The Mughals, the Sufi Shaikhs and the Formation of the Akbari ...

FORMATION OF THE AKBARI DISPENSATION 137
The essay thus reviews the career, politics and ideology of Sufis who
occupied a central position in the social and cultural life of Indian
Muslims in the early-sixteenth century, the time when the Mughals
conquered India and began to build up their power. Here I will describe
in brief the political and doctrinal life of Shaikh ‘Abd al-Quddus Gangohi
(d. 1537), a leading Chishti shaikh of the time. Gangohi was the
pir or preceptor, very nearly the royal pir, of the Afghans, the archrivals
of the Mughals. How then did the Mughals deal with him How did he
reconcile himself with the new situation Was there any change in his
position, or later after his death, in the position of the other people and
institutions related to the Chishti order Can we explain the changes
that did occur in terms of the evolving conditions in the wake of the
establishment and consolidation of the Mughal empire What was the
response of the Mughals and why did it take the form it did The essay
also discusses the visit of the Central Asian Naqshbandi shaikhs to
the Mughal court. Here besides some details of their relations with
the early Indian Mughals, I also draw attention to the nature of their
relations with the Timurid rulers in Central Asia. This has been done
in an attempt to understand the problems that came up in the wake
of their visits. I have thus asked if, with the Mughal conquest of India,
these Naqshbandis shaikhs also saw the prospect of an extension of the
domain of their power and if the legacy of the ideology and practice
of Central Asian Naqshbandi tasawwuf hindered the progress of the
building of the Mughal state in India, and created difficulties for the
Mughals. I have hence examined in particular the connections between
Akbar’s new administrative measures on the one hand, and the Sufi
shaikhs (whether Chishtis or Naqshbandis), on the other.
In the last section of the essay, I examine whether in the new
conditions of Akbar’s India, the Naqshbandis rearticulated their
tasawwuf in a bid to renegotiate their relationship with the Mughals.
It should be noted at the very outset that several details critical for
our argument have been developed earlier, in particular by scholars of
Central Asia. However, these same elements are reinterpreted here
in the perspective of the development of Mughal Indian politics and
religious culture. It is hoped that this will provide a more useful context
for the questions often asked by historians of Mughal India.
Sufis, while Damrel’s discussion of some Chishti Sufi rites and practices with reference
to Sirhindi, is essentially meant to show his connections with the Chishtis and the
similarities in their ‘politics’ and Sufi practices. Compare Damrel, ‘The ‘Naqshbandi
Reaction’ Reconsidered’.
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