Maham Khan

In late October 2025, Indian audiences watched a Bollywood hero demand a DNA test of the Taj Mahal. In &ldquo;The Taj Story&rdquo;, the protagonist claims the 17th-century mausoleum was originally a Hindu temple &lsquo;stolen&rsquo; by Muslim rulers. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has repeatedly rejected this theory, and centuries of historical and architectural records credit Mughal emperor Shah Jahan with commissioning the monument for his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Yet in Narendra Modi&rsquo;s India, history is increasingly subject to reinterpretation. When cinema becomes a vehicle for myth presented as fact, and when millions absorb propaganda as entertainment, it amounts to a systematic reframing of Muslim contributions to the subcontinent, and of the identities of the 200 million Muslims who live in India today. India&rsquo;s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), have refined a strategy of cultural revision: rewrite textbooks, challenge monument origins, recast Mughal history as occupation, demolish mosques and build temples in their place, and enlist Bollywood as a mass-scale amplifier. <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/6cb9827c-b2ee-4b47-837d-1d998cce1d25-2.png" alt="2.png" class="fr-fil fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">Paresh Rawal promoting his movie The Taj Story on X.</figcaption></figure> The temple that never was The claim that the Taj Mahal was once a Shiva temple, &ldquo;Tejo Mahalaya,&rdquo; originated with P.N. Oak&rsquo;s 1965 book. Historians and the ASI have long dismissed the idea. In 2022, India&rsquo;s Supreme Court rejected a petition to open 22 sealed Taj Mahal rooms to search for Hindu idols, calling the request &ldquo;publicity interest litigation.&rdquo; The ASI has stated that the rooms are simple maintenance spaces. Even within India, voices are raising eyebrows over this narrative. Before the film premiered, many were quick to label it as propaganda.&nbsp; &quot;I think this story is pure propaganda,&rdquo; one Indian X user bluntly put it. <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/bd64d234-dec7-4248-a489-c62aad1266b5-3.png" alt="3.png" class="fr-fil fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">An Indian X user stated that the entire story was &quot;pure propaganda&quot;. (X)</figcaption></figure> Some went further, openly hoping for the movie to flop &quot;badly&rdquo;. <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/e36968de-f78d-4d9a-838b-627efa0fb68d-7.png" alt="7.png" class="fr-fil fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">(X)</figcaption></figure> One particularly sharp-witted user quipped, &ldquo;Nothing says trusted research like watching a movie [and] rewriting history! 22 mystery chambers, divine murtis, courtroom &lsquo;eyewitnesses&rsquo;&mdash;all checked. &quot;Next up: history books sold at the popcorn stand. Taj Mahal facts brought to you by Bollywood, not archaeologists.&rdquo; <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/4d663e50-9c31-4bc8-ab9e-45ee20c20879-9 (this).png" alt="9 (this).png" class="fr-fil fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">(X)</figcaption></figure> And it wasn&rsquo;t just the narrative itself that irked people. The main actor&#39;s shifting stance didn&rsquo;t go unnoticed. A user unearthed an&nbsp;October 2017 post&nbsp;from Paresh Rawal, where he had stated, &ldquo;Taj Mahal&mdash;Symbol of Love becomes the symbol of Hate!!!(sic)&nbsp;Stupid [and] unnecessary [and] sad [and] pathetic controversy.&rdquo; As the&nbsp;user wryly noted, it looks like Mr. Rawal may have had a &quot;change of heart&quot;&hellip; or perhaps a change of narrative. <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/0db6e1bb-c756-4612-a431-f3ae9829f95f-6.png" alt="6.png" class="fr-fil fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">(X)</figcaption></figure> When myth shapes law The Taj Mahal&nbsp;debate evokes an earlier, far more consequential case: the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. Hindu nationalist groups spent decades claiming the 16th-century mosque stood atop the birthplace of the Hindu deity Ram. In December 1992, tens of thousands demolished the mosque. The violence and riots killed thousands. After a 17-year inquiry, the Liberhan Commission named BJP and RSS leaders &ldquo;responsible&rdquo; for the demolition. But in 2019, the Supreme Court, while declaring the mosque&rsquo;s destruction illegal, awarded the land to a Hindu trust. In January 2024, Modi inaugurated a new temple on the site in a nationally televised ceremony. The message many took from the sequence was clear: demolish first, wait, then receive recognition. Rewriting identity in classrooms The historical revision extends to classrooms. School textbooks have been reworked to minimize the cultural, architectural, and scientific contributions of Muslim dynasties, particularly the Mughals, who shaped Indian identity for centuries. Mughal emperors are increasingly framed as &ldquo;foreign occupiers&rdquo; rather than rulers whose legacy is interwoven with Indian music, language, art, and city-building. Curriculum is not neutral. What children learn determines who they believe belongs. The politics behind the rewrite Proponents of these changes argue they are restoring &ldquo;authentic Hindu history&rdquo; suppressed by earlier scholars and Muslim rule. But the effect is to cast Indian Muslims as historical outsiders in their own country. If the Taj Mahal, a globally recognized symbol of India, is reframed as &ldquo;originally Hindu,&rdquo; then Muslim claims to Indian cultural heritage are weakened. If mosques are reclassified as former temples, then every mosque becomes contested. Pluralism erodes quietly, long before violence erupts, through shifts in who is considered rightful. What is at stake The Taj Mahal itself will not change. Marble does not respond to political pressure. But the idea of India that built the Taj, a state where Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and other communities participated together in shared cultural production, may not survive if historical narrative becomes a tool of exclusion. The transformation unfolding is not simply about monuments or textbooks. It is about defining who belongs in the world&rsquo;s largest &#39;democracy&#39;. When a nation with 1.4 billion people and one of the world&rsquo;s largest Muslim populations reorders its history around a singular religious identity, the implications are global. Cinema scenes can become political reality. A fictional demand for a monument&rsquo;s DNA test reflects a deeper shift: the attempt to rewrite not just history, but citizenship itself.

Articles

India’s ruling BJP have refined a strategy of cultural revision: challenge monument origins, recast Mughal history as occupation, demolish mosques and build temples in their place, and enlist Bollywood as a mass-scale amplifier.

Taj Mahal: Hindu nationalist revisionism reshapes India’s monuments and memory

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD:&nbsp;A fresh controversy has erupted in India after veteran Bollywood actor Paresh Rawal shared a poster for his upcoming film &ldquo;The Taj Story,&rdquo; depicting a statue of the Hindu deity Shiva emerging from the dome of the Taj Mahal. The imagery has drawn criticism for distorting historical facts and reviving long-standing claims that challenge the monument&rsquo;s Mughal origins. <div class="fr-embed responsive-video"><div class="video-wrapper aspect-video"><iframe class="instagram-media instagram-media-rendered" id="instagram-embed-2" src="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPLxLkdAY9q/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=14&wp=405&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com&rp=%2Farticles%2Fnew#%7B%22ci%22%3A2%2C%22os%22%3A15904377%2C%22ls%22%3A1031.3999999910593%2C%22le%22%3A1550.8999999910593%7D" allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="width: 100%; height: 100%; min-height: 0px;" height="2341">&nbsp;&nbsp;</iframe></div></div> Rawal faced heavy criticism from social media users who called the imagery misleading and disrespectful. Following the backlash, he released a clarification on behalf of the production team. The statement said the film was not religious in nature and did not claim that the Taj Mahal was built on the site of a temple.<div class="fr-embed responsive-video"><div class="video-wrapper aspect-video"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-2" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-2&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1972688338965475601&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2F&sessionId=332393a6d63ee5cb56b26a76962333a0f8dbe11b&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" style="width: 550px; height: 729px; min-height: 0px; position: static; visibility: visible;">&nbsp;</iframe></div></div></div>British historian William Dale Rumpel also weighed in, dismissing the claims that the Taj Mahal replaced a Shiva temple as &ldquo;ridiculous and malicious nonsense.&rdquo; The Taj Mahal, built in the 17th century by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, has repeatedly been the subject of political and historical disputes in India. Critics say the disputes are fueled by attempts to rewrite history. The controversy traces back to a 1989 book by a self-proclaimed historian who argued that the Taj Mahal site once hosted a Hindu temple. The claims have since resurfaced periodically, with some Indian political figures demanding investigations into the monument&rsquo;s origins. In 2022, petitioner Rajneesh Singh asked the High Court to open 22 locked rooms of the Taj Mahal in search of Hindu idols. That same year, Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Diya Kumari claimed the land on which the Taj Mahal stands belonged to her ancestors. Despite repeated disputes, the monument continues to be recognized globally as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most famous symbols of love.

Entertainment

 A new controversy has emerged in India surrounding the Taj Mahal after senior Bollywood actor Paresh Rawal shared a poster for his upcoming film “The Taj Story,” which depicted a statue of the Hindu deity Shiva emerging from the dome of the monument.

Articles tagged with "The Taj Story"

Taj Mahal: Hindu nationalist revisionism reshapes India’s monuments and memory

Indian actor Paresh Rawal sparks controversy over Taj Mahal origins