Question

Use the passage below to answer all parts of the question that follows.

No ruler took more liberties with his religion than Akbar, the greatest of the Mughals, the Muslim dynasty that dominated India between the early 16th and 18th centuries. Like Ashoka and Gandhi, Akbar constructed a religious ideology that served to hold together a diffuse polity as it fed his own soul.

It began with pragmatic policies of tolerance. Akbar had inherited the throne, at the age of 13, in 1556. In 1579 he abolished the jiziya, a tax imposed on all but the poorest non-Muslims. This was the most notable in a series of measures to recruit the Hindu majority and others to the cause of unifying and expanding his empire. He could be ruthless: his troops massacred 20,000–25,000 non-combatants after a four-month siege of Chitor, a nearly impregnable Hindu fortress in Rajasthan. But he preferred incentives to coercion. He defeated the war-like Rajputs, but gave them rank and married their princesses, who were permitted to conduct Hindu rites in the harem. The Mughal-Rajput alliance was a bulwark of his empire.

"Multicultural Akbar,” The Economist, 1999
a) Explain ONE specific political development that resulted from the conditions created by the religious policies described in the passage.

b) Explain ONE specific change to Muslim-Hindu relations that resulted from the conditions created by the religious policies described in the passage.

c) Explain ONE specific consequence of the policies described in the passage on religious minorities.

Answer 1

a) As stated in the passage "It began with pragmatic policies of tolerance. Akbar had inherited the throne, at the age of 13, in 1556. In 1579 he abolished the jiziya, a tax imposed on all but the poorest non-Muslims. This was the most notable in a series of measures to recruit the Hindu majority and others to the cause of unifying and expanding his empire........he preferred incentives to coercion. He defeated the war-like Rajputs, but gave them rank and married their princesses, who were permitted to conduct Hindu rites in the harem. The Mughal-Rajput alliance was a bulwark of his empire." which explains how there was a political improvement from the conditions created by religious policies.

b) "Akbar constructed a religious ideology that served to hold together a diffuse polity....he preferred incentives to coercion....notable in a series of measures to recruit the Hindu majority and others to the cause of unifying and expanding his empire." As stated in the texts his most notable series of measure he has taken is unifying and creating a government with a Muslim-Hindu relations, the religious policies themselves tore apart the empire, but Akbar was able to unify by making sure others feel included.

c) "...jiziya, a tax imposed on all but the poorest non-Muslims", this consequence on religious minorities took a whole a new level when the policy was created. This policy created inequality for specifically the poor non-Muslims, separating Muslims and non-Muslims and from rich and poor.

Step-by-step explanation:

Hopefully I was able to help! Make sure to paraphrase so you won't get caught!

Answer 2

a) Because Akbar abolished the jiziya, a tax placed on non-Muslims, he was able to recruit the Hindu majority and others which unified his empire. This mass recruitment resulted in the siege of Chitor. After sieging Chitor he made an alliance with the Rajput by marrying their princesses. This alliance was crucial to his empire.

b) By removing the Jiziya, a tax placed on non-Muslims, Akbar's empire was more unified. This is because Muslims, Hindus and others were now treated as equals whereas before Muslims were treated better. The jiziya created a divide amongst the people of the empire. With its abolishment that divide began to disappear and those who were previously oppressed now have more reason to support the empire.

c) The jiziya oppressed those who were not Muslim. That is because those were not Muslim were forced to pay a tax. This made converting to Islam more forced than it being a choice.

Step-by-step explanation: