No matter how hard the leftist historians try to deny it, atrocities against Hindus in India during Islamic rule are no secret. Like all his predecessors, the tyrannical Mughal ruler Aurangzeb, who is highly revered by Left-liberal ‘historians’ and intellectuals, killed countless Hindus and non-Muslims and plundered and destroyed numerous Hindu temples including the revered Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, the Kalka Temple in Delhi and the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, to name a few.

The Hindus, who had somehow accustomed themselves to living with the Mughals during their early rule, were in for a rude shock when the dominion passed to Aurangzeb, a fanatic of Islam.

He, in his quest to persecute and oppress the Hindus, reimposed the ‘jizya tax’, a special kind of tax imposed on non-Muslims, significantly Hindus, with high rates. This cruel Islamic tax was a kind of reminder to the ‘kafirs’ that they are living in a Muslim land, governed by Sharia. Notably, this tax was abolished under the rule of the third Mughal ruler Akbar. But it was restarted during Aurangzeb’s reign. As a result, the already downtrodden and poor Hindus continued to become further oppressed and impoverished.

Historians confirm that Hindus were obliged to pay taxes on everything during the Mughal era. Be it animals, trees or daily essentials, nothing came readily to the persecuted Hindus. Under the Mughal dynasty, Hindus were even forced to pay the discriminatory jizya tax in order to marry off their children. Muslims, on the other hand, were exempt from the Jizya tax.

In fact, to impose the Jizya tax on Hindus, Aurangzeb, a religious fanatic who tried to propagate Islam and suppress Hinduism and other religions, in the year 1679 ordered the division of Hindus into categories based on their economic status. Hindus were thus divided into rich, middle and poor classes. The Hindus with annual income exceeding Rs 2500 used to be categorised as rich. They were required to pay a tax of 48 dirhams, which summed up to Rs 13 then. Similarly, Hindus with an annual income of Rs 250 were classified under the middle-class category and they were expected to pay a Jizya tax of 24 dirhams or Rs 6.50.

The worst hit by this cruel tax system were those Hindus who fell under the third bracket which is the poor category. The people with an annual income of 52 rupees or less were classified as poor. They were required to pay a tax of 12 dirhams or Rs 3.25. According to these data, the wealthiest had to pay 0.52%, the middle-class Hindus 2.6%, and the destitute Hindus 6.25% as tax to the Mughal Empire. They had to face severe repercussions if they did not pay.