Dear Reader,
Days since communal clashes rocked Maharashtra’s Nagpur, the city remains tense.
“Sentiments have been heightened by the movie Chhaava.” This is what Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis said a day after the clashes on Monday, 17 March in CM Fadnavis’ home town and the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal members carried out protests to demand the removal of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb’s tomb present in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, formerly called Aurangabad. Word spread that a holy chadar was also burnt during the protest along with Aurangzeb’s effigy and riots broke out at three locations. 33 policemen were injured, private vehicles and bulldozers were set ablaze, and stones were pelted at policemen, grievously injuring some. Over 60 people have been arrested, with Minorities Democratic Party (MDP) leader Fahim Shamim Khan being accused of being the ‘mastermind’.
Yes, agreed! Sentiments have definitely been heightened after Chhaava, which portrays the life story of Maratha king Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj and his eventual killing by Aurangzeb.
The heightened sentiments were viral across social media where children could be seen weeping, youth could be seen chanting Shiv Garjana, and a man in Nagpur even arrived to watch the film on a horse dressed as Sambhaji. A scene from Chhaava described Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh as a “gold mine”. So, a large crowd gathered near Burhanpur’s Asirgarh Fort after rumours spread about gold coins buried in the area. Villagers were digging the ground with torches and metal detectors till 3:00 am.
The leaders of the BJP and allies of the ruling Mahayuti went all out to play up on these sentiments and promote the movie. Fadnavis shared a stage with actor Vicky Kaushal on Shivaji Jayanti, a screening was organised for all MLAs, and one MLA also organised a free screening for all women in his constituency for a week. The BJP as a political party is free to do these things. But ever since Chhaava‘s release, there have been constant attempts by not just right-wing Hindutva groups but also by the state’s politicians, including CM Fadnavis, to play up the narrative of the removal of Aurangzeb’s tomb.
The political demands to destroy the grave began with Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Azmi’s praise for Aurangzeb, saying that he built some temples and that his differences with Chhatrapati Shivaji were not on communal lines. There were FIRs, Azmi was suspended from the Maharashtra Assembly, and BJP leaders like Navneet Rana, Nitesh Rane, and Udayanraje Bhosale called for the removal of Aurangzeb’s tomb from Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar. These demands could have been sidelined as personal sentiments of these leaders, but then CM Fadnavis offered in-principle support for these demands.
Two days before the riots, outfits like VHP and Bajrang Dal then echoed these demands and threatened ‘Babri Masjid-like action’ if the state government did not remove the tomb in the near future.
Fadnavis clarified that the riots broke out after rumours of a holy chadar being burnt at the Nagpur protests.
While the film definitely cannot be absolved of playing into the ‘good Hindu wronged by bad Muslim’ narrative of the Hindu right wing, it was clearly used for narrative-building and spewing an agenda. But eventually, those who built the narratives are as usual walking scot-free, while the misled youth arrested in Nagpur will now rot in jail.
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Regards,
ESHWAR
Associate Editor
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