Dehradun, March 6 -- There is no doubt that Aurangzeb was a paranoid psychopath who inflicted great suffering on the people he ruled over or went to war with. This was particularly grotesque in the context of the civilisational values of the Indian sub-continent. He did not even spare his own family - the fate of his brother, Dara Shikoh, is just one example of his cruelty. And, of course, like so many rulers through history, he used religion as a weapon to unite his followers and motivate them to fight against the enemy, who were mostly Hindus.
As such, for modern day Indians to extoll him as a 'hero', a great crusader for a higher cause, reveals their ignorance of historic facts. At the same time, he did exist and rule over much of India...