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UPSC Mains 2025 · GS Paper I · Q2

UPSC Mains 2025 GS1 Q2: model answer

Examine the main aspects of Akbar’s religious syncretism.

10 marks150 wordsDirective: Examine

What the question wants

Identify the ideas and institutions of Akbar's religious policy and assess how far they amounted to syncretism and why he followed it.

How to structure it

Intro: an empire ruling a plural population. Body: stages and instruments (abolition of jizya, Ibadat Khana, mahzar, Sulh-i-kul, Din-i-Ilahi, translations). Assessment: politics and conviction together. Conclusion.

How to structure the answer
IntroductionAn empire ruling a plural population
Body: examine
  1. 1Stages and instruments (abolition of jizya, Ibadat Khana, mahzar, Sulh-i-kul, Din-i-Ilahi, translations)
  2. 2Assessment: politics and conviction together
ConclusionSum up with a balanced way forward

Model answer

Akbar (r. 1556–1605) ruled a population of Hindus, Sunni and Shia Muslims, Jains, Christians and Parsis. His religious policy moved from orthodoxy to a search for common ground.

  • Early measures: pilgrim tax ended (1563) and jizya abolished (1564); Rajput alliances through marriage and high office.
  • Ibadat Khana (1575): at Fatehpur Sikri, first for Muslim scholars, later open to Brahmins, Jain monks, Jesuits and Zoroastrians.
  • Mahzar (1579): declared the emperor the final arbiter in disputed matters of law, reducing the hold of the ulema.
  • Sulh-i-kul: 'peace with all', the core idea, described by Abul Fazl: the ruler stands above sects.
  • Tauhid-i-Ilahi (Din-i-Ilahi, 1582): a small circle of disciples, not a new religion imposed on subjects.
  • Culture: Persian translations of the Mahabharata (Razmnama) and Ramayana in the Maktab Khana; festivals like Diwali at court.

Assessment: his syncretism mixed faith and statecraft. It widened the base of loyalty and gave the empire legitimacy beyond one community. It was not mass conversion but tolerance backed by state power.

Keywords, cases and data to drop in

Sulh-i-kul Ibadat Khana 1575 Mahzar 1579 jizya abolished 1564 Tauhid-i-Ilahi Abul Fazl Razmnama

Where most answers lose marks

  • Treating Din-i-Ilahi as a state religion forced on people.
  • Giving only a list without examining motives.
  • Wrong dates for the Ibadat Khana or mahzar.

Question text as printed in the official UPSC question paper: https://www.upsc.gov.in/sites/default/files/GENERAL-STUDIES-PAPER%20I-QP-CSM-25-010925.pdf The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.