Minority Affairs Ministry will stage play on Dara Shikoh to promote inclusive thought: Naqvi

The Minority Affairs Ministry will stage a play based on the life of Mughal Emperor Shahjahan's son Dara Shikoh in various parts of the country to promote his inclusive ideas, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Wednesday.

Addressing a symposium on Dara Shikoh organised by 'Academics for Nation' group at Constitution Club here, Naqvi said the Mughal prince was a victim of planned conspiracy by some historians who committed a sin of erasing and destroying his message and thinking of "Hindustani culture and tradition" from the pages of history.

Dara Shikoh, during his lifetime, was a victim of the "brutality of fanatics" influenced by his brother and Mughal ruler Aurangzeb's thinking, and later a victim of "intolerance of so-called secular historians", the minister said.

He said violence and oppression were committed by "anarchist, violent and cruel ruler like Aurangzeb was glorified by group of Islamist fanatics, leftist and so-called secular historians".

Aurangzeb's philosophy was to destroy human values and India's "sanatan sanskriti", Naqvi said, adding this same thinking gave birth to terror organisations like Al Qaeda, ISIS, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba etcetera.

He said that Dara Shikoh's message of peace was based on the co-existence of Hindutva and Islam.

The ministry will stage a play based on the life of Dara Shikoh in various parts of the country to promote his inclusive ideas, he said.