Why Feroz Shah Road in Lutyens Zone should be renamed

If there’s a street in India that needs to be renamed asap, it’s Feroz Shah Road, in New Delhi’s posh Lutyens Zone.

1. Feroz Shah Road is named after Feroz Shah Tughlaq (1351-1388 CE) of the Delhi Sultanate. He was notorious for the systematic persecution of Hindus. It shows the mindset of the people (British) who named these streets and those (Hindus) who have tolerated it.
2. Under his rule, Hindus who were forced to pay the mandatory Jizya tax were recorded as infidels and their communities monitored. Hindus who erected a deity or built a temple and those who practised their religion in public were arrested, brought to the palace and executed.
3. Firuz Shah Tughlaq wrote in his autobiography:
   Some Hindus had erected a new idol-temple in the village of Kohana, and the idolaters used to assemble there and perform their idolatrous rites. These people were seized and brought before me….
4. ……I ordered that the perverse conduct of this wickedness be publicly proclaimed and they should be put to death before the gate of the palace. I also ordered that the infidel books, the idols, and the vessels used in their worship should all be publicly burnt……
5. …..The others were restrained by threats and punishments, as a warning to all men, that no zimmi could follow such wicked practices in a Musulman country. – Futuhat-i Firoz Shahi by Feroz Shah Tughlaq
6. Victims of religious violence included Brahmin priests who refused to convert to Islam. “An order was accordingly given to the Brahman and was brought before Sultan. The true faith was declared to the Brahman and the right course pointed out. but he refused to accept it…..
7. …..A pile was risen on which the Kaffir with his hands and legs tied was thrown into and the wooden tablet on the top. The pile was lit at two places his head and his feet……
8. The fire first reached him in the feet and drew from him a cry, and then it completely enveloped him. Behold the Sultan for his strict adherence to law and rectitude. – Tarikh-i Firoz Shahi

Writer : Rakesh Krishnan Simha

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