Sushila Sawant Mendes
Peace times encourage growth and prosperity. Wars, riots, law and order problems, create instability and retard economic growth and foreign investment. Genocides and murders have never benefited humankind. What is deplorable is that such events are justified because of what happened three hundred or five hundred years back and passions are rekindled.
We are a democracy, but does everything in life depend only on winning elections? After the Lok Sabha elections in 2024, slogans like “Aurangzeb ki Aulad”, (progeny of Aurangzeb) may have had its impact in 2025 in the Assembly elections. The Maharashtra local body elections are not far away and the sloganeering has restarted. In Goa, 2027 is just 19 months away.
The progressive ideas of the people of Maharashtra have been known since the days of Chhatrapati Shivaji and Shahu Maharaj, Mahatma Phule and Babasaheb Ambedkar among others.
We in Goa have looked up to their progressive ideas, as all these great minds never practised narrow sectarian politics. The instructions given by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj to his soldiers not to trample the field of the ryots endeared him to the peasantry.
It is this farming section that generated loyal soldiers to his army. There were no farmer’s protests or farmer suicides then. Malhar Chitnis states that “Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj was a father and protector of the young and the old, to men and women, to nobles and servants, great and small”. He made happy, not only his subjects but even aliens in race, religion and rule.
Mahatma Phule was a nineteenth century anti-caste social reformer and started the Satyashodak Samaj, which drew inspiration from Chhatrapati Shivaji’s principles of fighting oppression and promoting social justice. Shiv Jayanti was started by him in 1870. He wrote the history of Chhatrapati Shivaji in the form of a powada, portraying him as the leader of the peasants. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s role as Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Indian Constitution and his advocacy to promote political rights and social freedom for all is legendary.
Maharashtra politics seems to depend on figures from history right from the days of Balasaheb Thakeray to the present CM of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis. Aurangzeb has been portrayed as a destroyer of temples and a Muslim monarch who imposed jizya on the non-Muslims. Emperor Aurangzeb also issued firmans to donate land and money for the construction of about hundred temples, some of which were in Gauhati, Ujjain and Vrindavan to mention a few. As an emperor, who ruled for almost fifty years, he knew that the stability of his government depended on the cooperation rendered to him by the Hindu majority.
The destruction of any place of worship can never be condoned but many a times, they were destroyed as they were also places of wealth. Mohammed of Ghazni attacked the Somanath temple for the same reason. These holy places were sometimes used as spaces of refuge against an oncoming invader. So it was not always due to religious animosity that temples were destroyed. Temples, masjids or churches built hundreds of years back, need to be restored as repositories of India’s heritage, history and culture – not only temples, as is being done in Goa at the tax payers cost. India's culture and political concept is based on pluralism and diversity, since times immemorial. Hindus and Muslims have fought shoulder to shoulder against the British colonialists and also to defend our nation as soldiers in the Indian army.
Wars were fought in the past and are still being fought today. In every war, an enemy is an enemy, whether man, woman or child. This week Israeli bombardment killed more than 400 Palestinians and a few days later another 85 were killed by Israeli airstrike, more than half of those killed were women and children. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century, whether the Marathas or the Mughals, it was common for the victorious king to take the losing population as prisoners of war, to be used as slaves and therefore these events cannot be viewed from the lens of 2025. It was more of a trade war. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj passed away in 1680 and Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707.
In the 1789 revolution in France, the clergy was considered even more exploitative than Bourbon monarchs. Protestants in England and Wales were executed if anyone was judged guilty of heresy against Catholicism. Catholics were persecuted in Scotland two centuries later. Violence and extremism are never justifiable, regardless of perceived injustices.
Today’s politics and communal historiography joins religion to the religion of the king. Aurangzeb should not be exhumed from his tomb to ignite passions. Aurangabad has already been renamed as Sambhajinagar. In these emotionally charged times, Abu Azmi, the Samajwadi Party leader contributed his share of hate speech by eulogizing Aurangzeb as the builder of Hindu temples.
The India Hate Lab Report highlights people in power to be behind the spread of communal hate. One such leader is T Raja Singh, BJP MLA from Telangana, who self-declared his 83 criminal cases, many of which are related to communal violence. Nitesh Rane, the Maharashtra Minister has incited that the kar sevaks should do their jobs like they did at the Babri Masjid. People are so radicalised that gram panchayats in Maharashtra and Goa are passing resolutions that Muslims will not be permitted to sell their wares in a temple fairs. This is a very dangerous trend and does not auger well for a democracy. When stand up comedians crack jokes, or when the young tweet on the social media it is never tolerated, complaints are filed, FIRs registered and cases are filed but the high and the mighty go free. Why is it that only free thinking individuals are harassed and contrarian views unacceptable?
When economy is not doing good, when the whole world is appreciating Sunita William and Butch Wilmore, we are envisioning to dig graves and dig into history to create issues of convenience. The new Maharashtra government had made electoral promises. The Ladki Bahin Scheme, where two months advance of Rs 15,000 per month was given before elections and an larger amount of Rs 21,000 was promised thereafter. Loan waiver was also promised to farmers. Once the fiscal assessment was done and budget allocations made, it was explained that these promises could not be kept and both the schemes were stalled. Mahayukti Alliance government, went back on its poll promises. It is issues such as these that are deflected by the hate speeches. Digging economic causes is more important than digging graves.
Films like “Chhava”, show audiences crying and shouting slogans against Aurangzeb as it has enacted the scene of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj being tortured and killed in the Mughal Court. Maharashtra is turning into a Hindutva tinderbox. Fortunately yesterday Fadnavis visited Nagpur, met the police chiefs and declared that all those who indulged in violence would not be spared.
For us in Goa, 2027 is not far away. The current controversy around the Maratha's relations with the Portuguese and its indirect connect of the Portuguese to religious conversions and Catholics is only meant to fuel the present day electoral politics. The leadership of the freedom struggle of Goa has also been both from the Catholic and Hindu communities. Goa has made the country proud by a large number of Catholic youth in the armed forces. Let us not abandon our future for the sake of the past. It would be great if both sides showed restraint in both demonising or glorifying Aurangzeb in such polarising times. Historical monuments cannot be destroyed and history cannot be effaced by sheer vandalism. Elections won and governments formed on the corpse of free speech and on a hate campaign is pure fascism.
(The writer is a Professor in History, Author and an
Independent Researcher)