The New Delhi Municipal Council’s decision to rename Aurangzeb Road as Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road will have no dearth of popular support. The perception that the sixth Mughal emperor was excessively brutal and anti-Hindu is deep-rooted despite contrarian views about his complex personality. Such honourable mention on a signboard is thus considered unwarranted. There was a demand earlier for naming the road after Guru Tegh Bahadur to erase Aurangzeb’s name from public memory. There is, at the same time, no shortage of critics of the move. They see in it an attempt to rewrite history, and petty politics of giving a purely communal colour to historical events, unmindful of the realities in those despotic times.
The East Delhi BJP MP who proposed renaming the road has been candid about how he views the development. The wrongs of the past, he says, have been righted. His remarks reinforce what those opposed to the renaming are stressing. That painting the signboard afresh is not mere tokenism, the aim is to wipe away the legacy of a ruler and write a new history. So, instead of immortalising the “bad Muslim” that Aurangzeb was, he is being replaced by his polar opposite “good Muslim” that Kalam was. Is this the kind of induced history that should be propagated?
Beyond the debate on why a street name is the best honour to bestow on any hero is the question of applying present-day consciousness to judge historical events. History is layered and complex. To focus on one aspect without putting it in context of the times is fraught with danger. It is also an insult to Kalam’s memory. He if anything deserves a well-maintained and funded museum or science centre rather than his name being used for motivations. If Aurangzeb denotes a past that India cannot condone, keep the signboard that won’t let anyone forget what he stood for rather than pretend that he never existed. Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.