Vijayapura: Asserting that secularism is strongly rooted in the soil and nature of Vijayapura because of the presence Sufis and ruled by Adil Shahi sultanate who were most secular in their nature, noted author and historian, Abdul Ghani Imaratwale has said that because of this nature, Vijayapura city will never allow any communal forces to divide it.
Speaking at the release of his book ‘A Studies in Bijapur Sultanate’ here, he said that Adil Shahis who ruled for Deccan Region, never opposed any religion.
“They believed in inclusiveness, therefore they respected Hindus of this region. We get numerous examples of Adil Shahi rulers donating land and money to Hindu temples during their rule”, Dr Imaratwale said.
He said that the efforts of some people who try to divide Vijayapura on religious lines, will never be successful.
Elaborating more about the rule of Adil Shahi, he said that calling Adil Shahi as ‘Kingdome’ is wrong as it was a full-fledged empire which was the biggest in India after Mughals.
“The empire of Adil Shahis was stretching to almost 80% of Southern India which is the biggest empire in South India “, he said.
Claiming that Vijayapura was one of the most prosperous cities of the world during the Adil Shahi era, he said that the city was visited by traders, scholars and writers of many countries.
Taking exception to some right-wing people who are digging up history only to spread canards about the Muslims rulers of India, he said that some of the historical details are being twisted only to give the wrong picture of Muslims rulers.
In his address after releasing the book, Former Minister and MLA, M. B. Patil said that during the Adil Shahi era, Vijayapura city had a population of over 10 lakhs. Still, the Adil Shahi had made sure that adequate water was supplied to the population with open wells and tanks, he said.
“Today, despite having some much modern facilities, we are unable to supply drinking water properly to the people of Vijayapura city”, he regretted.
He said that he also regrets that despite having over 80 protected monuments, highest in South India, the potential is not being used fully for developing it as a tourism hub.
“There are States and countries that have used tourism as one the main sources of revenue for the country, but unfortunately, we have failed to use our monuments to promote tourism”, he said.
He recalled his works to revive the ancient Bawadis (open wells) during his tenure as District In-charge Minister.
Sharing his views, cleric Sayed Tanveer Hashmi hoped that the book would be translated into Kannada, Urdu and Hindi also for the readers.
He assured that he will try to get the book translated into Urdu.
Co-author of the book, Maqsood Afzal Jagirdar, Congress leaders, Abdul Hamid Mushrif, Mohammed Rafiq Tapal, lecturers, Wajid Hashmi, S. M. Patil Ganihar, Riyaz Faruqui, Maksud Pasha Jagirdar and others were present.
