What’s the Taj Mahal conflict & what do past documents tell us about its history
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What’s the Taj Mahal conflict & what do past documents tell us about its history

A selection of the best news reports, analysis and opinions published by ThePrint this week.

   
(From left) Raja Jai Singh I, BJP MP Diya Kumari, historical revisionist P.N. Oak, Mumtaz Mahal & Shah Jahan | Illustration: Manisha Yadav | ThePrint

(From left) Raja Jai Singh I, BJP MP Diya Kumari, historical revisionist P.N. Oak, Mumtaz Mahal & Shah Jahan | Illustration: Manisha Yadav | ThePrint

A temple in the Taj Mahal? What Mughal-era documents tell us about tangled claims

Allahabad HC Thursday dismissed a plea to open sealed rooms of Taj Mahal to investigate ‘real history’, while BJP MP Diya Kumari claimed monument stands on Jaipur royal family’s land, reports Shikha Salaria.

 

Kashmiri farmers choose apples over almonds as Indians dump desi badaam

In 1994-95, almonds were grown on 20,222 hectares in J&K, which fell to 5,483 hectares in 2020-21. Meanwhile, India’s imports of almonds have grown by more than three times, reports Shubhangi Misra.

 

Govt order promoting IPS officer & junior IAS officers to same rank ‘unprecedented’, say bureaucrats

Modi government’s latest appointment orders, under which IAS, forest service, postal service officers of junior batches have superseded IPS ranks, shows its IAS bias, they added, reports Madhuparna Das.

 

Congress can hold a million ‘Chintan Shivirs’ but can’t defeat BJP until Rahul is around

Rahul Gandhi says he knows that only the Congress can defeat the BJP. So why then doesn’t he realise that he is one reason why it hasn’t happened yet, writes Vir Sanghvi.

 

Should Indian Muslims cling on to a non-mosque? Gyanvapi is a living monument of past wrongs

The Places of Worship Act is a generous law. Indian Muslims can best reciprocate this generosity by adhering to the Quranic morality in Gyanvapi Masjid’s case, writes Ibn Khaldun Bharati.

 

India shakes the Foreign Hand—Nehru to Modi, PMs have deepened ties with Western spies

Even as Indian governments have warned of the peril from the Foreign Hand, they’ve been warmly shaking hands with it for a while now, writes Praveen Swami.

 

Mandir or Masjid? New surveys not needed, just acceptance of truth & move towards reconciliation

That temples were destroyed and mosques built is undisputed history. The past can’t be changed, but we can’t deny the wrongs of the past either before we consider reconciliation, writes Shekhar Gupta, in this week’s ‘National Interest’.