Mar 22, 2025 09:25 IST First published on: Mar 22, 2025 at 07:20 IST
History is not easy to grapple with. When you revisit it, it starts haunting you. After all, as Mahatma Gandhi pointed out, “there have been tyrants and murderers” throughout history. But “history is mostly guessing; the rest is prejudice”, warned Will Durant. Hence, every time we revisit history, historical prejudices come back to haunt us.
A recent Bollywood movie, Chhaava, depicting the struggle of Sambhaji Raje, son of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, in Maharashtra against Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, brought historical memories into the public domain. For those who hadn’t heard about the horrible treatment meted out to one of the greatest Maratha warriors at the hands of Aurangzeb, the movie was an eye-opening experience. It graphically depicted the final 40 days of torture that Sambhaji — or Chhaava (lion cub) as he is popularly known — was subjected to by the lackeys of Aurangzeb. This was sufficient to ignite passions against the worst ruler of the Mughal dynasty.
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Shivaji, a great Maratha king and warrior, died in 1680 after establishing Hindvi Swaraj. Sambhaji ascended the throne a year later and became the second Chhatrapati of the Maratha kingdom. Those were the times when Aurangzeb was camping in the South to capture the Maratha and Deccan kingdoms. Sambhaji’s forces ran into the Mughal army and fierce battles ensued for years between the two. Sadly, Sambhaji’s army was outnumbered, and the leader was captured due to sabotage on February 1, 1689.
The treatment meted out to Sambhaji, a fellow royal, by Aurangzeb was brutal. American historian Stewart Gordon writes in his authentic account, The Marathas, that Aurangzeb saw Sambhaji’s refusal to convert to Islam as an ultimate act of defiance and decided to subject him to harsh punishment, before finally beheading him on March 11, 1689, in Koregaon on the banks of the Bhima River.
In Sambhaji, Vishwas Patil writes, “Aurangzeb’s brutality knew no bounds.” But historian Jadunath Sarkar writes that “Aurangzeb hoped to break Sambhaji’s spirit but instead created a martyr whose sacrifice would inspire generations”. That was exactly what happened after Sambhaji’s martyrdom. Enraged Marathas continued their battles with Mughal armies under the leadership of Rajaram, Sambhaji’s brother, and Tarabai, Rajaram’s widow. Their resistance was so fierce that Aurangzeb could not return to Delhi and died in 1707 at the age of 88 in Bhingar, a small town near Aurangabad.
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Even after centuries, Aurangzeb’s campaigns continue to raise passions. Recently, there have been calls for the removal of his tomb, located at Khulnabad, a town 15 miles from Aurangabad. It led to unfortunate violence in Nagpur, too. Incidentally, the city of Aurangabad was renamed Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar by the state government in 2023.
Over the 230 years of their rule in India, the Mughals produced 20 emperors. They included known names like Babur, Akbar and Shah Jahan. Aurangzeb is arguably the worst among them, with even many Muslims coming to hate him during his lifetime. Even his apologists among historians couldn’t whitewash the fact that Aurangzeb had ascended the throne by killing his pious brother Dara Shikoh and placing his father Shah Jahan under house arrest in Agra Fort. The imperial qazi, who refused to read the khutba in Aurangzeb’s name, was thrown into prison, and, later, when the Shaikh ul-Islam refused to issue a fatwa in support of his plans to invade the Muslim kingdoms in the Deccan, he too met with the same fate. In his overzealousness to please the ulema, Aurangzeb destroyed Hindu temples and brought back the jizya tax on Hindus and other non-Muslims. He even imposed restrictions on Sufi practices at their shrines.
This sordid history undoubtedly makes him the most hated among the Mughal rulers. But how to deal with his tomb, which is located in the heart of Maharashtra, is the question we are grappling with. Babur was first buried in Delhi, but his widow later moved the grave to Kabul, as per his desire. His son Humayun’s tomb is in Delhi. Akbar’s mausoleum is in Sikandra, a suburb of Agra. Shah Jahan desired that his tomb be in the same place as that of his wife Mumtaz Mahal, within the Taj Mahal in Agra. Dara Shikoh was buried in an unmarked grave in the Humayun’s Tomb complex. All these places are just of historical and archaeological importance and nothing more. No reverence is attached to them.
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Aurangzeb’s grave in Khuldabad near Chhatrapati Sambhajimagar is a small and unimpressive structure with no fanfare or paraphernalia. Historians claim that Aurangzeb himself had wanted it that way and no coffin was used to bury him. Aurangzeb’s grave may remain as a stark reminder of his dark deeds on the one hand and Maratha valour on the other, or moved to Kabul like Babur’s. But we must remember that the course of history doesn’t change merely by removing a couple of symbols here and there. Sun Tzu said that “not all battles are worth fighting”. What is worth fighting is not the dilapidated grave but the debased legacy of Aurangzeb.
In Gandhi’s words, the “tyrants and murderers” in history “for a time, seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it – always.” Aurangzeb was no exception.
The writer, president, India Foundation, is with the BJP. Views are personal
