The Truth About Aurangzeb – and the Fiction from Likes of Romilla Thappar!

Last updated on: February 16, 2007 at 8:44 pm by Desh Kapoor

The Truth About Aurangzeb – and the Fiction from Likes of Romilla Thappar! 2007-02-16T20:44:34-06:00 Desh Kapoor

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Francois Gautier, the French journo, talks about the deeds of Aurangzeb in a direct manner in his article on rediff.

it is time to spread the tolerance of Dara Shikoh and NOT the sanitized versions on Aurangzeb!

For the first time I have seen someone take out the old documents from archives of the museum and have them interpreted. The truth is for all to see… this is what Aurangzeb was upto:

What are the facts? Aurangzeb did not just build an isolated mosque on a destroyed temple, he ordered all temples destroyed, among them the Kashi Vishwanath temple, one of the most sacred places of Hinduism, and had mosques built on a number of cleared temple sites. Other Hindu sacred places within his reach equally suffered destruction, with mosques built on them. A few examples: Krishna’s birth temple in Mathura; the rebuilt Somnath temple on the coast of Gujarat; the Vishnu temple replaced with the Alamgir mosque now overlooking Benares; and the Treta-ka-Thakur temple in Ayodhya. The number of temples destroyed by Aurangzeb is counted in four, if not five figures. Aurangzeb did not stop at destroying temples, their users were also wiped out; even his own brother Dara Shikoh was executed for taking an interest in Hindu religion; Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded because he objected to Aurangzeb’s forced conversions.

And what do the Self-Obsessed-Fiction-Writers-masquerading-as-Historians like Romilla Thappar have to say about Aurangzeb?

Yet, Percival Spear, co-author with Romila Thapar of the prestigious A History of India (Penguin), writes: ‘Aurangzeb’s supposed intolerance is little more than a hostile legend based on isolated acts such as the erection of a mosque on a temple site in Benares.’ L’histoire de l’Inde moderne (Fayard), the French equivalent of Percival Spear’s history of India, praises Aurangzeb and says, ‘He has been maligned by Hindu fundamentalists’. Even Indian politicians are ignorant of Aurangzeb’s evil deeds. Nehru might have known about them, but for his own reasons he chose to keep quiet and instructed his historians to downplay Aurangzeb’s destructive drive and instead praise him as a benefactor of arts.

And by the way, Gautier actually gets the documents from the Rajasthan museum about the destruction that Aurangzeb wreaked.. these are original Persian documents of Aurangzeb himself! And he comes to know that no one has ever looked at them!! So, Ms Thappar has been merrily writing tomes of stuff on the guy.. chastising others who object.. WITHOUT ANY F**KING PROOF!! Its not new to that breed of "Historians" because they have been doing that with impunity for every aspect of our history – Aryan-Dravidian theory, hinduism, Islamic conversions and mal-effects!

And then he handles the question – why should we dig the history for Aurangzeb now in these times with delicate Hindu-muslim relations? My answer is pretty simple – just by twisting the history in ONE way as opposed to the other does make these tensions go away! The only way such tensions go away is to learn from past by SQUARELY facing the past. Like Gautier discusses.. there is a strong case for reviving the intellectualism and sufi streak of Dara Shikoh – brother of Aurangzeb .. who was killed because he looked at the tolerant side of Sufism and Hinduism. Any argument to the contrary – and in favor of glossing over Aurangzeb’s deeds is the argument of the imbeciles!

Story Link

Tags: Romilla Thappar, Francois Gautier

Powered by Qumana

History

India

Previous Post

February 16, 2007

Blues of the JetBlue Passengers!

Next Post

February 16, 2007 To Boldly go where no one has gone before... in diapers!

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Aarti Achievement and Leadership AfPak Africa Annual and Year-end Asia Audio Australia Behavioural Sciences Bhagwad Gita Bhagwad Gita Blogging Blogs Business Business Intelligence Business Strategy Cannes Careers Chanakya China Conservation Corruption Creative Daily Links Desh Poems Development & Welfare Devotional Audio Devotional Songs Drama Earth Economics Education Entertainment Environment Europe Everyday Quotes Featured Articles Featured Songs Finance Flickr Pictures Food Geo-Political Global Warming Globalization Health & Medicine Hinduism Historic History Humour India Indian Culture Indian music Indian Weddings Israel Issues Legal Link Love Minorities Misc Motivation and Personal Development Movie Lists Movie Reviews Movies Mumbai terror attacks Natural Disasters Nature News Outsourcing Pakistan Parenting Personal Philosophy Poetry Politics Poverty Quotes Recipe Regular Blog Post Relationships Religion Religious/Spiritual Audio Sciences Showcase Slideshow South Asia Special Stories Spiritual Quotes Spirituality Sports Stories Strategy Technology Technology Terrorism Travel Uncategorized US Video Women Women_s Rights Worship Yoga

Select a Month December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 June 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 September 2014 August 2014 January 2014 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What happened when Jesus touched the coffin of the widow's son at Nain?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The son came back to life Rain fell The crowd dispersed The coffin broke