built the Taj Mahal, killed
Shelina zahra
three brothers who rivalled
him for the succession to
power. He then deposed and
imprisoned his father for the
Janmohamad
last nine years of his life. Yet
he governed for 49 years, and
went on to be known for his
piety and simplicity.
MUGHAL MAGIC
The Mughals broadly
maintained strong and
intimate relationships
the mughals were once an islamic imperial power that left behind
with their neighbours and
communities of various hues
flawless architecture and an incredible culture and heritage.
and faiths. Akbar, who also
governed for 49 years, tried to
It was the first time that of belonging rising in my establish an all-encompassing
my Indian genes had been cheeks. religion called “Deen-e-Ilahi”
to India. Almost two hun- I boarded a battery powered and married three wives, a
dred years ago, my family had bus to take me the 1km to the Christian, a Muslim and a
migrated across the Indian Taj’s entrance. The area around Hindu.
ocean to the shores of East the monument, known as the It was under Mughal
Africa, and then generations Taj Trapezium zone, has strict patronage that the arts
later, had flown onto Britain. emission guidelines to protect flourished, giving us the
I was deeply anxious about it from pollution. As the little food, literature, music, poetry
the trip. Despite the Indian pollutant-free milk-float trun- and of course the incredible
origins of my DnA, my own dled towards the West Gate, architecture we have today.
personal story was very firmly I reflected: had I really been Despite pride in Muslim
British. How I would make accepted? Perhaps both he and Mughal culture, is such
sense of the two in a place I had been fooled, and I was artistic development stunted
where their histories were at just a fraud? now by rigid ideas of what is
the same time intermingled I handed my ticket to the or isn’t ‘Muslim’?
and conflicted? guard at security who con- I gazed upon the throng
I was even more con- firmed my anxieties: “not of tourists swarming around
cerned about whether I would Indian,” he declared, and I was the Taj. Most of the visitors
be ‘spotted’ as an ‘outsider’. dispatched to obtain a foreign-
“The Mughals
were Indians, from every place
Would the English accent in er’s ticket. My genes might be across this vast subcontinent.
my Urdu, my clothes and my Indian, but the rest of me was
broadly
Irrespective of their religious
demeanour give me away? not. It left me with the ques-
maintained strong
background, the pride and
I looked Indian, of course tion: who am I? excitement bursting from
I did, but did I really look As I walked through
relationships with
their chest was evident on see-
Indian? And what did that the arch that frames the
their neighbours
ing this jewel from their own
mean anyway? Taj Mahal, and my eyes fell Indian history. The Mughals
The plan was to fly to upon the impossibly flaw-
and communities
had made the arts inclusive,
the capital Delhi and then less structure, such existential
despite the
and their unifying legacy was
to visit the Taj Mahal, one questions were quickly forgot- still palpable.
of the world’s most revered ten. The exquisite perfection
different hues
Even whilst I struggled to
monuments. of the Taj is hard to describe.
and faiths.”
make sense of my own place,
My taxi took me from my Its beauty lies in its simplic- the question that preoccupied
hotel in Agra – a grey, depress- ity and symmetry. From every ruled. We look back with pride me in a land with the largest
ing and higgledy-piggledy angle it is perfect, and when at these constructions, but Muslim minority in the world
town – to the entrance of the the light casts a crisp reflec- I wondered if the emperors was not so much ‘who am I?’,
road leading to the West Gate tion from the pools of water shared their wealth across the but ‘who were the Mughals?’
of the Taj Mahal. I stood in that lie beneath it, the glory population? How accessible and can their history tell us
front of the ticket office which of this astonishing creature is were these incredible build- more about Muslim civilisa-
had two counters, one for amplified. ings to ordinary people? tion than we think? l
Indians and one for foreign- The Taj Mahal is only one Power and politics were
ers. Which was I? of many astoundingly beau- also seemingly dirty, yet at Shelina Zahra Janmohamed
I plumped for the ‘Indian’ tiful Mughal monuments first glance governance was is the author of Love in a
queue. The cashier sold me a which must have ploughed the long and stable. Aurangzeb, Headscarf, and blogs at
ticket, and I felt a happy blush riches of those the Mughals the son of Shah Jahan who
spirit21.co.uk
www.emel.com | emel magazine 19
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