Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Memorable Love Story of Khushro Khan and Deval Devi

Thousands of students learning history in India are completely ignorant about this personality.
He is so much forgotten that not only the students, but most of the history teachers and enthusiasts do not know about his existence.
Here is the tale of Legendary Khusro Khan.

Sultan Allah-Ud-Din Khilji started his invasions on Gujarat from 1298 AD. The Hindu supremacy over Gujarat was gone, and the province was assimilated in Khilji empire. Similar to Malik Kafur, a good looking Hindu boy was captured and presented to sultan Allah-ud-din to serve him. Homosexuality was rampant in those days in higher classes of society..

This kid was originally Hindu. He belonged to untouchable caste (Bhangi or Pariya). However couple of Muslim authors claim that he was Rajput and not Bhangi. Anyways.. He was captured, forcibly converted to Islam and was christened HASAN.

Since he was presented to Sultan to Serve him, he was molested sexually by many Sardars of Sultan. It is said that he was so popular among these big-shot Sardars of Sultan's court that many became his close friends.

After the death of Allah-Ud-Din Khilji in 1316 AD, Malik Kafur became the de-facto ruler of the empire. Even Kafur was Hasan's great fan, and gave him the title of [b]Khushro-Khan[/b]..

Since Allah-ud-din's days, he was given command of troops and successfully completed many mission which were entitled to him. However, his magnificent rise in career from a slave boy to commander in chief of Khiljis has more to do with his affair with Allah-ud-din's son Mubarik than his qualities as good commander. After death of kafur, Khushro-Khan helped Mubarik to capture throne. Consequentially, Khushro-Khan became the second in command of Khilji empire. Mubarik was having time of his life, enjoying his days as monarch to fullest. He left administration at the descretion of Khushro-Khan. He was Sultan's most trusted man.

Deval-Devi a prelude....

Deval devi was also from Gujarat. She also was Hindu before her capture and forcible conversion. In fact she was a princess of some kingdom in Gujarat before her capture. Her mother Kamal-Devi, was captured in Allah-ud-din's gujrat invasion in 1298 AD. Her father, king of gujrat, fleed with his teen-age girl, deval-devi. Her mother was taken as wife by Allah-ud-din himself. She however married Shankardev Rao of Devgiri, Maharashtra. However, she was again captured by Kafur and at her tender age, was converted and married away to Sultan's elder son, Khijar Khan.

Her Rise to Power...

With the help of Khushro Khan, Mubarik captured throne and became king. He then added Deval Devi to his own harem by marrying her. Deval Devi became the Sultana of Khilji empire..

Mubarik was a typical Spoilt brat. His sexual fantasies were outrageous. One of the habit that he enjoyed most and which is documented is that he liked to dress up as women and dance as courtesan himself.. Amusing character...
Khushro Khan was the one strong piller of the empire.. His memories of Hindu past were not vanished. Deval Devi and Khushro Khan came closer.. Emotionally.. Here begins one of the great love story..

Great Love story... Khushro-Khan and Deval devi

It is not hard to understand why these two characters came close. They both were Hindus. They both were forcibly converted to Islam. They both were sexually molested since tender age by Muslims. They both had witnessed slaughter. And most importantly, they both were burning from within.. Destiny brought two souls together and gave them power. It is obvious that they will fall in love with each other.. And they did fall in love..

The Conspiracy begins..

Two lovers, who are ambitious and politically powerful, accompanied by a foolish king.. It is an ideal recipe for a revolution..

Exactly what stimulated both these individuals to do what they did is unknown. Even History has to speculate.. However there was a conspiracy, nonetheless..

Following events lead us to that suspicion.
1) Khushro Khan appointed his own brother who was also a Hindu Convert as governor of Gujarat.
2) He trained his personal general's Bodyguard, an extremely elite legion, about 30,000 men strong and kept them in Delhi under his own direct command.. Almost all of them were Hindus..
3) His moves were not at all welcomed by Muslim Sardars. History does not know whether these two even knew what they wanted to do.. There is a reason to speculate that a hazy picture was starting to form in their minds about what they wanted to do..
4) The reason of this speculation is that during this time, Khushro Khan quelled the Hindu Rebellions in Maharashtra by Harpal Dev Rao Yadav of Devgiri.. And he quelled this rebellion violently by torturing Harpal Dev Rao and killing thousands of Hindus.


History becomes hazy..

This period is extremely ill-documented in Indian History. Khushro Khan again undertook a Deccan conquest. however, the Unease in Hindus was beginning to boil. And few contemporary Muslim sources say that Khushro Khan was instrumental in initiating and propagating this unease against Sultan of Delhi. Muslim historians and Sources speak of Khushro Khan with utter disgust.. as a person to cut the nose of Muslims and one who will burn in hell for eternity..

Khushro Khan returns to Delhi from his Malabar conquest...

Rana Hamir of Mewar was spear head of Hindu unease.. Hindus of delhi and North were beginning to believe that Khushro Khan was up to some revolution with aide of Hindu rulers and rajputs. And Deval Devi, and Khushro Khan, were supporting this unease by ignoring it.
No one could point Khushro Khan as he was the one who defeated Hindu kingdoms in South India and extended the boundaries of Empire.. No one could Imagine that this person will not only capture throne on Delhi, but also convert this Islamic Sultanate into Hindu Empire. However this ambition was beginning to take root in minds of Khushro Khan and Deval Devi.
Sultan Mubarik was so pleased by Khushro's success that he gave all rights to Khushro Khan.. He made him the de facto ruler.. He eased the atrocities against Hindus. he gave them religious freedom to worship. He educed taxes on Hindu farmers which were in act since days of Allah-Ud-Din.. Slowly and steadily, Khushro Khan starting to rise as a messiah for Hindus. He became immensely popular among masses..

Truth is Stranger than Fiction...

The situation was so much in favor of Khushro Khan and Deval Devi that they decided to act and execute their plan.. This change was so dramatic and unforeseen that it took time for people to understand what is happening.
Khushro Khan requested Mubarik that he had captured about 30,000 hindu people from Gujrat and he wishes to bring them to delhi to convert them to Islam.. In April of 1319 AD, these people, who were in fact Khushro's personal guards, started to execute their plan, and Sultan Mubarik Was slain..

Khushro Khan declared himself as Sultan.. He married his love Deval Devi..

On 15 April 1319 AD, Khushro Khan declared.. Following are his own words translated in english..

" Till date, Even though I was forced to live as a Muslim, I am still a Hindu in spirit. Hence, I, Sultan of the throne, declare that I am no longer a Muslim. I hereby declare that I am a Hindu. I am the Hindu Samrat (Emperor) of India.. Deval Devi, who also was hindu before she was captured and forcibly converted, is my Wife and henceforth be called as empress of India."

Khuskro Khan Started calling himself [b]Naasir-ud-din.[/b] It is interesting that he chose a Muslim name..

Hindu emperor Naasir-ud-din Khushro Khan..

Hindu Emperor Nasir-Ud-Din dissolved Jaziya tax. He liberated Hindus from the status of secondary citizens in their own country. He rebuilt many temples. Many of his regiments were deployed for the protection of Hindus from Muslim attrocities. In short, he established a comparatively Just rule in India.

His allies, Rajputs, and other Hindu kings were not at all opposing him. In turn, Khushro Khan gave them opportunities to strengthen themselves.. This according to me, was the one of the biggest mistakes committed by Hindus. This was the chance to up root Islam from Indian soil.. however, Hindu kings remained confined to their own territories and nobody actively participated in this revolution by Khushro Khan and Deval Devi..

He facilitated reconversion of many converted Muslims to Hinduism.. He reinstated Rule of Peace in Indian subcontinent. His empire stretched from Afghanistan to Karnataka...

Downfall of Nasiruddin Khushro Khan..

Ghias-ud-din Muhammad Tughlaq was instrumental in Nasiruddin's Downfall.. He forged alliance with Muslims lords against an Infidel, a Kaafir, who had proclaimed himself as Hindu and had become the emperor of India. He called for a Jihad against Nasiruddin Khushro Khan.

The battle Proper..

The battle took place in Punjab when Nasiruddin committed few tactical and strategic blunders and was defeated by Ghiasuddin Tughlaq. He was Captured by Ghiasuddin tughlaq and was tortured to death. Deval Devi met the same fate..

Ending notes...

At the time of his death, Khushro Khan was barely 23 years old.. His Revolution not only stunned and stirred the political scenario of India, but demonstrated to the world that Hindus had guts not only to overthrow the tyrant Muslim rule, but to also reinstate their old right on their motherland which was raped by Muslim barbarians...

9 comments:

HistoricallyCurious said...

I just came across this bit of history in a book, and searched the web to find your site. It;d be good if someone were to find and cite original sources.

Shrinivas Tilak said...

Chapter 17 of Six Glorious Epochs of Indian History by Veer Savarkar provides a more detailed and nuanced account of this story. We need a specialist of the history of Gujarat to authenticate "the hindu interlude" during the sultanate period in Delhi" so eloquently sketched by Savarkar.

Sudheer Maurya 'Sudheer' said...

plz read my book on Deval devi

http://www.amazon.in/Deval-Devi-eak-etihasik-Upnyas/dp/8190786644

ashok said...

pl read my novel deval-devgiri on amazon.in

Unknown said...

Do you have an authentic source of the following statement of Khusaro shah - " Till date, Even though I was forced to live as a Muslim, I am still a Hindu in spirit. Hence, I, Sultan of the throne, declare that I am no longer a Muslim. I hereby declare that I am a Hindu. I am the Hindu Samrat (Emperor) of India.. Deval Devi, who also was hindu before she was captured and forcibly converted, is my Wife and henceforth be called as empress of India."

Abhas Verma said...

Nice story hope you also go through it.
http://thirdbattleofpanipatmaratha.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

Khshro khan..
Was server

Mostly call dalit
It's reason ...

For not highlighted. In history of india

Unknown said...

real and inspiring unsung native hero must find proper place in history

Unknown said...

Khusro's cast is Bharwad