Page 156 - Lohgarh

156 w Lohgarh : The World’s Largest Fort

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an employee of Khan Khana. The Hindus were also accompanied by a
musical band. On seeing this, Virdi Begh, a fanatic Muslim, created a
hue and cry that the Hindus, by exhibition of such un-Islamic show,
were preaching Kufar (profanity).
Virdi Begh was successful in instigating the simple-minded Muslims
and they joined him to oppose the Hindus; thousands of Muslims began
attacking the Hindus; several of them Hindus) were punched and
plundered; a few Hindus lost their lives too; and cowardly Hindus
suffered all this without any protest. The plight of the Hindus was
reported to Bachan Singh Kachhwaha and Badan Singh Bundela (two
Hindu generals) by a generous Muslim general who had come to Lahore,
as a part of the army which had joined Bahadur Shah in his campaign
against the Sikhs. These Hindu generals approached the Emperor and
got issued an order for him to stop attacks on the Hindus.
Though the attacks on the Hindus were stopped, but the Sikhs still
continued to be the targets of the Muslim fanatics; now, the fanatics
Muslims began another propaganda that the Lahore riots had been
caused by the Sikhs who had long beards. Bahadur Shah knew that the
Sikhs did not cut/trim their beards so he issued an order asking the
Hindus to shave their beards, so that they might not be mistaken as
Sikhs. The Hindus obeyed this order and most of them shaved their
beards the very next day. But, Yaar Mohammed Khan Kalandari, the
Faujdar of the Delhi province gives another story; according to him, the
Hindus had not shaved their beards willingly, in fact, the royal order for
shaving their beards was forcibly implemented:

“...royal order commanded that the beards of all the Hindus of the royal
army should be shaved and an order be conveyed to all the provinces that
no ‘bedeen’ (profane, i.e. non-Muslim) shall keep long beard and if such a
person (non-Muslim) is found (with beard) his beard should be plucked.
Hence, this order was proclaimed in all the royal provinces. In the royal
camp, this order was implemented in such a manner that the monster-
looking chiefs used to wander in the streets and the bazaars of the town,
carrying basins of dirty water. They would insult anyone and shave his
beard, snatch his turban and even take off his clothes. The Hindu employees