Audrey Truschke, who calls herself a historian and a scholar has been known to present a distorted and provocative image of history. She does so to become popular and be seen as the face of the liberal intelligentsia in the world. Her work mostly targeting Hindu gods and goddesses arouse public anger which she cleverly terms as ‘wrath of the Hindu nationalists’ to gain public sympathy and stay relevant. Audrey once again has given a controversial statement and has followed it up with tweets and comments on social media platforms to justify her stupid arguments. In an interview given to The Print, Audrey Truschke has said, “Aurangzeb destroyed Hindu temples but protected more of them”. If you are confused or angry as to how this type of a statement could be issued concerning the person who killed the ninth Sikh guru, Guru Teg Bahadur and millions of other Hindus who did not agree to convert, then welcome to the team of what she calls ‘Hindu nationalists.”
Audrey Truschke and the likes of her thrive on making sensational claims to sell their books, after all, hailing Aurangzeb would make her newly released book sell fast. Aurangzeb decimated temples and the followers of Hinduism at a screeching pace, from Vishwanath Temple of Banaras (Varanasi) to numerous temples in Deccan and Rajasthan and everywhere in between, he did what any religiously driven cynic psychopath sitting on the throne would do. Aurangzeb is also credited for building the famous mosque in Varanasi and for changing the name of Varanasi to Muhammadabad, a name which thankfully didn’t stick. The famed Somnath temple, Kesava Deo temple and thousands of others were razed to the ground by Aurangzeb and his religious army. But Audrey Truschke would call that a political move driven by expansionist behaviour and not a religiously driven one. According to her thousands of temples in India under Aurangzeb were decimated but a lot more survived and that is due to the generosity of the Mughal king Aurangzeb. Going by her logic Hitler who killed six million Jews, should be considered a Messiah since he did not wipe out the entire Jewish race as many more Jews survived the concentration camps owing to Hitler’s loss in the World War 2. Aurangzeb and Hitler would therefore should be revered for making great sacrifices for the propagation of Hindu and Jewish religion respectively. Such is the logic presented by Audrey Truschke and the liberal cabal which she comes from and rather proudly at that.
Audrey Truschke should be told that Aurangzeb had to stop raiding temples as his coffers became empty due to culling the numerous rebellions which Hindu subjects started throughout India against him. Imposition of the Jizya tax on non-Islamic citizens, forced conversions and lack of religious tolerance in him forced the people to revolt thereby weakening the Mughal empire and contributing to its demise. The atrocities he committed against the Hindu population is the reason why he is considered to be the last effective Mughal emperor, his successors could never establish faith in the hearts of their Hindu subjects, which led to weakening of the Mughal empire from the inside.
Audrey Truschke needs to learn a bit more about Aurangzeb before she gives him the certificate of being a good king. According to an article published by DailyO all she wants is publicity, fame and money, all of which can be gained by provoking Hindus and targeting them as a soft target and terming their dissent as the wrath of ‘hindu nationalists”.