A 32-page booklet titled ‘Uttar Pradesh tourism: It’s high potential’ released by the state’s tourism minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi does not mention the Taj Mahal despite the fact that the site attracts over six million tourists a year. Furthermore, 20 percent of UP’s revenue comes from tourism related to the Taj Mahal. It is no wonder then that Joshi has been heavily criticised for playing politics with the Taj. One of these critics is writer and heritage expert Sohail Hashmi, who has stated that the Bharatiya Jannata Party (BJP) had come into power on the basis of a discourse identified India with Hindusim alone. Therefore, the Taj does not fit into the BJP’s idea of Indian culture. And while Joshi has denied that there has been any attempt to ignore the Taj, the book speaks for itself. Furthermore, the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is known for his dislike of the Taj Mahal as well as for his anti-Muslim bigotry. Adityanath is on record on two separate occasions, once saying that the Taj was not a part of Indian culture and a second time claiming that it had originally been a Hindu temple. This is not the first time the BJP has taken a jab at history. In the past three years since the party came to power it has pushed it’s Rashtriya Swayemsewak Sangh (RSS) inspired ideology in schools in BJP ruled states. The BJP has launched a campaign known as ‘Saffronise Education’ (named after the saffron coloured robes worn by priests) to make history books fit with it’s Hindu-supremacist narrative. BJP approved history textbooks only make a passing reference to Mahatma Gandhi and make no mention of Jawaharlal Nehru whatsoever. However early 20th century RSS ideologue Veer Savarkar dominates these textbooks. Savarkar is known for his rigid Hindutva ideology and for propogating the idea of making India a ‘Hindu Rashtra’. One hopes that India can look to its western neighbour and learn from its mistakes. This is all very similar to the top-down Islamisation that started in Pakistan in the late 70’s. Today Pakistan is in the grips of sectarian violence and religious extremism. According to estimates, around 70,000 people have died in Pakistan in such violence in the past 15 years. As we strive to return to Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s liberal democratic principles, the people of India must also seek a return to the composite nationalism of Indian National Congress. That will is the shared interest of the South Asian region. * Published in Daily Times, October 23rd 2017.