From Khilji to Tipu : ‘Aurangzebs’ of modern India

Saba Naqvi

I am happy to report that the exit polls almost unanimously tell us that the Empire of Narendra Modi is yet again likely to have defeated Alauddin Khilji and the Mughal Empire, with special emphasis on that most evil of emperors, Aurangzeb. It’s quite a feat, to defeat the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughals in one fell swoop. And imagine the sheer delight of impaling that marauder Khilji, last seen eating meat like an animal in the film trailer of Padmavati (but let me confess, I may have seen some hungry nephews also tear into their chicken legs like that).

The medieval victories apart, the Modi Empire has also apparently managed to outwit the dastardly Pakistanis in a modern day plot to install Sonia Gandhi’s political adviser Ahmed Patel as CM. Obviously, this was a Pakistani plot based on rather poor intelligence as even an 8-year-old child in Gujarat would know than an Ahmed cannot presume to rule the state even if he were a Patel.

I hate to be a party pooper but this may be the space to point out that although we could have defeated the Pakistanis in Gujarat, they have tied up with the Chinese to curtail our influence in the region. So while we have been fixing the Ahmeds, Alauddins and Aurangzebs, in Nepal, the communist coalition has won three-fourth seats in the federal assembly. And sadly they would be more likely to tilt towards the Empire of China than the Empire of Narendra Modi. That’s not me saying this; it’s weighty strategic experts. Still, I gather that as long as American (past or present) Presidents, tell us how important we are, it hardly matters as we continue our national battles across time zones and centuries. 

Although Gujarat is shining and is on top of our minds, anyone who has gone into the literature of the Hindu Right would know the great symbolic importance of Nepal. Let me quote from the most intellectually engaging ideologue of the Hindu Right, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. His speeches as president of the Hindu Mahasabha are published as Hindu Rashtra Darshan. In his 1937 presidential address, he began with what he called “a homage” to the independent Hindu Kingdom of Nepal and sent greetings to the King for holding out as “a Hindu power”. He then went on to elaborate why people whose motherlands and holy-lands are not the same cannot be part of “the Hindu nation”. 

So there: hope that’s clear to all Ahmeds and Alauddins (not to forget Afrazul who was hacked and burnt in Rajasthan). 

Still, the loss of Nepal is small change compared to the expanding footprint of the Modi Empire. It extends across much of the length and breadth of India with a few outposts along the eastern coastline such as West Bengal, Orissa and Tamil Nadu still holding out with their own chieftains (the latter is getting quite wobbly though). Punjab, too, is a little island of resistance in the north but then the Sikhs have always had their own ideas of nationhood. There’s Karnataka too, still outside the realm of empire but since we now have an iron fist in an iron hand dealing all the cards in politics, it’s just a matter of time (and elections to the state assembly are due to April-May next year). 

And if it was an Aurangzeb today, there is a Sultan tomorrow. Since I’m doing my best to assist the historical hunt of the BJP I wanted to point them in the direction of Tipu Sultan, the 18th century ruler of Mysore, but it seems they were already on to it in the election-bound state. They are sharp fellows. 

Turns out that when all our attention was on Gujarat there was already a little storm in Karnataka over attempts by the Congress regime to celebrate Tipu Sultan Jayanti on November 10. Union minister Anantkumar Hegde told the Karnataka government not to invite him to the “shameful” event. He’d tweeted: “I have conveyed to the Karnataka government not to invite me to a shameful event glorifying a person known as a brutal killer, wretched fanatic and mass rapist.” So there you have it: move on Khilji, we’ve found Tipu Sultan!

With so much ammunition in the arsenal, It’s, therefore, just a matter of time before all the outliers (such as Karnataka and West Bengal) are handled and then we can enter the glorious age of single-party rule and move towards simultaneous central and state elections. Order would then be imposed and we can then truly enter an age, such as one described in our history books as the “golden age” of ancient India. In this seamless vision of India ancient, medieval and modern seamlessly merge, with a few historical scores to be settled now and then. (When it comes to the turn of Bengal, may I suggest Mir Jafar, the Nawab who handed over Bengal to the East India Company making his name synonymous with treason) The end always justifies the means and dead Muslim rulers do not turn in their graves.