Altering the names of cities and streets under the regime of the NDA government has become a major concern in India. Lately, many leading celebrities and prolific individuals have spoken up against the same. Now, Naseeruddin Shah has issued a statement about the same and said that the recent attempt to alter the history in India by renaming iconic places and roads initially named after the Mughals, ‘amuses’ him.
The actor who plays the role of Mughal Emperor Akbar in ZEE 5’s latest series Taj-divided by Blood, maintained that our textbooks have been glorifying the Mughals for the time memorial. ALSO READ | Naseeruddin Shah's 70th Birthday: Ishqiya Actor’s Net Worth Will Make You Blow A Whistle
He added that we need to change that but not at the cost of completely wiping off their names from Indian history.
Shah has actively spoken about the ruling government and provided a discourse on the decisions made by the current leaders. However, he pointed out that the citizens of India aren’t ready to listen or question the decisions decreed by the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) led government. He also asserted that people today only want to blame the adversities on the past.
In a recent interview with Indian Express, the critically acclaimed actor was asked why people believe everything wrong in our country is the doing of the Mughals, he said, “It amuses me because it is so utterly ridiculous. I mean, people can’t tell the difference between Akbar and a murderous invader like Nader Shah or Babar’s great-grandfather Taimur.”
Shah added, “These were people who came here to loot, the Mughals didn’t come here to loot. They came here to make this their home and that’s what they did. Who can deny their contribution?”
The celebrated actor agrees that the Mughals have been glorified but he opined that many have contributed to the culture that we see today.
During the interview, the actor suggested that textbook history needs to be changed but not removed. In school, unfortunately, history dwelled mainly on the Mughals or the British, reported Indian Express.
“We knew about Lord Hardy, Lord Cornwallis, and about the Mughal emperors, but we didn’t know about the Gupta dynasty, the Maurya dynasty, the Vijayanagara Empire, the history of the Ajanta caves, or the northeast. We didn’t read any of these things because history was written by the Englishmen or the Anglophiles and I think that’s really unfair,” he explained.
“So what people are saying is to some extent true, that the Mughals have been glorified at the expense of our own indigenous traditions. Perhaps that’s true, (But) there is no need to villainize them either,” he said.
“If everything they did was horrible, then knock down the Taj Mahal, knock down the Red Fort, knock down Qutub Minar. Why do we consider the Red Fort sacred, it was built by a Mughal. We need not glorify them, but there is no need to vilify them either,” he concluded. ALSO READ | We Didn't Miss Naseeruddin Shah's 15 Second LIVE On Instagram, But Was It Intentional Or Accidental After His Fake Health Scare?- EXCLUSIVE
Naseeruddin Shah is one of the most respected and celebrated actors in India. He is known for his films like, ‘A Wednesday’, ‘Ishqiya’, ‘Aakrosh’, ‘Masoom’, ‘Irada’, Manthan’ and ‘Sparsh’ and ‘Khandar’ among others.