Neither the average Hindu nor the average Muslim was particularly happy during Mughal rule. They were subjects of the emperor and endured the same struggles—some more, some less. Ordinary people lived in huts, while the Badshahs, Rajas, and Maharajas resided in grand palaces. Their word was law; they could punish or spare whomever they pleased, even having people trampled under elephants if they wished.
To associate modern-day Muslims with the Mughals is sheer foolishness.
- Historian and Academician Ashok Pandey
On 17 March 2025, Nagpur witnessed unrest—stones hurled, vehicles set ablaze, and lives disrupted. The trigger? An effigy, a rumour, a historical figure debated for centuries.
Aurangzeb, a Mughal ruler from over 300 years ago, is once again at the centre of modern discourse. His legacy, like those of many historical figures, is complex. While some view him through the lens of governance and empire, others see him in a different light. But how relevant is this past to today’s challenges?
The question remains: How do we move forward while acknowledging the past?
Reporter: Divya Tiwari
Camera: Tribhuvan Tiwari & Vikram Sharma
Editor: Sudhanshu Pandey
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To associate modern-day Muslims with the Mughals is sheer foolishness.
- Historian and Academician Ashok Pandey
On 17 March 2025, Nagpur witnessed unrest—stones hurled, vehicles set ablaze, and lives disrupted. The trigger? An effigy, a rumour, a historical figure debated for centuries.
Aurangzeb, a Mughal ruler from over 300 years ago, is once again at the centre of modern discourse. His legacy, like those of many historical figures, is complex. While some view him through the lens of governance and empire, others see him in a different light. But how relevant is this past to today’s challenges?
The question remains: How do we move forward while acknowledging the past?
Reporter: Divya Tiwari
Camera: Tribhuvan Tiwari & Vikram Sharma
Editor: Sudhanshu Pandey
Follow us:
Website: https://www.outlookindia.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Outlookindia
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/outlookindia/
X: https://twitter.com/Outlookindia
Whatsapp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaNrF3v0AgWLA6OnJH0R
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@OutlookMagazine
Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/outlookindia
#Aurangzeb #HatePolitics #CommunalViolence #MughalHistory #Outlook #DeepDive #Nagpur #Mughals
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NewsTranscript
00:00Again, a city burned. Again, a dead Mughal ruler has been invoked. Aurangzeb, a 17th
00:06century Mughal ruler who's been dead for over 300 years, is back in the news. One of
00:11the last powerful Mughals in India, vilified for taxing non-Muslims and accused of religious
00:17persecution. But is Aurangzeb or any other Mughal ruler really relevant today? The answer
00:22is no.
00:23Welcome to Deep Dive with Outlook. Today we are taking a look at why the ghosts of long
00:29dead Muslim emperors still haunt India's streets and politics. Spoiler, it's not about
00:35history, it's about power.
00:40A city ablaze. Cars torched. Stones hurled. Over 30 wounded. One man, Irfan Ansari, dead.
00:48The spark? A 300-year-old name, Aurangzeb. Far-right groups burned his effigy raging
00:55against the tomb, 500 km away. Rumours of a desecrated Muslim cloth triggered retaliations.
01:03Firebombs, over 100 arrests and curfews. Maharashtra's CM Devendra Fadnavis called it pre-planned.
01:11He also said that the release of recent Bollywood film Chhawa is likely the reason for the tensions.
01:17Who were the Mughals? Turkish-Mongol conquerors who ruled India for three centuries. Muslims,
01:24but clerics? Not really. Babur, the founder, toppled Delhi in 1526, a warrior obsessed with
01:31gardens. Akbar married Hindu princesses, scraped the Jizya tax, and wove a tapestry of tolerance.
01:38Jahangir painted a court of Hindu and Muslim brilliance. Even Aurangzeb, cast as villain,
01:44fought more for the empire expansion than faith. Historian and academician Ashok Pandey
01:50points out that Mughals were rulers of their subjects, just like any other king of the medieval
02:20era. Historian Richard Eaton notes that Aurangzeb did raise temples but as political reprisals,
02:36yet funded others like the Jagamwadi Math and shielded a Jain saint with a 1659 Farmaan.
02:44Historian Harbans Mukhia writes, Mughals crave power and order, not theocracy.
02:49So why are Indian Muslims made to carry the burden of dead Mughal emperors?
02:54This is what history expert Ashok Pandey said about the relentless obsession
02:58of Hindu right with the Mughals.
03:00In fact, when you don't care about the present, when you don't have any remedy for the problems
03:06of the present, you go to the history.
03:36Enter Babur and the Babri Masjid. In 1528, his general Mir Baqi built a mosque in Ayodhya,
03:54allegedly atop the Ram Mandir. No hard proof, just a claim that festered for centuries.
04:00In 1992, it exploded. Hindu mobs, egged on by the BJP and RSS, demolished the mosque.
04:06Over 2,000 died in the riots.
04:09In 2019, India's Supreme Court handed the site to Hindus.
04:13And a grand Ram temple was erected at the place.
04:16Babur, a king who wrote poetry and died in 1530, became the far-right's eternal invader.
04:23Yet, most Indian Muslims do not pray to Babur.
04:26Blame starts with the British.
04:27James Mill's 1817 History of British India smeared the Mughal rule as despotic
04:34and enslaving a Hindu golden age.
04:36It ignored the Persian Ramayans and Rajput Pacts, birthing a myth of Muslim tyranny.
04:42Hindu nationalism ran with it.
04:44B.D. Savarkar's 1923 Hindutva cast Muslim kings as India's epic foe.
04:50It can be argued that the RSS painted Aurangzeb and Babur as boogeymen after partition.
04:56Audrey Truschke says,
04:57Aurangzeb is vilified beyond his deeds.
05:00A ruler, not a monster.
05:02But he and Babur are perfect puppets for hate.
05:05This is not about dead emperors.
05:07It's about the rampant Islamophobia and assault against India's Muslims.
05:11The far-right's playbook is as follows.
05:14Paint Muslims as foreign invaders, tie them to Mughal ghosts and unleash the mob.
05:20In Nagpur, effigies burn.
05:22In Ayodhya, a mosque fell.
05:24From Aurangzeb Road, now APJ Abdul Kalam Road, to Akbar Road, renamed in 2022,
05:30streets shed Mughal shadows.
05:32NCRT books shrink Akbar's piece, inflate Aurangzeb's taxes
05:37and frame Mughal era as a scar in Indian history.
05:40Most Indian Muslims don't worship Aurangzeb or mourn Babur.
05:44They are not Mughals.
05:46They are citizens, taxed and toiling like everyone else.
05:50Blaming them for feudal kings is as absurd as Italians owning up to Caesar's wars.
05:55Yet it works.
05:56It buries unemployment, inflation and broken promises under a saffron flag.
06:02It turns neighbours into enemies over tombs and ruins no one prayed at.
06:07So the question really is, who wins when we chase the ghost of long-dead feudal kings?