The Religion That Never Was: Din-i-Ilahi and the Making of a Historical Myth
A TALE OF TWO SCHOOLCHILDREN Let me begin with a thought experiment. Picture two children sitting in classrooms, roughly the same age, on either side of the Wagah Border. Both children are opening a history textbook. Both textbooks have a chapter on Akbar. And both — I want you to hold this image in your mind — are learning about something called Din-i-Ilahi . The Pakistani child reads that Akbar was a misguided emperor who invented a heretical religion, who abandoned the faith of Islam, and who serves as a cautionary tale about what happens when a Muslim ruler loses his moorings. The Indian child reads that Akbar was a visionary emperor who founded a grand syncretic tradition, who celebrated religious harmony, and who serves as a glorious ancestor-figure prefiguring Indian secularism [i] . Same emperor. Same set of historical events. Completely opposite conclusions. How is this possible? That, my friends, is precisely the question this article is designed to a...