Question

When has Akbar abolished the pilgrimage tax?
 (A) 1561
(B) 1562
(C) 1563
(D) 1564

Answer 1

Hint: Abu-Ul-Fath Jalal-Ud-Din-Muhammad Akbar was the grandson of Babur and the son of Humayun, who had been forced out of his rule and the capital of Delhi by Sher Sha Sur, an invader from Afghanistan. Humayun could return to Delhi in 1555, ten years after the death of Sher Shah Sur, supported by the Shah of Iran. At the time, Akbar was 13 years old; his father made him governor of Punjab.

Complete step by step answer: Akbar extended the Mughal Empire during his rule, using a mixture of diplomacy, marriage, and military conquest. He permitted the Hindu Rajput rulers of Rajasthan to retain their lands if they acknowledged him as emperor, paid regular tribute, provided soldiers when required, and agreed to marriage alliances. He did not withdraw from massacres where they resisted. In 1562 Akbar accepted the offer of marriage with the princess of Rajput. The nobles of Rajput started to join the Mughal government service and advanced to the highest positions as generals and governors.
Akbar's greatest achievements were his administrative reforms, which laid the foundation for 150 years of a multi-religious empire under the rule of the Mughal. Often more interested in physical activity than in formal education, he remained illiterate all his life but took an active interest in all academic matters.
Akbar has established a separation of state and religion and has opened government roles to representatives of all faiths. He abolished the poll tax on non-Muslims and forced the conversion of prisoners of war to Islam. He transformed the meetings of Muslim clerics into open discussions between Islam, Hindus, Persians, and Christian scholars, and in 1579 he issued an edict that made him the highest authority in religious matters.
Akbar was hunting near Mathura in 1563. He found that a tax had been levied on the people who had gathered there on their pilgrimage. Akbar did not know about the tax on pilgrims from all areas of the Hindu pilgrimage. On the investigation, Akbar was told that it was the custom of any Muslim ruler to pay the Hindu pilgrim tax at any place of the Hindu pilgrimage. The tax was not set. It was arbitrarily determined by the rank and wealth of the pilgrim. Akbar felt that the tax on pilgrims was morally incorrect, both because it was levied on people who came "in search of the light of God" and because it was not standardized but discretionary, variable according to the whim of the tax collector. He abolished the tax on pilgrims in his kingdom.

Thus, the answer is option C: 1563

Note: Many of Akbar's reforms were already underway during the brief Afghan occupation of Sher Shah Sur. But Akbar understood the requirements of a stable government and how it relied on a stable economy. He abandoned Sher Shah Sur's concept of a uniform tax rate for the whole world. The construction of the national road system as a prerequisite for economic expansion has proceeded.