A hard-line Hindu group’s call for the removal of the tomb of a 17th-century Mughal ruler has ignited tensions with Muslims in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, leading to communal violence and the imposition of a curfew.
The violence, which occurred this week in the city of Nagpur, centered around the tomb of Aurangzeb, whom Hindu nationalists have vilified as a tyrant who brutalized Hindus.
The clashes were contained by midweek, and the demand that the tomb be demolished has gone unheeded. But the flare-up showed how right-wing Hindus have seized on a long-ago history of Muslim rule of India to stoke grievances today against the country’s 200 million Muslims.
The trouble started on Monday, which, according to the Hindu calendar, is the birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji, a valorized Hindu king who fought Aurangzeb. The Nagpur unit of a right-wing Hindu organization, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or V.H.P., called for Aurangzeb’s tomb to be removed from the state, which had been the seat of Shivaji’s empire.
The grave is nearly 300 miles from Nagpur, in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district. Once known as Aurangabad, a name derived from the Mughal emperor’s name, the district was renamed after Shivaji’s son in 2023.
Members of the Hindu group protested in front of a Shivaji statue in Nagpur on Monday afternoon and burned an effigy of the ruler wrapped in green cloth, a color that has spiritual significance in Islam, said Amit Bajpayee, a V.H.P. volunteer.
Rumors that the cloth had verses from the Quran printed on it set off riots that evening, the police said. Mr. Bajpayee denied the rumors.
“During the protest, our simple slogan was that Aurangzeb’s tomb should be removed from Maharashtra,” he said. “It is correct that the effigy was wrapped with a green cloth, but there was nothing printed on it.”
Rioters pelted property with stones and set vehicles ablaze. Dozens of people, including police officers, were injured. The violence was limited mostly to Monday night, but the curfew remains in place, and dozens of people have been arrested.
On Tuesday, Devendra Fadnavis, the chief minister of Maharashtra State, blamed the violence on the Bollywood movie “Chhaava,” which was released just over a month ago and depicts the conflict between Aurangzeb and the son of Shivaji.
“‘Chhaava’ has ignited people’s anger against Aurangzeb,” Mr. Fadnavis, who belongs to the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, India’s governing party, said during a session of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
The sixth emperor of the Mughal dynasty, Aurangzeb ascended to the throne by killing his brother and imprisoning his father, Shah Jahan, who had built the Taj Mahal. Aurangzeb ruled over the Indian subcontinent, including Delhi, from 1658 until his death in 1707 and sought to expand the Mughal empire.
Hindu leaders and groups have taken aim at Aurangzeb before. During a speech in Varanasi in 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the conflict between Aurangzeb and Shivaji to highlight the Hindu king’s bravery.
Someone like Aurangzeb, “who used his sword to kill civilization and tried to trample culture through fanaticism,” will be destroyed, said Mr. Modi, the leader of the B.J.P. “For every Aurangzeb who comes here, a Shivaji will rise.”
Some historians challenge assertions that the conflict between the two rulers was driven by religion. Sohail Hashmi, an expert on the history and heritage of Delhi, said that Hindus and Muslims fought on both sides at the time.
“Religion is not in the picture,” he said. “It is two feudal lords fighting.”
