Oak’s claim that the monument was originally a Shiva temple named “Tejo Mahalaya.” Some misguided Hindutva elements have already been caught trying to perform a Shiva puja (a rite to worship Lord Shiva) there. This acknowledgement is only partly reassuring, as it enables another fringe position on the Taj: the late chauvinist historian P.N. “What is important,” he grudgingly conceded, “is that it was built by the blood and sweat of India’s farmers and laborers.” More recently, he urged the national government to impose a travel ban on Muslims, as US President Donald Trump has attempted to do.Īdityanath’s attacks on the Taj, however, have sparked national outrage powerful enough to force him to visit Agra to assure an anxious public that his government is committed to protecting the monument. He earned notoriety by calling India’s most beloved film star – a Muslim – a terrorist. The difference now is that this is no longer a fringe group its members are now in power in Uttar Pradesh, with enablers leading the government in Delhi.Īdityanath, for example, first gained attention for his incendiary anti-Muslim speeches – he spent 11 days in jail in 2007 for fomenting religious tension – and for leading a squad of volunteers who specialized in attacking Muslim targets. India’s Hindu extremists have long considered it humiliating that a monument built by a Muslim emperor could be Hindu-majority India’s most recognizable site. They agree with the hardline Hindu chauvinist and BJP legislator Sangeet Som, who last month called the Taj Mahal “a blot on Indian culture” that had been “built by traitors” and “should have no place in Indian history.” If people like Shah Jahan – who supposedly wanted to “wipe out all Hindus from India” – were part of India’s history, Som said, “we will change this history.”īy stoking long-buried resentments and promoting hatred of Muslims, the BJP’s kulturkampf is dividing Indian society, fragmenting its political discourse, and undermining its soft power in the world But that doesn’t matter to the Hindu chauvinists who constitute the bulk of the BJP’s electoral base. This is a highly simplistic interpretation of a complex history – one characterized far more by assimilation and co-existence than by religious conflict.
In this telling, this sordid saga of assault on Hindus culminated in the 1947 Partition of India by the British, which created Pakistan. To BJP true believers, the Muslims who ruled India for centuries were foreign invaders who despoiled a prosperous land, destroyed temples and palaces, enslaved and discriminated against Hindus, assaulted Hindu women, and converted millions to Islam. Declaring that the monument does not “reflect Indian culture,” Adityanath announced that the government would hand out copies of the Hindu holy book, the Bhagavad Gita, instead. Uttar Pradesh’s new chief minister, a saffron-robed Hindu monk named Yogi Adityanath, initiated the assault on the Taj by condemning the state government’s former practice of offering models of the Taj as gifts to visiting foreign dignitaries.
The reason comes down to religious chauvinism. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which now rules Uttar Pradesh, has apparently decided that it wants as little to do with it as possible. This past summer, the American basketball player Kevin Durant sparked a row with his graphic descriptions of the monument’s surroundings.īut now the Taj is being rejected even by India’s own government. Those who do still show up are bowled over by the Taj, but often appalled at what they see around it.
Unsurprisingly, tourism is down: the number of foreign visitors to the Taj Mahal fell by 35% from 2012 to 2015, and domestic tourism has also declined.
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