The Mughals, the British Library exhibition now at IGNCA Delhi..see if u can catch it. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152426264272516&set=a.10151777608922516.634512.293302312515&type=1&relevant_count=1

Interesting side note... American media borrowed the term "Mogol" to apply to Jewish studio producers who were "taking over" American culture. "Movie mogul" was the first use of the expression here but it now applies to anyone with a lot of wealth and power.

Here is a bit of history while the invaders resided in India. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152084114108035&set=a.227100848034.166795.226938773034&type=1&theater

And here a bit of history before the savages reached India. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152084130958035&set=a.227100848034.166795.226938773034&type=1&theater

Hey everyone would be be vegans: Read your history, brush up your socio-anthropology and geography before banding all Muslims under one banner. Mongols or Mughals are not Turks--- The invading Moghul of India, Babar was a great poet, and a supporter of the arts. How individuals interpret Koran does not reflect on Koran. If that were the case the horrors of Spanish Inquisition implies that Bible is a holy book of sadists instead of being a message of love and compassion! A Hindu from India!

That's right they were of the lineage of Genghis Khan and Akbar was perhaps one of the greatest statesmen

When Akbar was great then why he fought with Maharana Pratap and why he did not gave up his empire. Mughals cannot be great and they were invaders. They controlled majority of Hindus with the swords. Destroyed temples at various places. for eg. Ayodhya, Kashi, Mathura and so on.

With no disrespect to Akbar, who I do admire on many other dimensions, I am sure many interpret Koran to exist peacefully with otheres. In the last 1400 years the warriors, political and ruling class of Islam has ensured that no other religion and its followers can exist and/or survive in the land ruled under Islamic leadership. We have 1400 years of evidence from Arabia to Pakistan where Buddhism, Zorostarism, Hindhuism, other tribal religions have been driven out of the land. Every other religion's structures have been destroyed completely. Today very few think of Iran as a bastion of Parsee fire temples or Afghanistan as Buddhist shrine land (land of Bamiyan..) or Pakistan as land of Surya or Shiva temples.....Admiring Hitler for his rhetorical skills does not exonerate him of his other deeds!!

We assess the past through the prism of the present. The horrors of the past cannot be solved by creating horrors in the present. Alexander the Great (really?) was an invader and he and his army destroyed the great Persian Empire and much of its great buildings. So did the invaders who came to India, although India was not one state as it is now and for long periods in history its cultural influence extended to present day Afghanistan, parts of Central Asia, Indo-China and Infonesia. By the way Churchill was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions during the Bengal Famine of 1943; did the British even think about it before making him the greatest Briton ever?

Samuel Huntington :Islam has bloody borders.

V indians had this tolerant attitude towards all religions no matter the invading mughals steadily assimilated in the mainstream.Right from babar to aurangzeb v c the tide of mughal empire seeing a roller coaster ride when it came to socio-cultural prespective.What is even more praiseworthy is that after 300+ yrs of establishing the moghul empire,the indian rebellion leaders of 1857 war of indian independence proclaimed the last mughal king bahadur shah zafar as taqt-e-hind(grand emperor of india) and served allegiance to him to withhold british dominance and fought the english armies @ various critical junctures.It is this assimilation and accomodation of foreign invaders at a later stage with the citizens of hindustan & the reciprocal of the latter that makes it a crested jewel amongst the foremost civilizations of the world

Biased readings of history create uncivilized bigotry. Before Moguls and Islam are blamed for wars and destruction, one needs to see if other rulers of those times were any different. Idiots (I am deliberately using it here) like Samuel Huntington can only project political judgments on other cultures, while completely playing ignorant about what they consider as their own culture. Syncretism is not a typical Indian thing. Other cultures have been open at different times and different ways. Politics do play a role in raising intolerance, just as they are doing now in India, closing down its open approach to difference and novelty.

Rajiv Velicheti ...This is not readings of history. To reiterate my earlier posting...We have 1400 years of evidence from Arabia to Pakistan where Buddhism, Zorostarism, Hindhuism, other tribal religions have been driven out of the land. Every other religion's structures have been destroyed completely. Today very few think of Iran as a bastion of Parsee fire temples or Afghanistan as Buddhist shrine land (land of Bamiyan..) or Pakistan as land of Surya or Shiva temples.....We are talking about present!!

An engaging and well-crafted documentary that held my attention for an hour or two - although it is difficult to shake off the image of Bamber Gascoigne as the quiz-master of ' University Challenge ' ( the role in which he is best remembered in Britain). ------------------------------------------------------------------ '@' the RBSI admin : I apologise for asking a question in this thread that is not related to the topic above - but - I was not sure of where else one might ask it ? ... A few weeks ago you provided a link to a selection of documents published by the A.S.I. in the 1880s, concerning the protection of ancient monuments on the Indian sub-continent ... I have scrolled up and down the page several times but I cannot seem to locate it ? Could you possibly point me in the right direction, or provide the link once again as I was hoping to cite it as a reference in something that I have been working on. Many thanks etc & so on.

Julian Craig: This was posted on 25th October 2013: http://on.fb.me/1jMhnv9 Digital Rare Book: Preservation of National Monuments: Report of the Curator of Ancient Monuments in India Published by Government Central Branch Press, Simla - 1882 Read Book Online: First Report for the year 1881-82 - http://bit.ly/1a5zMNH Second Report for the year 1882-83 - http://bit.ly/HlRIgb Third Report for the year 1881-82 - http://bit.ly/16ysaIW Download pdf Book: First Report for the year 1881-82 - http://bit.ly/1g0MRQQ Second Report for the year 1882-83 - http://bit.ly/17jpehQ Third Report for the year 1881-82 - http://bit.ly/1eQf7CB

Jay Shankar Sir, I was not refering to your post but that of others. Your point is also generalizing. There are non-muslim communities in the countries you are referring to. They are facing discrimination just as the minorities are facing almost everywhere. It has to do with modern politics of 'national culture' and 'identity'. Bamiyan like attacks on history and culture did happen in India to Buddhist and Jain sites in the past. (Recent one is the Babri Masjid). The Universities at Taxashila and Nalanda were closed down because they were Buddhist. Scholars like Huntington conveniently forget the actions of the Western powers right from Middle ages to Holocaust to the Balkan crisis while painting Islam as the violent religion. We should not fall into that trap of blind pride and illogical hatred for others.

Rajiv ji....I concur with you on Huntington's bias. The very fact that he conveniently looks at the modern history only Post WW II to make arguments about the Clash of Civilizations is telling. The orgy of WW II with nearly 40 milllion dead in Western Europe (10 mil more in the Far East) eclipsed everything before and since then. My point with you is the cover up/glossing over of the murderous history of Islam. You refer to the non-muslims in the land between Arabia and Pakistan as minorities. The story of the Parsees, Buddists & in the lands Hindus from Arabia to Pakistan is telling. They have been reduced to minorities in their own lands , that once were non-islamic lands. They do not face mere discrimination. Their majority have been butchered, driven out of their lands or converted under the sword of Islam (largely) in the last 1400 years. Islam in the 1400 years in the hands of the rulers and the military has been more potent than a nuclear bomb. It has been used most maleavolently. Defending its 1400 year record is like the NRAs defense in the US in the modern times...Guns don't kill people. People kill people. Islam does not kill people. From Arabia to Pakistan, people used Islam to kill non-Islamic humans, rape and enslave women and children. It is the most potent weapon that has emerged in the human mind in the last 1400 years. Comparing it with the shameful genocide of native Americans in the South and North America is not a defense. That is to be tried in a different court (or different thread)

Jay Shankar. The question is about singling out Islam as the culprit. As you pointed out, Americas, Australia and Europe has the bloody History of religious massacres, persecution and violence. Where are the earlier religions in these lands? One should not simplify and miss the political and economic factors involved in these violent histories which tag themselves with religious agendas. Hindus and Sikhs were not persecuted in those parts till the political creation of Pakistan, even though Islam was a majority religion there. Afghan intolerance is directly linked to the rise of Taliban with American support. Jewish communities have existed (and in some places still exist) within counties like Iraq, Iran and Egypt till the creation of Israel. They faced less discrimination in those countries than they faced in Europe. In India, the story is equally complicated where periods of horrible violence (between Buddhism/ Vedic religion, Shaiva vs Vaishnava etc.) and syncretic assimilations alternate. What needs to be seen is the political use of religion to legitimise -sometimes violence and sometimes assimilation. The vedic religion (Hindu is a term borrowed from Persian by the British to name all the non- Islamic and non-Christian religious practices in our country) first violently destroyed Buddhist power and later its offshoots appropriated Buddha as an Avatar of Vishnu. All living cultures and religions do have this flexibility. Rigidity sets in as a particular political movement and flexibility also appears with a different political agenda.WE should not single out the present political movement of certain sections to pass judgments on pasts and futures of entire religions and cultures. That is the strategy used by politics of bigotry.