section_path: Governance/Religious policy
section_name: Religious policy
paragraph_text: Religious policy
  
  Many modern commentators have deemed Shivaji's religious policies as tolerant. While encouraging Hinduism, Shivaji not only allowed Muslims to practice without harassment, but supported their ministries with endowments.
  
  Noting that Shivaji had stemmed the spread of the neighbouring Muslim states, his contemporary, the poet Kavi Bhushan stated:
  
  Had not there been Shivaji, Kashi would have lost its culture, Mathura would have been turned into a mosque and all would have been circumcised.
  
  However, Gijs Kruijtzer, in his book Xenophobia in Seventeenth-Century India, argues that the foundation for modern Hindu-Muslim communalism was laid in the decade 1677–1687, in the interplay between Shivaji and Aurangzeb (though Shivaji died in 1680). During the sack of Surat in 1664, Shivaji was approached by Ambrose, a Capuchin friar who asked him to spare the city's Christians. Shivaji left the Christians untouched, saying "the Frankish Padrys are good men."
  
  Shivaji was not attempting to create a universal Hindu rule. He was tolerant of different religions and believed in syncretism. He urged Aurangzeb to act like Akbar in according respect to Hindu beliefs and places. Shivaji had little trouble forming alliances with the surrounding Muslim nations, even against Hindu powers. He also did not join forces with certain other Hindu powers fighting the Mughals, such as the Rajputs. His own army had Muslim leaders from early on. The first Pathan unit was formed in 1656. His admiral, Darya Sarang, was a Muslim.
  
  Many modern commentators have deemed Shivaji's religious policies as tolerant. While encouraging Hinduism, Shivaji not only allowed Muslims to practice without harassment, but supported their ministries with endowments.
  
  Noting that Shivaji had stemmed the spread of the neighbouring Muslim states, his contemporary, the poet Kavi Bhushan stated:
  
  Had not there been Shivaji, Kashi would have lost its culture, Mathura would have been turned into a mosque and all would have been circumcised.
  
  However, Gijs Kruijtzer, in his book Xenophobia in Seventeenth-Century India, argues that the foundation for modern Hindu-Muslim communalism was laid in the decade 1677–1687, in the interplay between Shivaji and Aurangzeb (though Shivaji died in 1680). During the sack of Surat in 1664, Shivaji was approached by Ambrose, a Capuchin friar who asked him to spare the city's Christians. Shivaji left the Christians untouched, saying "the Frankish Padrys are good men."
  
  Shivaji was not attempting to create a universal Hindu rule. He was tolerant of different religions and believed in syncretism. He urged Aurangzeb to act like Akbar in according respect to Hindu beliefs and places. Shivaji had little trouble forming alliances with the surrounding Muslim nations, even against Hindu powers. He also did not join forces with certain other Hindu powers fighting the Mughals, such as the Rajputs. His own army had Muslim leaders from early on. The first Pathan unit was formed in 1656. His admiral, Darya Sarang, was a Muslim.