Mughal Empire: Muslims and Hindus

The book states that the Mughal Empire had both Muslims and Hindu religion. The main division out in the Mughal Empire were caused by religious differences.About 20% of the population was Muslim and the rest were some form of Hinduism. Akbar the most famous emperor created a cult that had Islam, Hinduism and Zoroastrianism. It was essential to be loyal to Akbar. The Mughal empire had a culture where hindus and muslims could be a comfort with one another. Which was a plus for the Empire because then more people could join to grow the population of the empire. This new culture was a hybrid of Indian, Persian, and Turkish. THe philosopher Phayk Ahmad Sirhindi, disagreed with this idea of a mixed culture everything in support for hinduism represented impure Islam. Some Hindu temples were destroyed and music, dance, gambling, drinking, prostitution, and narcotics were very outlawed. There were many opposition movements that were opposed to the Mughals. This was a very different type of empire because it allowed two different religious traditions to attempt to combine. This technique of a multicultural empire worked for a while but eventually failed because of their differences which resulted in tension.