TY - JOUR
T1 - Handling diversity with absolute civility
T2 - The global historical legacy of Mughal Sulh-i Kull
AU - Kinra, Rajeev
PY - 2013/10
Y1 - 2013/10
N2 - Despite many advances in recent scholarship, a good deal of Mughal cultural historiography - not to mention the popular memory of the Mughal era - is still dominated by attention to the patronage and liberal outlooks of two figures, the Emperor Jalal al-Din Muhammad Akbar (r. 1556-1605) and his great-grandson, Prince Dara Shukoh (1615-1659), both of whom are viewed as having been especially, even heroically, tolerant toward the non-Muslims in their midst. However, while both of these men are certainly worthy of the attention they have received, the emphasis on their individual contributions to the Mughal attitude of 'universal civility' (s.ulh.-i kull) has in some ways obscured the broader cultures of everyday tolerance that pervaded Mughal life in the seventeenth century. This article aims to present a preliminary - though far from exhaustive - survey of evidence for this broader and continuing Mughal approach to handling India's diversity in the post-Akbar period and to try and connect it, via the suggestive comments of several influential European commentators of the early Enlightenment, to the larger connected histories of tolerance in global early modernity.
AB - Despite many advances in recent scholarship, a good deal of Mughal cultural historiography - not to mention the popular memory of the Mughal era - is still dominated by attention to the patronage and liberal outlooks of two figures, the Emperor Jalal al-Din Muhammad Akbar (r. 1556-1605) and his great-grandson, Prince Dara Shukoh (1615-1659), both of whom are viewed as having been especially, even heroically, tolerant toward the non-Muslims in their midst. However, while both of these men are certainly worthy of the attention they have received, the emphasis on their individual contributions to the Mughal attitude of 'universal civility' (s.ulh.-i kull) has in some ways obscured the broader cultures of everyday tolerance that pervaded Mughal life in the seventeenth century. This article aims to present a preliminary - though far from exhaustive - survey of evidence for this broader and continuing Mughal approach to handling India's diversity in the post-Akbar period and to try and connect it, via the suggestive comments of several influential European commentators of the early Enlightenment, to the larger connected histories of tolerance in global early modernity.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84898992958&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84898992958&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0971945813514887
DO - 10.1177/0971945813514887
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84898992958
VL - 16
SP - 251
EP - 295
JO - Medieval History Journal
JF - Medieval History Journal
SN - 0971-9458
IS - 2
ER -