AWatching the latest Bollywood blockbuster ChorusA Gujarat viewer angered the cinema screen with the torture provoked by Aurangzeb on Sambhaji. After watching the film, many videos of children, crying and shouting slogans are roaming on social media. Any film that dedicates the final 40 of the total 136 minutes is already suspicious for a cruel portrayal of torture with a sense of aesthetics.

Chorus A great warrior and a commendable goal of setting historical records directly about Sambhaji as administrator against biased accounts. But it becomes a harmful national level promotion when it is cured on a good Hindu versus bad Muslim binary, leaves some inconsistent facts, and is in full sink with the ideology of the ruling party. Thus, it is included in the recently created colleagues of more than 20 banging films. Kashmir files, Story of Kerala, Vaccine War, Article 370, Bastar – The Naxal Story, Swatanitri Veer Savarkar, JNU: Jahangir National University, Sabarmati report And Emperor PrithvirajAnd ChorusLike some other people, was supported by the Prime Minister and other ministers, and some were tax-free in BJP ruled states.

Hindu vs Muslim binary

ChorusThe world of the world is one in which the tireless discovery to highlight the evil of Muslim Aurangzeb left that he came to power based on the support of the Rajputs; His administration had the highest percentage of Hindu mansabdars in Mughal history (33%); It was also Hindus in the posts of Diwan and as the head of two important provinces; And according to some historians, the emperor, who gave it a discount for Jaziya (but Brahmins, Rajputs, women, elders, etc., exempted it (but protected some temples, as they demolished others.

This, of course, does not make Aurangzeb tolerant, only that his conservatism had to adjust political practicality. While secular historians emphasize this political practicality, Sameera Sheikh shows how Aurangzeb’s Sunni fanaticism persecuted Shia and other Islamic millennium groups such as Mahadavis, Dawoodi Bohar and Sufis more than Hindus. There was also an economic side of this oppression – the increasing prosperity of these “heritic” groups attracted the IRE of Aurangzeb’s Sunni clerics, which also had trading objectives.

Of course, these complexities/debate cannot be part of the debate ChorusThe world in which the discovery of Maratha “Swaraj” under Sambhaji suffers from Hindu imagination and is presented as freeing India from “foreign rule”. Actually, the Mughals had already lived in India for more than 150 years. Historian Stewart Gordon argues that Chhatrapati Shivaji, who made tolerance and symmetry champion, who had provoked Aurangzeb to follow Akbar’s tolerance, did not advocate for nationalism or “universal Hindu rule”. Shivaji also had sufficient number of Muslims in his administration, including top military commanders.

No place for nuances

ChorusThe world of Hindu vs Muslims/Indians versus foreigners is away from the 17th century, with many states and emerging European powers, with various cross-cutting alliances and rivalry between them. A strong coastal power was the cidis of Zanjira, who was an African Muslim, while Peshwa of Ahmednagar Sultanate was an Ethiopian slave for 26 years. Shivaji (and his father) was a part of Adil Shahi rule of Bijapur. Even when he revolted and engraved his own kingdom, he tied up with him, like the Qutub Shahis of Golconda and even the Mughals, and sometimes against the Hindu states of Karnataka. Similarly, Sambhaji, Bhi, Chikka of Mysore, was associated with Muslim Sultans against Hindu kings like Devraj.

ChorusThe central story of Aurangzeb’s evil would be diluted with its shock value if the film showed that Sambhaji himself revolted against his father Shivaji and was summarized in the same evil Aurangzeb! Whereas ChorusUnlike other promotional films, some Hindu shows upset in the story of ‘Good Hindus’, showing the story, which includes their own family, all Kohl-line Muslims are universally bad.

In presenting Aurangzeb’s torture as extraordinary, what ChorusThe world’s world is the cruel nature of the medieval world with daily wars. States, including the Marathas, were built through consolidation, as well as the rich (Deshmukh, Jagdar, etc.) through the violent subjugation of Hindu (and Muslim), which were moving the frequent loyalty among the states for better materials/symbolic benefits. Among the Mughals, the internal conflict between family members, prevalent: Shivaji fought with his half -brother Ecovie, and similarly Sambhaji’s son did with other contenders. When the film shows a failed conspiracy to poison Sambhaji on behalf of its half -brother Rajaram, where 20 prominent Maratha ministers and elbows are killed, it only indicates the violence of elephants. When Sambhaji’s Marathas were attacked, Goa, a Portuguese account (cited by historian Jadunath government) says, “So far, such a barbarity has not been seen anywhere else in India …” while such narratives have to behave carefully, showing that violence was largely widespread, even if the degree was diverse.

Ignore the caste

Seriously, ChorusHindu-Muslim binary gloss over caste. These were the lowest castes and the poor faced the worst forms in Hindu and Muslim states. In the Battle of Koregaon in 1818, the East India Company forces defeated the Peshwa -led Maratha Confedersi with Dalit Mahars. It became a symbol of caste resistance for Ambedkar and Dalits. The film is also considering that the Maharashtra Non-Brahmin movement fought for a long time that Sambhaji’s demonetisation was abolished by Brahmin stories in the form of weak, disabled and morally decrease. It was also repeated by Hindutva thinkers like Savarkar and Golwalkar. The film has led to the new Maratha vs Brahmin emotions.

World of world ChorusLike many other promotional history films, currently ruled by prophecies, in which a major nationalism is largely, the national audience has further strengthened it. When history in cinema becomes only a tool to provoke anger, hatred and hatred, it robs us by understanding history in all our complexity. When the textbooks of history are being re -written, and when people mostly read history through WhatsApp forward, then like moviesChorus Painting a dangerous instinct with their elimination.

Nisim Mannathukkaran is with Dalhousie University, Canada and is on X @nmannathukkaren.