Opinion: Rahul's coronation and not so glorious reign of Aurangzeb

Yesterday it was declared that Rahul Gandhi will be the president of Congress party. Rahul Gandhi has submitted his application for the president's post. Top leaders and senior persons are blessing him. Congress supporters all over India are celebrating too. Rahul Gandhi himself went to Pranab Mukherjee's house to seek blessings. Senior members like Sushil Shinde and former chief minister of New Delhi, Sheila Dixit congratulated him. Former Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh also came to greet him.

This shows that Rahul Gandhi is all set to be the president of the Congress party. You will be surprised to know that there is a committee also which has been set up for choosing the party president.

On 5th December, the committee will check the enrolled names. Then it will be clear whether any other person is in the race or not. Then on the 16th, the voting will happen and on 19th the results will be out.

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But sources claim that the coronation ceremony will take place on 11th December itself as there is no scope for any other contender.

Party workers are very happy as they are considering Rahul Gandhi as the new hope and beginning of a new era. But amidst all of this, Manishankar Ayyar of Congress gave a controversial statement and mentioned about Jehangir, Shahjahan and Aurangzeb. After that Prime minister Narendra Modi compared Rahul Gandhi with Aurangzeb.

Again history has become very important for people. People are talking about Mughals and especially about Aurangzeb. Today's generation thinks whatever is written in the books is true.

You must have heard the glorious sagas of the Mughal emperors from many intellectuals. Many people are talking about Mughal emperors and some of these intellectuals claim Akbar as the champion of secularism. They also say that during the reign of the Mughals, India became the "golden bird". The economy was racing ahead, and Aurangzeb brought many changes for the betterment of the economy.

While researching, we read M A Khan's book "Islamic Jihad: A Legacy of Forced Conversion, Imperialism, and Slavery". He has written a lot about the Mughal empire. We also read a book by François Gautier "Rewriting Indian History".

The most pertinent question is, was secularism introduced by Mughal emperor Akbar?

M A Khan has mentioned in his book that Akbar invaded Chittor in 1568 and killed almost 8000 Rajput soldiers. He forced all the widows to become the slaves but they refused and did Jauhar (Self-immolation) to save their honour. M A Khan has written a lot about Mughal cruelty.

M A Khan has mentioned one book named "Al-Tareekh" by a historian Ibn Aksari. He cited that Aurangzeb used to give higher posts to the Hindu by changing their religion. If a Hindu prisoner showed readiness to change their religion then he used to release him.

In the year 1658, Aurangzeb said he would give Rs 4 to men and Rs 2 to women if they change their religion.

There were tax exemptions also for those who used to change their religion.

On page 39, François Gautier has written in his book "Rewriting Indian history" that the temples were demolished and mosques were built in that place. The document written at the time of Aurangzeb has details that 63 temples were demolished. Abu Tarab was appointed for it and he used to look after the demolition.

In the book "The world Economy" it is mentioned that in the Gupta empire, India's GDP was 30 per cent of world's GDP. During Aurangzeb's rule, India's GDP was 22.5 per cent.

Gupta empire is 1300 years older than Mughal empire. That means India was quite a prosperous nation far before the Mughals came.

It is unfortunate that when European countries are moving towards industrialisation, Indian politicians, in very similar ways to that of Aurangzeb, are making new policies to paint the country with communal colours.

(Disclaimer: The author writes here in a personal capacity).