Akbar and lessons to be learnt from the great emperor

I have seen the movie Jodhaa Akbar  and must say was a brilliant film falling a little short of a masterpiece; I would say that because I love battle scenes and a couple of battle scenes in the movie were not great, but having said that the movie is just like a poetry. The directors vision to make a movie of this scale must be complimented, Hrithik was just brilliant in his potrayal as Jalaluddin Mohamed Akbar and Aishwarya was as beautiful as ever coupled with a restrained performance. The movie has too many things going for it including the music, the performance of the characters, and brilliant costumes and picturisation.

The question here is though about why was Jalaluddin Mohammed called 'Akbar' and the answer lies in the fact that even though Akbar was not literate at a very young age he understood that only inclusive politics and administration will enable him to become the first true emperor of Hindustan. A few examples of inclusive and secular rule are:

• 5 out of the nine ratnas in his court were Hindus
• Jodhaa bai was a Hindu and her son (Salim) became the next Mughal emperor
• Akbar abolished the pilgrim tax levied on non-muslims
• Akbar respected the Rajputs and his commander in chief was a Rajput Raja Man Singh

All this inclusive actions of made Akbar the true emperor of Hindustan. This brings a lingering question to my mind as to why when a Mughal aristocratic ruler 500 years ago could understand in an era where there was no concept of religious tolerance that our leaders of today cannot understand -- the concept of inclusive progress.

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Super Power - 'India' - Part 1 (Unraveling)

What does the term Super power mean? Let us look at civilizations since the dawn of time that were super powers (qualifying criteria : must have dominated the world militarily or culturally for at least 200 hundred years):
Egypt
Greece
India
Arabia
China
Great Britain

Now, which civilization among the ones listed above has preserved the thread of culture, religion for thousands of years?

I am not a historian or archaeologist to analyze and identify trends but the answer clearly is India. Why did India occupy such a central position in the the world for thousands of years and how is it still preserving its ancient culture, tradition and religious way of life in this era of maniac globalization which no other culture or civilization could ever do?


The answer is the the Hindu way of life. India is shaped by Hinduism and Hindu way of life. There is no denying this fact, I believe Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life where every thing in nature has its prominence and every action has a consequence. The more you look at this definition the more you feel that it is very close to science that governs universe and science can never be wrong.

India is shaped by power of ideas of life (how to live life- Gita ), knowledge of life (Vedas), physical and mental well being (Yoga), governance (Arthasasthra), medicine (Ayurveda), and the list goes on.And it is the power of these ideas that made India the super power that it was (it is slowly treading to its rightful place now). Even though not all of us understand or follow this ancient wisdom it is somehow ingrained in our culture, customs and tradition and the challenge lies in unraveling these ideas to make our nation a super power.

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