Last Updated:
In his book ‘Discovery of India’, Nehru called Aurangzeb ‘a bigot and an austere puritan… He infuriated the great majority of his subjects by imposing the old hated jizya poll-tax on the Hindus’
Western Orientalist scholars called Aurangzeb a despot and blamed him for weakening of the Mughal state. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj and Aurangzeb became the topics of heated discussions in the Maharashtra Assembly on Wednesday, with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis challenging the Opposition parties to condemn Jawaharlal Nehru as well.
“We will truly not tolerate the insult of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj,” Fadnavis said.
This comes following the suspension of Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Azmi from the Maharashtra Assembly after his remark on Aurangzeb, praising the Mughal ruler. “My suspension is an injustice, not just to me but to the millions of people whom I represent… I would like to ask the government whether two types of laws are followed in the state? One law for Abu Azmi and another law for Prashant Koratkar and Rahul Sholapurkar,” he said in a video post on X.
His comment gained traction amidst the controversy around the movie ‘Chhaava’, which is centred around Sambhaji Maharaj, the son of Maratha icon Shivaji. Azmi stressed that Aurangzeb was a “good administrator” and India expanded under his reign.
“Wrong history is being shown in ‘Chhaava’… Aurangzeb built several temples. I do not think he was a cruel administrator,” Azmi said. He also went on to claim that India was referred to as “sone ki chiriya (golden bird)” during Aurangzeb’s tenure, with the country’s economy accounting for 24% of the global GDP.
In his book ‘Discovery of India’, former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru called Aurangzeb “a bigot and an austere puritan, he was no lover of art or literature. He infuriated the great majority of his subjects by imposing the old hated jeziya poll-tax on the Hindus and destroying many of their temples. He offended the proud Rajputs who had been the props and pillars of the Mughal Empire”.
“In the north he roused the Sikhs, who, from being a peaceful sect representing some kind of synthesis of Hindu and Islamic ideas, were converted by repression and persecution into a military brotherhood. Near the west coast of India, he angered the warlike Marathas, descendants of the ancient Rashtrakutas, just when a brilliant captain had risen amongst them.”
Who Was Aurangzeb?
Aurangzeb was the son of Shah Jahan and the sixth and last of the great Mughal emperors. He was a devout Muslim and a strict ruler who enforced the Sharia law and re-imposed the jizya tax on non-Muslims.
He also banned music, dancing, and painting in his court. He fought many wars to expand his empire, which became the largest in India’s history, covering almost the entire subcontinent.
However, he also faced fierce resistance from the Marathas, the Sikhs, and the Rajputs, who challenged his authority and drained his resources. He died in 1707, leaving behind a vast but unstable empire that soon collapsed under the pressure of internal and external forces.
What Was The Criticism Against Aurangzeb?
Some South Asian Muslims have praised him for being an exemplary orthodox ruler, whose conquests brought Indo-Islamic power to its territorial height. Others called him a religious fanatic whose intolerance instigated the communal violence that plagued South Asia.
To Hindu nationalists, he was an ultimate villain, an oppressive fundamentalist who led a genocidal campaign against Hindus.
Many say that Aurangzeb tried to convert all Hindus to Islam, and when that project failed he reportedly slaughtered millions of Hindus. People claim that Aurangzeb systematically destroyed Hindu cultural institutions — thousands of Hindu temples. Some have even said the reason why north India lacks the tall, elaborate temples that one finds in south India is because Aurangzeb destroyed them, as per Aeon — an Australia-based digital magazine.
Western Orientalist scholars painted Aurangzeb as a despot and blamed him for weakening the Mughal state and thus opening the door to British colonisation, as per an article in Origins.
As a ruler, Aurangzeb was accused of being puritanical. He was personally devout but continued to offer legal protections to and employ large numbers of Hindus and members of other religious groups. In fact, the Mughal nobility during Aurangzeb’s reign had a higher percentage of Hindus (just over 30%) than under any of his predecessors.
Many historians say Aurangzeb would ally with Hindu rulers against Muslims when it suited his military goals. When he did target Hindu or Sikh religious leaders, it was in response to political threats rather than religious intolerance.
While much attention was paid to his reinstatement of the ‘jizya’ tax on non-Muslims, Aurangzeb’s main focus was always on military expansion. He relentlessly pursued the conquest of the central and southern India but the success came at an incredible cost. While he did expand the empire to its greatest territorial height, his conquests were unsustainable.
His successors were weak and could not maintain the vast territory that Aurangzeb managed to conquer throughout the eighteenth century. Thus, Mughal power incrementally diminished until its end in 1857 when the British took over India.
Death Of Aurangzeb
In 1705 when he was 86 years old, Aurangzeb finally wound up his last military campaign when he was engaged in a siege in conquering an insignificant fortress near Bijapur. Exhausted, he felt like returning to imperial Delhi, the seat of the Mughal capital. During the march, when Aurangzeb reached Devapur on the Krishna River in Bijapur province, he fell violently ill and the journey had to be stopped. He had to rest there for six months till October 1705. Thereafter the emperor was carried in a palanquin.
On January 20, 1706, the entourage reached Ahmednagar. Aurangzeb had to spend his last miserable year there due to his illness. He was alone during his ill health as Akbar had died in Persia in 1704, his daughter had passed away two years earlier, his sister also died in 1706. His only companion was his spinster daughter and his last wife Udipuri Mahal.
Aurangzeb died on February 21, 1707, on Friday — the Muslim Sabbath — as he always wanted.
