The Courtesan, the Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin: Tales from Indian History

by Manu S. Pillai

‘We eat beef, we drink liquor … Don’t talk to me,’ she says. Morobhatlu does not care. ‘We drink cow’s milk,’ he replies, ‘but you eat the whole cow. You must be more pure.’

interesting logic

It tells us once again that while there were moments of tension between India’s principal faiths, legend and myth allowed them to see eye to eye and engage on fresh ground, even while competing in the realm of ideas—a lesson we would be wise to remember in our own contentious times, when revenge is sought from people long dead and gone, and violence justified in the name of so many gods.

In any case, for the garden variety bigot seeking to rename Hyderabad Bhagyanagar—a Sanskritised version of Bhagnagar—it may come as news that the last laugh will still be had by the ghost of the Qutb Shah. If he was forced to erase Bhagmati’s name, this might be justice done for a Hindu woman who loved a Muslim king; if she never existed at all, the Qutb Shah’s memory still triumphs. After all, he built a city that still endures, while the men seeking to wipe out his contributions in the service of religious bigotry have only a pretended glory—one that begins and ends with waging war on the past.

If ever there was a Mughal ruler who lived the good life, that man was Emperor Jahangir, in whose veins flowed Persian, Turkic and Rajput blood—besides double-distilled spirits and a whole lot of wine.

:)

On yet another occasion, Jahangir was presented a zebra. A sceptic, he was suspicious at first that it was perhaps a painted horse, till much washing and cleaning refused to erase the creature’s stripes.

‘If in doubt,’ he recommended, ‘consult your conscience,’ not your priest.

-ram Mohan Roy

Gandhi painted visions of ideal women, while Periyar warned ordinary women to beware of deification. ‘Have cats ever freed rats? Have foxes ever liberated goats or chickens?’ he asked. ‘Have whites ever enriched Indians? Have brahmins ever given non-brahmins justice? We can be confident that women will never be emancipated by men.’