Religious Tolerance and Aurangzeb

Description

In my primary and high school education, I was taught that Emperor Aurangzeb was a tyrant next only to the most notorious Hitler in the annals of world history. As I grew up, I was surprised to know that though an emperor, he eked out his livelihood by selling caps knit by himself, which was contradictory to my earlier pre- conceived notions. Recently, about 2 years back, I happened to come across the book “Aurangzeb- charitakekkani chaaritraka konalu compiled in Telugu by Sri Abul Fouzan and published by Rydh & Zaid Brothers, Karimnagar, which opened my eyes to the ground realities and made me realise that Aurangazeb's image was tarnished by Britishers to achieve their personal and partisan ends and as such, it was a prejudiced one. On a closer study of the book, I understood that he was as good and magnanimous as Akbar and Ashoka. In the present days of religious intolerance tearing to pieces the social fabric of the world, in general and our country, in particular, I thought it prudent to get the book translated into English, for the benefit of a wider cross section of people. But the work could not be completed due to a calamity in the family of the translator Sri Konala Shaktiraja Reddy, my well-wisher and former Principal of V.S.M. College, Ramachandrapuram.