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Monday, June 26, 2023
fossil fuels have likely peaked in their use for producing electricity and are about to enter a period of decline.
Sunday, June 25, 2023
Whitewashing of Modis grave human rights violations will have grave impact upon Pakistan
Whitewashing of
Modis grave human rights violations will have grave impact upon
Security
concerns: A closer alliance between the
Minorities; Minorities in
Financial Impacts;
Khalistan ;Supporters of Khalistan will
also face more brutal illegal actions already three Khalsitani leaders have
been killed in extra judicial killings .
Sunday, June 18, 2023
Anti- Muslim Cinema, a new trend nurturing under Hindutva Culture by Syed Ali Mujtaba
Anti- Muslim
Cinema, a new trend nurturing under Hindutva Culture by Syed Ali Mujtaba
In recent years Indian cinema is being fed on the growing trend
of anti-Muslim hate movies. The Bollywood film industry is churning out the
distorted portrayal of Muslims in the last nine years or so and such plots
have matured to their real structure after the BJP government came to power
under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014.
Movies made in these years include; The
Bollywood has been using the medium of cinema to attack Indian
Muslims for a long time. Such films are serving the designs of the RSS and the
BJP with the hidden agenda to give a push to create a Hindu Rashtra where
Muslims will become third-class citizens, with limited rights and with limited
avenues for recourse.
Earlier Bollywood was known for making movies that promoted
Hindu-Muslim brotherhood and communal harmony. They used to be declared
tax-free by the government to promote the constitutional values of
Another purpose of making such movies is to divert the mind of
the people from real issues, like soaring unemployment and economic distress,
and other such things. The local media plays a big role in the promotion of
such movies and in changing the political discourse of the country. The media
instead of debating over the economy or other critical issues choose to talk
about the newly released anti-Muslim film and make them busy talking about and
forgetting the real issues.
During the Karnataka election campaign, Prime Minister Narendra
Modi openly promoted the film ‘The Kerala Story’. He told the crowd
at a rally in Ballari, Karnataka; “the Kerala Story is based on a terror
conspiracy. It shows the ugly truth of terrorism and exposes terrorists'
design.” He urged the people to go and watch the “ugly truth.”
After Modi openly promoted the scandalous film, several BJP
politicians too came out in support of this film. The Kerala Story was released
in BJP-ruled states and declared tax-free. As a result, this film earned
millions demonstrating the popularity of hate-centric films. The same can be
said about The Kashmir Files, which minted huge money
propagating hate against the Kashmiri Muslims and successfully polarizing
Indian society.
In cinema, business formulas are being experimented and the kind
of movie that churns much money is presented in different permutations and
commutations to make more money. Cinema is a smarter and quicker medium to make
money. It’s a medium where with a small investment, a high return is ensured.
Examples are
The problem with the anti-Muslim film is that they
cherry-pick incidents and don’t see it from a larger historical perspective.
These films serve the purpose of the mental manipulation of the audience’s
understanding of history and give a push to the ruling party’s majoritarian
political agenda. In the case of Kashmir Files, the film blamed Kashmiri
Muslims for it, while they had actually protected the minority Hindus. In the
Kerala story, it is told that 32,000 Hindu women were converted to Islam and
sent to
It looks obvious that the Indian film industry is walking in the
footsteps of Nazi Germany to prevaricate, control, and influence a specific
group of audiences to achieve political goals. The “big lie” strategy is
used to brainwash the Hindu masses to convince them to develop apathy towards
the Muslims loathing them for all the ills of the country.
Another alarming trend is the roles of the members
of the censor board who allow hate Muslim movies to fit enough to get screening
certificates. The members of the censor board are hand-picked by the government
and are loyal to the ideology of the ruling party. They give certificates of
screening to such films ignoring their consequences on society.
Earlier, the censor board did not allow such communally charged
films to be screened at all. But now under the BJP rule, such kinds of movies
are allowed to be screened even though they are promoting enmities against the
communities in the country.
This is a generational level of destruction that is happening in
The kind of hatred, the kind of maliciousness, and the kind of
visceral heat generated by these movies are nothing but simply fissures in the
country can be called an anti national activity. These films are widening the
gap between communal spot lines, creating an atmosphere of hatred in Indian
society. Indian citizens are watching this facet of the Indian cinema’s changing
colors but no one dares to raise a voice of protest against such a dangerous
trend. This is the harsh reality of contemporary
Wednesday, June 14, 2023
US BID TO CONVINCE ALLIES TO NORMALIZE TIES WITH ISRAEL IS FLOUNDERING By Abdul Rahman
By
Abdul Rahman,
Despite
Repeated High-Level Visits,
The
recent visit by
US
Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded his three-day visit to
Before
Blinken started his tour, he had stated that normalization of Saudi-Israel
relations was one of the top priorities of his government. However, reports
indicate that Blinken not only failed to get any assurance from the Saudis on
that front, but had to concede some crucial ground on significant regional
issues.
During
his tour, Blinken met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on June 6, attended
a Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers’ meet in
Normalization
with
Hours
before he traveled to
On June 8,
before leaving
Earlier,
Blinken ended up committing to work for the resolution of the conflict in
The
statement, without naming
Two of
the GCC members,
Autonomous
foreign policy
The
statement indicated that the
The
statement also supported the ongoing peace efforts in
In
another significant development, the
This is
despite some GCC countries, such as
The
outcome of Blinken’s visit to
Monday, June 5, 2023
Islam has become less rational since its medieval Golden Age. What went wrong?
Islam has become less rational
since its medieval Golden Age. What went wrong?
There is no central doctrinal authority in Islam. The
result is a wide range of Islamic thought. The rise of conservative revivalist
movements, such as Salafism, can be attributed to the disillusionment caused by
the decline of the Islamic world and the failure of modernization efforts. These
movements seek to return Islam to its perceived roots and have gained
popularity among those seeking social reform and religious renewal. Stupendous
intellectual resources already exist in Islam, as does the tradition of debate.
These are the ingredients that can help reconcile Islam to the modern world.
In 833 AD, the Abbasid Caliph, al-Mamun, was at the
height of his power. He ruled a vast empire, and a clear majority of the world’s
Muslims considered him the leader of the faithful. However, there was a problem.
While he enjoyed considerable influence on questions of religious law and
doctrine, the highest human authority in Islam wasn’t the caliph but an
amorphous group of respected scholars, the ulema, who were supposed to reach a
consensus on contentious issues.
Membership of the ulema wasn’t by official
appointment, but by something approaching popular acclamation. And, on some
seminal matters, consensus proved impossible. For example, rationalist
theologians, the Mutazilites, believed humans have free will. Ranged against
them were some of the experts on Sharia law, who insisted that God had
determined all things, including who was destined for hell. This meant debates
could continue without agreement for centuries.
Al-Mamun wasn’t happy about this. He wanted to
enforce his right to adjudicate on religious controversies but instead found
himself having to negotiate with the various factions. It was time to press the
issue. As it happened, he enjoyed the support of the Mutazilites and so picked
one question upon which they agreed against the majority of the ulema: Is the
Koran eternal, or was it created by God?
Most Muslims said that the Arabic text of the holy
book had always existed in the mind of the deity. For all eternity, he knew
exactly what the political situation in 7th century
Islamic Inquisition
Mercy wasn’t at the forefront of al-Mamun’s mind
when he sought to impose his will on the ulema. He issued a proclamation that
the Koran was created and insisted everyone consent to it. The most
distinguished religious and legal scholars were hauled in for questioning. Those
who refused to accept the caliph’s position were tortured and imprisoned until
they recanted. The episode is called the mihna, meaning “trial” or “ordeal” in
Arabic but often translated as “inquisition.” In this case, the inquisitors
were on the side of rationalism and their victims were religious conservatives
refusing to disown traditional dogma. Resistance to the caliph was led by Ahmad
ibn Hanbal, a venerable expert on Sharia law, whose day job was running a
bakery.
Al-Mamun died on campaign within months of
instituting the mihna, so it was left to his successors to enforce his ordinance.
Many of the ulema backed down, but not ibn Hanbal. Despite being beaten until
he passed out and interrogated by the caliph in person, he refused to admit the
Koran is created. Too influential to be ignored and too stubborn to recant, ibn
Hanbal eventually forced the caliphs to accept defeat. After about 15 years,
they wound down the mihna. There would never be a central doctrinal authority
in Islam.
No central authority
As for ibn Hanbal, he is recognized as the founder
of one of the four main schools of Sunni jurisprudence. Sharia law is based on
the Koran (which doesn’t actually contain very much legal material) and the
hadiths — that is, sayings of the prophet Muhammad and his companions. Each
hadith is a snippet of a conversation, often involving Muhammad responding to a
query from one of his followers. If the Prophet said it, it’s authoritative and
enjoys the force of law. The trouble was, by ibn Hanbal’s time, fake hadiths
had been proliferating as they were invented to support various agendas. He
took it upon himself to collate the authentic hadiths, supporting their
authority by showing how they had been passed down to his own day.
Ibn Hanbal was not the only collector of hadiths. There
are at least six canonical collections, not to mention several thousand sayings
dismissed as poorly authenticated. Sharia is far from being a single edifice. Any
recognized scholar can issue an opinion, or fatwa, and whether any other
scholar concurs is up to him. Today, you can seek a fatwa to address a particular
concern over the internet. And if you don’t like the result, you can ask
someone else. Consensus remains elusive, although Muslims do now agree the
Koran is uncreated.
A wide variety of Islamic thought
It’s the sheer variety of Islamic thought that takes
many Westerners by surprise. Without a Muslim version of the pope to delineate
heresy from orthodoxy, the ulema have been left to argue it out among
themselves. Sometimes rulers would get involved and lend their authority to
favored scholars. But even then, dissenters could simply move to a more
favorable jurisdiction. Indeed, the biographies of famous thinkers like
Avicenna and al-Ghazali are full of peregrinations from one part of the Muslim
world to another, as they sought patronage or just to be left alone.
The Shia, who dominate in
Islam has also absorbed outside influences. The translation
movement, whereby a huge stock of Persian, Sanskrit, and Greek writing was
rendered in Arabic under the Abbasid caliphate, brought governance, science,
and medicine to a Muslim audience. All three subjects thrived as they were
turned to issues like administration, the calendar, and good health. Today,
medieval Muslim mathematicians and natural philosophers are rightfully
celebrated, even if some exaggerations about their achievements have crept into
the record. More controversially, pseudoscience like astrology was perennially
popular. One caliph used a crack squad of astrologers to determine the most
auspicious time to lay the foundation stone of his new capital of
Foreign science and philosophy
Areas of knowledge that had originated outside the
Islamic world were called the “foreign sciences.” This was not necessarily
detrimental to their position in society even if they had to fight for their
corner in the bazaar of ideas. For instance, the Brethren of Purity were a 10th-century
sect from
Philosophy, called falsafa in Arabic, built on the
thought of Greek sages, especially Aristotle, whose work had been translated
under the Abbasids. Its greatest exponent was Avicenna, the medieval Persian
polymath whose achievements laid the foundation for almost all subsequent
Muslim philosophy. Within Islam itself, falsafa had to jostle with theology and
law for academic kudos. (Some Arab thinkers celebrated in the West, such as
Averroes, were much less influential among Muslims.)
While it is true that falsafa and foreign sciences
like astronomy were opposed by traditionalists, the critique misses the point: Pretty
much every Muslim thinker aroused opposition from other scholars somewhere. Throwing
fatwas at opponents was part and parcel of debate. Nor should we forget that,
for centuries after the Islamic conquests, the majority of the people ruled by
the caliphs were not Muslims at all. Christians, Jews, Hindus, and Zoroastrians
may have been second-class citizens, but that did not put a stop to their
intellectual life.
Yet today, despite the range of Islamic thought,
few would deny that Muslim countries are generally more socially and
religiously conservative than the West — a reversal of the position in the
Middle Ages. What happened?
An attack on rationality
A superficial and flippant answer might be “nothing
much.” The big changes took place in the West rather than the East, which
stayed much the same. But there is more to it than that.
The failure of the mihna meant that caliphs would
never enjoy the dogmatic authority of medieval popes. But it was also a
humiliation for the Mutazilite rationalists, whose influence deteriorated over
the following decades. Meanwhile, the triumphant followers of ibn Hanbal and
other scholars pushed their twin agendas of determinism and Koranic literalism.
In place of the disgraced Mutazilites, new Ashari and Maturidi schools of
theology, each named after their 10th-century founders, came to represent Sunni
orthodoxy. While the Maturidis, in particular, were sympathetic toward falsafa,
both schools reflected a significant move away from the rationalism of their
Mutazilite predecessors. Thus, as consensus among the ulema coalesced slowly
over the centuries, it inclined toward conservatism. In any case,
traditionalists maintained their hold over Muslim laypeople, who never showed
much interest in highfalutin speculative divinity.
By far, the most renowned of the Ashari theologians
is al-Ghazali. In 1095, he was a confidant of sultans and viziers but then left
his well-paid job as a teacher in
Al-Ghazali has been blamed for diverting Islamic
thought toward mysticism and religious obscurantism. In truth, he is hard to
pigeonhole. Western scholars in the Middle Ages thought he was a devoted
follower of Avicenna because a summary of the latter’s thought circulated under
the name of Algazel. In the Muslim world, his most influential work is the
enormous Revival of the Religious Sciences, a complete guide to Muslim ethics
and ritual intended to integrate Sufi practice with Sunni belief. Not everyone
was impressed. In a fine example of the tensions among different parts of the
ulema, the authorities in
While al-Ghazali’s reputation as the destroyer of
philosophy in the Muslim world is unfair, there is little doubt that
rationalism remained a minority pursuit. Al-Ghazali himself was hardly the most
conservative of the medieval ulema. The 14th-century polemicist ibn Taymiyyah
made him look like a dripping wet liberal. Ibn Taymiyyah railed against Sufism,
philosophy, and any kind of religious novelty (by which he meant something that
was less than 600 years old). From his base in
Nostalgia meets reality
The term ibn Taymiyyah used for the earliest
Muslims who composed the hadiths was “the pious predecessors,” or al-salaf al-salah
in Arabic, so his modern admirers are called Salafists. Salafism seeks to
return Islam to its roots, inspired by nostalgia for an imaginary past that
even Muslim history makes clear never existed.
An early Salafist movement was Wahhabism, founded
during the 18th century as a joint venture between the cleric Abd al-Wahhab and
the Arabian warlord Muhammad bin Saud. Reacting against the decadence of the
Since Islam is such a broad church, why is it that
these conservative revivalists have become so successful? To find the answer,
we need to remember that until the 18th century, a Muslim would have been
justified in thinking that Islam was ordained by God to convert the whole world.
Despite local setbacks, such as the reconquest of
However, by the 1800s, it was impossible to
maintain the dream of superiority. In July 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte invaded
Despots and stability, not democracy and liberalism
Nineteenth-century Muslim modernists, such as
While there are few democratic institutions in the
Islamic world, we have seen that authority within Islam itself is broadly
spread among those ulema who have acquired a certain level of prestige among
their peers and the people. The failure of modernism (as evidenced most
recently by the collapse of the so-called Arab Spring) has meant religion has
been the main outlet for protest. Politicized Islam pursues the twin goals of
social reform and religious renewal. The most prominent example is the Muslim
Brotherhood, founded in 1928 by the Egyptian Hassan al-Banna. The Brotherhood
combines a demand for social justice with a fundamentalist theology. It was
clear threat to
Preoccupied with the struggle against Nazism and
then Communism, the West valued stability over democracy in the Muslim world,
leading it to support despotic regimes such as the military juntas in
Modernization is possible
So, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the
solutions to the Muslim world’s problems will have to come from within. Glib
assertions that Islam needs a Reformation are misguided, not least because
Salafism itself is analogous to the return to the Bible and early Church
Fathers advocated by the first Protestants. And the 17th-century European wars
of religion are not an example anyone would like to see followed.
Instead, advocates for reform need to have patience.
Religious consensus, developed over the centuries, has never been in the gift
of rulers like Caliph al-Mamun. It can only change gradually and has always had
to accommodate the views of common folk. This means that until ordinary people
living in Muslim countries feel their lives are being improved by modernity,
they are likely to remain suspicious of liberalism. More democracy will
probably mean more Islamists in power.
Luckily, stupendous intellectual resources already
exist in Islam, as does the tradition of debate. These are the ingredients that
can help reconcile Islam to the modern world. It’s a process that has been
going on quietly for many years. But it will take time to come to fruition.
https://bigthink.com/the-past/islam-rationality-modernity/
Friday, June 2, 2023
Fallacy of the Hindutva Project by Shamsul Islam
Fallacy of the
Hindutva Project by Shamsul
Islam
One has lost count of religious conclaves of Hindu
‘saints’ friendly to the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) calling for violent
cleansing of lawful Indian Muslims.
It was not long ago that Tathagata Roy, an RSS
luminary who
also graced the high constitutional office of
Governor of Tripura, tweeted that “the
Hindu-Muslim problem won’t be solved without a Civil War”.
In fact, it has been the most favourite theme of
the RSS since its inception in 1925.
The RSS and its Hindutva appendages have been
demanding revenge for crimes against Hindus in history but have singled out the
medieval period in order to focus on the persecution by ‘Muslim’ rulers.
It is surprising that in a country like
In order to arrive at the truth, we need to study
the nature of ‘Muslim’ rule. The most crucial issue is, why do the common
Muslims of today’s India have to pay for the sins of ‘Muslim’ rulers of the
past who had friendly and cordial relations (including matrimonial) with higher
caste Hindus?
We also need to investigate whether ‘ Hindu’
history was devoid of religious, social and political persecution.
Hindutva zealots demanding a Muslim-free
This unity between Muslims and caste Hindus can be
gauged
from the fact that no Mughal emperor after Akbar
was born of a Muslim mother. Several higher caste Hindus served the ‘Muslim’
rulers faithfully.
The Mughal rule established by Babar, who was
invited
by a section of Hindu kings to seize
Aurobindo Ghose, who played a prominent role in
providing Hindu foundation to Indian nationalism, confessed that Mughal rule
continued for over a century because Mughal rulers gave Hindus “positions of
power and responsibility, used their brain and arm to preserve” their kingdom.
The renowned historian Tara Chand, relying on the
primary source material of the medieval period, concluded that from the end of
the 16th century to the middle of the 19th century, “it may
reasonably be concluded that in the whole of
the hands of Hindus” most of whom happened to be
Rajputs.
Maasir-ul Umra, a biographical dictionary of
officers in the Mughal Empire from 1556 to 1780 (Akbar to Shah Alam), is
regarded as the most authentic record of high-ranking officials employed by
Mughal kings. This work was compiled by Shahnawaz Khan and his son Abdul Hai between
1741 and 1747.
According to it, Mughal rulers during this period
employed around 100 (out of 365) high-ranking officials most of whom were “Rajputs
from Rajputana, the midlands, Bundelkhand and
Interestingly, the Kashi Nagri Pracharini Sabha
established in 1893, “committed to the cause of Hindi as official language”,
published the Hindi translation of the book in 1931. It is nobody’s argument that
Aurangzeb did not commit heinous crimes against his Indian subjects. It must be
remembered that his cruelty was
not restricted to non-Muslims; his own father,
brothers, Shias, Muslims who did not follow his brand of Islam and Muslim
ruling families in the eastern, central and western parts of India faced brutal
repression and were annihilated. Aurangzeb executed the renowned Sufi saint
Sarmad in the precincts of the Jama Masjid in
However, contemporary records reveal that he
patronised Hindu
and Jain religious places of worship. A standing
example of this is the grand Gauri Shankar temple, a stone’s throw from Lahori
Gate of Red Fort, which was built during Shahjahan’s reign and continued
functioning during Aurangzeb’s rule.
Reducing all his crimes to repression of Hindus is
tantamount
to reducing the gravity of his crimes against
humanity. No sane person would deny that the Somnath temple in
desecrated, looted and razed by Mahmud Ghazi
(Mahmud Ghaznavi). But a fact that remains buried is that it was done with the
active help and participation of local Hindu chieftains.
M.S. Golwalkar, the most prominent ideologue of the
RSS, while referring to the desecration and destruction of the Somnath temple
said: “He crossed the
Bharat to plunder the wealth of Somnath. He had to
cross the great
Muslim rulers were not the only ones who defiled
Hindu temples. Swami Vivekananda shared the fact that “the
Swami Dayanand Saraswati, who is regarded as a
Prophet of
Hindutva, while dealing with the contribution of
Shankaracharya in his tome Satyarth Prakash wrote:
“For ten years he toured all over the country,
refuted Jainism and advocated the Vedic religion. All the broken images that
are now-a-days dug out of the earth were broken in the time of Shankar, whilst
those that are found whole here and there under the
ground had been buried by the Jainis for fear of
their being broken.”
According to the ‘Hindu’ narrative of ancient Indian
history, Brihadratha, the last Buddhist king of the Maurya dynasty (Asoka being
one), was assassinated by Pushyamitra Shunga, a Brahmin in 184 B.C., thus
ending the rule of a renowned Buddhist dynasty and establishing the reign of
the Shunga dynasty.
D.N. Jha, an authority on ancient Indian history,
referred to Divyavadana, a Buddhist Sanskrit work from the early centuries that
described Pushyamitra Shunga as a persecutor of Buddhists who destroyed
Buddhist and Jain religious places. In his 2018 collection of essays titled
Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History, Jha writes: “He
is said to have
marched out with a large army, destroying stupas,
burning monasteries and killing monks as far as Sakala, now known as
Jha also presented evidence from the grammarian
Patanjali, a contemporary of the Shungas, who famously stated in his
Mahabhashya that Brahmins and Shramanas were eternal enemies, like the snake
and the mongoose (“Monumental Absence: The destruction of ancient Buddhist
sites”, Caravan,
June 2018).
In the Hindutva narrative, the persecution of Sikh
Gurus and
their followers by Mughal rulers is used to spread
hatred against present-day Indian Muslims.
Mughal rulers, especially Aurangzeb’s armies,
committed heinous and unspeakable crimes against Sikhs. Was it Muslims versus
Sikhs? Contemporary Sikh records reject such an interpretation.
According to a Sikh website (https://www.sikhdharma.org/4-sons-of-guru-gobind-singh/),
during the last and the most brutal siege of Anandpur Sahib in 1704, Muslim and
Hindu hill rajas completely surrounded and cut off the city.
While the Sikhs were trying to escape the Mughal
invaders “the younger sons of Guru Gobind Singh, Baba Zorawar Singh, aged 9,
and Baba Fateh Singh, aged 7, were
separated from the group in the confusion. They walked through the rugged
jungle with their holy grandmother, Mata Gujri ji (mother of Guru Gobind Singh),
until they came to small village where they took shelter.” An old servant of
the Guru’s household, Gangu, on coming to know that they were there in the
village visited Mataji and persuaded her to go with him to his village. According
to the narrative,“he expressed care and concern, but his heart was dark with
betrayal. Cold, wet and alone, Mata Gujri gratefully went with Gangu to his
house” taking her grandsons along.
For a few gold coins, Gangu betrayed their
whereabouts
to the
Mughal army. At dawn, there was a loud banging on the door and soldiers of the
evil governor Wazir Khan took away the holy family to Sarhind.“As they
travelled through the city, people thronged to see them pass offering words of
encouragement. They shouted curses at the Brahmin and were shocked at the
depravity of the Moghul governor.”
Sir Jadunath Sarkar (1870-1958), a renowned
historian, held no brief for Islam or Muslim rulers in
However, his description of the Maratha invasion of
According to Sarkar, “the roving Maratha bands
committed wanton destruction and unspeakable outrage”. In The History of
According to one such eyewitness, Gangaram, “the
Marathas snatched away gold and silver, rejecting everything else. Of some
people they cut off the hands, of some the nose and ear; some they killed
outright. They dragged away the beautiful women and freed them only after
raping them.”
Another eyewitness, Vaneshwar Vidyalankar, the
court Pandit of the Maharaja of Bardwan, narrated the horrifying tales of
atrocities committed by the Marathas. “Shahu Raja’s troops are niggard of pity,
slayers of pregnant women and infants, of Brahmans and the poor, fierce of
spirit, expert in robbing the property of everyone and committing every kind of
sinful act.”
Contemporary records prove that Aurangzeb’s rule
was also the rule of Rajputs and Kshatriyas (members of two of the four castes
in the Hindu social hierarchy) and other members of higher caste Hindus.
Aurangzeb never faced the Maratha ruler Shivaji in
the battlefield. It was his commander-in-chief Jay Singh II (1688-1743), a
Rajput ruler of Amer (Rajasthan), who was sent to subjugate Shivaji.
Aurangazeb conferred the title ‘Sawai’ (one and a
quartertimes superior to his contemporaries) on him in 1699 and thus he came to
be known as Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh. Aurangazeb also conferred the title
‘mirza raja’ (a Persian title for a royal prince) on him. The other titles
bestowed on him by other Mughal rulers were Sarmad-i-Rajaha-i-Hind (eternal
ruler of
https://www.indianrajputs.com/famous/Jai-Singh-
II-Amber.php)
We have first-hand account of Raja Rughnath
Bahadur, a Kayasth who functioned as
Raja appointed every one of them to posts of honor
and emoluments, according to their individual merits; while many of them were
granted titles of honor and valuable jagirs for their services. Not a single
Kayasth remained unemployed or in needy circumstances.”
(Short Account of the Life and Family of Rai Jeewan
Lal Bahadur,
Late Honorary Magistrate
This account shows that a Kayasth prime minister of
Aurangazeb, a bigoted Muslim ruler, was able to patronise people of his own
caste.
Another crucial fact that is consciously kept under
wraps is that despite more than 500 years of Muslim rule, which according to
Hindutva historians was nothing but a project to annihilate Hindus or forcibly
convert them to
The British conducted the first Census in 1871-72,
by when the ceremonial Muslim rule was over. According to the Census report:
“The population of
These figures make it clear that persecution and
cleansing of Hindus was not even a secondary project of the ‘Muslim’ rule. If
it had been so, Hindus would have disappeared from
According to the 2011 Census, Hindus constitute
79.80% of the total population and Muslims constitute 14.23%.
The linking of Aurangzeb or other Muslim rulers’
crimes committed in pre-modern
Take for example, Ravana, the king of Lanka who
according to the Hindu narrative committed unspeakable crimes against Sita, her
husband Rama and his companions. This Ravana was a learned Brahman who also
happened to be an ardent worshipper of Siva.
The epic Mahabharata narrates the story of a great
war between two families Pandavas and Kauravas (both Kashtriyas),
not between Hindus and Muslims, in which 1.2
billion people were slaughtered.
Draupadi was disrobed by Kashtriyas. If the crimes
of Ravana, Kauravas, Pushyamitra Shunga, Jai Singh II, Marathas and Gangu
Brahmin, among others, are linked to their religion, as in the case of
Aurangzeb and other Muslim rulers, then the country will turn into a land of
butchery.
If revenge is to be taken on the present
descendants of the past perpetrators, then a beginning must be made from the
beginning of Indian civilisation; the turn of Indian Muslims will come later.
It is sad that the RSS-Bharatiya Janata Party
rulers of