Chhaava, a 2025 Bollywood action film based on Hindu warrior Sambhaji who fought against the Muslim Mughal ruler Aurangzeb, has been blamed for inciting riots in the city of Nagpur.
In a speech in the Legislative Assembly, Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis said: “Chhaava has ignited people’s anger against Aurangzeb. After the movie, people’s emotions have been reignited. The anger against Aurangzeb is being exhibited in a big way. Still, everyone must keep Maharashtra peaceful.”
The 17th-century Muslim ruler is a loathed figure among Hindu nationalists, who accuse him of persecuting Hindus during his rule, though some historians say such stories are exaggerated.
In an election campaign for Maharashtra, even Prime Minister Narendra Modi has raked up the Muslim ruler and targeted the opposition Congress party for propagating Aurangzeb’s ideas and considering him as a messiah.
Aurangzeb was buried in the city of Aurangabad in 1707, which was rechristened by the state government as Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar city in 2022.
For months a communal rhetoric has been building up against the 17th-century ruler’s tomb. Hindu leaders and right-wing organisations demand the tomb be destroyed or removed from the state.
Maharashtra deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde said the US refused to bury Osama bin Laden on its land and disposed of his body into the sea to prevent any kind of glorification. “Why should we allow his glorification in our state? He is a blot on our history.”
On Monday a rally was held by hundreds of workers of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal seeking the removal of the tomb during which effigies were burnt of the ruler.
Later in the day rumours circulated on social media that the Holy Quran was desecrated and things containing religious contents were burnt.
It led to communal clashes in various parts of the city that carried on late into the night. Appeals for peace by federal and state ministers lacked weight as leaders of the same parties had stoked communal tension for months with provocative speeches.
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Curfew has been imposed in various parts of the city since then. The police have arrested 51 people and have begun criminal investigations against hundreds of unnamed individuals. Some 34 police personnel were also injured and several houses and vehicles were damaged during the violence.
India is now more polarised than before, with an ever-widening gap between the majority Hindus and minority Muslim population.
Over the last decade, fault lines have deepened and trust eroded between communities under Mr Modi’s right-wing government.
Muslims, who make up 14% of the population, feel they have been targeted by right-wing mobs tacitly supported by the government.
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Mr Modi has been criticised for his defining silence on the many instances of lynching of Muslim men for alleged trading in cow meat, Love Jihad – a conspiracy theory accusing Muslim men of wooing Hindu women to force them to convert to Islam – and bulldozing of homes belonging to Muslims.
The prime minster has maintained he does not indulge in appeasement politics and his government is for every citizen of the country.
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The clashes in one of the most prosperous states, with Mumbai as a financial capital of the country, is worrisome.
Opposition parties accuse the state government of deliberately manufacturing communal issues to distract from pressing livelihood problems of inflation, unemployment, farmers’ suicide and rural distress.
