Akbar: conquest to conciliation (1556–1605)

Detail

A boy king (1556)

• Akbar was declared emperor at age 13, right after his father Humayun died in an accident.
• He ruled for about 50 years (1556–1605) — one of the longest reigns in Indian history.
• NCERT sums up the reign in one line: it was "a blend of brutality and tolerance, shaped by ambition and strategy."
• Two halves, easy to remember:
• Early years — war, sieges, massacre.
• Later years — alliances, tolerance, talking to other faiths.

The siege of Chittorgarh — the brutal face

• Chittorgarh is a great hill fort in Rajasthan, the capital of Mewar.
• Akbar invaded Chitor in 1567; the fort fell to him in February 1568 [2][3].
• The siege lasted more than five months. Rajput defenders fought hard and killed many Mughal soldiers.
• When the wall was finally broken:
• The defenders died fighting inside.
• Hundreds of women performed jauhar, led by their queens and noblewomen.

• Akbar, then 25 years old, ordered the killing of about 30,000 civilians, and the surviving women and children were made slaves.

• After the fall, Akbar made Chitor a district and appointed Asaf Khan its governor [2].

• Jauhar explained: when Turkic or Mughal armies captured a place, they took women as slaves. To avoid capture, Rajput women jumped into mass fires. It was seen as a heroic last act of resistance and of saving honour.

The victory letter

• Akbar's own letter after the win used the language of holy war:

  "With the help of our bloodthirsty sword, we have erased the signs of infidelity… and have destroyed temples in those places and also all over Hindustan."

• Exam point: this letter is from the same ruler who later abolished the jizya. The contrast is the whole story of the reign.

Why the fall of Chitor mattered

• Chittorgarh is today part of the "Hill Forts of Rajasthan", a UNESCO World Heritage site inscribed in 2013, together with Kumbhalgarh, Ranthambore (Sawai Madhopur), Gagron (Jhalawar), Amber (Jaipur) and Jaisalmer — six forts in all [4][5].
• These forts stand for Rajput courage and feudal power from the 8th to the 18th centuries; some have walls up to 20 km around, holding palaces, temples, markets and whole towns inside [4].
• Akbar had already taken Gagron fort in 1561 [4].
• The shock of Chitor's fall pushed other Rajput rajas to accept Akbar as emperor in 1570 and to make marriage alliances with him [2].
• Mewar itself did not submit — this is the seed of Maharana Pratap's long resistance [2].

The switch to political strategy

• Akbar first believed the old family maxim:

  "A monarch should be ever intent on conquest, otherwise his enemies rise in arms against him."

• But as the empire grew, pure force became costly. He changed method, not ambition. His tools:

• Marriage alliances with neighbouring princesses.
• Rajput and regional leaders welcomed into the court as nobles and commanders.
• Abolition of the jizya — the tax that non-Muslims had to pay.
• Hindu officials placed in high positions.

• Interfaith dialogues — scholars of different religions invited to debate.

• Terms of the deal for a Rajput chief: keep your ancestral land, but accept Akbar as emperor, pay tribute, send troops when asked, and make a marriage alliance [2].

• Sulh-i-kul — literally "peace with all". It means tolerance of all faiths. It was not only a belief; it was glue for a mixed empire.

Abul Fazl and Akbar's change of heart

• Abul Fazl was Akbar's court historian and biographer.

• He recorded Akbar's own words:

  "Formerly I persecuted men into conformity with my faith and deemed it Islam. As I grew in knowledge, I was overwhelmed with shame… What constancy is to be expected from proselytes on compulsion?"

• Simple meaning: faith forced on a person is not real faith, so forcing it is useless.

Fatehpur Sikri — tolerance in stone

• Akbar moved his residence and court from Agra to Sikri for 13 years, 1572–1585 [6][7].
• He honoured the Sufi saint Sheikh Salim Chishti, who lived there in a cave on the ridge and blessed Akbar with a son — named Salim, born 1569 (the future Jahangir) [6].
• Akbar named the city Fathabad, later Fatehpur Sikri. The prefix "Fatehpur" means "city of victory", added to mark his conquest of Gujarat in 1573 [7].
• It is called the first planned city of the Mughals, with the Jami Masjid, the tomb of Sheikh Salim Chishti, and advanced drainage and water-supply systems [6].

The three phases of the reign

• Phase 1 — conquest: sieges like Chittorgarh (1567–68), Gujarat (1573).
• Phase 2 — the middle reign: relatively peaceful; this is when conciliation policies took root.
• Phase 3 — the last 15 years (roughly 1590–1605): fresh campaigns in Kashmir, Sindh, the Deccan and Afghanistan.
• Pattern to note: he never gave up expansion. He only added a second tool — politics — beside the sword.

Prelims Hooks

• Akbar became emperor at the age of 13, in 1556, after Humayun's accidental death.
• Akbar's reign: 1556–1605, about 50 years.
• Akbar invaded Chitor in 1567; the fort fell in February 1568 [2].
• The siege of Chittorgarh lasted more than five months; about 30,000 civilians were massacred; Akbar was 25 then.
• Asaf Khan was made governor of Chitor after its fall [2].
• Jauhar = mass self-immolation by Rajput women to avoid capture and slavery.
• Sulh-i-kul = "peace with all" — tolerance of all faiths; jizya was abolished by Akbar.
• Abul Fazl = Akbar's court historian and biographer, who recorded his change of heart.
• Rajput rajas (other than Mewar) accepted Akbar as emperor in 1570 and made marriage alliances [2].
• Fatehpur Sikri was the capital 1572–1585; "Fatehpur" = "city of victory", after the 1573 conquest of Gujarat [6][7].
• Chittorgarh is one of the six Hill Forts of Rajasthan, a UNESCO World Heritage site (2013) [4][5].
• The final 15 years saw campaigns in Kashmir, Sindh, the Deccan and Afghanistan.

Mains Points

• Conquest and conciliation were one strategy, not two. Chittorgarh (1568) showed what refusal cost; the marriage alliances and court posts that followed showed what submission paid. The terror made the tolerance cheap to offer and easy to accept — Rajput rajas submitted in 1570 largely because Chitor had fallen [2].
• Sulh-i-kul was statecraft as much as belief. A small Turco-Mongol elite could not rule a vast, mostly non-Muslim land by force alone. Abolishing jizya, appointing Hindu officials and holding interfaith debates turned potential rebels into stakeholders. Compare directly with Aurangzeb's reimposition of jizya — the standard GS-I contrast question.
• Evidence and its limits. Akbar's confession of shame survives only through Abul Fazl, a court insider paid to praise him. Useful answer line: court chronicles record royal self-image, so read them beside hard evidence — the victory letter after Chitor, and the temple destruction it boasts of.
• Legitimacy written in stone. Fatehpur Sikri joined a Sufi shrine, a Jami Masjid and an imperial palace in one planned city (1572–1585) [6]. Rule was justified through both military victory ("city of victory", after Gujarat 1573) and spiritual sanction (Sheikh Salim Chishti) [7].
• Mewar is the exception that proves the pattern. Mewar never submitted [2], so the Mughal–Rajput settlement was a negotiated bargain, not a total conquest — which explains why Rajput resistance stayed a living political force.