REDISCOVERING HINDU-MUSLIM HARMONY IN INDIA’S SHARED PAST - A summary of Audrey Truschke’s thesis.
Audrey Truschke is a prominent American historian and scholar of South Asian history, currently teaching at Rutgers University. With advanced degrees from the University of Chicago and Columbia, Truschke is known for her rigorous and often controversial work on Indo-Muslim relations, Mughal history, and Sanskrit literature. She has emerged as a bold voice challenging colonial-era narratives that continue to shape popular perceptions of India’s past.
Her books, especially “Aurangzeb: The Man and the Myth” and “Culture of Encounters: Sanskrit at the Mughal Court”, have sparked widespread debate by questioning long-standing stereotypes about Muslim rulers and Hindu-Muslim relations in pre-colonial India.
Drawing from Persian, Sanskrit, and archival sources, Truschke argues that the Indian subcontinent’s history is far more complex and interconnected than the communal divisions emphasized in modern retellings.
A Shared Past, Not a Divided One
One of Truschke’s central arguments is that Hindus and Muslims shared a long, intertwined history of coexistence, mutual respect, and cultural exchange long before the British arrived. While modern political discourse often highlights religious conflict, Truschke encourages readers to reexamine how historical periods like the Mughal Empire were marked not by communal strife, but by pluralism and pragmatic governance.
She points to Mughal emperors—most notably Akbar and even the controversial Aurangzeb—as rulers who worked within a multireligious framework, often employing Hindu officials, respecting regional customs, and engaging with non-Muslim intellectual traditions. The Mughal court, Truschke reveals, was not just a center of Islamic power but also a site of Sanskrit learning, interreligious dialogue, and literary collaboration.
For example, Akbar invited Hindu scholars to debate theology in his court and even had Hindu epics like the Mahabharata and Ramayana translated into Persian, the court language, making them accessible to a broader audience. This was not merely political—Truschke suggests it reflected a genuine cultural curiosity and respect for India’s diverse traditions.
Rethinking Aurangzeb: The Man Behind the Myth
Perhaps Truschke’s most controversial work is her reassessment of Aurangzeb, often depicted in Indian popular memory as a fanatical, temple-destroying tyrant.
While she does not romanticize his reign, she argues that many of the accusations leveled against Aurangzeb stem from colonial historiography and Hindu nationalist interpretations, not from careful historical analysis.
According to Truschke:
Aurangzeb patronized Hindu temples early in his reign.
He employed more Hindus in his administration than any other Mughal emperor.
His temple destructions, though real, were political acts during military campaigns, not expressions of religious hatred.
She acknowledges Aurangzeb’s religious orthodoxy, but insists that we must view his policies in their historical context, rather than through the lens of modern identity politics.
Truschke’s nuanced portrait emphasizes that Mughal policies were often pragmatic rather than dogmatic, with rulers adjusting to the complexities of governing a vast and diverse empire.
The British and the Birth of the Hindu-Muslim Divide
Perhaps the most compelling part of Truschke’s work is her critique of how the British colonial project distorted Indian history, sowing seeds of division that still bear fruit today.
She explains that the British, especially during the 19th century, reinterpreted India’s past to justify their rule—framing Muslim rulers as foreign oppressors and Hindus as native victims.
Through their educational systems, translations, and colonial administration, the British promoted a "communal interpretation" of history, emphasizing conflict and downplaying centuries of coexistence.
British scholars selectively highlighted temple destructions, ignored Persian-Sanskrit exchanges, and depicted Islamic rulers as uniformly oppressive.
This “divide-and-rule” strategy, Truschke argues, hardened religious identities and rewrote public memory, setting the stage for the Hindu-Muslim animosity that exploded in the 20th century, particularly during the Partition. She believes that revisiting precolonial history with academic honesty and empathy can help heal these historical wounds.
Recovering the Threads of Unity
Truschke’s work invites both Hindu and Muslim readers to move beyond the simplistic narratives of perpetual conflict, and instead rediscover the shared experiences, cultural overlaps, and political partnerships that defined much of India’s history. Rather than focusing solely on moments of violence, she urges us to also remember:
The Sanskrit poets who served in Muslim courts.
The Muslim kings who commissioned Hindu temple repairs.
The interfaith marriages, art, and literature that thrived under Mughal patronage.
The collective resistance to British rule, where Hindus and Muslims stood side by side.
By acknowledging this rich tapestry of collaboration, Truschke’s vision is not merely academic—it is deeply relevant to today’s society. In an age where religious tensions are again being stoked for political gain, her scholarship offers a powerful reminder that India's history is not defined by division, but by diversity.
Conclusion: A Call for Historical Honesty
Audrey Truschke’s work is not without critics, especially among those invested in communal or nationalist interpretations of the past. But her contribution to rethinking South Asian history is undeniable.
She challenges us to confront inherited myths, question colonial distortions, and above all, to remember that Hindus and Muslims were not destined enemies, but neighbors, colleagues, and fellow creators of a shared civilization.
If we are to build a peaceful and united future, Truschke reminds us, we must first reclaim the truth of our past.
Peace,
ANAS – assisted by AI -ChatGPT
Audrey Truschke is not alone. A number of respected historians and scholars—both Indian and international—have echoed and expanded on the idea that Hindu-Muslim relations before British rule were not defined primarily by conflict, and that colonialism played a key role in creating communal divisions. Here are some key voices:
1. Richard Eaton
Works:
“India in the Persianate Age: 1000–1765”
“Temple Desecration and Muslim States in Medieval India”
Key Ideas:
Eaton challenges the narrative that Muslim rulers were primarily temple-destroying invaders. He shows that temple desecration was a political act, not a religious one, and that even Hindu kings engaged in similar practices.
He argues that the Indo-Islamic period was one of assimilation, not domination, and highlights the cultural synthesis that flourished during the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal eras.
2. Romila Thapar
Works:
“Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History”
“The Past as Present”
Key Ideas:
Thapar is a renowned Indian historian who debunks communal versions of Indian history. In her work on the Somanatha temple, she demonstrates that different communities had different versions of the same event, and that British colonialists chose to emphasize the most divisive ones.
She promotes a view of Indian history as fluid, pluralistic, and interconnected.
3. Asher and Talbot
Work:
“India Before Europe”
Key Ideas:
Barbara Metcalf and Thomas Metcalf (in broader works) and Catherine Asher with Cynthia Talbot (in India Before Europe) present India’s pre-modern history as a shared civilizational space, where religious identities were not rigid, and where syncretism was a defining feature.
They argue that religious identities hardened during the colonial era, especially under the pressures of modern nationalism and census classifications.
4. Harbans Mukhia
Works:
“The Mughals of India”
Key Ideas:
Mukhia argues that the Mughals were not foreign invaders but a part of Indian society, rooted in Indian soil, who interacted deeply with local cultures. He critiques the binary view of "Hindu victim–Muslim aggressor" and instead portrays a complex, pluralistic society.
He stresses that the idea of religious identity as the primary marker of politics or society is a modern construction.
5. Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam
Works:
“Writing the Mughal World”
“Courtly Encounters: Translating Courtliness and Violence in Early Modern Eurasia”
Key Ideas:
These scholars highlight cross-cultural diplomacy, shared literary traditions, and multi-religious court cultures. They present the Mughal world as internationally engaged and intellectually vibrant, rather than narrowly religious or divisive.
6. Ayesha Jalal
Works:
“Self and Sovereignty”
“The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan”
Key Ideas:
Although her main work focuses on the 20th century, Jalal traces the roots of Hindu-Muslim division to colonial administrative policies, not medieval times. She stresses that identity politics were shaped under British rule, particularly through the census and legal systems.
7. Irfan Habib
Works:
“Medieval India: The Study of a Civilization”
“Essays in Indian History: Towards a Marxist Perception”
Key Ideas:
Habib points out that economic, political, and class dynamics mattered more than religion in many medieval conflicts. He critiques the communal reading of history and stresses the secular nature of governance in many medieval states, including the Mughals.
