Now Taj Mahal

The saffronites have doz-ens of ways to incite communal passion. They have been systematically distorting history to suit their purpose while defining, rather re-defining India’s composite culture in their own partisan bias. Irrationality is the hallmark of their thinking. They do not believe in science. Nor do they bother about historical documents.

In India there is a heavy intermingling, of facets of cultures contributed by people of different religions. So what is Indian culture? One can say the totality of plural expressions of people is Indian culture. It is inclusive and has syncretism in all the aspects of social life. This view of Indian culture is held by the Indian nationalists. And till now most of the time this belief in composite culture guided the practice of those in seats of power. But things are changing radically since the advent of Modi Raj in 2014. They are now targeting Taj Mahal, discovering a Shiva temple in its place. As the Ajodhya controversy is subsiding because the Ram temple is now a fait accompli. So they need a new area of confrontation. And Taj Mahal is now on their agenda, though Gayanvapi mosque too is very much in the news.

Taj Mahal is a UNESCO world heritage site, to be given protection. It is also regarded as one among Seven Wonders of the World. Apart from being a global tourist attraction it symbolises the great architectural achievements of India. It was built by Emperor Shahjahan in memory of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal. There is another prevailing controversy about this great monument. The propaganda had been done extensively that this was actually a Shiv temple which was converted into a mausoleum by Shahjahan. But historical records and documents tell a different tale. ‘There are 22 underground closed rooms in the Taj Mahal that purportedly contain idols of Hindu gods and goddesses and the bigots say Brahmins used to worship lord Shiva there at some point of time’. The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High court on May 12 threw out a petition that sought to prove that the Taj Mahal was built after demolishing a Hindu temple, asking the petitioner not to “make a mockery of the public litigation system”. The court even asked the petitioner to do an MA in history! The saffron brigade has made a case out of the Gayanvapi mosque in Varanasi and the Idhgah in Mathura. They think these Islamic structures were built by pulling down Hindu temples.

A European traveller Peter Mundy writes that the emperor Shahjahan is in deep grief due to the death of his favorite wife and is building an impressive mausoleum in her memory. A French jeweler Tavernier who visited India at that time corroborates this. The daily account books of Shahjahan do give the detailed record of the expenses incurred, like the money spent for marble and the wages for the workers etc., albeit they didn’t chronicle how many workers died during the construction of Taj. The only base of this misconception of it being a Shiva Temple (Tejo Mahalay) is the mention that the land was bought from Raja Jaisingh for a compensation.It is also to be noted that Jaisingh to whom this Shaiva temple is attributed was a Vaishnav and it is not possible that a Viashnav king would build a Shaiva temple. But the saffronites refuse see reasons. They think if Ram Temple at ruins of Babri mosque is possible, Taj Mahal may be renamed as Tejo Mahalay.

Indian culture as understood by freedom movement, Indian nationalist ideology, regards symbols of all religions, regions and languages as Indian. As per that the contributions of Buddhists, Jains, Christians, Muslims, and Sikhs are all part of Indian legacy. This gets reflected in people’s daily life. As such India is one of the places where all religions have flourished without any discrimination. People have been following these religions from centuries. Some of these were born here and some of these came in and spread through different mechanisms, like the teachings of saints, Sufis, missionaries etc. Islam mainly spread through the teachings of Sufi saints, Christianity through missionaries working for charity in the arena of education and health. All aspects of Indian culture have rich sprinkling from people of different religions. But ‘Hindu nationalists’ want to destroy Indian cultural heritage and rewrite the history because their sole aim is to make India a Hindu Rashtra. Attack on composite culture is part of their hidden programme to hinduise every aspect of Indian social life.

 [Contributed]  

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Frontier
Vol 54, No. 48, May 29 - Jun 4, 2022