History is a contentious topic in India and is inextricably intertwined with our daily lives; it is never far from the surface, waiting to break out into the open at the slightest provocation. There are myriad historical monuments interspersed across the country—in cities, towns, and villages—that confront us daily and continuously remind us either of the evils of a different time or the grandeur of a bygone era.

One such monument is the tomb of Aurangzeb, located in Khuldabad near Sambhajinagar (previously known as Aurangabad) in Maharashtra, which has become the subject of a current controversy, even sparking deadly riots in Nagpur.

To comprehend the present controversy, we need to understand who Aurangzeb really was. Was he truly a great ruler worthy of veneration, as some claim, or was he an unapologetic tyrant and religious despot who should have no place of honour in modern secular India?

Aurangzeb was the sixth Mughal emperor, reigning from 1658 to 1707. While he expanded the Mughal Empire to arguably its greatest extent, his rule was marked by inhuman brutality, conservatism, and stark religious bigotry. I will highlight some of his crimes, so egregious and horrendous that anyone and everyone should feel embarrassed to defend him.

He was the epitome of religious intolerance. He reimposed jizya on Hindus, banned the celebration of the Parsi festival of Nauroz, prohibited the playing of music, and encouraged the forcible conversion of Hindus and Sikhs.

The persecution of non-Muslims was a prominent feature of his governance. In 1675, Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Guru of the Sikhs, was arrested by Mughal officials when he sought to protect 500 Kashmiri Pandits who were being forced to convert to Islam. To break his will, three of his disciples were cruelly tortured and killed before his eyes in a gruesome manner: one was cut in half by a saw, another was thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil, and a third was chopped to pieces. But Guru Teg Bhadur........

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