Mumbai: Almost three years after the tomb of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district had to be shut down temporarily amid political tensions, the site is shrouded in controversy once again.
Hindutva outfit Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Monday staged protests across Maharashtra, demanding that the tomb, situated in the district’s Khuldabad, be demolished. The outfit also plans to give a memorandum of their demand to the collectors of all 36 districts in Maharashtra.
Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena—both members of the ruling Mahayuti alliance—have also demanded that the structure be razed. The Archeological Survey of India (ASI), under whose protection the site falls, has beefed up the security outside the tomb.
“We are holding small protests across Maharashtra. The next step will be to meet the Maharashtra chief minister with our demand, and if that also does not yield any results, we will resort to karseva at the tomb,” VHP spokesperson Shriraj Nair told ThePrint.
Many kings and Sufi saints have been laid to rest in Khuldabad. Aurangzeb’s tomb is located in the same premises as that of Khwaja Syed Zainuddin Shirazi, who he used to consider his guru (teacher). The emperor died in 1707 in Ahmednagar—which has now been renamed to Ahilyanagar—but according to his vasihatnama (will), he wanted to be laid to rest near his spiritual guru.
Aurangzeb, who had ordered the execution of Maratha icon Chhatrapati Shivaji’s son Sambhaji in 1689, is a deeply polarising figure in Maharashtra that keeps cropping up in the state’s political discourse every now and then.
This time, the trigger was the Vicky Kaushal-starrer film Chhaava, which depicts Chhatrapati Sambhaji’s battle with Aurangzeb, and how the latter had tortured the Maratha king to death. Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Azmi had claimed earlier this month in the Maharashtra assembly that some elements depicted in the film were wrong. He had also said that Aurangzeb was, in fact, a good administrator. Azmi was then suspended from the assembly for the remainder of the budget session.
Also Read: Under fire for praising Aurangzeb, Abu Azmi points to actor & journalist’s remarks on Shivaji
‘Right time to demand demolition’
Asked why the VHP has voiced its demand to demolish the tomb only now, Nair said, “Since 1947, we all know that our country was ruled by a Muslim-appeasing government. It was only after 2014 that we got to see action on issues, such as the restoration of Ram Temple in Ayodhya. So, we feel the time is right to make this demand.”
The demand is not against Indian Muslims as “ancestors of indigenous Muslims are not the Mughals”, he added.
While the VHP has taken to the streets, the calls for demolition of the tomb are getting louder in Maharashtra’s political circles as well.
Earlier this month, Satara MP Udayanraje Bhosale, a descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji, called Aurangzeb a thief, and called for the tomb to be razed, asking people who like to visit the tomb to “take it to their homes”. Last week, Naresh Mhaske, an MP from Shinde’s Sena, made the same demand in the Lok Sabha.
Speaking in the Maharashtra assembly last week, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had supported the call to demolish the tomb, but had said it had to be done in a lawful manner since the previous Congress-led governments had entrusted it to the ASI as a protected site.
Opposition parties, such as the Congress and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), have slammed the demand for demolition of Aurangzeb’s tomb, saying that it is aimed at wiping out the history of Maharashtra’s Maratha empire.
An editorial in the Shiv Sena (UBT)’s mouthpiece Saamana Monday said that those seeking the demolition were the “enemies of history”.
“They want to vitiate Maharashtra’s environment and brand themselves as Taliban Hindus. They are distorting Hindutva and insulting Shivaji Maharaj’s Swarajya,” the piece read.
What happened in 2022
In May 2022, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi had visited and offered flowers at the tomb, after which the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) had called for the structure to be demolished.
Amid the controversy, the ASI had closed the tomb for five days, following a request from a mosque committee in Khuldabad.
Back then, Shaikh Nisar Ahmed, whose family has taken care of the tomb for six generations, had told ThePrint that it was the first time ever that the monument—about 28 km from the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar city—had to be shut down due to fear of communal tensions. Ahmed had said that his ancestors were Aurangzeb’s “khaadim (servants)”.
“After his (Aurangzeb) death, his son said that our family had served his father well and asked us to remain with him in his resting place. After my father’s death in 1977, I took over as caretaker,” Ahmed had said.
Ahmed’s family organises the urs (death anniversary) and other ceremonies with the monetary offerings that visitors leave at the tomb. The family has been involved in the gems and perfume business for the past four decades. Ahmed runs a small shop right outside the tomb.
According to the caretaker, Aurangzeb wanted his tomb to be made of “mitti (mud)” with a plant of sweet basil next to it, and be open to the sky. “His wish was to have a tomb built for 14 rupaya 12 anna. He did not want any zari (a decorative gold thread on cloth) or mulmul (muslin).”
Ahmed had further said that people visit Khuldabad not just for Aurangzeb’s tomb, but also because it is “a fortress of Sufi saints”. There’s the tomb of Malik Ambar, Deccan’s African-origin military general, as well as a Bhadra Maruti temple that tourists visit in Khuldabad.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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