Folks -- I'm happy to answer historical questions on Twitter re the Mughals.

But general tip -- If what you're citing as "evidence" is a cartoon drawing you saw on WhatsApp... you shouldn't need a historian's professional opinion to tell you it is bullshit.

#Mughal #history
Updating with some questions that have come in with brief answers.
The jizya wasn't in effect for much of Mughal rule. When it was, Brahmin religious leaders (not all Brahmins) were exempt.

Typically, the jizya was collected by a special class of tax collectors drawn from the ulama.
The Mughals had no policy towards Hindus as a whole.

As a result, there's huge variety in Mughal-Hindu relations. But it is worth noting that a lot of Hindus worked for the Mughals, with some upper castes doing pretty well. Rajput lineages often allied with the Mughals.
Aurangzeb probably wasn't equally close to all his sisters since they supported different brothers in the war of succession.

Roshanara backed Aurangzeb.
I would prefer to have specific examples, but that's broadly accurate.

Also, premodern Indians often experienced hardships due to the joint actions of kings. E.g., warring with each other, the Mughals and Marathas both used scorched earth tactics, resulting in civilian deaths.
Much about modern day India, especially in the north, was shaped in part by the Mughals, including cuisine, language (e.g., Hindi), currency, and ruling symbolism (yes, even under Hindu nationalists).
From a Mughal perspective, this was a matter of armed resistance (internal Sikh narratives, largely solidified later, tell a different tale).

Aurangzeb wasn't into forced conversions, but he was heavily into imperial security. Keep in mind, he was head of state, not a religion.
Yes, the Mughals kept lots of records (although not everyday births among their subjects or anything that granular).

But the Mughals had a long, drawn-out ending. Delhi was sacked and burned, a few times. Archives were sold off. In brief, lots was lost and the rest scattered.
Of the many "Aurangzeb persecuted X" claims, this holds the most water, although it still fails to capture his incorporation of Shias (and, at times, defense of them) in imperial administration.

This article is quite good on the point:

cambridge.org/core/journals/…

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More from @AudreyTruschke

Mar 21
To be clear -- Hindutva is built on lies. Some pretty wild lies at that.

scroll.in/latest/1046027… #Hindutva
Let's run through the 3 lies over which this actor just became the Indian state's most recent political prisoner.

These are all pretty basic things that any South Asia historian could go over (I happen to be, critically, outside of the BJP's Hindu Rashtra at present).
Lie 1: Indian nation was founded when Ram defeated Ravan.

Reality: The Indian nation was founded in 1947. Ram is mythology character and god (sometimes both; sometimes one or the other, depending on text, time period, and believer), said to have lived millennia ago.
Read 6 tweets
Jan 20
I'm thrilled to share my latest publication -- "Hindu: A History," published in Comparative Studies in Society and History.

The article traces the multilingual history of the term "hindu" over 2,500 years. 🧵

#Hindu #Hinduism

cambridge.org/core/journals/…
The article was partly inspired by David Lorenzen's seminal 1999 article "Who Invented Hinduism?" also published in CSSH.

I imagine my project to be complementary to his.

cambridge.org/core/journals/…
Whereas Lorenzen traces a social construct, i.e. the religion of Hinduism, across varied vocabulary, I trace a single term, i.e., "hindu," across diverse meanings.

This is a long, meandering journey over 2 1/2 millennia. Some highlights --
Read 18 tweets
Jan 6
The Hindu American Foundation recently spectacularly failed to silence critics and a researcher in court.

This contains some analysis of the case by attorneys, including on HAF's mischaracterizations of Judge Mehta's dismissal.

iamc.com/hindu-american… #Hindutva
This point is worth repeating --

Both articles included “a lot of concrete facts” that HAF “didn’t even contest” or allege as false.

“They didn’t contest that HAF’s treasurer is the son of the National Vice President of the US wing of the RSS...
"They didn’t contest that his family had donated a significant sum to HAF in 2018. They didn’t contest that a co-founder of HAF was formally associated with an affiliate of the RSS....
Read 5 tweets
Jan 5
I applaud this principled, pro-knowledge stance.

A few stray thoughts.... #Hindu #Muslim #blasphemy #censorship
#Hamline University recently egregiously infringed on #AcademicFreedom by firing a professor for showing devotional historical Muslim images that some conservative modern Muslims find offensive.
On fact value, the firing is outrageous.

Academic Freedom trumps religious sentiments, always. If it didn't, we couldn't teach the humanities.

But consider the other implications here...
Read 8 tweets
Nov 8, 2022
The below tweet is steaming pile of Hindutva nonsense. I haven't done this in a while, but let's unpack, shall we?

#history #India #SouthAsia #Hindutva #propaganda
First of all sources -- Those making this ahistorical statement are not historians. Both men are Hindu Right ideologues, and the individual to whom the statement is attributed is a plagiarist and Savarkar sycophant.

What are they claiming and how does it hold up to scrutiny?
There seems to be a claim of a single Islamic conquest of India. That's wrong.

Real story -- There were many Indo-Muslim dynasties who ruled parts of South Asia over the centuries. Some came from outside the subcontinent, and others did not. Nobody ever conquered all of India.
Read 17 tweets
Nov 1, 2022
US-based Hindu nationalist groups intersect with numerous other right-wing ideas and ideologies.

Some examples here, drawn from this recent article: audreytruschke.com/hindu-right-us… (image if you want this all in one go). #Hindutva #rightwing #Republicans Image
First of all, basics --

Hindutva is a far-right political ideology.
Hindu nationalists are a politically defined group.
Don't confuse #Hindutva and #Hinduism.
Hindu nationalists have been part of American life for half a century.

America also has lots of other right-wingers...
A well-established connection are Hindutva links with Zionist organizations. This is in spite of the extensive documentation of Hindutva admiration for Nazis.

Hindu nationalist groups are also rather fond of attacking academics, a quintessentially right-wing activity.
Read 14 tweets

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