Agra:

The under-construction Mughal Museum in Uttar Pradesh’s historic Agra city will be named after Maratha icon Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced on Monday. “How can our heroes be Mughals,” he said in a meeting to review development works in the city, a government statement said. The leader declared that “anything which smacks of subservient mentality” will be done away with by his government.

Yogi Adityanath – who in his three-year rule has changed the names of several places including Allahabad (now Prayagraj) – later tweeted that in Uttar Pradesh, there was no place for the symbols of “the mentality of slavery”.  

“Agra’s under-construction museum will be known by the name of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. In your new Uttar Pradesh, there is no space for the symbols of “the mentality of slavery”. Shivaji Maharaj is our hero. Jai Hind, Jai Bharat!” he tweeted in Hindi.

The project was approved in 2015 by the previous Akhilesh Yadav government. The facility is coming up on a six-acre plot near the Taj Mahal in the city, 210 kilometres from the national capital Delhi. The museum will focus on Mughal culture, artefacts, paintings, cuisine, costumes, Mughal era-arms and ammunition and performing arts.

The Mughal dynasty ruled India from 1526-1540 and 1555-1857. It is credited for building several monuments in Agra and Delhi, including the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort.

Historians are divided on whether Mughal rulers targeted the Hindus during their three-century rule.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, a 16th century Maratha warrior king, fought the Mughals most of his life and is known for his military conquests.

In 2018, the Congress had attacked the Yogi Adityanath government saying it had been toying with history.