Expunging All Muslim Identities and Vestiges
By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
06 June 2026
In a post on X, Apoorvanand, Professor DU, columnist, questioned whether Barkatullah's identity as a Muslim had overshadowed his role in the freedom struggle. “What if Barkatullah was a nationalist who fought the British? He is merely a Muslim, fit to be insulted decades after his death,” Apoorvanand wrote.
The remarks came amid debate over the proposed renaming of the university, which is named after Maulana Barkatullah Bhopali, a freedom fighter and former Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of India established in exile during the independence movement.
The name was changed in 1988 from Bhopal University. And now it's being changed again. This is nothing but another ploy to divert public attention from real public issues through event management of name change. Instead of doing the politics of name change at Barkatullah University, the government should have focussed on various administrative irregularities at the same varsity.
This constant name-changing spree is clearly political and communal. It's an attempt to consolidate the polarisation process. Whatever is even remotely related to Muslims, Islam and Mughals is being changed to something ridiculous, e.g, Ahmednagar in Maharashtra is now called Ahilya Nagar, Usmanabad in Marathwada region is Dharashiv and Aurangabad is Sambhaji Nagar. The only objective behind this charade of name change is to expunge the Muslim identity and existence. One shouldn't be surprised if erelong Muslims are relegated to the status of second-class citizens having no voting rights.
West Bengal's newly elected government is removing Mughal history from the text books (from KG to PG) and introducing Shivaji, Shayama Prasad Mukherjee (no wonder!), Sir Jadunath Sarkar (often called India's Arnold Toynbee) and Dacca University's classical historian R C Majumdar. But these morons in politics don't know that Sarkar and Majumdar wrote a lot about the contributions of the Mughals. While Sir Jadunath Sarkar researched and wrote extensively on Shivaji, he never condemned the Mughals. He learnt Persian to translate the documents of that era when Persian was the court language. Ramesh Chandra Majumdar elaborately analysed Sepoy Mutiny (1857) but also admired the able administration of the Mughal emperors. By the way, in his seminal work, The Sepoy Mutiny and the Revolt of 1857, the perceptive historian concluded that it was neither a planned national movement nor a war for freedom because the modern and warped concept of nationalism didn't exist at that time. Now Shivaji (the epitome of today's pathological nationalism) is being thrust upon the entire India. Like it or lump it! Jay Shivaji, Jay Bhavani!
The process of saffronisation of India is frantically going on a war footing at the behest of the current political dispensation. Its secular credentials have already paved the way for a deeply developed communal consciousness of its people (read Hindus). Soon the country will be officially declared a Hindu Rashtra. When a government does nothing worthwhile, it constantly indulges in something vile. We're witnessing this happen in a would-be Hindu Rashtra.
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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/expunging-all-muslim-identites-vestiges/d/140284
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