The museum was meant to showcase the arms, artwork and style of the Mughals, Muslim rulers who reigned over the Indian subcontinent from the 16th to the 18th centuries.
However officers this week in Agra, house to the Taj Mahal — the world’s most well-known instance of Mughal-era structure and India’s best-known constructing — had one other thought: an entire overhaul of the museum in order that it might as a substitute have a good time India’s Hindu majority, leaders and historical past.
The modifications to the deliberate museum are the most recent instance of a Hindu nationalist revival sweeping the country, spurred by the nation’s common prime minister, Narendra Modi. Critics of the federal government say that Mr. Modi and his supporters are fanning the flames of spiritual division, damaging India’s secular basis and rewriting the nation’s historical past to take away Muslim achievements from the narrative.
Floor was damaged for the museum in 2016 after financing was permitted beneath the earlier authorities, however little progress has been made on its development.
Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, the state wherein Agra is positioned, mentioned on Monday that he wouldn’t enable India’s Muslim rulers to be lionized with such a museum and that the constructing would as a substitute be named for Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, a 17th-century Hindu warrior-king.
“How can Mughals be our heroes?” Mr. Adityanath requested, in keeping with a authorities transcript of his remarks. As if to drive house the purpose that in in the present day’s India, Hinduism and patriotism are more and more entwined, he added, “the very identify of Shivaji will invoke a sense of nationalism and vanity.”
Mr. Adityanath, a member of Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Occasion, is so hostile to recognizing the nation’s Muslim historical past that when he took workplace in 2017 he thought-about excluding images of the Taj Mahal from the state’s tourism brochures.
Quickly after, India’s Parliament handed a legislation that enshrined discrimination towards Muslim immigrants looking for citizenship. The legislation prompted large street protests throughout the nation, however earlier than the demonstrations may dent Mr. Modi’s agenda the coronavirus struck and the prime minister imposed a strict nationwide lockdown.
Muslims make up 14 p.c of India’s inhabitants, however say they’re more and more beneath assault, each bodily — there was a pointy improve in violence against Muslims — and politically. As India continues to wrestle with tens of 1000’s of recent coronavirus circumstances, Muslims have been accused of being super-spreaders of the illness.
Shahid Siddique, a Muslim and former member of Parliament, mentioned the museum controversy is the most recent instance of Hindu nationalists trying to eradicate Muslim historical past.
“Agra will not be a metropolis of Shivaji,” he mentioned of the Indian king whose identify the museum will now bear. “However within the metropolis of Taj, town of Mughals, you can not have a Mughal Museum,” he mentioned, with a word of incredulity.
Hindu Nationalists say Muslims are enjoying the sufferer by complaining concerning the museum. Vinod Bansal, a Hindu nationalist chief, described the Mughals as international invaders who conquered India with a view to to loot it, and as such shouldn’t be hailed as nationwide heroes.
“When the nation bought independence, the Union Jack was taken down. Statues of George V and Queen Victoria have been damaged. However no Christian raised the difficulty that you’re attacking Christianity,” he mentioned.
