise and acute were converted to Islam, but the others were slain with the sword’.
“Further examples of extreme measures employed to effect a change of faith are all too numerous. One pathetic case is mentioned in the time of the reign of Firoz Shah (A.D.
1351—1388). An old Brahmin of Delhi had been accused of worshipping idols in his house, and of even leading Muslim women to become infidels. He was sent for and his case placed
- Dr. Titus : Indian Islam, p. 24. † Ibid., p. 22 ‡ Void., pp. 31-32.