The emperor who could not be

Interest in Dara Shikoh reflects current trend to differentiate hardline Islam from tolerant Islam

In February this year, a road in Lutyens Delhi shed its 19th century colonial persona to go back about three centuries to its Mughal past. Dalhousie Road, just a couple of kilometres from Raisina Hill, was renamed Dara Shikoh Road, after Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan’s eldest son. It would seem like poetic justice, considering another road named after his brother, Aurangzeb, was renamed APJ Abdul Kalam Road in 2015. “Justice”, as a Twitter user pointed out, would have been more direct had Aurangzeb Road been renamed after his elder brother.
 
The sibling rivalry between the two Mughal princes is both