While left liberals have a problem with Akbar being called a brutal conqueror in NCERT books, read how the Mughal King massacred 30000 Hindus in Chittorgarh after his conquest

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) recently released a revised Social Science textbook for Class 8, in line with the recommendations of the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCFSE) 2023. The book titled “Exploring Society: India and Beyond” introduces students to some important events and episodes in Indian history, including the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal rule, the Maratha empire and the colonial period. The book has recently become the cause of a huge liberal meltdown.

The book has a chapter titled “Reshaping India’s Political Map”, which covers Indian history between the 13th and the 17th century, including the rise and fall of the Delhi Sultanate and the resistance to it, the Vijayanagar Empire, the Mughal Empire, and the resistance faced by them, and the rise of the Sikhs.

At the beginning of the book comes is a note for students, which gives them a contextual understanding of the inclusion of some dark historical episodes like the Islamic fundamentalism in the book and the approach to be adopted while studying them. “History sometimes seems to be full of wars and destruction… Should we omit them entirely? … The best approach is to face them and analyse them so as to understand what made such developments possible and, hopefully, help avoid their recurrence in future. It is important to study those darker developments dispassionately, without blaming anyone living today for them… The past continues to live with us and shapes the present.”

To be introduced in schools from the 2025-26 academic year, the book attempts to provide a complete picture of historical events or periods included in it by retaining their negative as well as positive aspects. While the book mentions how Mughal rulers Jahangir and Shah Jahan patronised art and architecture, it also highlights the brutalities of Babur, who massacred the entire populations of cities. It describes Aurangzeb as a military ruler who banned un-Islamic practices and reimposed taxes on non-Muslims and defines the rule of Mughal ruler Akbar, the left-liberal coterie’s poster boy of the Mughal period, as a “blend of brutality and tolerance”.

But the left liberals, who are habitual of using history as a tool to further their agenda, have a problem with it. They have a problem because the facade built by leftist historians who downplayed and whitewashed the brutalities of Islamic invaders and justified their atrocities against Hindus is crumbling. For a long time, they pushed a false narrative by portraying Mughal King Akbar as the epitome of religious tolerance. They eulogised him for abolishing the Jizya tax, a religious tax levied by Muslim rulers on Hindus and other non-Muslims for merely existing in an Islamic regime, but cleverly omitted to mention how he waged Jihad against Hindus during the seige of Chittorgarh and ordered the massacre of 30,000 Hindus populace.

The seige of Chittoragarh

By 1567, Mughal ruler Akbar had managed to get most parts of northern India under his control. Now, he was eyeing the Kingdom of Mewar, which was being ruled by the Suryavanshi Sisodia Rajput dynasty at that time, under Rana Udai Singh II. The Mewar kingdom stood as a symbol of resistance against the Mughal Empire, which had subdued most of the surrounding kingdoms. Akbar decided to launch a military expedition to besiege the Mewar capital at Chittorgarh and termed it as ‘Jihad’ against the infidels (Hindus).

Chittorgarh, situated in present-day Rajasthan, was a formidable fort spanning across 700 acres, situated atop 180 a high hill in the heart of the Mewar Kingdom. The fortress had survived the sieges by Aluddin Khilji (1303) and Bahadur Shah of Gujarat (1535).

Refusing to bow down before the Mughal emperor, Rana Udai Singh II geared up to defend his kingdom. In October 1567, Akbar marched from Agra with his army of 40,000 men equipped with cannons, muskets and siege equipment, aiming to bring the Mewar Kingdom to its knees. Inside the Chittorgarh fort was an army of 8000 Rajput warriors prepared to defend their pride. On the advice of his counsels, Rana Udai Singh II moved to his principality in the Aravali hills and left the Rajput army under the command of Jaimal Rathore.

The Mughal army strategically set up their camp at the base of the Chittorgarh hill to cut off supplies to the fort. The siege began, and both armies soon engaged in a full-fledged battle with arrows, musket shots and cannon shots flying across the sky. The Mughal army was struggling to penetrate the 30-feet-thick walls of the Chittorgarh fort. The Mughal soldiers made several strategies to breach the mighty walls of the Chittorgarh fort. They tried to stealthily march towards the base of the fort through covered trenches and dig burrows under the foundation of the fort and pack gunpowder in them to blow up the fort’s base. However, the Rajput armies were watching them. They dug counter-mines and resisted the Mughal armies, which suffered heavy losses.

The battle went on for months, till the fateful day when the Rajput commander Jaimal Rathore fell. There are varied accounts of the cause of Jaimal Rathore’s death. Some accounts say that he died from a musket shot fired by Akbar on February 22, 1568. Other accounts mention that Rathore was killed by Mughal marksmen. Jaimal Rathore’s death was a turning point in the battle, as the Rajput armies were demoralised and the Mughal armies were able to breach the fort. As soon as the fort was breached by the Mughal armies, the Rajput women inside the fort performed jauhar to protect their honour from the enemy. The remaining Rajput soldiers put up a final resistance before the Mughal armies and laid down their lives, before the fort was finally captured on February 23-24, 1568.

Some Mughal sources say that the Rajput armies of about 8000-10,000 men were entirely killed. Mughal king Akbar, who was frustrated and enraged by the stiff resistance put up by the Rajput armies, proclaimed the siege of Chittorgarh and the victory of Islam over infidels and ordered the massacre of the entire civilian population of around 30,000 people. The men were killed, and several women and children were enslaved.

But, according to left-liberals, Mughal King Akbar was a liberal and tolerant ruler, who abolished the Jizya tax, and not a cruel, intolerant tyrant who ordered the slaughter of thousands of innocent, unarmed Hindu civilians of the Chittorgarh fort, who posed no harm to him. This special ability to see one truth by ignoring the other truth is peculiar to the left-liberals. The only acceptable truth to them is their version of truth, no matter how incomplete, selective or even untrue it is.

This unique quality of theirs begs the question, Jo cheez jaisi hai usey vaisa usey vaisa he pesh kyo na kiya jaye, taat ko resham kyo kaha jaye? (Why not present a thing as it is, why refer to jute as silk?) (famous words of poet, playwright and author Saadat Hasaan Manto).

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