The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, who reigned between 1658 and 1707, has been a hated figure among Indian Hindu nationalists for decades. But a dispute over his tomb is exposing fissures in the movement after riots in the city of Nagpur, in Maharashtra. Violence broke out on March 17th after Hindu nationalists mounted demonstrations calling for the demolition of the tomb, which lies 500km away from the city. Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a right-wing group, had argued that the emperor should not be venerated, after a politician praised him on March 7th. Nearly 40 people have been injured, and one Muslim has died.
Battles over history are common in India. But this one comes at a particularly tricky moment for Narendra Modi, the prime minister. Mr Modi is due to go to Nagpur on March 30th to visit the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), another big Hindu-nationalist group. Mr Modi’s trip—his first to the RSS’s headquarters since becoming prime minister over a decade ago—is part of an attempt to repair relations between the RSS and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The loss of the BJP’s parliamentary majority in last year’s general election was blamed, in part, on unenthusiastic campaign support from the RSS.
The argument over the tomb of the dead Muslim ruler exposes a problem for the wider Hindu-nationalist movement: how to cater to the party faithful while appealing to a broader electorate, who are more likely to be concerned with the economy than questions of Mughal history.
Many Hindu-nationalist leaders have condemned the role their own camp played in the violence. Devendra Fadnavis, the BJP chief minister of Maharashtra, had endorsed demands to remove Aurangzeb’s tomb, but he quickly condemned the riots. The RSS also damned the violence. Sunil Ambekar, who is in charge of national publicity for the RSS, declared on March 19th that the Mughal emperor is irrelevant.
A potential successor to Mr Modi has also come out against the violence. Nitin Gadkari, the BJP minister for roads, appealed for calm in a video message on the same night that riots broke out. So far one politician has conspicuously not commented on the riots: Mr Modi. ■
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