A few years back, a controversy erupted when the then Congress government of Karnataka decided to celebrate Tipu Jayanti on 10th November. It was propagated that Tipu Sultan was a Freedom Fighter, as Secular King above par, an Engineering marvel who invented Rockets.
However, for people of Mangaluru, Coorg, and nearby area of Kerala, Tipu is considered as a “treacherous tyrant” who looted, killed their ancestors, and converted millions of Hindus. As expected, Hindu organizations and Sangh Parivar threatened to disrupt the celebrations as a sign of protest. But the Congress government went ahead with the program and Tipu’s 266th birth anniversary was celebrated at the state legislature building. Several famous personalities attended. It was said that the Congress government started this practice to lure the Muslims, even during the elections, this was a primary issue.
In 2015, BJP MP Maheish Girri put an official request to rename the Aurangzeb Road and make it Dr. APJ Adbul Kalam Road, as a tribute to the People’s President. When this name was changed, we saw a lot of brouhahas by the so-called seculars and Islamists. It was seen as an attack over ‘Ganga-Jamuni’ tehjeeb and several renowned writers wrote long articles in western newspapers, showing the so-called apathy towards Muslims in India. A section of Muslims started hurling abuse on the Central government for disrespecting their so-called hero, Aurangzeb.
Now the third scenario, Ram mandir Janm-Bhoomi dispute finally came to an end last year, after a long battle which lasted for more than 500 years. Hindus believe that it was the birthplace of Ram Lala and it was Mughal emperor Babur who built the mosque on top of a temple there. The moment the Supreme court released its verdict, there was a shock wave among the ‘few’ Muslims, who used to admire Babur as a great warrior king. All Indian Muslim Personal Law board declared that “Judgement has not served justice to Muslims”. They went one step ahead and said that “Once a mosque, always a mosque”. They were ready to take the ire of all Hindus, just because of fake love and admiration for a Tyrant ruler Babur, who was indeed an invader.
In the above 3 scenarios, if we try to gauge a pattern, then you will find that a section of Indian Muslims always remains in awe of a Muslim Rulers, especially those who have a brutal track record against India and specifically Hindus. We don’t know why, but they express a sense of pride and associations with these tyrant rulers.
In our opinion, the following could be the reasons for this absurd behavior.
Identity Crisis – This is certainly a big reason for this behavior, as we know Islam was originated in Arab and later on it was gradually spread across the Asian and African countries. It’s a common phenomenon in Muslims, that they take pride in their foreign lineage, and thus they always remain disdainful of their indigenous roots.
Here, it is important to note that most of the Muslim upper castes are of foreign origin, whereas most of the lower caste Muslim lower castes are of Indian origin. There is a sense of confusion if they are Indian or came from Arab, and that creates an Identity crisis, and that generates the hatred against anything associated with India. They feel better when they associate themselves with dominating figures of history, you will never find any Muslim associating themselves with Bahadur Shah Zafar, as he was not powerful and dominant.
This identity confusion led to them supporting other invaders like Turks, Persians, Afghans, and even Ottoman Caliphate and Arabs, who have no direct link with Indian Muslims.
Lack of Ideals in society – Muslim society has very few personalities who could be projected as an ideal for society. We do have few prominent politicians, scientists, few poets, singers, and maybe few sportspeople, but overall there is a lack of personalities, who could be followed or admired. In such a situation, they got in awe of their rulers, because of their larger than life image propagated by our eminent historians.
They feel a sense of pride and association with these historical Islamic figures, on top of that, all of these rulers were anti-Hindus, they destroyed temples, they ordered mass conversions, they killed millions of Hindus, just because they were not sharing a similar faith system. For a fanatic Muslim, all these traits work like a magic, as this gives them a sense of dominance over the majority population of Hindus.
They will refrain to associate with Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, but they will jump the gun once you mention Tipu Sultan, Babur, or Aurangzeb because they find these personalities more aligned to their version of Islam, they executed Ghazawa-ae-hind, they wanted to impose sharia in India, they did everything which makes these fanatics happy, hence they find their ideals in these tyrant rulers.
Loss of religious supremacy – When Mughals were ruling India, they had an undisputed reign over north India. They invested their time and efforts to spread Islam in whatever way possible. They fought so many battles, usurped the Hindu Kingdoms, and did everything possible to make India an Islamic state or Darul-Islam. They imposed ‘Jajiya tax’ over Hindus, the religious practices were banned, Islam used to rule the roosts.
This sense of religious supremacism was neutralized by the decline of the Mughal Empire. Past Indian independence, India became a democracy, where every person was equal as per the Indian Constitution. Gradually other people (read Hindus and Sikhs) became equal to them, which was seen as an encroachment in their idea of supremacism, they were not able to tolerate this and hence their frustration was increasing with each passing day. they were so anguished with the present that they started loving their mythical supremacist past, hence the association with the likes of Babur, Aurangzeb, and Tipu Sultan.
Loss of Political power – It’s a fact that Indian Muslims are one of the most empowered Muslims in the world. They are treated as an equal citizen, who votes, who are fully enfranchised, who have assumed the powerful posts in politics, administration, etc. They get taken-for-granted entitlements, which are unheard in the most typical Islamic Nations.
However, few Muslims think that Islam is no longer the politically dominant religion in India, which can influence policy decisions and law enforcement.
Poet Allama Iqbal once said that, “Mullah Ko Jo Hai Hind Mein Sajde Ki Ijazat; Nadan Ye Samajhta Hai Ke Islam Hai Azad”. It means, Muslims are free to observe their rituals in India, however they wrongly think that Islam is free. One must wonder what Iqbal wanted to convey.
For those Muslims inspired by Iqbal, India was supposed to be a Darul-Islam. Per them, it is not sufficient to have freedom of observance of faith and religion, rather a monopoly over political power is desired so that Muslims can rule the kafirs. But alas, since the rise of Hindutva in the late ’80s and ’90s, this narrative was started broken. The moment the so-called ‘Hindutvawadi’ Government assumed the power, Muslims became politically irrelevant. We have seen this in 2014 and then 2019 as well, the lesser number of Muslim MPs and MLAs tells the entire story and this is the cause of concern for them. There is a growing sentiment that they have lost the political power to the followers of Hinduism.
They are fearful, they are confused, they don’t know whom to approach and in such a situation, they can only went back to their history, remember their fore-fathers who once ruled over this land of Kafirs, for several centuries. This gives them a sense of confidence and a fake pride, that’s why they blabber a common idiom, that “We have ruled over you for 1000 years”. They think that such statements may instill fears in Hindus, contrary to that, it shows their nervousness and their fear, that they will never be able to rule this land again.
In our opinion, these are few reasons why Indian Muslims feel closeness with these rulers. We also feel its the lack of education and lack of question asking ability, which may push Indian Muslims to believe in this fake narrative of fake pride and supremacy. This narrative has been weaved by their past generations and their religious bodies. Indian Muslims wove a false narrative, and they are still immured themselves into it, and that’s why they have became dispensable now. We believe there is still a scope of course correction, but here the question is “‘Who is going to bell the cat“??
