Daddy Issues In Indian Politics

Political gossip has Sultan (Akhilesh) becoming Tipu, but the question is whether Akhilesh just did an Aurangzeb instead.

- Kushan Mitra

Politics is deeply rooted in history, and recent events in North Indian politics are a reminder that history, even ancient history, is never too far away in this political land of ours. Ergo, let’s begin the narration of this political drama with a short history lesson, about the ‘evil’ Aurangzeb, and how he deposed his father Shah Jahan and committed fratricide with Dara Shikoh. Everybody knows this story, which is why the move to remove his name from a road in Delhi had widespread popular support.

Nobody wants to play the devil’s advocate and argue that Aurangzeb was frustrated by his father draining the treasury (the Taj Mahal wasn’t free, right?) and that an ideological rot had crept into the Mughal empire. Aurangzeb rode a wave of popular discontent against the ruling elite (sound familiar?) and actually expanded the empire to its greatest land area. The seeds of its decline were also sown at the same time, when a certain western Indian brigand came to the fore and began chipping away at the empire, which soon collapsed into a rubble heap.