History Revisited : Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj wasn’t against Islam

Today is Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s birth Anniversary. Even though his birth year is contested nobody contests the fact that he had established a Maratha Empire which lasted close to two centuries and at its peak extended from Pakistan to Tamil Nadu.

Many have championed him as an “important part of Hindu nationalist ideology”, but the truth is that his relationship with Islam and Muslims is not as hate-filled as is being established.

Author and historian Manu S. Pillai, in his book Rebel Sultans: The Deccan from Khilji to Shivaji, writes: “Shivaji’s father, for one, was named to honour a Muslim saint called Shah Sharif – while Shahji bore the first part of the pir’s name, his brother took the second and was called Sharifji. His grandfather, Maloji, was not only a loyal officer of the Nizam Shahs of Ahmadnagar, but his samadhi is, evidently, ‘a completely Islamicate’ structure that still stands in Ellora. His mother’s family staunchly paid allegiance to Mughals. And to top it all, Shivaji himself, had Muslim Pathans in his armies, also employing qazis to administer Islamic justice within his dominions.”

Govind Pansare in his book Shivaji Kon Hota? says, “Muslims fought in large numbers in the “Maratha” armies during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Shaniwarwada, the intrigue ridden palace of the Peshwas in Pune, was garrisoned by the Gardis — the European trained Afghan Guard Battalion.”

Historian Audrey Truschke, of US, says in her book on Aurangzeb “The Marathas fought and negotiated with the Nizam over the subedari of the Deccan without speaking of establishing a Hindu Pad-Padshahi in the region. The Maratha-Muslim military co-operation continued in the nineteenth century and was demonstrated in the desperate resistance offered to the British by the Afghans in the service of the Rani of Jhansi from within the besieged Jhansi fort in 1857.”

Khafi Khan the Mughal Historian in his book, ‘Muntakhab-ul–Lubab’ wrote “Shivaji had always striven to maintain the honor of the people in his territories and was careful to maintain the honor of women and children of Mohammedans when they fell into the hands of his army. His injunctions upon this point were very strict.”

Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) author of the book “Maratha Struggle for Power” forcefully says “that Shivaji Maharaj was deeply secular ruler who respected religious sentiments of his subjects including large number of Muslims. He designed his Kingdom as a neutral secular zone between the Sunni Muslim Mughal Empire and the Shia Muslim Bijapur Sultanate. Shivaji is credited with saying “Hinduism and Islam are manifestation of the same divine spirit”.

Can and should such a person be appropriated for mere political reasons by some and champion him as not only as a "Hindu" King but also who was engaged in war against "Muslim" Emperors?