"Aurangzeb ordered all Hindu temples to be destroyed. The number of temples destroyed by Aurangzeb is counted in four figures. Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded because he objected to Aurangzeb's forced conversions. Nehru might have known about them, but chose to keep quiet and instructed his historians to downplay Aurangzeb's destructive drive and instead praise him as a benefactor of arts. Since then Indian historians have done the same and betrayed their allegiance to truth. Aurangzeb was the Hitler, the asura of medieval India. No street is named after Hitler in the West, yet in New Delhi we have Aurangzeb Road.
People might say: 'OK, this is all true, Aurangzeb was indeed a monster, but why rake up the past, when we have tensions between Muslims and Hindus today?' The first is that no nation can move forward unless its children are taught to look squarely at their own history, the good and the bad, the evil and the pure. The argument that looking at one's history will pit a community against the other does not hold either.
Today the Shariat has been voted in Kashmir, a state of democratic, secular India, UP's Muslims have applauded, and the entire Indian media which went up in flames when the government wanted Vande Mataram to be sung, kept quiet. The spirit of Aurangzeb seems to triumph."
These are some excerpts from Francois Gautier's splendid article on Aurangzeb and our outlook towards our history.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment