The Taj Mahal- the name is enough about this wounderful Archetictural Maravel,symbol of love and History. The Taj Mahal was commissioned by Shah Jahan in 1631, to be built in the memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal ,a Persian princess.The Taj Mahal was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 for being “the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage”. Described by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore as “the tear-drop on the cheek of time”, it is regarded by many as the best example of Mughal architecture and a symbol of India’s rich history. The Taj Mahal attracts 7–8 million visitors a year. In 2007, it was declared a winner of the New7Wonders of the World (2000–2007) initiative.
The Taj Mahal, one of the wonders of the world, has found itself at the centre of a political controversy. It all started after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that Taj Mahal “did not reflect Indian culture” Then,The Uttar Pradesh Tourism Department releases a booklet titled ‘ Uttar Pradesh Paryatan – Apaar Sambhavnaayein ‘ (Uttar Pradesh Tourism – Limitless Possibilities), featuring most of the cultural and heritage sites in the state. However, it has no mention of Taj Mahal, one of the seven ‘wonders of the world’.Adding to this ugly poltical row Sangeet Som, a controversial lawmaker of the ruling BJP, said the monument was built by “traitors” and is a “blot on Indian culture”.
“Many people were worried that the Taj Mahal was removed from the list of historical places in the UP tourism booklet. What history are we talking about? The man who built Taj Mahal imprisoned his father. He wanted to massacre Hindus. If this is history, then it is very unfortunate and we will change this history, I guarantee you” Mr Som said at a rally in Meerut.
It seems that instead of emphasising the Hindu origins of Muslim monuments and staking a claim over them, the new RSS(The Sangh parivar)strategy is to belittle their importance and denounce them so as to denigrate Muslims by suspecting their ‘Indian-ness’.Never before have its leaders acknowledged the Muslim identity of historical monuments like the Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Qutub Minar or Jama Masjid.
However, generations of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) cadre have been brought up on the theories of one Purushottam Nagesh Oak, a self-styled historian who had founded the Institute for Rewriting Indian History in 1964. Among other things, Oak claimed that the Arabian Peninsula was part of the Indian empire of King Vikramaditya and Kaaba was originally a Hindu temple. He wrote many books of which Some Blunders of Indian Historical Research became very popular. In this book, he claimed the Qutub Minar was, in fact, an astronomical observation tower called Vishnu Dhwaj or Vishnu Stambh and that the Red Fort was a palace built by a Hindu ruler. He summed up the crux of his historical vision in these words: “All medieval mosques and tombs in India are conquered and misused Hindu palaces and temples. Thus, Mohammad Ghaus’s tomb in Gwalior, Salim Chisti’s mausoleum in Fatehpur Sikri, Nizamuddin’s qabar in Delhi, Moinuddin Chishti’s makbara in Ajmer are all erstwhile Hindu buildings lost to Muslim conquest and use.” It is not difficult to see a correlation between this approach and the one that resulted in the demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya.
However, such claims end up making the Hindutva forces a laughing stock in the eyes of the world because they are too preposterous to deserve serious academic consideration. Even a passionate Hindutva-loving writer like Koenraad Elst
has described such claims as being “fanciful and totally unfounded”. This can be clearly seen that Sangeet Som didn’t know difference between ShahJahan & Aurengzeb,he didn’t exactly know who builted what. The RSS-BJP once banned by Sardar Patel seems to be claiming him to be one of them which again is fooling the people, As history documents how Sardar Patel rejected the application of Golwerkar to remove ban on RSS.
If likes of Tipu Sultan,haider Ali,Shahjahan are traitors then Muslims of India need to think about position, value in society. Someone has to ask politicians to stop Hate mongering,War mongering & Communal Politics.
BJP ruled Rajasthan where the state government has decreed that history textbooks will henceforth show Maharana Pratap as the victor in the battle of Haldighati, even though that happens to be a flagrant travesty of history. The demonisation of Aurangzeb has been followed by the vilification of all Muslim rulers and rejection of their contributions – even contributions of those like Jahangir and Shah Jahan. In Gujrat ‘Bal-Narender’ praising Narendera Modi is already taught to kids in schools, Our Kashmir Govt. Feels Habba Khatoon is no more inspirational & deleted her chapter that also when we are having our ist women-CM.The ‘Razia Sultana of Kashmir-HABBA KHATOON lives in hearts of Kashmiries,No one can forget her She lives eternity through her Folk-Poetry. In short, history has become a servile handmaiden of politics.
Now,it is upto people to protect history. Politicians have started to communalise history also. BJP spokespersons often uses the term “Muslim invaders” we don’t want to waste our precious time in teaching History to likes of Sangeet Som but will mention some historic battles to clear the point to my readers that battles were forght for poltical reasons not because that region has different faith then their. It is a false propaganda against islam that they invaded other countries,lands like mercineries to force islam on them. Following are mentions from Indian sub-continent:
•The Maratha invasions of Bengal: The Marathas invaded Bengal six times from August 1741 to May 1751. Nawab Alivardi Khan succeeded in resisting all the invasions, however, the frequent Maratha invasions caused great destruction in Bengal and Orissa , resulting in heavy civilian casualties and widespread economic losses.
•The Siege of Trichinopoly took place in early 1741 during an extended series of conflicts between the Nawab of Arcot and the Maratha Empire for control over parts of what is now southern India. Raghuji Bhonsle ‘s Maratha army successfully starved out the town, compelling the surrender of Chanda Sahib on 26 March 1741.
•In 1791, the Marathas, under the command of Raghunath Rao Patwardhan invaded the Mysore district of Bednur. Here, they proceeded to sack the Sringeri monastery. Attacking temples during war wasn’t exactly unusual (for example, the Maratha attack on the Tirupati shrine in 1759 is little remembered). But this was no ordinary place of worship. It had been founded a thousand years before by the father of Hindu Advaita philosophy, Adi Shankaracharya. The Marathas stripped the monastery of its considerable wealth, killed many Brahmins and desecrated the idol of the temple’s presiding deity, the goddess Sharada.
After the attack, the Swamy, who fled the sack, wrote urgently to Tipu Sultan (The Lion of Mysore) asking for his help in deconsecrating the idol of Sharada. Tipu replied back angrily, writing in Sanskrit, “People do evil smiling but will suffer the penalty in torments of agony.” The Sultan paid for reconstruction of whole monestry, made monetary arrangements for the consecration of the Goddess and also sent along his token gifts for the idol. Today same Tipu Sultan is called as traitor? If likes of Tipu Sultan,haider Ali,Shahjahan are traitors then Muslims of India need to think about position, value in society. Someone has to ask politicians to stop Hate mongering,War mongering & Communal Politics.
(The author a pass out of Government Polytechnic College Srinagar is regularly contributing for the Edit Page of “Kashmir Horizon”. The views of the author are exclusively his own)