भारतीय इतिहास के ६ स्वर्णिम पृष्ठ (वीर सावरकर - विदेशी आक्रान्ताओं पर विजय गाथा)

accomplished, this Hindu Emperor disbursed amongst the thousands of soldiers of his caste, the immense wealth, which he had pillaged in his conquest of Malabar by vanquishing the Hindu states and which had filled the coffers of the late Sultan Mubarik, along with the unlimited wealth accumulated during the regimes of the former Sultans. Similarly, he increased the pay-scale of both the Hindu and Muslim soldiers. Having won over his soldiery in this way, he introduced new reforms, gave to the farmers and common Hindu-Muslim citizens facilities, and allowed them concessions they were never allowed to enjoy by any of the former Sultans! Likewise, he set free thousands of Hindu prisoners who were interned as a diversion in religious persecution and the hundreds of Muslims, who were imprisoned simply because they were repugnant to the former Sultans for one reason or another. No wonder if this Hindu Emperor, Dharmarakshak, immediately became popular amongst the Hindus as well as the Muslims throughout his empire! 785. It is needless to say that he also absolved all the Hindus of all the humiliating bans on their pilgrimages and holy baths. The Jizia tax was repealed and other degrading conditions that had been enforced upon them by Sultan after Sultan were ameliorated forthwith. What wonder then if the whole Hindu world felt a thrill of joy and freedom that at long last, they had a saviour! 786. Even when this Hindu Samrat was fighting in the guise of a converted Muslim, victoriously in the South and reducing Malabar, he had been formulating the scheme of the future revolution. So, all the big Hindu- Muslim officers and generals in the fighting forces, who depended on his patronage and who had risen mainly because of his support, of course, remained loyal to him for safeguarding their own selfish interests and also for protecting themselves from the malice and enmity of the old Muslim Khans, Nizams, and other co-religionists of theirs. For, as a natural consequence of intermingling of the two religious communities, Muslims serving in the armies of many Hindu States had come to form a habit of rendering loyal service to their Hindu masters! The political service of a Hindu King was taboo formerly when the Muslims first came to India, but by this time, the taboo had lost its intensity and in its stead such a loyal service rendered to a Hindu master came to be considered quite in conformity with the Muslim religious code! Many incidents illustrating this point have already occurred so far, and will occur in the following pages