How people of Diverse Religions, Castes & Cultures - part two

    HOW PEOPLE OF DIVERSE RELIGIONS, CASTES AND CULTURES - PART TWO
                                 MAY BE RIGHT. MAYBE WRONG?

He also writes, "The wedding day was the only time in a woman's life when she was the queen of the day." Sounds familiar?

Eraly's forte as a research scholar becomes most obvious when he turns to the peasants lot in that poor rich country whose population was made up of, in his works, the producers and the predators - a description that goes a long way in breaking the myth of the MUGHAL world.

                                  THE MUGHAL LEGACY

By and large the people endured the miseries of war and exploitation with the same bleak fatalism with which they endured everything else. Combined with the general sloth of this segment of humanity in that majestic world was their abundance in numbers - there were peasants and artisans in abundance, all cogs in a system of hamstrung trade dealings, and so apparently only those persons had a chance who were in direct service of the emperor.

Great as was the chasm between the monarch and his subjects, Eraly's revelations about the monarchical structure would be equally baffling to the contemporary mind. So in both cases while the laws were sacred, justice was profane, with no questioning of the emperor's will. However, descriptions of the state hierarchy, workings of the revenue department, the intricacies of the jagirdari system, all point to a method in what would be termed madness by the modern disposition.

The final chapter of Eraly's compendium sums up what in essence can be called the state of affairs - a religious diversity that enlightens the reader about sects and sub-sects ranging from the Shia-Sunni divide to sufism and from wandering dervishes to the qalandars who were above respecting the formal Sharia but were nevertheless followed for the miracles attributed to them.

Simultaneously active but to a lesser degree was the world of the Hindus, followed by insight into Sikhism and Christianity and their standings. At this point in the book Eraly, apparently in a bid to sum up his findings - the book totals nearly 400 pages of fine print-goes on to depict the cultural melange of the Mughal world. The brief but relevant references to the cultural milieu in the time of each ruler make for a consuming reading of systematic developments in every age.

Art, architecture, sculpture, dance, music, linguistic developments; every thing took shape in those times but for learning, especially medial knowledge! And yet plastic surgery was widely practiced to 'med the disfiguring caused by mutilating punishments or war wounds.'

Eraly then brings the reader to the end on a sad note,

describing the last days of the empire with a poignant sympathy that belies deep sensitivity. For how else would you describe the epilogue, to which he gives the haunting title of "THE MUGHAL LEGACY". And again it is in these last few pages that Eraly, the research scientist becomes the analyst who like the typical Englishman is prone to say, "What saved INDIA from terminal chaos was the establishment of the BRITISH EMPIRE."

.........     .........MAY BE RIGHT. MAYBE WRONG?.........      ..........

here...feelings...the original contents by www.sensualityface.com or www.fairyage.com / describe & simplified by feeling with help of DAWN NEWS INTERNATIONAL PAKISTAN