K. S. Lal

"Yet K.S. Lal maintains that for several decades the Left-liberals in the history establishment have discriminated against people of differing views. "The ICHR was not politicised by the BJP but by the Marxists. Nurul Hasan, and Irfan Habib after him, packed the place with Leftists," Lal says, citing instructions by the NCERT in 1982 to "weed out undesirable textbooks in history" and the notification by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, which in 1989 said "Muslim rule should never attract any criticism. Destruction of temples by Muslim rulers and invaders should not be mentioned." As far as hes concerned, says K.S. Lal, this is an attempt to suppress facts. He also says the Congress has always promoted its brand of official history through agencies like the NCERT."

"Medieval Muslim chroniclers, who are our main source of information for the history of the Middle Ages in India, nowhere distinguish between tribal, low caste and high caste Hindus.(21)"

"Muslim conquest was not without its blessings in Bengal. There, as elsewhere, developed an understanding between Hindus and Muslims. Hindus offered sweets at Muslims shrines; consulted and kept copies of the Quran. Musalmans responded with similar acts."

"Mahmuds invasions alone meant to the country a loss of about two million people.... Bakhtiyar Khalji marched through Bihar into Bengal and massacred people in both the regions. During his expedition to Gwalior Iltutmish (1210-36) massacred 700 persons besides those killed in the battle on both sides. His attacks on Malwa (VMisha and Ujjain) were met with stiff resistance and were accompanied by great loss of life. He is also credited with killing 12,000 Khokhars (Gakkhars) during Aibaks reign. The successor of XhutmisK (Raziyah, Bahrain etc.,) too fought and killed zealously."

"Husain Khan. Jagirdar of Patiali and Sruvmsabati, had ordered that the Hindus of his jagtr should wear a piece of cloth on their dress as a mark of distinction from the Muslims. (19)"

"Alauddin had 50,000 slaves some of whom worn mere boys,* and surely many captured during wax. Firoz Tughlaq had issued an order that whichever places were sacked, in them the-captives should be sorted out and the best ones tht for service with the Sultan) should be forwarded to the court/ 0 Soon he was enabled to collect ISO.OOO slaves.’ Ziyauddin Baranis description of the Slave Market in Delhi (such markets were there isi other places also) during the reign of Alauddin Khaljt, shows (hat ficsh batches of slaves were constantly replenishing them."

"The book is a valuable and scholarly contribution to a very confused period of north Indian history, and may well become one of the foundations for a full scale modern history of north India in the fifteenth century."

"The source is the late Delhi Univ history professor K.S. Lal. But his claim is not that 80 millions were physically killed by the invaders/occupiers, merely that 80 million have gone missing from the extrapolated demographic development (itself already a very risky guess) during that period. This includes people killed, but also the effect of lawlessness and famines which he claims were triggered by the extremely high taxation and other deliberate poverty-promoting policies of the Delhi Sultanate."

"We may close with a word on Nepal. According to the ancient chronicles kept in Nepal, the earliest dynasty was founded by eight Ahirs from Gujarat, followed by the same race from Hindustan. ...."

"Sri Ram Sharma reproduces Aurangzebs order about the imposition and collection of Jiziyah dated 26th July, 1696. It says that "Jiziyah lapses on death and on acceptance of Islam". During the course of the year some people used to die and some used to convert, but the amount of Jiziyah for the place remained unaltered. In view of this the first type of payment was disadvantageous to Hindus. The last paragraph of the order reads: "The nonMuslim should himself bring the Jiziyah; if he sends it through his deputy it should not be accepted. At the time of payment the non-Muslim should keep standing, while the chief should keep sitting. The hand of the non-Muslim should be below and that of the chief above it and he should say. Make payment of Jiziyah, O! non-Muslim and should not say, O! infidel." Aurangzeb thus imposed it in the true spirit and letter of the tax."

"To people at large, life inside the harem was a mystery."

"In this second edition of the standard political history of the Khalji period..."