Presented By: Center for South Asian Studies
CSAS 2025 Kavita Datla Memorial Lecture | Spectral Conversions: Becoming Muslim in Late-Seventeenth-Century Mughal India
Munis D. Faruqui, Associate Professor, Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California Berkeley
Attend in person or via Zoom: https://myumi.ch/bVgNy
In Spring 2024, parts of Maharashtra were rocked by riots following calls by Hindu nationalist groups to exhume the remains of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb ʿAlamgir (r. 1658–1707). At the heart of this controversy is a long-standing accusation: that Aurangzeb was a violent zealot who forcibly converted large numbers of Hindus to Islam. This lecture reconsiders that claim by drawing on the Akhbarat—a rich set of imperial newsletters—and places the question of conversion within the broader context of Mughal political and religious life. How have historians approached conversion in the Mughal Empire? Why were the Mughals, including Aurangzeb, largely uninterested in conversion? And how can we think about the motives, meanings, and limits of conversion at the Mughal court? The lecture concludes with the story of Hidayatkesh Khan, a convert to Islam who rose to become Aurangzeb’s private secretary, revealing both the opportunities and constraints that conversion could entail under Mughal rule.
Munis D. Faruqui is a historian in the Department of South & Southeast Asian Studies at UC Berkeley. His focus is on the Muslim experience in South Asia, especially during the Mughal period. His books include Princes of the Mughal Empire, 1504–1719 (Cambridge University Press, 2012), Expanding Frontiers in South Asian and World History, co-edited with Richard Eaton, David Gilmartin, and Sunil Kumar (Cambridge University Press, 2013), and Religious Interactions in Mughal India, co-edited with Vasudha Dalmia (Oxford University Press, 2014). He has recently completed a book (forthcoming with Cambridge University Press) focused on the life and reign of Emperor Aurangzeb ʿAlamgir (1618–1707) and Mughal Empire in the latter half of the seventeenth and first decades of the eighteenth century.
The Center for South Asian Studies Fall 2025 beginning-of-school year reception will follow after the lecture in the same venue.
The recording of this lecture will not be uploaded to YouTube. Please attend either in person or via Zoom in real time.
The lecture will end at 5:30 PM, to be followed by the reception, which will end by 7:00 PM.
If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at tinagrif@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.
In Spring 2024, parts of Maharashtra were rocked by riots following calls by Hindu nationalist groups to exhume the remains of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb ʿAlamgir (r. 1658–1707). At the heart of this controversy is a long-standing accusation: that Aurangzeb was a violent zealot who forcibly converted large numbers of Hindus to Islam. This lecture reconsiders that claim by drawing on the Akhbarat—a rich set of imperial newsletters—and places the question of conversion within the broader context of Mughal political and religious life. How have historians approached conversion in the Mughal Empire? Why were the Mughals, including Aurangzeb, largely uninterested in conversion? And how can we think about the motives, meanings, and limits of conversion at the Mughal court? The lecture concludes with the story of Hidayatkesh Khan, a convert to Islam who rose to become Aurangzeb’s private secretary, revealing both the opportunities and constraints that conversion could entail under Mughal rule.
Munis D. Faruqui is a historian in the Department of South & Southeast Asian Studies at UC Berkeley. His focus is on the Muslim experience in South Asia, especially during the Mughal period. His books include Princes of the Mughal Empire, 1504–1719 (Cambridge University Press, 2012), Expanding Frontiers in South Asian and World History, co-edited with Richard Eaton, David Gilmartin, and Sunil Kumar (Cambridge University Press, 2013), and Religious Interactions in Mughal India, co-edited with Vasudha Dalmia (Oxford University Press, 2014). He has recently completed a book (forthcoming with Cambridge University Press) focused on the life and reign of Emperor Aurangzeb ʿAlamgir (1618–1707) and Mughal Empire in the latter half of the seventeenth and first decades of the eighteenth century.
The Center for South Asian Studies Fall 2025 beginning-of-school year reception will follow after the lecture in the same venue.
The recording of this lecture will not be uploaded to YouTube. Please attend either in person or via Zoom in real time.
The lecture will end at 5:30 PM, to be followed by the reception, which will end by 7:00 PM.
If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at tinagrif@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.
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