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THE JIZYA - What Hindus should know about it
THE JIZYA - What Hindus should know about it
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Following was posted by an anon poster on SCI, it is relevant to ongoing
discussion.
Koran calls for Jizya on zimmis in the following verse -
Fight those who do not profess the true faith (Islam),
till they pay 'Jiziya' with the hand of humility - (9.29)
Most Indians have heard of imposition of Jiziya during the Moslem rule
(Sultanate period & early Mughal era from 1300 CE to 1563 CE, and during
Aurangzeb's rule from 1681 CE onwards) but most do not know what Jiziya
really entailed.
Many apologists try to portray it as a tax to be paid by Hindus so as to
be exempt from military service. This is to portray that Hindus in ancient
times were trying to avoid being 'drafted' (a familiar term from US during
vietnam war era) and had to pay a tax instead. The reality is quite
different.
Mind you, jiziya is not a tax on the annual income but on total assets a
zimmi possesses. The tax rate is 6 percent of all your possessions. The
net effect is that in mere 11 years more than 50 percent of the
populations net worth is transferred to the Moslem ruler. You don't need
to be a rocket scientist to figure out effect of nearly 300 years of
Jiziya on Hindu populations in different parts of India.
The income tax from Allauddhin Khilji's time onwards (1300 CE onwards) was
50 % of annual income, imposed in addition to Jiziya. Incidently this
taxation rate was 3 times the rate under Hindu rule.
Besides the taxation on total assets there were 20 'NO-NOs' stipulated by
jiziya. The details of which reveal that jiziya did not allow right to
bear arms for zimmis so question of them joining army does not even arise.
>From these 20 NO-NOs it is clear that Jiziya enforced worst form of
untouchability on over 90 pct of population.
Let us look at the 20 disabilities Jiziya calls for:
1. Zimmis are not to possess arms;
2. They are not to build new places of worship;
3. They are not to repair any old places of worship which have been
destroyed by Moslems;
4. They are not to prevent Moslem trvelers from staying in their
(zimmi) places of worship;
5. They are not to observe their religious practises publicaly or
mourn for their dead loudly;
6. They are to entertain for 3 days any Moslem who wants to stay in
their homes and for a longer period if the Moslem falls ill;
7. They are to allow Moslems to participate in their private meetings;
8 .They are not to ride horses with saddle and bridle;
9. They are to wear a distinctive dress which shows their inferior
status and separates them from the Moslems;
10.They are not to dress like Moslems;
11.They are not to wear signet rings or seals on their fingers;
12.They have to show respect to every Moslem;
13.They are not to harbor any hostility or give aid and comfort to
elements hostile to Moslem ruler;
14.They are not to prevent anyone from getting converted to Islam;
15.They are not to name themselves with Moslem names;
16.They are not to propagate their customs and usages among Moslems;
17.They are not to build their houses in the neighborhood of Moslems;
18.They are not to bring their dead near the graveyards of Moslems;
19.They are not to buy Moslem slaves;
20.They are not to sell or drink liquor openly.
Some explanation of finer points is necessary at this time. First, Koran
asks for Jiziya from Zimmis (people of the book) only. Zimmis or dhimmis
are people of semitic religions (namely Jews and Christians). By Koranic
definition, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Animists, Pagans, Parsis and people
of other nonsemitic religions are Kafirs. They are to be given choice
(revealed by merciful Allah) of conversion to Islam or death. So strictly
speaking, Jiziya is not meant for Hindus and other Kafirs of India. But
when Moslem rulers of ancient India came across a vast population of
Hindus which could not be exterminated quickly with the then available
primitive means, the "merciful' Moslem rulers chose to impose Jiziya on
the population to let them 'live and work' in the Islamic land, certainly
a great privilage (sic).
Other humiliations imposed by Jiziya were that the zimmi must come on foot
and make payment standing while the Moslem collector must be seated. If
the zimmi sends the money thru an agent it was not to be accepted.
Source : Koran and Kafir - By A.Ghosh, pp.85-86, 1983
ISBN 0-9611614-0
For more details on Koranic injunctions on how to deal with Kafirs
please read the above book.
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S H E Z I A N
