Religious Policies of Jahangir
The liberal character of the state instituted by Akbar was largely maintained through the first half of the 17th century — though with a few notable lapses under Jahangir, and with certain modifications introduced later by Shah Jahan. A study of the religious policies of Jahangir reveals a ruler who, despite occasional inconsistencies, remained fundamentally committed to his father’s vision of religious tolerance, making this an important theme for understanding the continuity and change in Mughal state policy for UPSC History Optional aspirants.
Expectations of Orthodox Circles
- At the outset of Jahangir’s reign, orthodox circles had expected that Akbar’s policy of sulh-i-kul (peace with all) and religious eclecticism would be abandoned, and the supremacy of the sharia restored.
- These hopes were initially raised by some of Jahangir’s early actions:
- He asked the ulama and learned men of Islam to compile distinctive appellations of God that were easy to remember, so that he might recite them while using his rosary.
- On Fridays, he associated with learned and pious men, dervishes, and saints. At the Ramzan Id following his accession, he visited the Idgah, and several lakh dams were distributed in charity.
- However, there was nothing unusual in these gestures, and the orthodox elements were soon disabused of their expectations — for neither by temperament nor by training was Jahangir an orthodox ruler.
Jahangir’s Liberal Practices
Personal Habits and Court Culture
- Jahangir had a well-known fondness for drinking, which he sometimes carried to excess. By his own account, by the time of his accession he had reduced his intake of wine from twenty cups of double-distilled spirit (brandy) to five, and that too only at night.
- He felt free to invite his nobles and others to join him in wine drinking. When he visited Babur’s grave at Kabul, he found a basin capable of holding two Hindustani maunds of wine, and ordered another such basin built; every day, both basins were filled with wine and distributed among the servants present.
- These occasions were accompanied by dance and music, and his Memoirs contain frequent references to such parties, to which nobles were regularly invited.
Early Ordinances
- In the ordinances issued at the time of his accession, Jahangir decreed that for two days each week — Thursday, the day of his accession, and Sunday, the day of Akbar’s birthday and “dedicated to the Sun,” on which, according to Christian belief, creation had begun — there was to be no killing or slaughter of animals for food.
- Shortly afterwards, in what came to be known as the Ain-i-Jahangiri (or Jahangiri rules), forcible conversion to Islam was expressly forbidden.
Continuation of Sulh-i-Kul
- Jahangir’s attitude towards Akbar’s policy of sulh-i-kul, and towards granting respect and freedom to all faiths, is evident from his own Memoirs. Praising his father, he writes: “The professors of various faiths had room in the broad expanse of his innumerable sway. This was different from the practice of other realms, for in Persia there is room for Shias only, and in Turkey, India and Turan there is room for Sunnis only.”
- He goes on to describe how, in his own dominions too, “there was room for the professors of opposite religions, and for beliefs, good and bad, and the road to altercation was closed. Sunnis and Shias met in one mosque, and the Europeans (Firangi) and Jews in one church, and observed their own forms of worship.”
- Jahangir not only continued Akbar’s policy of sulh-i-kul but also carried forward the practice of enrolling murids (disciples), giving each a token or shast, and a shabi (likeness) of the Emperor.
- At the time of initiation, disciples were advised to avoid sectarian quarrels and to follow the rule of universal peace in matters of religion, to refrain from killing any living creature with their own hands, to honour the luminaries (the Sun, light, and so on) as manifestations of God, and to dwell constantly on the divine.
- However, this device of discipleship — intended to bind the nobility closely to the Emperor — appears to have fallen into disuse after some time.
Participation in Hindu and Other Festivals
- Jahangir continued to celebrate the various Hindu festivals at his court — Diwali, Holi, Dashera, Rakhi, Shivratri, and others — and he himself, along with many of his nobles, actively participated in them.
- During one Diwali celebration, Jahangir personally took part in a bout of gambling that continued for three nights.
- He also banned cow slaughter in the Punjab, and perhaps extended this ban to Gujarat as well.
- Nauroz, an old Central Asian festival also observed by the Parsis, was celebrated at court for nineteen days with music and festivity.
- The Christians, too, were permitted to celebrate Easter, Christmas, and other festivals.
- These practices amounted to a public declaration of religious freedom for all, and also provided greater opportunity for social interaction between the ruler and officials belonging to different religious persuasions.
Religious Freedom for Hindus
- Jahangir’s commitment to religious freedom is clearly set out in an early draft of the Tuzuk, where he states: “I ordered that with this exception (prohibition of forcible sati), they (the Hindus) may follow whatever is their prescribed custom, and none should exercise force or compulsion or oppression over anyone.”
- There was no ban on Hindus building new temples. Apart from Bir Singh Deo Bundela, who built a magnificent temple at Mathura, a large number of new temples were also constructed at Banaras.
- Christians, too, were granted land and permission to build churches.
Grants to Brahmans and Temples
- Jahangir continued Akbar’s practice of extending gifts and grants to brahmans and temples.
- In his first regnal year (1605–06), while marching against Khusrau, he distributed large sums of money to faqirs and brahmans.
- Documents preserved by the Vrindavan temples of the Chaitanya sect show that Jahangir continued to add grants to the temples and their votaries — between 1612 and 1615, he made at least five separate grants to the followers of Chaitanya at Vrindavan.
- In 1621, while travelling to Kangra via Haridwar, he noted it as “one of the established places of worship of the Hindus where brahmans and recluses retire in lovely places to worship God in their own way,” and distributed gifts in cash and kind to many of them there.
Occasions of Narrow-Mindedness
Despite his overall liberalism, there were occasions when Jahangir displayed a narrower spirit — perhaps out of a desire to placate the powerful orthodox clerical elements, or to be seen by them as an orthodox Muslim ruler.
- He declared the war against Mewar to be a jihad, although there was little genuine reason for doing so.
- During this campaign, a number of Hindu temples were destroyed — an act that was particularly uncalled for, since Jahangir had instructed Khurram to treat the Rana as a friend, should he agree to submit.
- Similarly, in 1621, the Kangra campaign was declared a jihad, even though it was commanded by a Hindu general, Raja Bikramajit.
- In the presence of theologians, a bullock was slaughtered within the fort, and a mosque was ordered to be built.
- From Kangra, Jahangir went on to visit the Durga temple at Jwalamukhi, where he observed that apart from “infidels whose custom is the worship of idols, crowds on crowds of the people of Islam, traversing long distances, bring their offerings, and pray to the black (stone) image.” No attempt was made to stop this practice.
- Earlier, on a visit to Pushkar, Jahangir was disturbed to find the Hindus worshipping Vishnu in the form of a varaha (boar), and ordered the image broken — noting that the Hindu theory of incarnation in ten forms was unacceptable to him, since God, in his view, could not be limited in this way.
- None of the other temples dedicated to Vishnu were harmed, however, and at Ajmer, Jahangir even granted the entire village of Pushkar to the local brahmans as madad-i-maash.
- In 1617, Jahangir issued an order in Gujarat directing that all Jain temples be closed and Jain saints expelled from the empire, ostensibly on moral grounds — the wives and daughters of devotees were said to visit the Jain saints at the temples where they resided.
- This order, however, does not appear to have been enforced: inscriptional evidence from Gujarat, supported by Jain sources, shows that Jahangir continued to maintain good relations with Jain saints during this very period, even granting liberal funds for the construction of Jain temples.
Jahangir and the Sikhs
There has been considerable historical controversy surrounding Jahangir’s attitude towards the Sikhs, and particularly his dealings with Guru Arjun.
- In his Memoirs, Jahangir records that at Gobindwal on the river Beas, Guru Arjun, “posing as a religious guide and instructor,” had enrolled large numbers of Hindus and Muslims as his followers — “They called him Guru, and from all sides came to him and expressed their absolute faith in him.” He notes that this had continued for three or four generations.
- Denouncing the Guru’s followers as “fools and fraud-believers,” Jahangir writes: “Many times it occurred to me to put a stop to this vain affair or to bring him into the assembly of the people of Islam.” This statement appears almost immediately after Jahangir’s accession, in the context of Khusrau’s rebellion.
- It remains unclear exactly when Jahangir first contemplated action against the Sikhs. If this was during Akbar’s reign, it is worth noting that Akbar had favoured Guru Angad and Guru Ramdas, granting them five hundred bighas of land and a pond — around which the Harmandir Sahib and the city of Amritsar later grew.
- If the thought occurred after his own accession, the window was necessarily brief, since Khusrau rebelled barely six months into Jahangir’s reign. This, again, appears to have been an attempt on Jahangir’s part to placate the orthodox sections of his court.
- It is clear that Jahangir took no action against the Sikhs as a community, but acted only against Guru Arjun, on the specific charge that he had blessed Khusrau by applying a tika to his forehead and giving him money — an act Jahangir regarded, by his own lights, as treason.
- He therefore summoned the Guru, handed over his houses, dwellings, and children to Murtaza Khan (who functioned like a kotwal), confiscated his property, and ordered that he be put to death.
- It has been argued, on the basis of Jesuit and other evidence — including Sikh tradition — that Jahangir had not, in fact, ordered the Guru’s execution, but had only imposed a heavy fine, which the Guru refused to pay, and that his death resulted from the torture inflicted upon him in an attempt to recover the fine.
- This, however, does not exonerate Jahangir from the charge of imposing an excessive punishment on a highly respected saint for what was, at most, an inadvertent lapse.
- Jahangir also imprisoned the Guru’s son and successor, Guru Hargobind, five years later, in order to recover the arrears of the fine, keeping him imprisoned for two years.
- It is worth noting that Jahangir similarly punished a Sufi, Shaikh Nizam Thanesari, who had merely accompanied Khusrau for some distance — though in this case, the punishment was limited to banishment to Mecca, with his travel expenses paid by the state.
Jahangir and Religious Thinkers
Like his father, Jahangir was consistently eager to visit and converse with dervishes, saints, and religious thinkers of every persuasion, and to extend grants to them.
- In 1613, Jahangir instituted the custom of having deserving people and dervishes brought before him every night, so that, after personal enquiry into their circumstances, he could bestow land, gold, or clothing upon them. There is no reason to believe this practice was confined to Muslims alone.
- Jahangir continued Akbar’s practice of inviting religious divines for personal discussion. His principal area of religious interest appears to have been monotheism, which drew him to the company of Mian Mir, the celebrated Qadri Sufi of Lahore and a friend of Guru Arjun.
- He was also deeply devoted to Muinuddin Chishti, the patron saint of the Mughals — in 1613, on his visit to Ajmer, he walked a full kos on foot before entering the shrine.
Intolerance Towards Sectarian Dissent
- Jahangir was, at times, provoked by the sectarian opinions expressed by others. This trait led him to imprison the Sunni religious leader Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, mujaddid alf-i-sani, for three years in the Gwalior fort.
- Jahangir’s hostility stemmed from Sirhindi’s denunciation of wahdat-al-wujud (monotheistic pantheism), and from the Shaikh’s claim that in a “dream,” he had come closer to God than the Caliphs of the past — a statement Jahangir found deeply objectionable.
- Several other Muslims, including Kaukab, Abdul Lateef, and Sharif, were similarly imprisoned for expressing opinions the Emperor found disagreeable.
The Search for Vedanta: Jadrup Gosain
- The greatest spiritual satisfaction Jahangir found was among the votaries of Vedanta, which he referred to as “the science of Tasawwuf” (Tasawwuf being the branch of Islamic knowledge concerned with the spiritual development of the Muslim).
- In this search, he met Jadrup Gosain at Ujjain in the eleventh year of his reign (1616). Over the following three years, he met Jadrup on seven occasions.
- Jadrup lived in a dwelling hollowed out of a hillside, with a simple door fitted to it. Having heard of his reputation, Jahangir wished to summon him to Agra, but chose not to, out of consideration for the trouble it would cause the ascetic. Instead, Jahangir himself walked one-eighth of a kos (roughly two-and-a-half furlongs) to visit him.
- Jadrup made a deep impression on Jahangir through his knowledge and simplicity. Jahangir writes: “he (Jadrup) had thoroughly mastered the science of Vedanta,” and that “God Almighty has given him unusual grace, a lofty understanding, an exalted nature and sharp intellectual power.” He was, Jahangir noted, entirely free of worldly attachment, so that “putting behind him the world and all that was in it, he sits content in solitude and without want.”
- Jadrup later shifted to Mathura, where Jahangir visited him twice more. When Hakim Beg, brother-in-law of Nur Jahan and the official in charge of Mathura, mistreated Jadrup, Jahangir promptly dismissed him from service.
Jahangir’s Personal Religious Beliefs
- Relatively little is known with certainty about Jahangir’s own personal religious convictions. He remained, on the whole, within the framework of Islam, but possessed a good working knowledge of other religions, particularly Hinduism and Christianity.
- While he continued to follow many Hindu practices that had become widely established in India, he specifically rejected idol-worship and the theory of incarnation.
- Jahangir also held a highly exalted view of kingly duty. Echoing Abul Fazl, he maintained that the just Creator bestows sovereignty upon whomever He considers fit for this glorious and exalted responsibility — and that it was therefore futile for the seditious and short-sighted to attempt to deprive of crown and dominion one chosen by God, the “Crown-cherisher.”
Conclusion
On the whole, Jahangir made no fundamental departure from his father’s liberal religious attitude. As R.P. Tripathi observes, Jahangir “was more orthodox than his father and less than his son Khurram.”
It has been alleged that Jahangir took harsh measures against the Sikhs, Jains, and Sunnis as communities — but it is important to note that the actual victims of his displeasure were specific individuals, namely Guru Arjun, Man Singh Sun, and Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, and not the religious groups as such. Notably, the proportion of Hindu mansabdars did not decline during Jahangir’s reign. He never pursued a policy of destroying Hindu places of worship, did not reimpose the jizya, and did not believe in forcible conversion to Islam — underscoring that the essential liberal architecture of Akbar’s state survived, largely intact, through the religious policies of Jahangir.
