Aurangzeb: Temple destroyer?

Although Aurangzeb’s religious policies were prejudicial, they were tempered by a commitment to the law

Aurangzeb has been demonised as a bigoted, anti-hindu temple destroyer, remembered in the same breath as the prolific demolisher Mahmud of Ghazni. A member of India’s Hindu nationalist BJP party in Rajasthan recently called for National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks to remove materials “glorifying” Aurangzeb. One activist even lodged a legal notice against NCERT, for claiming that after destroying temples Aurangzeb often gave them grants to rebuild.

However, this is a form of historic revisionism, more suited to stoking anti-muslim sentiments among modern Hindu nationalists than accurately depicting Aurangzeb’s policies. Although he may have torn down dozens of temples, there is no evidence he did so indiscriminately. On the contrary, the vast majority of the thousands of Hindu temples were left standing. When the Mathura’s Keshava Rai temple was destroyed, for example, it may have been a specific punitive political response to the local Jat rebellion, rather than a general policy.

Although he ordered a recall of endowed lands from Hindus, this was very inconsistent. The emperor continued to grant land to Hindu temples associations and some areas, such as Bengal, saw grants accelerate. He also issued orders protecting Hindu and Jain temples, and did not allow officers to illegally persecute non-muslims. Moreover, during the course of his reign, he increased the proportion of Hindu nobles by 50 per cent.

Aurangzeb was also unafraid to wage war on Shia Muslims where necessary, as he did with the kingdoms of Bijapur and Golconda. When these relentless sieges led to famine, Bijapuri theologians begged him to relent, claiming it was forbidden to fight fellow Muslims, but he persisted until they fell.