AURANGAZEB’S LETTER TO HIS TEACHER Sir! What do you expect from me? Is there any justification in your asking that I, in my capacity of a famous Muslim ruler, should take you into my court? May be your request would have been reasonable if you had imparted education to me in proper way. A student, who receives good education, should respect his teacher as he respects his father. But, what have you taught me? Firstly, you taught saying that Europe means a small island called Portugal, that the king of that country alone is great, in the next position is the king of Holland and then comes the king of England. You also said the king of the France and Spain are like the petty rulers in our country and that the King of Hindustan are greater than all those Kings, that they are the emperors who conquered the whole world and the kings of Persia, Uzbek, Tartar, China, Eastern China, Pegu, Machina, will shiver at the mere mentioning of the names of Hindustan kings. Ah! You have taught excellent history and Geography, indeed! Instead, you should have taught me about the different countries in the world and their varied interests, the strengths and weaknesses of those kings, their war strategies, their customs, religions, Government policies, the advantages, History, progress, downfall, what disasters and blunders had led to great changes and revolutions-you should have taught me all these things. I did not learn anything from you regarding the great men, who established the Mughal empire. You did not teach me anything about their life histories. You did not teach about the policies and the strategies that they followed to achieve glorious victories.
Q1. Rewrite this passage as a dialogue between Aurangzeb and his teacher, giving the teacher’s responses to Aurangzeb’s questions and the charges he makes against the teacher in his letter.
Such questions are made for enhancing the self creative skills and should be tried answering on your own. However, here are a few points that will help you in framing your answer:-
- Teacher : You should take me into your court.
- Aurangzeb: Why ? I think you do not deserve to be inducted into my court. You were terrible teacher.
- Teacher: Why do you feel so?
- Aurangzeb : You taught that Europe means the small island of Portugal.
- Teacher : It is not wrong. Portugal is the primary naval power of Europe. Other countries are insignificant powers. Moreover, when I taught you, sufficient information about other countries of Europe was not available.
- Aurangzeb: You should have taught me about the political strategies of other Mughal rulers.
- Teacher : I taught you when you were a young boy. My focus was on imparting you elementary education. I wanted to make you inquisitive and develop within you the ability to question others and learn. I wanted you to develop your own ideas and own strategies. Young minds are impressionable. If I had taught you the political strategies of others, you would have lost your ability to think originally. Your ideas would have been influenced heavily by their strategies.
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