Leiden University Student Repository

Gijswijt, Mark (2024)

Indiaas of Islamitisch: Perspectieven van Indiase historici op het Mogolrijk tijdens de onafhankelijkheidsbeweging

Bachelor thesis | Geschiedenis (BA)

This thesis discusses the question whether or not Indian historians between 1920 and 1940 saw the Mughal Empire as a foreign occupier or an indigenous empire, and if the political opinions of those decades influenced these opinions. Five historians, Sarkar, Mookerji and Vaidya, and Faruki and Jaffar represent three large branches within Indian historiography: Moderate nationalists (largely inspired by earlier British historians); Hindu-nationalists; and Muslim historians respectively. This thesis shows that the political leaning of the historians did influence them. The Hindu-nationalists reject the Muslim empire because to them its religion fundamentally clashes with the Indian identity. To the moderate nationalists India is a nation that absorbs and adopts new peoples, including the Mughals. To the Muslims historians it is the tolerance of the Islamic rulers that led the Mughal Emperors to adopt Indian culture and become Indian themselves.

India

Islam

Mughal Empire

Historiografie

Author

Gijswijt, Mark

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Algemene Geschiedenis

Supervisors

Stolte, C.M.

ECTS Credits

15

Language

nl