Sometime previous to these reforms Akbar had abolished a custom so
disgusting that we can hardly comprehend that it ever could have
legally existed. At any rate it alone is sufficient to brand Islam and
its supreme contempt for followers of other faiths, with one of the
greatest stains in the history of humanity. When a tax-collector
gathered the taxes of the Hindus and the payment had been made, the
Hindu was required "without the slightest sign of fear of defilement"
to open his mouth in order that the tax collector might spit in it if
he wished to do so.[11] This was much more than a disgusting
humiliation. When the tax-collector availed himself of this privilege
the Hindu lost thereby his greatest possession, his caste, and was
shut out from any intercourse with his equals. Accordingly he was
compelled to pass his whole life trembling in terror before this
horrible evil which threatened him. That a man of Akbar's nobility of
character should remove such an atrocious, yes devilish, decree seems
to us a matter of course; but for the Hindus it was an enormous
beneficence.
[Footnote 11: Noer, II, 6, 7; G.B. Malleson, 174, 175.]
Akbar sought also to advance trade and commerce in every possible way.
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