The Ghost Of Aurangzeb: It’s Keeping Our Politics On The Boil, & Loving It

The ghost of Aurangzeb is back to haunt India, like Banquo’s ghost. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the apparition represented guilt and inner turmoil in the lead character, Macbeth; in the case of the former it is out to resurrect old grievances and torment people with nasty memories that had better stayed buried. He is stirring anger and the quest for revenge in a significant section of the political class, and, is certainly enjoying it all.

Aurangzeb, wherever he is, must be laughing his gut out. Back in his days, he was the biggest talking point across the country. The talk, of course, was laced with fear and hate. Under him, the longest ruling Mughal emperor, the footprint of the empire grew to a humongous four million square kilometres and the number of his subject population to 150 million. Surely, he didn’t conquer land and people with love and the message of humanism. He was into bloody wars for most of his nearly half a century in power. There was reason why he would attract people’s anger. It didn’t matter that his friends in the war included Hindus and Muslims and his foes included Hindus and Muslims too.

He left behind a complex legacy, open to many interpretations, mostly negative. Muslim fanatic who destroyed Hindu temples, emperor who derived sadistic pleasure from torturing enemies, man who was bereft of sympathy and empathy, the ruler who had the largest number of Hindus under his employment and 30 percent of whose nobility comprised Rajputs and Marathas – wear whatever lens, communal, academic or political, you want and take your pick. His legacy would justify all views. In times of weaponisation of history, selective interpretation of the events of the past is par for the course.

More than three centuries later, he is causing the same turbulence in India he caused back then. He has turned potent ammunition in the politics of polarisation. In Maharashtra, one legislator Abu Asim Azmi was suspended from the assembly for praising his temple-building efforts. The entire Hindutva eco-system is up in arms against him. Several Hindu organisations have started demanding the demolition of his tomb at the Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (earlier called Aurangabad). The doggy media is working itself to tears – any surprises here? – over the unholy ‘love’ for Aurangzeb in certain sections of the political class and their ideological companions.

“Ah! My beautiful empire! Not much has changed. Time stands still. They won’t ever forget me,” the man would be telling himself with some satisfaction, stroking that flowing beard. “People are cantankerous as always. Some are forever busy taking on some others and settling scores. It’s good they have re-discovered the use of religion in the game of power. Intelligent rulers should never ignore the use of religion if they want a vast crowd of idiots, opportunists and the faithful on their side. In my days it was Islam, now it’s Hindus. It’s fair. Power has logic of its own and it dictates when and how religion is to be co-opted in larger designs. People love to hate and fight others. A good rulers would channelise their energies for his benefit. Egos matter to them, the country can take care of itself.” He would note.

“While a good part of the world is fixated with silly things like science, technology, education, innovations and the future, my former empire is busy digging out the past and finding a way to settle there in perpetuity. How nice! How comforting! It’s good old days again.”

Well, we can only sigh helplessly at his observation. It’s 2025, and India is busy discussing Aurangzeb. The past is truly dominating our present and set to dictate the course of the future. Thanks to politics, the country would be discussing Aurangzeb a few centuries later too. The ghost won’t go away.

(By arrangement with Perspective Bytes)