In human societies, the introduction of a newborn child in the family is an unambiguously cheerful occasion. However, it appears, that this does not apply to a few segments on social media networks. Tweeters lamented the birth of a child a few days back. Born to renowned Bollywood actors Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor, the kid had been named Taimur – a very shocking news for a few, given the name’s relationship with a fourteenth-century Turkish ruler and one the world’s best conquerors. A few patriotic Indians on Twitter are so annoyed with his birth that they called the infant “terrorist”, a “jihadi” and, in general, wished death to him. While it won’t be difficult to reject this as the work of trolls, the honesty of social media has given us an essential window into mentalities that may, somehow or other, not be observed openly. With Hindutva fundamentalism growing day by day, this episode shines a brilliant light upon individuals who solely believe this system.
The Sangh supporters’ protest to the name Taimur is based only on a profoundly established conviction that the Muslim-Asian ruler had purportedly butchered Hindus amid his invasion of India. Hindutva propagates a story of Muslim rule which is mostly historically incorrect and after that, the Hindutva brigade becomes the victim of its own distortion. This mutilated picture of Mughal dynasties anticipated by Hindutva creates a profound feeling of inferiority and hatred.
The correct sense of history is a precarious thing to develop, particularly when individuals are hungry to superimpose moral lessons on them. Who is a saint and who isn’t is, to a great degree, subjective. The past genuinely is a different nation altogether and a bit of creativity is definitely required to make it fit in today’s India.
Kareena Kapoor named her son Taimur, and the Sangh trolls lost their minds. But when BJP’s Kirron Kher named her son Sikander, she obviously did it out of the highest feeling of ‘patriotism’, isn’t it? Alexander is not a hated figure in the Indian mindset, while Taimur unquestionably is.
Also, the name Sikandar has turned into a piece of Indian culture, to such an extent that Amitabh Bachchan’s tune in Muqaddar ka Sikandar lifts up the man as a definitive winner. Invasions and invaders are constantly about wars, and deaths and finally, about compromises with existing rulers. It’s worth recalling that kings and dynasties have all been killers and they have all done it without batting an eyelid. Whom we criticise increasingly and keep on hating is characterised by our separate states of mind to history and the present.
In the eighteenth century, the Marathas attacked Bengal, slaughtering 4,00,000 Bengalis. Repeated attacks and triumphs of neighbouring state Gujarat were likewise, as nearly everything in medieval India was, a fairly violent affair. At the point when a man with Lord Rama in his name grows up to be independent India’s first terrorist, do we quit naming our youngsters Nathu, Nathmal or Ram?
When a ruler named Asoka (Ashoka) murders his 99 siblings, tosses them into Patna’s Agam Kuan, has a dungeon, executes no less than 1,00,000 individuals, and beheads thousands in the skirmish of Kalinga, does it prevent us from naming anyone after him?
All in all, what’s the big deal if Kareena and Saif Ali Khan choose to name their child Taimur – a name connected to a fierce west Asian winner who additionally did what Nathuram, Ashoka and Sikander did – execute, vanquish, take up arms? I’m glad they didn’t name their son after the bloodthirsty Mahabharata characters who destroyed their own family or the Rajput kings who suffered defeat in every battle. Rajputs have been experts in failures and losing battles. A thousand years back, Rajput lords managed a lot of North India. But after a point, they lost to Ghazni, lost to Ghori, lost to Khilji, lost to Babur, lost to Akbar, lost to the Marathas, and kneeled before the British. The Marathas and Britishers scarcely check since the Rajputs were nothing but stooges of Mughals after Akbar defeated them. Having been bound to a parched part of the Indian subcontinent by the early Sultans, they were reduced to just vassals by the Mughals.
The shadow of alleged love jihad, which once was a Bharatiya Janata Party’s core strategy itself, just ends up hurting Hindu women. It emphasises that they aren’t allowed to make their own decisions – be it choosing their life partner or something else. Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor’s marriage is ‘Love Jihad’, but Soha Ali Khan and Kunal Khemu’s marriage is, again, the highest form of patriotism through the lens of Bigotry.
After battling with Pakistan, Kashmiris and anti-nationals at home, Sanghis have now stooped to the low of abusing a newborn baby! It’s nothing less than a mental regression. No one drags an infant into their political issues of hate and bigotry. What parents call their own child is no one’s business. Be that as it may, when we call Mera Bharat Mahaan (My Indian is Great), there is definitely a reason for it. Here such insouciance is paraded in the name patriotism, nationalism and Hindutva.
