Originally posted by: BharatVeerPutra
Akbar's turn to tolerance had VERY LITTLE to do with his wives or Harka bai from the solid evidence(contemporary chronicles)we have.
The real reason Akbar sought discourses on other religions was something else, recorded by his contemporaries but hidden by our secularists eager to cover up the truth his Hindu wives have nothing to do with religious liberalism if we go by contemporary chronicles.
In fact we have solid evidence from his contemporaries that over time he had for all practical purposes start doubting his own scholars teached practices , this happened later in his life. In his early life he was much of a jihadist fanatic as any other Muslim occupier of India.
The wars he waged against the only resistant Hindu kingdoms - Mewar and Gondwana - had all the characteristics of classic jihad ...Fatahnama-i-Chittor issued by him after the conquest of Chittor at Ajmer, the notorious fathnAmA-i-chittor which seculars find so hard to ever quote in verbatim, is prepered with Quranic verses, compares the battle of Chittor with jihads led by Prophet
1579 Akbar boasted that he was a great conqueror of Islam to the ruler of Turan, Abdullah Khan, in a letter
Akbar's reign was chronicled extensively by his court historian Abul Fazal in the books Akbarnama and Ain-i-akbari. Fazal gave a positive spin to Akbar's reign by glossing over uncomfortable facts of the emperor's reign related to his interaction with other communities of his empire, which has been repeated by numerous historians over the years. Other contemporary sources of Akbar's reign like the works of Badayuni, Shaikhzada Rashidi and Shaikh Ahmed Sirhindi were written outside of court influence and hence contain more authentic information and less flattery for Akbar.
Akbar becoming tolerant king and accepting diversity of religions had really nothing to do with any of his wives. His teachers in his initial years were liberal minded and had taught him to be tolerant of other religions. But in order to encourage his army to conquer large parts of indian continent they gave the name of these wars as jihad on khafirs(non believers). It was the orthodox Maham anga and Bairam Khan who encouraged his thinking at a early age. And Akbar followed this practice till almost age of 35.
His allowing his hindu wives to practice their religion was a great political ploy to win over the hard to defeat rajpuths into his fold. Initially every rajputhana king was scared to ally with Akbar or marry his daughter to Akbar. But after they saw he gave his wife religious freedom inside the palace that is when they started making alliance with him. Chittor massacre was another reason rajpuths surrendered any siege or war easily later on. This was his political master stroke and many books and articles state the same.
For that matter Akbar married Christian, Buddist and jain wives and all were given freedom to follow their religions withing confines of palace. But for all official purpose his wives were muslims and had muslim names and titles given to them. That is because to marry as per islam, the girl has to convert to islam else marriage is invalid. So inside the fort they would practice their hindu cultures and religion. If you talk of jaziya it was removed in 1560s brought back 1570s and then repealed in 1590s. So it was more of a economical tool. But regarding religion Akbar was a rationalist in later life and could see through the religious leaders and just tolerated their presence in court. That he why he wanted to create a different religion.
Akbar becoming tolerant and started implementing rules and social reforms in his 30s majorly after birth of his son Salim. Akbar becoming a benevolent king and accepting all religions was a maturing process which started around his 30s. Akbar was a shrewd administrator cum political strategist and brilliant warrior no doubts about it. Because before/after him none of his heirs could actually match his brilliance in empire building through alliances and rules to promote majority. That shows his far sightedness as a brilliant political strategist.
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