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Akbar's Reforms.
The Tomb of Akbar the Great at Sikandra
Five miles northwest of Agra stands the magnificent tomb in which the dust of the great Moghul emperor Akbar reposes. The approach to the mausoleum is beneath a grand portal and up a handsome pathway lined on either side with trees and fragrant shrubs. The building itself is of red sandstone, except the upper storey, which is of the finest white marble. In the midst of this upper tier is a superb white marble cenotaph resting upon a tessellated pavement and standing directly above the place where, in a vaulted chamber, three storeys below, lie the remains of him who was India’s noblest king.
Akbar's Palace, Fatehpur Sikri
When Emperor Akbar conquered Gujarat, he expanded the name by adding Fatehpur to Sikri and since then ‘Sikri’ became known as Fatehpur Sikri. Akbar established the town of Fatehpur Sikri to commemorate his Gujarat victory and even made this city his new capital that remained operational between 1570 and 1586. But extreme scarcity of water forced Akbar to reshift his capital to Agra from Fatehpur Sikri and the city was abandoned.
Akbar's Reforms
Akbar's attitude towards the Hindus, especially in the years of the Divine Faith, 1585 to 1595, encouraged nationalist feelings among them. They began to believe that their majority status entitled them to rule the country. For the same reason, Muslims wanted an emperor who would follow Islam in the traditional manner. They eventually found such an emperor in Akbar's descendant, Aurangzeb.
When Akbar had settled the rebellions that occurred in the early years of his reign, he determined to make his empire better, richer and more just for everyone. He tried to establish a real Indian culture, rather than imposing an alien culture on the local inhabitants as the Persian, Afhan and Mongol invaders had done in the past. In order to achieve this, he believed that people of different races and religions should learn to live together as equals. There were four main aspects of his reform programme:
Army
Akbar knew that a well-trained army was necessary to put down rebellions and to conquer more land. He abolished the old jagir system whereby senior army officers had been paid by land grants. Akbar himself chose and paid his commanders. They all took an oath of loyalty to him alone.
Under the mansabdari system he set up, the nobles were given ranks. They were all paid to recruit, equip, train and command a certain number of soldiers. The lowest noble had to keep a force of ten trained man, chiefs and important nobles maintained up 5000 soldiers, while royal princess maintained up to 10,000 soldiers. Every year they had to parade before the emperor to show that they were ready for battle. By this means, Akbar always had an efficient, well-trained army ready at a moment's notice to go to war.
Administration and Justice
Akbar divided his empire into 15 provinces. Each of these was under a governor appointed and paid by the emperor himself. The governor was responsible to the emperor for the general running of the province, including law and order and administration.
Akbar also appointed the judges who dealt with criminal cases. For civil cases, Muslims were tried by Shariah law and Hindus by juries of their own caste. Tax officials were responsible directly to the governors did not have the money, and the tax officials did not have the soldiers, to start a rebellion. Officials were transferred from time to time to prevent them from establishing a power base in any one region.
Money Akbar knew he had to have plenty of money to pay for the army and officials. The taxes were still based on land and crops, and in many parts of the empire, especially in the Delhi area, all the land was taken by the government. The fields were remeasure, and the crops of each area were recorded by name. The people were then taxed one-third of the value of the crops, instead of one-half as in the past. The money was sent directly to the royal Treasury by officials who were closely checked to prevent corruption. These officials acted as advisers to the farmers and encouraged them to grow Ne, high-value crops such as sugar, cotton, maize and indigo because increased profits meant greater tax revenues for the government. To increase trade, Akbar built new roads with trees, rest houses and wells. As money gradually began to take the place of bartering in trade, Akbar had new mints built to make gold, silver and copper coins.. Banks and moneylenders began to appear. Much of all this was run by Hindu merchants so that a Strong Hindu middle class evolved, especially in the cities.
Religion
Akbar realized that differences in religion caused many of the problems in his empire, so he tried to bring Muslims and Hindus closer together.
He encouraged Muslims to marry Hindu women, especially Rajputs, as he himself had done. To please the Hindus, he forbade the kill inf of cows and abolished the jizya tax and the tax on Hindu pilgrmages. The destruction of Hindu temples was made a crime, and many Hindus were given very high positions in the government and army. This friendly attitude convinced many Raput princes to join him and become senior officials and generals in his empire. Ins some places, however, the Hindus had so much power that they began to persecute the Muslims.
Many Muslims felt that they were being unfairly treated. In order to please them, Akbar tried to stop the Hindu practices of suttee and child marriage. He also banned other Hindu practices like the killing of baby girls and discouraged animal sacrifices.
Divine Faith
In Fatehpur Sikri, Akbar had a Hall of Worship where he met Muslim scholar to discuss the Islamic faith and the Quran. Later, scholars religions leaders of other religions -- Hinduism, Jainism, Christianity and Zoroatrianism -- were invited to join the discussions. Akbar felt that all religions were really trying to achieve the same end for heir followers -- to reach paradise and bring about communion with God. It was just that they had different ways of going about it.
In 1582 Akbar began a new religion, Din-i-Ilahi, which he said contained the best teaching of all the other religions. Allah, the Prophet (PBUH) and the Quran were still the foundation of the new faith, but Akbar said he was Allah's representative on earth. As Allah's representative, people of all ranks had to bow down to the ground before him. Naturally, all of this made Muslims very angry because according to Islam people should bow down only before Allah. Only a few courtiers joined Akbar's new religion. He himself returned to Islam about ten years later.
Video showing Akbar's Reforms/Akbar's Din-i-Ellahi.
Dear Students you will find the video on right hand side....showing Akbar's palace that he made at Fatehpur Sikri. It was here he had a new religion made which shows his tolerance towards other religions.
Date: 6th Feb.- 10th Feb. 2012
C.W.
Q1. How was Akbar able to achieve a better, richer and a just empire?
Q2. Describe Mansabdari system of Akbar.
Q3. How did Akbar control the law and order situation of his empire?
H.W. Read Akbar’s Reforms page 83.
Extension task:
Q4. What steps were taken by Akbar to bring reform in tax collection?
Q5. Fill in the blanks:
i) Akbar realized that differences in ----------------- may cause problem in his ----------.
ii) Akbar himself married a Hindu ----------- woman to show ------------ towards Hindus.
iii) To please the Hindus he forbade killing of ---------- and abolished -------------.
iv) ------------- is a Hindu ----------------- in which a woman has to die with her dead husband.
v) Akbar divided his empire into 15 ------------------- and appointed a ------------- in each.
Written task will be given having following questions.
C.W.
Q1 and Q5 on page 65 of the textbook.
H.W.
Read Chapter “So where is everyone?”
Extension task:
Q2 on page 65 of the textbook
Date: 13th Feb.- 17th Feb. 2012
Written task: -
History.
Date: 13th Feb.- 17th Feb. 2012
Written task: -
History.
C.W.
Q1. Akbar’s religious matters were very controversial, discuss.
Q2. Describe divine faith of Akbar?
Q3. How did Din-e-llahi become a negative aspect of Akbar’s reform?
Q4. Describe picture given on (page 83)
No H.W. due to 1st Assessment 2nd Term.
Geography.
C.W: Q1,Q2,Q3 andQ4 on page 67 of the textbook will be given for class work.
