376 A BRIEF SURVEY OF HUMAN HISTORY

has bsen made can be traced directly or indirectly to the-
influence of the French Revolution."1

The Grand Monarchy was represented in India, as noticed
in the last chapter, by the Mughal Emperors. Their best
contributions to Indian civilisation were made during the
century from Akbar to Aurangzeb (1557-1657). With the
accession of the latter monarch there was already a turn in
the tide. His reign of half-a-century was marked by a strong;
sectarian reactionarism, which was the beginning of the de-
cline. It provoked far-reaching and equally powerful re-
actions in the Hindu community. Particularly under the
gifted leadership of the Great Shivaji (1646-80), the Mara-
thas—a community of peaceful peasants—were organised
into an army of intrepid warriors, even as the Sikh Guru-
Govind Singh (1676-1708) converted (to use his own signi-
ficant expression) 'jackals into tigers and sparrows into
hawks/ Just as the political or constitutional opposition
to the Stuart regime in England and the national revolt
of the Dutch against Spanish domination in Europe during,
the same century (1648) had been reinforced by religious-
antagonism, so in India the religious opposition roused by
Aurangzeb culminated in a national revolt against the1
Mughal dynasty. Even the Rajputs who had initially borne
the brunt of the Muslim advance into India in the earlier
centuries had been cajoled by the liberal policy of Akbar;
but they were once again provoked into hostility by Aurang--
zeb, under the heroic leadership of Durgadas and Ajit Singh
(1679-1707). Finally, this politico-religious war of the
Hindus against the Muslim conquerors of India terminated
in the overthrow of the Mughal Grand Monarchy which had,
since the death of Aurangzeb and Bahadur Shah I (1712),

1. H. A. Davies, An Outline History of the World, p. 445.