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Aurangzeb's name is anathema in Indian history because it connotes the very apex of vice, venom and villainy, and torture, treachery and tyranny.
None of Aurangzeb's atrocities were secular, even if that be any consolation. They were carried out methodically, ruthlessly in the name of Islam for the glory (sic) of the Mussalman.
Ascending the throne at the crest of 950 years of alien rule in India, Aurangzeb, the sixth Moghul emperor, is a byword for Muslim misrule and misdeeds carried to a climax.
After him the fangs of the alien rule were removed by a resurgent Hindudom and the rampant beast, which had run riot for nearly a millennium, was run to earth, cornered and effectively leashed, castrated and caged.
Like ideal charity, Aurangzeb's villainy began at home and, therefore, it had a home-spun quality. The ego-centric whirl of Aurangzeb's villainy swept his father Shahjahan off the imperial Moghul throne on to a secluded apartment of the Red Fort of Agra, and decapitated his three brothers. With all rivals in his own home and family mowed down, Aurangzeb launched himself on a career of lynching the Hindus, turning all temples into mosques and plundering and massacring his Hindu subjects.
The mounting sinful score of his scandalous reign seemed so sickening to Aurangzeb himself that, after the first 10 years, he forbade even his cringing flatterers from keeping any record of his doings. Therefore, the events of his reign "can only be traced through the means of letters on business and of notes taken clandestinely by private individuals." (Pg. 174, Vol. VII, Elliot & Dowson)
Aurangzeb was the third among the four known legitimate sons of the fifth Moghul sultan, Shahjahan. He was born in 1619 A.D. at Dohad in Gujarat.
During Shahjahan's reign his son Aurangzeb held various army commands and conducted a number of campaigns. Being ambitious, cunning, villainous and treacherous, it was galling for Aurangzeb to be subservient even to his father. The prospect of having to kowtow to any of his brothers on the throne was simply intolerable. He was already 38 years old and yet the long reign of his father seemed to have no end. At long last the long awaited opportunity came.
Author : Shri Purushottam Nagesh Oak
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