Rajput organisation goes Gandhian to stop ‘Jodha Akbar’
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Adopting a Gandhian means of protest, workers of a Rajput organisation Sunday presented roses to cinema hall owners and appealed against the screening of Ashutosh Gowariker’s film “Jodhaa Akbar”.
Lokendra Singh Kalvi, president of the Rajput Karni Sena, told IANS: “The Karni Sena does not want the movie to be screened in the state.” The` film is to be released Feb 15.
The organisation has also written a letter to the Jaipur district collector demanding a ban on the release of the movie on the grounds that there are factual inaccuracies in it.
“Jodhaa Akbar” is about the romance of Mughal emperor Jalaluddin Akbar and Rajput princess Jodhabai.
The Rajput organisation says that Gowariker is presenting Jodhabai as Mughal emperor Jalaluddin Akbar’s wife, which is factually incorrect.
According to the Karni Sena, Jodhabai was not the daughter of Raja Bharmal of Amber as shown in the film. The princess was the daughter of Motaraja Udai Singh of Marwar and she was married to Akbar’s son Salim alias Jehangir. And Mughal king Shahjahan was her son, they say.
Several other organisations like Nagrik Morcha have also joined hands with the Karni Sena.
Narendra Singh Rajawat, head of the Rajput Sabha, said such distortion of historical facts had hurt the feelings of the Rajput community.
“You cannot make your own history and Ashutosh Gowariker is making his own history. He is projecting Jodhabai, who is Akbar’s daughter-in-law, as his beloved and making a love story out of that. He is totally distorting historical facts,” said Rajawat said.
He urged the court to restrain Gowariker from showing Jodhabai as the daughter of Raja Bharmal of Amber. He said the name of Raja Bharmal’s daughter was Harkabai alias Heera Kunwar.
Many parts of the film, which features Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai in the lead roles, were shot in and around Jaipur. And the director has consulted several eminent Mughal historians for his movie.
— IANS
Why all this hue and cry about ‘Jodha Akbar’? Let us put this issue to rest, once and for all. Let us not behave like immature, illiterate, irresponsible and ignorant people. Let us examine this like a very serious, mature and sincere student of history.
Nowhere in history, Jodha Bai is mentioned as the wife of Akbar. No historical records or historical sources give any indication that Jodha Bai was in any way related to Akbar as his wife. Let us examine as to where it all began.
It began with Col James Tod. In his book Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan Vol II Pg. 965, he says, “on the union of the imperial house with that of Jodhpur, by the marriage of Jodh Bai to Akbar, …..”. Here Tod has mentioned Jodha Bai of Jodhpur and not of Amber. But in the same book the editor William Crooke, quoting Ain-i-Akbari I, pg 619 has clarified Tod’s version. Crooke says “there has been some controversy about Jodh Bai, but it is clear that she was wife of Jahangir, not of Akbar”(pg 965).
At another place Col. James Tod refers to Jodha Bai as the daughter of Mota Raja Udai Singh of Jodhpur (Annals…….Vol.I pg. 389). In the footnotes of the same page Crooke says– “The magnificent tomb of Jodh Bai, the mother of Shah Jahan, is at Sikandra near Agra and not far from that in which Akbar’s remains are deposited. Jodh Bai is a title, meaning ‘Jodhpur lady’. There were some doubts about her identity, but she was certainly daughter of Udai Singh and wife of Jahangir (Ain-i-Akbari pg 619).”
According to the above statement if Jodha Bai was the mother of Shah Jahan she had to be the wife of Jahangir. Also make a note that she is mentioned as ‘Jodh Bai’ and not ‘Jodha’ Bai. ‘Jodh’ naturally is a short for Jodhpur. Crooke makes it clear that Jodh bai is a title meaning ‘Jodhpur lady’.
Then came the movie ‘Mughal-i-Ajam’. The story of Mughal -i- Azam seems to have taken a clue from Tod’s version by showing Jodha Bai as the wife of Akbar. The story writer perhaps overlooked the clarification given by Crooke in the footnotes. It seems that the director, producer and storywriter took little interest in the historical facts. Moreover all those associated with the film had little idea of history.
Mughal -i-Azam was such a grand film in terms of cinematic approach that each one of us who saw the film has registered the name of Jodha Bai as the wife of Akbar. Any attempt to go against this view has therefore proved futile. This goes on to prove that how cinema, whether right or wrong, can influence the minds of a common man.
History is always based on facts and only facts. One can never and should never change the facts. Each event in recorded history has to be based on facts. What can change or be changed is the interpretation related to the event. For e.g. the I Battle of Panipat was fought on 21st April 1526 and Benazir Bhutto was killed in Dec. 2007, are facts. How, where, when, who, is a matter of interpretation.
A Film like ‘Jodha-Akbar’ is also a big social issue. Projecting the daughter-in-law as the wife of Akbar will send a wrong message to the society. Cinema would be taken as correct instead of the history books. It would be very immoral on the part of the filmmaker do so.
On one hand there are scholars like, Jadunath Sarkar, A.L. Srivasatva, S.R. Sharma, Satish Chandra, G.N. Sharma, V.S. Bhargava, Jagdish Singh Gehlot, J.L. Mehta, S.K. Gupta, A.K. Mittal etc. best known historians of Indian History. On the other hand is the film “Jodha Akbar”. Either of them has to be wrong. But at the same time, it is not possible to prove these scholars wrong. If it possible, then we are teaching wrong history throughout the country.
Then, there are records related to Amber and Jaipur, Jodhpur records and N.C.E.R.T. BOOKS. These books and records are of the same opinion. All the historical records and renowned historians, History Text Books and N.C.E.R.T. Books cannot be wrong.
Again this issue does not relate to one community. It is not an issue between the Rajputs and the filmmaker. The issue is related to Indian History, and that too a very important period of Mughal History, that of Akbar, whom we call Great. Any serious student of history will feel offended if history is distorted. The filmmaker should be careful not to hurt the sentiments of history students of India and the society as a whole.