In Modi’s India, Muslim rulers of the past ‘can’t be heroes’ as Mughal museum renamed

The Mughals ruled India for 300 years. A museum showcasing their artefacts in Agra, home of the Taj Mahal is to be renamed after a Hindu warrior

Experts have expressed alarm, saying it is yet another example of PM Narendra Modi’s government trying to divide Hindus and Muslims

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pictured in New Delhi on September 14. Photo: EPA

Published: 9:30pm, 17 Sep 2020Updated: 9:34pm, 17 Sep 2020

For 300 years from the 16th century onwards, India was ruled by the Mughal dynasty – yet a new museum meant to celebrate this part of the country’s history has become the subject of furious debate.

The Mughal Museum, as it was originally called, is being built in Agra – home of India’s famed Taj Mahal.

Designed by the Berlin firm of British architect David Chipperfield, it was envisaged as a showcase of Mughal artefacts and culture – until one of the most rabble-rousing members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party got involved.

Yogi Adityanath is the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state, where Agra is located, and on Monday he announced that the museum would be renamed after Shivaji – a Hindu warrior-king whose links to the city are tenuous at best, according to historians.

Yogi Adityanath pictured speaking with Modi in March 2019. Photo: AP

“How can Mughals be our heroes?” said Adityanath while announcing the name change, adding that “anything which smacks of a subservient mentality” will be done away with by the BJP – a reference to the belief that the Mughals were “foreign invaders” who “enslaved” Hindus.

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