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repealed and other degrading conditions that had been enforced upon them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