Apropos of the remarks of the UPA’s presidential candidate Pratibha Patil regarding the introduction of the veil system in India. I wonder whether she has read only the history of the country rewritten by the Hindu Revivalists. Mughals were the first among the Muslim rulers of India who developed strong and close relations with the Hindu subjects especially the Rajputs. The Maharani of Chittod had sent Rakhi (the symbol of love of a sister to her brother) to Humayun, the second Mughal ruler, and Akbar, the great married Jodha Bai, a princess of Mewar.
Probably due to the continued tradition of bringing Rajput girls as the queens of the Mughal Kings onwards, the Rajasthani public in general regarded them as ‘The In-Laws’ and women of Rajasthan started covering themselves as a customary practice. If Mughals were responsible for introducing the veil system among Rajasthani women then probably this is the most rational reason. So it is wrong to say that the veil system in India was started to save Hindu women from the lustful eyes of the Mughals. Muslims were the rulers of India five centuries before the Mughals and the veil system was in vogue in the Muslim society. If it attracted the Hindu women too it was up to them.
The remarks of Pratibha Patil against Mughals are believed to have political bearing too! To gain the support of the Shiv Sena or the like minded people, she must have uttered those feelings!
A.T.M. Anwar
Hyderabad, A.P.
Mughals in India
Apropos of the remarks of the UPA’s presidential candidate Pratibha Patil regarding the introduction of the veil system in India. I wonder whether she has read only the history of the country rewritten by the Hindu Revivalists.
