History tells us how brutality and suffering have spanned millennia, one act more brutal than the last. The current Indian social media obsession—Aurangzeb, the Mughals, Jaziya, and anti-Hindu atrocities—is just another chapter of that inhumane tradition. From ancient despots to colonial creeps to homegrown Hindu kings, the vulnerable have always been the targets of the sadistic tendencies of the powerful. Let’s wade through this cesspool of history.
Ancient Times: The Original Playbook of Power
Discrimination didn’t sneak into the annals of history; it swaggered with a sense of entitlement. Mesopotamia’s Code of Hammurabi (circa 1750 BCE) was a legal love letter to inequality—justice for the nobles, and a swift kick in the teeth for the rest. “If a man has knocked out the teeth of a man of the same rank, his own teeth shall be knocked out,” it purrs, but if a slave dared defy a free man? He becomes one more toy for the executioner to destroy. Vulnerable masses—slaves, foreigners, peasants—were the designated chew toys of the elite.
Egypt turned oppression into a pyramid scheme—literally. Pharaohs like Ramses II enslaved entire populations to prop up their divine egos. The vulnerable—non-Egyptians, the poor, anyone without a golden bloodline—were expendable cogs in the machine of grandeur. Discrimination was the bedrock of the Nile’s glitter.
Greece, that smug cradle of democracy, was no better. Athens pioneered citizen rule. Women, slaves, and “barbarians,” were not eligible for citizenship. And they formed about 70% of the population. In Politics (Book I), Aristotle pontificated, “From the hour of their birth, some are marked out for subjection, others for rule.” Sparta outdid them by turning its slaves called Helot into a punching bag with the Krypteia, which was a ritual where young warriors hunted them for fun.
The Medieval Mess: Piety and Plunder
The Middle Ages wrapped discrimination in piety. The Mughals, trending for their Jaziya tax and temple-smashing, had Aurangzeb as their star act. Hindus faced forced conversions, demolished shrines, and that non-Muslim surcharge, all while he posed as a paragon of virtue. Historian Abraham Eraly quips in The Mughal World, “Aurangzeb’s orthodoxy was less about faith and more about power—religion was the whip, not the motive.” The vulnerable comprising Hindus, Sikhs, and anyone not bowing to his turban, paid in blood and coin.
Hindu kings, including the Rajputs and Marathas, were equally active in the atrocity game. The Rajputs loved their honour almost as much as they loved stomping the weak. When not feuding with each other, they turned their swords on peasants and rival clans with gusto. Historian Satish Chandra notes, “Rajput chieftains often treated their peasantry as little more than cattle, extracting taxes and labour until the rebellion was the only option.” Vulnerable villagers bore the brunt, their mud huts torched when tribute ran dry.
The Marathas weren’t exactly saints either. Their raids into Bengal during the 1740s were a masterclass in pillage. They burned villages, massacred civilians, and extorted tribute from the defenceless. Historian Jadunath Sarkar observes, “The Maratha horsemen left a trail of desolation, sparing neither Hindu nor Muslim in their lust for loot.” The vulnerable Bengali peasants, small landholders etc. were just speed bumps on the road to Maratha glory.
Meanwhile, Europe was sanctifying its own horrors. The Crusades between 1095 and 1291 saw knights galloping off to “liberate” Jerusalem, leaving Jewish and Muslim bodies in their wake. Pope Urban II’s “God wills it!” was a pious fig leaf for slaughter. Feudal lords kept serfs in miserable conditions. The medieval author and court historian Jean Froissart mocked at the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, “The villeins thought they could be equal to their lords—how droll.” China’s Qin Dynasty (221–206 BCE) buried scholars alive, while the Ming (1368–1644) taxed peasants into oblivion.
Colonialism: The Global Atrocity Extravaganza
Colonialism was discrimination’s garish world tour. The Spanish in the Americas enslaved indigenous peoples, spreading smallpox and sanctimony in equal measure. The Spanish priest, Bartolomé de las Casas, lamented in 1542, “The Spaniards have killed more Indians here in twelve years by the sword, by fire, and by slavery than anywhere else in the Indies.” Did it stop the gold rush? Nope—vulnerable natives were just stepping stones.
The British turned India into their piggy bank, with the East India Company taxing like Jaziya’s posh uncle. The star villain was Robert Clive, the pioneer in the fine art of looting nations under the guise of "civilisation." As the Governor of Bengal, he mastered the craft of military conquest mixed with political manipulation. Clive started as a mere employee of the Company, but left as one of England’s richest men! His legacy of exploitation, deceit, and plunder lasted for over two centuries in India.
And who can forget the Bengal Famine of 1770, which killed a third of the population, yet Warren Hastings mused, “The loss of revenue is trifling.”
Indeed the gallery of such British luminaries is impressive. Rogues to the core, they dripped with fake charm and benevolence—truly the finest specimens of imperial grace!
First up, the British Military and Police Forces, starring the ever-so-charming General Reginald Dyer, who played Holi with blood at Jallianwala Bagh in 1919. Picture this: unarmed civilians minding their own business in Amritsar, and Dyer’s troops decide to greet them with a hail of bullets—hundreds died, but it was just another day in the Raj! Then there’s Brigadier Douglas Grigg, a real stickler for order, cracking down on those pesky civil disobedience movements with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. And who could forget Michael O’Dwyer, Punjab’s Lieutenant Governor, clapping enthusiastically from the sidelines as Dyer turned a peaceful gathering into a bloodbath? What a team!
Next, the East India Company’s golden boys from 1757 to 1858! Warren Hastings taxed the life out of India and crushed revolts with such flair that he left behind a trail of economic ruin and despair. James Neill, meanwhile, took the 1857 Revolt as his cue to stage a hanging spree, stringing up suspected rebels without trial, with clinical efficiency. And John Nicholson was a gem. He doled out executions to rebels and civilians alike with the casual cruelty of a bored tyrant. Who needs Justice?
Then we have the Governors and Viceroys, those stately stewards of suffering. Lord Lytton, ruling from 1876 to 1880, watched the Great Famine unfold like a tragic opera, exporting food while millions starved. Lord Curzon, from 1899 to 1905, spiced things up with the Partition of Bengal, stirring communal hatred and stomping on nationalists like it was a jolly good sport. And Winston Churchill, the wartime PM extraordinaire, couldn’t resist rerouting India’s food to British troops during the Bengal Famine of 1943 that left at least 3 million dead.
The British Colonial Police and Intelligence deserve a special mention. The CIDs across India turned torture into an art form. Waterboarding, beatings, and starvation were all in a day’s work for these creative souls. And then there were Tegart’s Tigers, led by the dashing Charles Tegart. They pounced on Bengal’s revolutionaries with such ferocity you’d think they were auditioning for a villainous pantomime.
Finally, let’s tip our hats to the Plantation Owners, those industrious architects of misery. The Indigo Planters of Bihar and Bengal forced farmers into a picturesque form of slavery—grow indigo, not food, they said, and starvation followed like a loyal hound. Meanwhile, the tea and cotton barons worked their labourers to death under conditions so wretched you’d think they were competing for a cruelty prize—long hours, pitiful wages, and a body count to match.
What a cast, what a legacy! The British Empire’s finest, leaving behind a trail of tears and tombstones with all the swagger of conquerors who knew they’d never have to clean up the mess.
The Portuguese in Goa were a class apart. Arriving in 1510, they didn’t just colonise—they crusaded. Their zeal out-darkened the Muslim invaders. The Goa Inquisition from 1560 to 1774 targeted Hindus, Muslims, and “New Christians” with torture, execution, and temple demolition. Over 300 temples were demolished. Historian Priolkar writes in The Goa Inquisition, “The Holy Office spared no one—women, children, the elderly—all were fair game in the name of Christ.” Floggings, burnings, and racks awaited the vulnerable who wouldn’t convert, while the governor crowed, “The fathers of the Church have made more converts in a year than all the laymen in ten.” Were they really converts, or broken shells of defiance? Vulnerable Goans paid the price for Portugal’s holy ego trip.
Belgium’s King Leopold II reached new depths of depravity. Between 1885 and 1908, he turned the Congo Free State into a slaughterhouse. The brutal rubber quotas meant severed hands for noncompliance, villages destroyed, families torn apart, and forced labour on an unprecedented scale. At least 10 million perished, per Adam Hochschild’s tally in King Leopold’s Ghost. Leopold’s regime thrived on terror, executing and mutilating the Congolese to extract more wealth. Meanwhile, in Europe, he masked his horrors behind charities, architectural projects, and propaganda. The Congo’s suffering was not just physical—it was an annihilation of dignity, culture, and generations.
The Modern Era: Shiny Tools, Same Boot
The 20th century promised progress, then delivered atrocities with mechanical precision. The Nazis industrialised discrimination, wiping out six million Jews and countless others deemed “undesirable.” Hitler raved in Mein Kampf, “The mixing of blood and the decline of the race are the inevitable consequences.” The vulnerable were erased while the world dithered.
Stalin’s Holodomor in 1932–1933 starved Ukrainian peasants into submission. Mao’s Great Leap Forward between 1958 and 1962 killed 30 million rural poor for a utopian mirage. Today, Myanmar’s Rohingya face ethnic cleansing—villages torched, thousands dead since 2017.
Systemic racism in the U.S. has kept Black and Indigenous communities trapped in poverty and prisons for centuries—a 400-year cycle of oppression in new forms. Slavery ended, but segregation, redlining, and economic exclusion kept Black Americans in second-class status. Indigenous peoples faced land theft, forced removals, and systemic neglect. Today, mass incarceration, over-policing, and the prison-industrial complex ensure the cycle continues. The War on Drugs, mandatory sentencing, and economic barriers aren't accidents—they’re the latest tools in a long history of racial control. The past isn’t dead; it’s just wearing a new uniform. Something similar has happened in the so-called civilised countries like Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Minorities, peasants, the colonised, and the powerless are perfect targets. They are too feeble to fight, too fractured to unite. Orwell sneered in 1984, “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.” Spot on.
The Mughals, Rajputs, Marathas, Portuguese—none invented this game; they just added local spice. Ancient kings, medieval warlords, colonial overlords, and modern despots all salute the tradition. Social media might amplify the outrage—#Aurangzeb trending proves it—but it’s just noise in an endless dirge. The vulnerable stay crushed, the powerful stay smug, and the atrocities chug along like a grim carnival ride.
Conclusion: A Toast to the Unstoppable
Here’s to humanity: consistent as gravity, vicious as a viper. From Hammurabi’s classist chisel to Maratha raids to Goa’s holy fires to today’s algorithmic oppression, we’ve never met a vulnerable soul we couldn’t squash. The tools change—swords to guns to drones—but the glee? Everlasting. So, raise a glass to the grand tradition of discrimination and atrocity. It’s one streak we’ll never break—why mess with perfection?
Aurangzeb, Mughal history, historical atrocities, Indian history, oppression in history, colonial brutality, Maratha raids, Rajput feudalism, Bengal famine, Goa Inquisition, global oppression, medieval history, social media debates, historical power struggles, history of discrimination, systemic oppression, colonial exploitation, British Raj, feudal oppression, authoritarian rule, war crimes, political history, history of violence, tyranny in history, historical injustices, human rights history, oppression of the weak, historical analysis, dictatorship through ages, history of suffering, power and brutality
No comments:
Post a Comment