The third aspect of pre-1857 conditions that mitigated British Islamophobia was the model of tolerance some Britons saw as instrumental to Mughal success. For instance, long after Mughal political power had evaporated, Anglican bishop Reginald Heber reported in his Indian travelogue (1828) that “the fierce Mohammadans” only had begun to question British control because Britons had disrespected the Mughal court. The same year, Walter Hamilton in his gazetteer of India stumped for a respectful Mughal policy, “The most rational course appeared to be, to leave the king’s authority exactly in the state in which it was found, and to afford the royal family the means of subsistence…not unsuitable to a fallen but illustrious race.” A quarter century later, Edward Thornton noted in his gazetteer, “The feelings of deference for the throne of Delhi extended to provinces very remote from the seat of its former grandeur, and to Hindoos not less than to Mahomedans. It was in fact universal.” Undoubtedly, this transcommunal respect must have struck some Britons in India as evidence of toleration’s advantages, just as Locke and others promoted at home.

Builds on: "British observers admired Mughal accomplishments while viewing Muslims as declining."

Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, Common Heritage, Uncommon F…, loc. 57