Mughals

It’s a blog about Mughal history and the stuff that transpired from it. Hindu-Muslim rivalry, Hindu-Muslim love, British people, luxury, the woman's question, and all the facts in-between.

[mughalai]

Sorry!

I’ve been gone for a while, but I’ll get back to posting soon! College is hard.

[eastiseverywhere]

I betcha didn’t know Rembrandt made copies of Mughal miniatures!

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn

Four Seated Orientals Beneath a Tree

Netherlands (1654-56)

Pen and brown ink with brown and grey wash, touched with white, on Japanese paper.  

British Museum, London

[x]

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn

Shah Jahan

Netherlands (1654-56)

Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash on Japanese paper.  

Cleveland Museum of Art

[x]

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn

Shah Jahan, Standing with a Flower and a Sword

India (1654-56)

Pen and brown ink with brown wash on Japanese paper.  

The Frick Collection, New York 

[x]

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn

The Emperor Timur Enthroned,

India (1654-56)

Pen and wash in Indian ink on Japanese paper.  

Musée du Louvre, Paris

[x]

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn

A Mughal Nobleman on Horseback

India (1654-56)

Pen and brown ink with brown and grey wash, touched with red and yellow chalk and white heightening on Japanese paper.  

The British Museum, London

[x]

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Emperor Jahangir Receiving an Officer 

India (1654-56)

Pen, bistre, and wash on Japanese paper.  

The British Museum, London 

[x]

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn

Shah Jahan and Dara Shikoh

India (1654-1656)

Pen and brown ink and brown wash, heighted with white bodycolor on Japanese paper.  

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

[x]

[actionables]

hmm, yoga is kind of girly #nohomo let’s rename it so it sounds manlier and make it just for the bros for the bros only

[soprie]

WHY DO MEN NEED TO REBRAND EVERYTHING TOUCHED BY WOMEN?

SIT DOWN AND EAT YOUR YOGURT AND SALAD AND DO YOUR YOGA

[randompandemonium]

FOLLOW UP YOUR INTENSE BROGA SESSION WITH SOME BROGURT AND A BRAH-LAD

[wafflewonderland]

this is just fucking ridiculous i’m honestly so over just idiocy basic idiocy about gender, sexuality, race, everything like what the fucking hell come on

[mughalai]

Yoga was practiced by Mughal noblemen as far back as the 17th century. It was a major proponent in the shaping of Sufism in India. It also led way for a fusion of Islamic teachings and South Asian culture at the time, influencing many traditions that are still practiced today.

Just like many traditions and practices throughout history, the archetype of yoga has changed over time. Broga is a response to the tendency of women to partake in a yoga class presently. However, those who spearheaded this movement clearly did not do their research. Yoga was once a means of meditation for kings. The fact that women adopted this exercise should not deter men to the point of re-branding. Yoga is not meant for masculinity or femininity, but rather clarity for the soul.

[misanthrpologie]

Saving Face (2012), acid attacks on women in Pakistan

[catsagainstfeminism]

Meanwhile, in America, feminists are complaining about how dress codes are oppressive.

You idiots have never experienced oppression, and pray you never do, because this is what it looks like.

[earthlydreams-deactivated201709]

As a South Asian American feminist, let me remind everyone that oppression is not a competition.

Just because we fight one type of sexism doesn’t mean we don’t care about other instances of sexism that don’t affect us directly in our day to day lives.

My heart goes out to this woman and the hundreds of other victims like her. I want to educate people about these kinds of incidents. I support organizations that help women like this.

You may think that dress code issues are trivial, but they are related to a larger issue of women’s bodily autonomy, which affects women’s health and safety.

So please, let’s try to bring awareness and bring about change instead of insulting entire groups of people because they are facing issues that are less scary than the one presented.

[thecuckoohaslanded]

“oppression is not a competition”

thank you so much for this wording

[mughalai]

It's amazing how the social standing of women has changed in South Asia over the past 200 years.

[mughalai]

Tawaifs were one of the only classes of women in recent Indian history with almost complete autonomy. 

1. Tawaifs maintained a hold on their male visitors through their public modesty. Their beauty soon became things of legend, since only those who paid to visit them were able to see it. They knew how to take advantage of their womanhood to entrance their clients, leading to more pay.

2. Older, retired dancers and courtesans  passed knowledge to their younger counterparts on the lives of their clients and others outside the mehfil. Tawaifs also learned literature, language, and poetry. This education led to the courtesans being one of the most witty and intelligent women of their time. This translated into tawaifs teaching the children of nobility in etiquette and literature, skills most nobility needed to be accepted in the Mughal court.

3. Most tawaifs' faces were in purdah, or veiled, while in public, a universal sign of privilege. The women had enough status to have the right to maintain the integrity of their faces while other women did not.

4. This, in turn, led to them being some of the most independent women in the Mughal Empire. Their money was made through their own means, and one that was necessary to the court, as well. Mehfils were a key place for socialization of Mughal nobility. Tawaifs were the gateways to these interactions, and without them, organization of these men would have been difficult.

Of course, Bollywood tends to warp the story of tawaifs for film, but the image they portray of these women does not outshine their true power.

This is a reference to this video.

(Source)

[mughalai]

Exploring the IOR: Anglo-Indian Brothers Committing Fraud

George Chinnery (1774-1852), The Kirkpatrick children, Oil on canvas, 154.9 x 118.1 cm, The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited.

Two Anglo-Indian brothers, Deer Christian and John Christian, were able to illegally procure 200 rupees from the Company through the Resident of Kutch and Gujarat in 1836. Under the aliases Burhan Ali Khan and Kasim Ali Khan, they entered the province and displayed themselves to be "respectable travellers" who happened to be down on their luck.

The Resident was impressed by the brothers, who claimed to be of a reputable family, for they exhibited great knowledge in both English and Indian classical academics. They expressed their desires to seek more education, but explained they had ran out of funds. The Resident willingly loaned them 200 rupees.

However, after correspondence between British officials, it was found that these brothers were the same two who had "duped" residents of Calcutta by posing a similar story.

Some time later, the British understood that these men were participating in fraudulent activity and immediately dubbed them to be European or American. However, the two men were actually Anglo-Indian natives who were destitute after returning from a trip England.

The men were later caught for their crimes. Yet, they used their knowledge of both cultures to their advantage, a witty and clever feat in its own.

(source)

[mughalai]

Exploring the IOR: Altercation Over a Bibi

(source: The Palmer Family, 1785 (oil on canvas) by Johann Zoffany)

In 1860, two English lieutenants stationed in India, William Gordon Chalmers, Assistant Commissioner of Kohat and John James Boswell, Second-in-Command of Punjab's 3rd Infantry, feuded over an Indian concubine. 

According to Boswell, Chalmers took advantage of their intimate friendship to manipulate the girl into leaving Boswell. Afterward, Boswell's sepoys spotted the girl leaving Chalmers's estate, telling their commanding officer, who then started a quarrel between both company's servants and had the woman forcibly brought to him. The altercation was such that both officers were suspended from service while investigations by superior officers were conducted.

It was found that Boswell wrote a heated letter to Chalmers, in which he called him a "mean, low, sneaking despicable fellow." He refused to withdraw the letter until after being pressured by his commanding officers to do so.

Investigators found the event to be embarrassing and demeaning of British rule in India at the time.

(Source)

[silsilaa]

can someone help me understand why Modi is so terrible for India this is a serious question because I don’t know much about his politics and his past (apart from the attacks against Muslims in Gujarat and his role in that, that’s the one thing about him I do know) and I see such vehement...

[mughalai]

Anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat happened in 2002. Modi instilled a curfew and an intense defensive position during the riots. However, a lot of human rights activists said he wasn't doing enough. He was investigated for massacres, but courts found no sufficient evidence for his involvement. Yet, some of his fellow BJP legislators under his administration were actually convicted of crimes, Maya Kodnani being one of them. Modi later pardoned her sentence. 

Later on, he helped strengthen Gujarat economically and technologically by distributing electricity all over the state. He also pushed for the building and repairing of dams to aid in the irrigation of cotton, which allowed for a surplus of cotton production. Gujarat's agricultural growth rate rose to around 11%.  Right now, he's pushing for the building of a business district in India.

In addition, Modi started fasting to help better Hindu relationships with Muslims. During these fasts, especially on the site in Godhra where the train wreck that was seen as the cause of the anti-Muslim riots took place, protesters were prevented from rallying against him.

Despite his economic and technological advances, he is criticized for not paying attention to poverty and education, especially healthcare. Specifically, it is argued that he neglects and marginalizes the poor, and that many families have fallen into poverty under his administration.

The UK, US, and the European Union all had diplomatic boycotts of Modi following 2002. However within the past two years, those boycotts were lifted (1. 2. 3).

What I found particularly surprising was Pakistan's welcoming of Modi as a leader. Although currently, things seem a bit foggy between the two nations in light of his election.

You can take this information and deduce what you would like from it. I suppose most worry comes from his human rights issues in Gujarat and how that will translate nationwide under Modi's administration. Issues of violence, poverty, education, and health are always urgent, and dealing with a man with a past such as Modi's may lead to opposition. Many Muslims still have the riots still fresh in their minds, so that may be why so many are deterred from his election.

Edit: 

DISCLAIMER:

I tried to keep my opinion out of this and make this an objective analysis, but, here is my input.

Personally, I'm very against Modi because of the way he handled the riots in Gujarat. There are still Muslims in camps for those  who were displaced by the violence in Gujarat when Modi was in charge.  Modi's government displayed an ignoring eye when crimes against women and children were extremely prevalent. Many women, including those who were pregnant, were mutilated, raped, and killed. Children were burned alive and thrown into mass graves. To me, this was not an issue of Muslim against Hindu. This was an issue of misogyny and murder. I don't support Modi, and I never will.

[mughalai]

Akbar's aunt, Gulbadan kept a record of her nephew's budding Mughal court. It exposes the world of women and their harem lives in a time dominated by men's politics. (x)