Dīn-e-Elāhī: The Politics of Religion during Mughal Sultanate

Abstract

This article focuses on Emperor Akbar's manipulation and elevation of a new religion "Din-e-Elahi" to handle the state of political matters during his reign and that was, according to the Muslim orthodox, against the basic canons of Islamic scriptural message. Akbar is the most urbane and triumphant Emperor (1556-1605) in Mughal Empire (1525-1858). The period of Akbar's rule has been regarded as one of the most significant and incomparable periods in Indian history in particular regarding Hindu Muslim interaction. Akbar's motivation and intention behind this new configuration, and the alteration in Islamic and the Quranic basics, was just political rather than religious. His new wave towards the transformation and so-called religious reformation, "Ṣulḥ-i-kul," (Absolute Peace) was just that he wanted to have stability in autocracy and strengthen his administrative grip. The objectives of this research are to know how Akbar’s motivation in creating a policy of syncretic Din-e-Elahi and his thought contribution towards Indian people. This research uses literary or library research with historical approaches by incentivizing widely, critically, and deeply reading references relating to Akbar’s thought, critical evaluation, and the best elements of all. The result of this research indicates that his policy of syncretic Din-e-Elahi purely promoted racial tolerance and religious freedom under the policy of “Universal Tolerance”. He knew how a Muslim ruler could govern over the Hindu majority country. To have a strong relationship with a predominant nation, he tried to attract them with new tact and propagated so-called brotherhood, interreligious harmony, and tolerance by mingling it with mysticism, philosophy, and nature-worship. His thought contributions then influence the daily life and culture of the Indians such as harmony in an interreligious community far better than before. He also constitutes a symbol of liberalism and secularism then reflected by modern India.