WHY ARE WE DIGGING GRAVES OF THE PAST?

The demand to dismantle the grave of Aurangzeb is only the latest in a drama series of which some episodes have been aired while others are in the pipeline.

- PURUSHOTTAM AGRAWAL

The series is the project of political Hindutva which has been unfolding vigorously for some time, and Aurangzeb is one of the most important figures in this narrative. Seen objectively in a historical perspective, Aurangzeb was ruthlessly consistent in the pursuit of power and more cruel than the average medieval king. He was also very suspicious, even intolerant of artistic expressions of human creativity. But the fact remains that he presided over the centralised administration of an Indian empire of unprecedented vastness and with a robust economy. And he did it with the active support of the Hindu elites—feudal lords, merchants and intellectuals. He also could not hold it together due to the sheer burden of its size and, perhaps more importantly, due to not paying enough attention to Akbar’s model of sulah-e-kul (tolerance and dialogue)—as pointed out by Shivaji in a famous letter.

Obviously, present-day political Hindutva would reject even Shivaji here. How can one praise Akbar and his policies? After all, he was also a Mughal, a Muslim hence an alien to the Hindu rashtra. The question, ‘Who says Akbar was great?’, is not merely the title of a tract by Hindutva ‘historian’ P.N. Oak, but has also been part of the general Hindutva rhetoric. Just nine years ago, some of the BJP’s top leaders wanted Akbar Road in Delhi to be renamed.