“The lion is no more, but Chhaava is still roaming the jungle” – the movie trailer starts with this iconic line. “We will rip the Mughals apart if they dare to challenge the Maratha empire” – Vicky Kaushal, playing Sambhaji Maharaj roars. With chants of Har Har Mahadev, Chhaava promises to be a movie that would stand as a testament to the Overton Window, decisively, shifting forever.
The much anticipated period film sees Vicky Kaushal take on the role of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, with Rashmika Mandanna playing Maharani Yesubai. The trailer was fittingly released on the 22nd of January 2025 – 1 year since the grand Praan Pratishtha of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya – the day which marks the civilisational rejuvenation of Bharat.
Surely, the day chosen for the release of the trailer was no coincidence. The reclamation of Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura always played a central role in the establishment of Hindavi Swaraj for the Maratha empire and in the many wars waged by Hindu Kings. From Malhar Rao Holkar to Ahilyabai Holkar, the reclamation of Ayodhya was never a project abandoned. The Marathas never reached a point where they could reclaim the sites without adverse consequences for Hindus as well as their own political power and the tides of time have flown by since then. For them, Ram Janmabhoomi remained a dream unfulfilled. For the Chhaava trailer to be released on the very day that Ram Lalla returned to Ayodhya, a decision one can hope the makers took consciously, only foretells the shift of the Overton Window in favour of the truth.
Islamic tyrant Aurangzeb was particularly miffed with the Marathas – the “infidels” who did not conform to the will of Allah. In Maasir-i-Alamgiri, the sheer rage Aurangzeb felt towards the Marathas, including Chhatrapati Shambhaji Maharaj is evidenced.
In a chapter titled ‘Capture and execution of Sambha’, the phrase “Satan has been chained” has been used to describe the capture of the Chhatrapati. “To speak more plainly, through the power of the Emperor’s fortune, the infernal infidel Sambha was made prisoner by the army”, the biography reads.
Muḥammad Sāqī Mustaʻidd Khān then writes, ”Mukarabh Khan’s son Ikhlas Khan went inside the Haveli and dragged Sambhaji Maharaj and Kavi Kalash by their hair and 25 of Maharaj’s chief followers and their wives were made prisoners”. This news reached the emperor who was staying in Akluj, after hearing this he ordered Hamduddin Khan, to bring the captives (Sambhaji Maharaj and Kavi Kalash) in chains and manacled. The writer further mentions that ”the Emperor’s devotion to Islam ordered that Sambhaji Maharaj should be made to wear a wooden cap (a sign of a criminal) and as he enters the camp, there should be drum beating and trumpets pealing so that” Muslims ”might be heartened and infidels (Hindus) will be disheartened“.
During captivity, Kavi Kalash’s tongue was severed and Sambhaji’s eyes were gouged out. Sambhaji Raje was asked to surrender to Islam but he never accepted it. The warriors, including Chhatrapati, were hacked limb by limb thereafter.
To think that up until February 2023, an entire city was named after Aurangzeb is unthinkable and yet, it is true. It was only in February 2023 that Aurangabad was renamed Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar. Then, as we see now, Mughal lovers suffered an epic meltdown, essentially calling the move not just Islamophobic but an erasure of the real history of India. At the time the decision was taken in 2022, dubious ‘historian’, Audrey Truschke, also suffered a meltdown when the Maharashtra government took the decision to rename Aurangabad.
“Thinking today about Sambhaji, a seventeenth-century Maratha ruler who, by the end of his life, had alienated many supporters through brutal and miscalculated tactics. Seems that those who honour him may honour his legacy too. #Sambhaji,” she had tweeted.
Today, we see a similar meltdown after the release of the Chhaava trailer.
Here are some samples:
Aurangzeb k samne moot nikal jata tha inka aur films main bkchodi dekho kaun h yeh lo8u chaava 😂 https://t.co/kQa9MGdO1i
— Ammar;) (@IBeingthatGuy) January 22, 2025
Another Islamophobic movie, I am sure. pic.twitter.com/tthdI8l71m
— Nour✨🍉 (@koffeeTalkss) January 22, 2025
Of course, Muslim fanatics idolising Aurangzeb who followed Islam to the letter is no surprise. Aurangzeb was, indeed, a good Muslim. He tortured “Kafirs”, desecrated Temples and humiliated Hindus – the archetype of the perfect Muslim.
While Muslims deify Aurangzeb for being a “good Muslim ruler” because he followed their religious doctrine (which is, of course, torturing Kafirs), our popular discourse exalted him as a just, honourable and noble ruler – conveniently leaving the definition of a “good Muslim ruler” to the public imagination. The result was the absolute whitewashing of historical facts to present the Mughal rule as a golden era for India – as a whole.
That today a movie like Chhaava can be released and celebrated presents undeniable proof that India – Bharat – Hindus – have traversed unchartered territory to shift the Overton Window forever from the rocky pathways where the truth was considered radical and lies were considered popular.
The Overton Window is a set of ideas and policies that are acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time. The spectrum of acceptability ranges from what the society deems “unacceptable” to what set of ideas eventually becomes a government policy acceptable to the mainstream population.
Joshua Treviño has postulated that the six degrees of acceptance of public ideas are roughly:
- Unthinkable
- Radical
- Acceptable
- Sensible
- Popular
- Policy
The Overton Window, simply put, shifts when an acceptable idea becomes popular and then translates to policy. Or better yet, when a radical idea journeys its way through being considered ‘sensible’ to ‘popular’ and then translates into policy.
The idea that the Mughals were Islamic barbarians was one that was considered radical. Not too long ago, when the decision was taken to reduce the portion glorifying the Mughal era from textbooks, there were wails of how history was being deleted and the Mughal greatness was being erased to weaponise the past. The argument was rather simple – if students don’t learn about the “glory” of the Muslim invaders and they ushered a period of economic prosperity (an absolute lie), they would view present-day Muslims with disdain and start believing in the “radical” idea that Bharat’s civilisational glory and existence was despite the Muslim invaders, not because of them.
The whitewashing of history was a psychological experiment, at its core. If Muslim invaders are exalted, those who still take pride in them hundreds of years later would be seen as conscientious citizens who take pride in the history of India itself. Those who would then point out that the pride of the Muslim class stems from how effectively the invaders “tamed” Hindus as per the diktats of the Quran, would immediately be branded bigoted, conspiracy theorists or worse – Hindu nationalists.
This very strategy was used over and over again. Take the Malabar genocide of Hindus, for example. Left historians successfully convinced generations that the murder of 1000s of Hindus in 1921 was a result of Muslim peasants revolting against the terrible Hindu landlords – this – despite documentary evidence that the peasant uprising theory was hogwash. In the same vein, Khilafat leaders like Shaukat Ali and Maulana Mohammad Ali were branded freedom fighters in our history books. We were told, repeatedly, that they fought for the freedom of India from the British colonisers and therefore, were heroes. The truth, that they were fighting against the British to establish the Turkish Caliphate, the Ottoman Empire again and that they actively massacred Hindus was neatly tucked away – never to be talked about.
Malabar province in Kerala had a large number of Muslims. These people, known as Moplah or Mappila, worked mainly with Hindu landlords as day labourers. Poor and uneducated, they believe that they are descendants of Prophet Mohammad. Influenced by the speeches of Khilafat leaders, Mohammed and Shaukat Ali, a religious teacher Ali Musliar rose to prominence as a Khilafat leader.
He made people believe that the end of British rule was near and a Muslim army would invade India soon. Calls were given to mobilise Moplahs; weapons were arranged for the revolt. Their agitation against the British rule soon became a religious uprising and was directed against non-Muslims in the region. Ali Musliar declared himself as the king and Ernad and Valuvnad as Islamic State. When the British sent troops to stamp out the uprising, the Moplahs started slaughtering people.
In August 1921, as per estimates, close to ten thousand Hindus were massacred. A large number of women were raped, temples were vandalized, people’s homes were burnt and they were banished. There were many incidents of burning people alive, peeling their skins, people were asked to dig graves for themselves and were buried in them. Marxist historians have tried to play this violence down by stating that it was caused by economic injustice and not by religious fanaticism. But that makes a case for such revolts across the country.
The Khilafat movement, aided by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, unleashed the beast of Islam-driven Hindu massacres and planted the seeds, the poisonous fruits of which haunt us to this date.
Once we understand the grand experiment of historical subversion, the shift in the Overton Window only seems far more remarkable. That Aurangabad was renamed Chhatrapati Shambhaji Nagar and a movie like Chhaava can be released and celebrated today is a testament to the Hindus who have managed to make the truth, considered radical and unthinkable up until a decade ago, is today mainstream enough to not only turn into a motion picture but translate into policy as well.
A few years ago, for a mainstream actor like Vicky Kaushal to chant Har Har Mahadev on celluloid would be unthinkable. A few years ago for a motion picture to depict Aurangzeb as the scrawny tyrant he was would be sacrilege. A few years ago, for Bollywood to even consider depicting the capture, torture and murder of Chhatrapati Shambhaji Maharaj for his refusal to convert to Islam would be blasphemy. A few years ago, for a movie to showcase the proud campaign of the Marathas to establish Hindavi Swaraj would be terrorism. Today, it is not just anticipated but ceremonialized.
Hindus are, one step at a time, learning that if they don’t tell their stories, nobody will. If they don’t speak of their warriors, the barbarians would speak of their tyranny as valour.
The Hindus are finally, finally, waking up – perhaps.