In Kerala, the Mulakkaram was imposed on lower castes. According to the Mulakkaram tax rules, lower caste Hindu women couldn’t cover the upper part of their body. The women were just allowed to cover the lower part of the body with a lungi like cloth.

At appropriate intervals the upper caste Hindu men would come to check the size of the breasts of lower caste women and tax them accordingly.

When Tipu Sultan captured these areas of Kerala, he abolished this practice, supplying the lower caste women with clothes from Mysore government’s Bait-ul-Maal (treasury).(May Allah reward him for this.)

Source: Taken from an article in The Deccan Herald and the life of Nangeli.

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/opinion/op-ed/040819/tiger-of-mysore-saviour-or-savage.html

Also see: The village-legend of Nangeli is about an Ezhava woman who lived in the early 19th century at Cherthala in the erstwhile princely state of Travancore in India and supposedly, cut off her breasts in an effort to protest against a caste-based “breast tax”. (Wikipedia)

https://www.thehindu.com/society/history-and-culture/the-woman-who-cut-off-her-breasts/article17324549.ece

Imam Abu Shamah Abdur Rahman Al-Maqdisi Rahimahullah wrote about Sultan Nuruddin Zangi Rahimahullah:

In times of war, he was the first to fight and he used to say, “I fought many battles and wished to be a martyr but I did not obtain my wish.” On hearing him, Imam Qutb Ad-Din An-Naysaburi told him, “I adjure you in the name of Allah not to risk your life, Islam and the Muslims- for you are their backbone. Were you to be killed in a battle. the Muslims would be murdered and their lands would be invaded.”

Nuruddin Zangi Rahimahullah replied, “What is all this about? Who am I to be considered so important? There is The One Who saved Islam and its lands before me; it is the Almighty and there is no god but He .”

(Noble Dynasties, The History of Nuruddin and Salahuddin, English, p.17)

The Arabs say:
“The masses follow the religion of their rulers.”

Go back in history to see what the rulers of old did & how their actions influenced their people.

Hajjaj bin Yusuf was a tyrant. He conducted a reign of terror with hangings, mass murders and imprisonment.

At the dawn of each day people would ask each other:
“Who was killed yesterday, who was hanged, who was whipped?”

The Umayyad Caliph, Walīd b Abdul-Malik, loved to build beautiful buildings and set up workshops & factories. During his reign, people cultivated the same tastes.

They built buildings, established workshops, dug canals and planted trees.

He was followed by Suleiman bin Abdul-Malik who loved good food and music. In his times people would talk of singers and concubines and matrimonial feasts and festivities.

Then came the blessed reign of ‘Umar bin ‘Abdul-‘Aziz, and radical change. All of a sudden, people would ask each other: How much of the Qur’an did you commit to memory? How many supererogatory prayers did you say the previous night?

How many days did you fast this month? How much of the Qur’an has so-and-so memorized? And when will so-and-so finish reciting the whole of the Qur’an?

[Nawadir min-at-Tarīkh 1/182]

(Shaikh) İskilipli Mehmed Atıf Hoca was an Islamic Scholar. He was born in Çorum, Turkey. He started his early education in his village. In 1893, he came to Istanbul for Madrasa (“school” in Arabic) education. In 1902 he started Darü’l-fünun ilahiyat Fafültesi (Darü’l-fünun Divinity School). He finished his faculty in 1903 and started working as Ders-i Amm ( Ulema, a person who teaches the Madrasa students) in the Fatih Mosque.

He was later arrested and taken to jail several times, but freed. He was the founding member of Cemiyet-i Müderrisin together with Mustafa Sabri.

[He was arrested by the secular government (of Mustafa Kemal Pasha) for continuously preaching Islam and ‘propagating about not imitating the disbelievers’, even after repeated orders warning him not to do so.]

Before the Westernization movement in Turkey, he wrote a book titled Frenk Mukallitliği ve Şapka (literally- Westernization and the (European) Hat) in 1924. In it, he advocated Sharia Law and opposed  western influences like “Alcohol, Prostitution, Theater, Dance” and the “western hat”. Because the western hat was a symbol of the Non-Muslims, and wearing a hat would make Muslims to lose their Islamic identity.

After the passing of “The Hat Act”, a law that passed on 25 November 1925 and ordered that no other headwear except the ‘western hat’ was allowed (therefore banning the wearing the Fez, classical Turkish turban worn by Muslims), people rose in revolt in some provinces, which the government suppressed.

[The secular government wanted to remove all the symbols of Islam, so they banned the Turkish Turban (Fez) and the traditional dress of the Turkish Muslim scholars, the Turkish gown (thobe).]

He was arrested and sent to Ankara on 26 December 1925 where he stood trial on 26 January 1926. The attorney general demanded three years of imprisonment, but the court postponed the trial to the next day. The next day, the Shaikh İskilipli declared that he no longer desired to defend himself. He was sentenced to death and martyred by hanging on 4 February 1926.

The Tomb of Atıf Hoca, who was buried in secret from his family, was found 82 years later and buried in the Gülbaba Cemetery in Iskilip district.

مِّنَ ٱلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ رِجَالٞ صَدَقُواْ مَا عَٰهَدُواْ ٱللَّهَ عَلَيۡهِۖ فَمِنۡهُم مَّن قَضَىٰ نَحۡبَهُۥ وَمِنۡهُم مَّن يَنتَظِرُۖ وَمَا بَدَّلُواْ تَبۡدِيلٗا

Among the believers, there are men who came true to the covenant they had with Allah. So, some of them have fulfilled their vows (by sacrificing their lives in the way of Allah), and some of them are (still) waiting, and they did not change (their commitment) in the least. (Surah Al-Ahzab,33:23)

Original Source: https://ilkha.com/english/latest/iskilipli-mehmed-atif-hoca-commemorated-on-the-anniversary-of-his-martyrdom-7218

Note: Whatever is in the square brackets was added by me to improve reader comprehension.

All Praises And Thanks be to Allah and peace and salutations be upon His Messenger, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, his household, his noble companions and all those who follow him, till the Day of Judgement.

Understand this- No matter how much the right wing Non-Muslim groups or governments claim about the Muslims that, ‘Muslims don’t love India’ or that ‘Muslims are against LGBT’ etc.,- that is not their actual issue with us.

And just because they say that, we shouldn’t overdo things to just prove them otherwise.

Indian Muslims think that by wearing a tricolor (Indian Flag) Kurta or Hijab on the national days the right wing Hindus will start loving us or becoming neutral towards us? Has it happened? -No!

We keep bad mouthing Pakistan to prove our nationalism, has it helped anyways? – No! May be 1% or 5% think positively about us, but majority of the Hindus still doubt us and say we’re just acting and pretending!

Similarly, the French Muslims have joined LGBT rights rallies and other such rights’ movements and do sloganeering in support!? Has it even helped them against the evil Emmanuelle Macron (French President)? Not much!?

If the problem with Indian Muslims is that they don’t love India, how did the extremist Hindus who removed the baby from a pregnant Muslim female’s belly (using a sword) during Gujrat riots (2002) and slaughtered the child know that the unborn child doesn’t love India? The child didn’t yet enter the world… So, what was the problem with that child?

Allah informed us the reason for their hate more than 1400 years ago!

وَمَا نَقَمُواْ مِنۡهُمۡ إِلَّآ أَن يُؤۡمِنُواْ بِٱللَّهِ ٱلۡعَزِيزِ ٱلۡحَمِيدِ

They punished them for nothing but that they believed in Allah, the All-Mighty, the Worthy of All Praise. (-Surah Al-Buruj, Ayah 8)

So what do we do now?

Instead of trying to please them, we should try to be firm on our religion, and stop compromising. Then we will either live with dignity or die with honour.

If we keep watering down our religion, we may save our bodies and not our hearts! And we and our subsequent generations will lose our Akhirah and end up as apostates with Arabic and Persian names.

Allah warned us in The Quran:

وَلَن تَرۡضَىٰ عَنكَ ٱلۡيَهُودُ وَلَا ٱلنَّصَٰرَىٰ حَتَّىٰ تَتَّبِعَ مِلَّتَهُمۡۗ قُلۡ إِنَّ هُدَى ٱللَّهِ هُوَ ٱلۡهُدَىٰۗ وَلَئِنِ ٱتَّبَعۡتَ أَهۡوَآءَهُم بَعۡدَ ٱلَّذِي جَآءَكَ مِنَ ٱلۡعِلۡمِ مَا لَكَ مِنَ ٱللَّهِ مِن وَلِيّٖ وَلَا نَصِيرٍ

The Jews will never be pleased with you, nor will the Christians, unless you follow their faith. Say: “Guidance of Allah is, indeed, the guidance.” Were you to follow their desires despite the knowledge that has come to you, there shall be no friend for you against Allah, nor a helper. (Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayah 120)

Explanation: Allah addresses and warns His Prophet, telling him that the Jews and the Christians will never be happy with him unless he leaves Islam and follows what they do; and that if he (ﷺ), or one of his followerrs, were to do such a thing, after the clear truth has come to them, they would not find protection or help from Allah. (Explanation of 2:120 from Tafseer Center For Quranic Studies, Riyadh)

So dear Muslims, remember that these trials from the Non-Muslims are coming to us are because we all say La-Ilaaha-Illa-Allah (There is no true god worthy of worship except Allah). The Non-Muslims may claim different reasons, but the main and I must say the only reason is La-Ilaaha-Illa-Allah.

So remember that in this tussle and tug-off war between the Muslims and Non-Muslims, you have two options.

1.Try to be at the mercy of Non-Muslims and compromise your religion, thereby loosing Allah's Help in this Dunya and losing your Akhirah.

(Or)…

2. Be firm on your religion, don’t compromise with the Islamic fundamentals, let them put us in jails and torture us, let them throw us in a pool of fire. Allah has prepared for such believers a Jannah where we will live forever.

أَحَسِبَ ٱلنَّاسُ أَن يُتۡرَكُوٓاْ أَن يَقُولُوٓاْ ءَامَنَّا وَهُمۡ لَا يُفۡتَنُونَ

Do people think that they will be left (at ease) only on their saying, “We believe” and will not be put to any test? (Surah Al-Ankabut, Ayah 2)

وَلَقَدۡ فَتَنَّا ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبۡلِهِمۡۖ فَلَيَعۡلَمَنَّ ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِينَ صَدَقُواْ وَلَيَعۡلَمَنَّ ٱلۡكَٰذِبِينَ

Indeed We have tested those who were before them. So Allah will surely know the ones who are truthful, and He will surely know the liars.(Surah Al-Ankabut, Ayah 3)

Allah said:

(یَـٰۤأَیُّهَا ٱلَّذِینَ ءَامَنُوا۟ هَلۡ أَدُلُّكُمۡ عَلَىٰ تِجَـٰرَةࣲ تُنجِیكُم مِّنۡ عَذَابٍ أَلِیمࣲ)

(تُؤۡمِنُونَ بِٱللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِۦ وَتُجَـٰهِدُونَ فِی سَبِیلِ ٱللَّهِ بِأَمۡوَ ٰ⁠لِكُمۡ وَأَنفُسِكُمۡۚ ذَ ٰ⁠لِكُمۡ خَیۡرࣱ لَّكُمۡ إِن كُنتُمۡ تَعۡلَمُونَ)

O you who believe, shall I tell you about a trade that saves you from a painful punishment? That you believe in Allah and His Messenger, and carry out Jihad (struggling) in His way with your riches and your lives. That is much better for you, if you but know.(-Surah As-Saf, Ayah 10,11.)

Remember- Whether you compromise on you religion or be firm, you will live only as much as is written in your fate. No liberal Muslim lived longer than what Allah willed for him and no firm Muslim lived a life shorter than what Allah had prescribed for him!

So please Allah and be firm in whatever is left out of your lives.

وَمَا عَلَيۡنَآ إِلَّا ٱلۡبَلَٰغُ ٱلۡمُبِينُ

Our obligation is no more than to convey the message clearly.” (Surah Ya-Seen, Ayah 17)