I have a feeling Karnad's bloviating was not a spur-of-the-moment work of spontaneity. It was well timed, well thought of, intentionally designed move to spring-board his career to the next station.

He is either looking for a new job within the Government or some of it's offshoots in media houses in Delhi. Clearly he is a man out of job, looking for a new revenue bucket. I won't be surprised if NDTV hires him as their professional secularist for doing a hack-job on mindless TV debates.

Karnad, A Roy, Teesta et al. serve a purpose for these studios. They have the ability to go under people's skin with their pseudo-liberal wannabe Naom Chomsky farce played out for higher TRP.

He has a new play/book that recently came out called 'Tughlaq'. As the name implies, it focuses on glorifying Tughlaq.

Brilliant post. I would request the author to go ahead and write that book. It is sorely needed in the present discourse of whitewashed history of the Islamic invaders. Another book to look at is "Aavarana" by Dr SL Bhyrappa in Kannada, in which he removes the "Veil" from the sanitized version of India's encounter with the Islamic invaders. Incidentally, Karnad had a problem with that as well as he had written a play about Tipu Sultan glorifying him while ignoring his atrocities in the Malabar region. Bhyrappa whilst being the best contemporary writer in Kannada has never found favor with the Govt because he writes the truth; and hence has not received the Jnanapith Award given to marxist cronies like Karnad and UR Ananthamurthy.

Indian polity based on Islamic rule was a huge disaster for India.Islamic misrule established the Iqtadari system of land rights, followed by jagirdari. From there, the British zamindari, which killed the Indian economy was a short, quick step.

It is a moot point if the Khilji, Tughlaqs, Lodi, Mughals were really foreigners. They were from Afghanistan - which till the British lost it, was a part of India. Tughlaqs were Qaraunas, (blacks or mixed) or Neguderis /Nikudari, a Mongol group that settled in Afghanistan and east of Iran.

These Islamic warlords made huge money in slave trade from India (thru Hindu Kush) to Central Asia and horse trade. Based on this, they were able to raise huge cavalries from Mongol breeders - and using their considerable capital, invested in raising large cavalries.

All these dynasties were quickly overthrown - and this bogey of foreign invasions and weak Indian armies is a British colonial myth.

Between 1850-1925, Islamic political power globally declined to negligible levels. The two great Islamic Empires, Mughal and Ottoman ended between 1850-1925. The Islamic world is today controlled by Western puppets in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan - and others.

Even after some 600 years of misrule based on Islamic polity, till 1857, India was still a huge economy.

Remarkably, within the next 90 years, the British misrule decimated the Indian economy. Today 65 years after British departure, India is again a Top-5 economy - with the largest gold reserves in the world.

Churchill alone, in two years, in Great Bengal Famine killed more Indians than 650 years of aggression by Islamic rulers.

Great post Brother:):)

I just wish Indians would set the system of checks and balance. Our politicians are too dishonest.

Between the two evils, British was far better.

Superb post Sankara.

Excellent post and well written but still the question always comes to mind whenever these anti hindus continue to do their anti hindu activities that how comes in a country of 800 million hindus they get away with it.By now garnad and William Dalrymple( who lives in delhi) should have been sent to hospital permanently or 6 foot under as thats the only language they and their followers will only understand.All intellectual scrutiny is good but its not going to make any difference to them as there is no fear of any come backs .

Good question. To understand how powerful and well organized is anti-hindu nexus read 'Breaking India' by Rajiv Malhotra

Shankara, superb post. Yes, it is a fact that Indian History has been distorted and recorded to conveniently suit the Muslims and socialists alike. Profound efforts have been put in by the erstwhile historians of the 18th and 19th centuries to build Indian History upon monumental canards. This attitude was, to a large extent, pursued by some of the English historians during their era, and post independence, completely exaggerated in pretentious and insincere rhetoric by the socialists led by a Nehru!

Girish Karnad is one amongst those whose elevation to a undesirable status he enjoys now is owed to Shri. C. Rajagopalachari, whose pure and simple translation of the Mahabharata was the basis of Karnad's inspiration to attempt at his first playwright titled Yayati, Indians attribute and attach themselves to Hindu epics with fierce loyalty, the tele series of Ramayana and Mahabharata being salient examples, and therefore, Karnad's Yayati too found its way among accolades. Over the years, no doubt Karnad has matured into a reasonable playwriter, average actor and mediocre move director. None of these three traits were exemplary and worthy of a clap for Karnad because none of them were ideally his creations. All of them were stolen, aped, copied and dramatized by him with not even one credited to him. Being a popularity seeker and a white ass licker to the core, he was gifted for his loyalty as the Minister for Culture with the Indian High Commission, London, a non diplomatic and purely decorative post. Other than his basic knowledge in his literary field, he barely had any genuine knowledge of Indian History, his recent rants and diatribes sufficient proofs of this. In India, anything Muslim ran to box office and Karnad chose just that theme for his recent popularity.

It is not too late for him to educate himself of the destruction his much fancied Muslim brethren did to Hindu culture and Hindu places of worship for over 1000 years and still continue to do so till date. The sharp conflicts between the Hindu ethos and Muslim zealotry is personified in the thousands of Temples destroyed, looted and Mosques constructed on that very foundations, a reason why most of the ancient Masjids closely resemble a Hindu Temple to date. The Historian, Praful Goradia, has written a book with references and pictures abundantly highlighting the *Hindu Masjids* as they are called now. A brief read through this book will be sufficient enough for a mediocre pea brain like Karnad to assess the extent of destruction his fond brethren unleashed on ours and his belief, culture and places of worship.

Permit me to quote just one paragraph by Praful Goradia here:-

"Regrettably, a great deal of Indian History is a product of prejudice. Iconoclasm was a major misfortune for the Hindus. Temples, if not by the hundreds, in thousands were desecrated and converted into Mosques and Dargahs. In some cases Temples were destroyed and their rubble were utilized to build Mosques. The deities were buried under the entrance of the Mosques so that they could be stamped and trampled by those who came in for their prayers. How much the Muslims wounded the Hindu sentiment and how much they traumatized the indigenous civilization can only be a matter of conjecture. But surely the destruction of Hindu Temples is a recorded fact but one that failed to find its place in any historical text books reflecting Indian History".....

I conclude here.

You should write all the volumes.Excellent post.

"Is it ignorance or agenda that drives Indian history narrative"...very well said...cant decide if people like Karnaad are stupid or slimy

First off , excellent post. This is bound to send the outrage meters skyrocketing. I am going to start wondering aloud now if that's ok. Brickbats and conversation starters are always welcome.

As I understand it , Indian knowledge of Mathematics was far superior to that of the west during Medieval times : http://en.wikipedia.org/wik... . We had institutions that had a very strong standing internationally. We even established the foundations of modern calculus at least 200 years before Newton ! : http://en.wikipedia.org/wik... .

There are even claims that we figured out the speed of light long before the west [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wik... ] but I wouldn't place too much emphasis on them : http://en.wikipedia.org/wik... .

We also did not have the impediment of a totalitarian / sadistic ideology burning us every time we contradicted it.

However , there is one thing I am skeptical about. You mention that the Vijaynagaram empire was the first example of a welfare state with waterworks and hospitals. I am wondering whether it was even possible to run a welfare state in those days ; centrally planning an empire *and* ensuring public welfare in an era with no good communication and information flow seems rather far fetched. After all , the biggest reason for the inefficiency of welfare states today ( corruption being one of the inefficiencies and not a cause ) , was due to the inability to manage the flow of information , which is why market systems flourish.

However , if there really were such a thing as an efficiently run welfare state that could adapt to changing times , what does it say of the Western ideas of free markets , and socialism ?

If there were no outside hindrance , could it be that we'd have had thinkers to rival (or far exceed in profundity) those of the European enlightenment , the very people who gave the world modern democracy , capitalism , the foundations of modern scientific revolution and free markets ( albeit taking away quite as much in the name of imperialism , racism , fascism and communism ) ?

If the statement that contribution from foreign ideologies to India before modern times is a net negative , is true , I am starting to wonder whether , if not for the invasion of foreign ideologies , our civilization would be decades ahead of everyone else in prosperity and technology .

Please write a book ! I would be the first to buy .

Let the truth set us free.

world's first welfare state was not vijaynagar but whole india under emperor ashoka

Good post, Shankara.

Not being a big proponent of the virtues of welfare state, I am bit surprised that somehow pre-Islamic India and more recent Hindu states were apparent welfare state pioneers! Happily it's nothing of the sort. Taking care of commons like providing good roads, aqua-ducts for farming and drinking water doesn't constitute welfare state nor does providing care facilities for travelers nor does charity of wealthy people providing hospital care for the poor.

It's simply painful to see that such voluminous glory has been let to be fed by termite infestation, and to propagate a never-existent glory, as means of appeasement and vote-bank politics, when the rest of the world is umpteen interested in promulgating their historic importance. Americans, who are predominantly whites who embarked from Europe, on a mission to capture, enslave and massacre the natives are unearthing the Mayans and Aztecs in the name of Historical prominence. Chinese, under Mao, destroyed Shaolin temples and pre-history; but, are interested in bringing them back, for that mounts their historical prominence. We are singing glory of Babur an 'invader', a 'marauder', and are reluctant to believe Harish Chandra was a king of this soil.

It's simply painful to see the technology, the science, the medicine, the healthcare we had practiced go into the trash, when there's capitalist apprehensions ruling the present world. Today healthcare, and medical innovations are not for public service but for profit accumulations. The land which once owned the key to development is now NOTHING.

It's the most painful to see that, all this painful loss of glory is being overseen and ignored. The current generation is let to fend for it's own self. No one is ready to look back to history, and cannot be, when his/her future is bereft of security. Political prominence, cronyism, and the charactersitics featured by the Mughals, as mentioned in the article, such as self- aggrandizement, self-serving, egotistical natures carry more attraction to the crowd. Am disdainful and distraught to hope that my grand children and their offspring will also tend to live so, and will alienate further from the said glory. May the lord rise up in the form of Kalki at the earliest.

Excellent Post...will keep this post in my treasure..

Excellent. Just a small query: Sir VS "a leading light of the academic world.."?

Shankara,

i would say what you have written is more from an internal aggression that pure authentic history..!!

You may be correct in saying a few muslim kingdoms were rather corrupt, but white washing the whole history would be more selfish..

I may not have all the facts about history to put before you, but surely comment on a few.

The concept of Hindu-Muslim feud is a brain child of British to divide and rule the country and to plunder the wealth across the country.

the matter of religion as one 's identity was never treated as a bias over any character in India before the British rule.

All the socialist people you quoted - Nehru - were/are trying to present the other side view of a community in the country which lacks a connect with the majority,

Taxation which you have quoted was first given to the world by Islam around 6 century AD, every Muslim pays religious tax for the welfare of the poor, which is called ZAKAT.

An equivalent money was collected from the Hindus as a protection money for the kingdoms under the Muslim rule, this was done in the west too.

regarding your last part, i being a Muslim would never hark and say Muslim rulers did so and so...because it has got nothing to do with me, Islam is completely different spiritual religion which is not bothered about any worldly matters, who ever boasts of such being a Muslim is not
on right path, and is not Islamic and to quote hims Islamic is itself a distorted fact.

Look at the history of the authors you quoted, count people having knowledge of Islam, all seem to be unidirectional and in pursuit of the same thing.The history out of such ideology is not fact to say the least.

To end with i would like to advise you that.
what ever history has seen, it is rather stupidity on part of a historian to attribute anything to the current community and boast or criticize over this.purely futile.

As a famous saying goes "History is partial"

So if you are going to do a research and write a book, i would advise you to do a selfless and clear record of the history, impartial...the sources should be authentic,

All the best for your job....may the All-mighty guide you if he wills.

Dear Sameer,

Appreciate your inputs. Your intention to refute when you find something untrue from your heart. Hope, you too appreciate me having mine. I was interested to read further, from the beginning lines of your passage. But, later felt that, it is in a direction that attempts to dilute the intents of Mughal rulers, as quoted in the main article. I regret to feel so.

At first one must remember this: As far as the Hindu dharmic traditions were concerned, the ages are not yet well determined. They have existed in a very ancient period, whose history is mislead due to various factors, which mainly are,

i. language - the ancient history of Hindu culture was maintained in Sanskrit for so many ages - perhaps millenias together. this language has become little prevalent in the present days.

ii. invasions - the mughal invasions have seriously, and sincerely caused huge distraught to the earlier history. there is little to differ, unless one takes a biased viewpoint. perhaps, their contributions have to be measured, then that is on a different scale. but, what is destroyed is destroyed.

iii. western archaeology - as same as the mughals, even the westerners were unwilling to accept that an ancient history, predated to their ages had been successful and prevailing. there has been serious attempts to bring about a school of thought that would love to see the world say, indians are nothing but tree branch dressed tribals. though their attempts were little successful or subtle, this has truncated the appropriate roots of this earliest civilization.

iv. poverty and corruption - the poverty of the food grains in ones kitchen would force one to find a job to feed one's family for the next hour than to think of one's historic civilization. the indian poverty had reached huge extremes, making us forget what we were. corruption took this opportunity. the riches of that time made it a point to accumulate further richness without a care for the glories once they carried.

But, despite this, there have been a huge amount of traditional rites, rituals, and cultures that are being followed. There have been a huge amount of vedic, and other administrative artefacts that have been preserved. How they got preserved is purely as per the wish of the Almighty.

In all the most, the administrative scriptures that were defined of the Vedic ages, which were in practice till the Mughal invasions began, have maintained tax laws, crime laws, laws and rules of wars, financial management behaviors, procedures, and what not in themselves. These laws were supposedly, written by brahmins who lived up to their brahminical virtues and not just by birth. Those brahmins were selected by the kings to be their advisors in political administration. Those brahmins were selfless and lived a pious and humble lives. In return, the kings ensured that they, their family, and children are not left distraught. They were assured of lands and their produce, which substantiated their food and the excess, they ensured to distribute to the appropriate avenues - which would include even selling them for money to ensure proper livelihood. Today, brahmins are well identified hence that, they can be held by their collars by any propagandist of any so called Dravidian movement.

As the first alien entrants to the ruler class of the Bharath heart land being the Mughals, their intent to establish their rule of law and to uproot the existing one was inevitable. As they did that, they ensured that, any recurrence of the earlier law, it's teachers, it's schools not to happen. Thus, forceful conversion, abduction of hindu women, children, were all on its full swing. I recollect my once read knowledge, that, Akbar advised Jehangir, his son, that, if you attempt to convert a huge mass into your religion by force that may not be possible and to force them to pay a tax instead, which perhaps is also per the Islamic scriptures, would be viable. Thus the, Jizya which already had been under Babur's and his predecessor's rules was invigorated from it's presumably dormant form.

Today, we sit down and discuss if Islamic invasion of India brought it any glory. Here, the author says, had the Islamic invasion not happened, India was already glorious. What has entered India, adds no weight. That's a fair point, that's a strong reasoning which he has summoned in this article. And further, one must understand that, one whose ancestors were forcefully converted, or whose ancestors were born out of forceful molested women are not followers of the new religion by their choice. It is by their fate. It is in a sense to argue that all Indian Muslims must 'repatriate' to Hinduism. That is not the point. But, what the author asks is, having so many generations of belief making it impossible, is it not the least, that a Hindu would ask these Muslims, who were once his fellow men, to accept their ancestry to the Bharath? Instead, the Indian Muslim finds his pride and zeal in dressing up like his Arabian, Persian counterpart. And what he gets in return? - Being branded as 'Ajlafs'.

Why differ in this? What points do you find are concocted from the author?

Hi Mukunthan,

I greatly appreciate your effort to have a constructive discussion, most of the others resort to one thing...insulting, etc....

Firstly i want to clarify that i am siding any ruler or a person, if i gave you such an impression,i am clarifying that, i am not.

I am here cause i wanted to protect my great religion,which is completely different to what people preach and show in the media.

I dont want to comment on phases of hindu tradition in history,it may be because of some rulers or some other reason.

What i wanted to convey is that, if a person did some thing wrong, it is his intention not the religion behind it.If you see, people in such discussions, start at blaming a person and then go to the religion and the Prophet...which is utter blunder.

If you have not read what Islam says, how the prophet lead his life, do a research on that first and then comment, if people like Gandhi support such great personalities then people who are supposedly Right wing, kill him and propagate lies against him.

I have met soo many So called Indians who insult Gandhi..what a joke.

Respect history as it is, but what people do is they bend it to suit their needs..!!

thats why i wished sankara best of luck to do a good reasearch.

I would want to however tell one possible reason behind the destruction of temples by the Islamic rulers,

1. As you pointed out there was a section of people who the King's consulted,because of greed and corruption this section of people got corrupt and manipulated the religion, brought in all new things which was their wish but against the religion, the traditions were not anymore the same, they got corrupt, the kings became corrupt and people suffered.

Then Islamic invasion came as a relief for a few sections,where the temples (which were centers of all such activities) were destroyed.

One example of such evil practices were deva dasi system, you know how women were oppressed by these.

This may be true or false, but according to me this could be a reason, i would leave this perspective to sankara for his research.

Oh man, you are such a twisted freak. Sorry to say so. But, to explain destruction of temples as a method of abolition of devadasi system, is simply one such trait. So, if devadasi's were abolished, who wandered in the courts of these sultans as their escorts?

>>>>>every Muslim pays religious tax for the welfare of the poor, which is called ZAKAT.

An equivalent money was collected from the Hindus as a protection money for the kingdoms under the Muslim rule, this was done in the west too>>>>>you are trying to mislead or you are plain ignorant. Jizya was imposed as per Verse 9:29 as a mark of subjugation and has got nothing to do with Zakat. Zakat is collected even now in Pakistan and other Islamic countries but to my knowledge no Islamic Country is now collecting Jizya (of course Jizya was imposed on the Sikhs in Swat by Taliban some time back but that does not have the sanction of any legitimate State).

No Religious tax was ever imposed on any one by the "West).

Reg reply: it hurts me when Indians follow the west.
You have the history before you,is it filled with stories of west.
What about India,China,Middle East,Japan...
Islamic golden period is termed as dark age..do you soo many modern innovatins happened then...
India was in dark until west visited India..??
What about Chandra Gupta maurya ??
Why is this ?? Dont you see the connection.
History is partial my friend....

Do you know jews were being killed in Rome,Greece,Italy by christains, when they came under Islamic rule they were the happiest.

May be India was no different..but as i dont know i would not comment..!!
It hurts me when Indians follow the West and carry on the conspiracy against Islam...

I hope to see when every Indian stops following the west and know about Islam..
I pray to the Almighty for the guidance of every Indian

You are just digressing from the subject. What is the relevance of your reply to my message? How many native Kafirs are now left in the Arabian Peninsula? What is the condition of a few thousand Coptic Christians still left in Egypt and Iraq? What is the condition of even the Shias in Sunni majority countries?

I am not here to prove anything or debate...if you see my comments of light of debate..you will reply exaclty like this...
You are just seeing what the media reports are...what about palestina then...?
even i can dig many such instances...open your eyes stop judging everyone based on some incidents which you have heard.

Jews were happy under islamic rule??? rofl :P and who told India was in dark until west visited??? the person is talking about Islamic rule and not pre-islamic rule...and history is your partial friend???(what r u talkin abt??) conspiracy against islam??? lolz :P and you say India was no different??? by the way do u know the only place in the world where jews were not persecuted??? It's India under the Hindu rulers. First learn history. By the way where are you from??

Vikas,you are replying with instinct...thats why you dint get my comment.
I never said India was in Dark...thanks for your suggestion,but i think it applies to you about history of muslims.

Hi Avinash, it appears to me you are against Islam ..and most of you here are...
The whole world is such, i dont blame you all.
But i sincerely advise you to know the glorious religion and comment....
I am a student of science and Islam makes so much sense to me

No religion makes any sense to me. What has science got to do with Islam? How did your "Most Merciful Creator" turn the Sabbath breaking Jews into Apes? Reverse Engineering??

The fun-filled Paradise existed only in the fertile imagination of some sur-realistic visionaries. Nobody has come back after death to tell us the stories in Heaven and Hell. Even if there is some "Most Merciful Creator", that entity will not make Kafir-Tandoor with more than 80% of the world's population.

This you see is a natural inclination of even learned person who thinks he is learned enough.

When you start looking at it with doubts you will have many questions...

Start seeing things in a different light you will get answers...

I am not brainwashed..this is my personal experience....

When i empathize myself with you, i am not satisfied enough ...can you empathize yourself with me... do it, it is for your own good.

sameer, I understand your pain and wishes to be recognized. However, your religion is dominated by people who are hateful, bigoted, homophobic, violent and downright crazy. So if you truly want what you ask, take the fight to Zakir Naik or anyother idiot mullah who preaches nonsense.

Hi stormchaser, the adjective you have attached is it from the same source the media and TV or something other.

Who is preaching nonsense my dear friend ?? calm down and do some research..

yur refusal to face the failures of your religion and community will just make it that much harder for you.

Protection money??? hmmm hafta??? rofl :P that proves the muslim rulers were goons...Thanks for proving it Sameer. and Jizya was collected only to harass the non-muslims..how about in 21st century muslims paying jizya in place where they are a minority??? like USA,UK,China and India??? hey Sameer you ready to pay Jizya???

why do you pay to the government all kinds of taxes, for every possible thing..
even for using toilets...i think government is harassing you even though you are a majority.

Back in the times of kings, Muslim rulers gave an option to pay tax...bit what about christian rulers..they too gave an option, be killed.That was the order of the day my friend.
they were so many hindu kings, who did a worse rule,but i dont go on creating posts and commenting on them.
i appreciate those few Hindu rulers who did a good job..eg : Chandra gupta maurya.
See the difference

What great nonsense based on ancient mythology.
It is so ignorant to create the impression that the Muslims were the first invaders. India was invaded by Kushans,Greeks, Mongols, Sassanid Persians and host of others.
It is hilarious to claim that there was a united India . It
was a geographical concept for most of its history.
It was divided into states and they fought
with each other.Greates Hindu empire was established by Muraya. HIs descendent Ashoka left Hinduism. If India was a united country, Babar with
his small army of 26,000 or any other invader wouldn't have conquered the country. It was every state on its own.Overall, the militias of the states were a lousy fighters.Whosoever invaded conquered. It may well be the case that the complaints against the muslims is not so much about the invasion but expression of deep anguish and humiliation at the conquest simply because of different religion and not about Kushans
because they adopted Hinduism.
Mughals settled in India and assimilated in the local culture. They married local women and children
( who ruled India) were a mix of central Asian and
Indian DNA. Remember both mother and father donate
equal number of chromosons. I would argue that
since Akbar, Mughals didn't rule India. Sons of
Indian women ruled India. Unlike British they
owed allegiance to India. They didn't plunder
the resources to ship to some alien country and
sold manufactured products locally. In 17th century
India was the second largest economy in the world with
GDP share of 22%. Now in 2013 it is tiny bit over
2%. Muslims must be doing something right.
Time to stop blah..blah..blah. Look forward.
You keep harping on greatness of Hindus in ancient
times, it is time to use that innate talent, if any,
to make India great again. This would be
much better than asking for help and borrowing
to have good time. In recent past Indians would have starved to death without huge food aid from USA under PL480 law and later all that money was forgiven by USA.
There is also a tale of great universities in India
in ancient times. Now every Indian wants to go
to USA,U.K. for education. Why India can't replicate
Taxila and Nalanda now? May be they were not
so great after all, it is just a feel good myth.

What was then Battle for Rajasthan? Gupta dynasty etc? Anguish is due to different religion or the destruction that Islam caused on India or forced conversion. Well then Why Mughals were engaged in forced conversions and spoke in Turkish?
Aurangzeb did use to send money to Arabic countries of Saudi Arabia. Mughals were part of three gunpowder kingdom. Indian per capita income was continuously going down since coming of Muslims. Indians became poorer during Muslim rules so how come they were doing something right.
Agree on USA thing, but that was also that after partition Indian Muslims didn't move to Pakistan and became burden.
But Indians are trying to replicate universities like Taxila and Nalanda, USA and UK universities are older than Indians.

If your notion of 'one country' is a modern nation-state, is it the author's mistake?

Well written is as concise a way as possible

Totally one sided and shallow. You have conveniently ignored many points and exaggerated some to give an impression that Islam made no difference at all. "Mughal paintings were poor one-dimensional renderings which had not evolved since the 10th century". This statement itself reflects poorly of your knowledge on painting. And you conveniently forgot that Hindustani Music is the result of fusion of Arabic and Indian elements and Hindu artists like Tansen were patronized by Akbar. The Ghazal for which India is known is a result of Indo-Arabic fusion.

"Compare this to lack of any such projects during the Mughal era or earlier Delhi Sultanate." - I can only wonder at your poor reading history. Innumerable public works were made during the Delhi Sultanate and Akbars reign. Nahar-i-bihisht, Grand Trunk Road, Sarai Adl etc are just a few examples. And its not the introduction revenue collection which is credited to Akbar. It is the scientific method of doing so. Its Todar Mal and Akbar combine which is responsible for this.

These are just a few pointers. I suggest you have a proper and holistic reading of history before jumping into myopic conclusions.

Music is haram in Islam. Arabs never ruled India, so how Hindustani got developed? Akbar was uneducated so how he helped in revenue system.
GT road was made by Mauraya empire.

Nahar-i-bihisht is not public work.

I suggest you have a proper and holistic reading of history.

Hindustani music 'fusion'? And you have 'knowledge' of Indian art? Are you not even aware that Hindustani in comparison to say Carnatic was stifled because of Islamist rule? Are you not even aware that the musicians converted to survive and claim that they were 'patronized' by the likes of Akbar? Are you not even aware that Hindustani goes mostly by elaborate alapana because its growth was stifled, and as a reason you don't find renderings of the order in thousands like Carnatic?

So take these as pointers yourself, and review the propaganda of fusion and contribution when reality was about stifling and curtailing.

http://books.google.co.in/b..."

Looking at the atrocities of Muslims against non-Muslims in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and also against Muslims of other sects, I can imagine how violent some of them were five hundred years ago.

It is no surprise Muslims spend very little on education, they spend much more in building mosques. Muslims are also less interested in education, apart from religious ones, even when it is free. India and the western countries are examples.

In Bangladesh which was predominantly Muslim in the last five hundred years, there were very few schools and colleges started by Muslims. Most old schools and colleges were started by the Hindus.