The Taj Mahal and 4 other monuments earned Rs 146.05 crore, more than half the total revenue generated by centrally-protected monuments, in 2017-18.
New Delhi: Fringe Hindu groups and even some BJP leaders may have sought to belittle their significance but official data shows that India’s top five revenue generating monuments were all built by Muslim rulers – the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Qutub Minar, Fatehpur Sikri and Red Fort.
While Qutub Minar was built by rulers of the Delhi Sultanate, the rest were constructed by the Mughals.
These five monuments together earned the government Rs 146.05 crore in 2017-18, according Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) data. This is more than half the total revenue of Rs 271.8 crore generated by all centrally-protected monuments.
The Taj Mahal, which has been in the news for all the wrong reasons in recent years, with the Supreme Court last month pulling up the ASI for its poor maintenance, continued to be the highest earner at Rs 56.83 crore.
While some politicians sparked a controversy last year by arguing that the Mughal-era monument did not represent Indian culture, the number of visitors to it, both Indian and foreign, only increased since 2016-17.
A total of 64.58 lakh people visited the Taj Mahal in 2017-18 compared to 50.66 lakh in 2016-17.
Last year, the UP tourism department had even omitted the Taj Mahal, a UNESCO world heritage site, from a brochure listing the state’s principal attractions.
With total earnings of Rs 30.55 crore, Agra Fort built by Mughal emperor Akbar, another UNESCO world heritage site, was the second highest revenue generator in the last financial year.
While the Konark Sun Temple in Odisha came second after the Taj Mahal in terms of number of visitors (32.3 lakh), it generated only Rs 10.06 crore as revenue. This, officials said, is because the temple is mostly popular only with Indian tourists, with 32.21 lakh domestic visitors making the trip last year.
While Indian tourists are charged Rs 30 per head as entry fee to world heritage monuments across the country, foreign tourists have to pay Rs 500 each.
“It is impossible to communalise the entire Indian population through the meaningless political venom spewed by politicians,” said historian S. Irfan Habib, explaining the increase in visitors to the Taj.
“No matter what they say about the Taj Mahal and Red Fort, Indians will continue going there,” he added.
Agra Fort, Qutub Minar and Red Fort was not built by the invaders, get your facts straight.
Khaleel has left these Hindituva false pride propagandists dumfounded, well done
They came, they looted, they destroyed, they built monuments.
Pseudo seculars: tHey bUIlt moNUMenTs !!
They came , They conquered**(kisi ke baap ki zameen nahi hoti gand me hona chahiye bachane ke liye) & tell us what they destroyed?
They destroyed hampi,kiradu and temples,
You can also put it another way. Top 5 revenue generating muslim built monuments are all in India. ??
Taj Mahal, qutab minar and Red fort were all Hindu buildings built by Hindu rulers they were existing before muslim invaders entered India, Barbarian Muslim invaders just took it from its previous native Hindu rulers and rubber stamped it as their creation and fooled the world, seriously some international body has to investigate on this, Truth will come out. In recent past Many people have researched and revealed and said Taj mahal, qutab minar etc originally has Hindu buildings which predates islam
Pahile Jaake dekh record main kon hai aadmi yaa bhagwan baath karta hai hinduvo ne bandhata bolke agar Hindu vo ne bandhata vo kyun gumbaz jyasi Muslim shyall bandhege bhai sudhar jaavo
Are u living in cuckoo land , cuckoo cuckoo
the amount collected is rather small, and mainly due to the taj mahal’s proximity, since foreign visitors go on the “taj circuit” – meaning they do the package tour of taj mahal, agra fort, fatehpur sikri and qutab minar/delhi/red fort.
The problem here is that the taj mahal is a bit overhyped and many other ancient monuments are undersold/neglected. Indian archeology and museums have done a very poor job.
Quite well known that Qutub Minar was built after demolishing 25+ temples and even the secular Marxist historians agree to this. This about it, if the Hindu temples were not broken by the Muslims, there are chances that they would have defeated these so-called monuments.
Nobody would come for those copy-paste temples. Tourists only come to see Qutub Minar because it is different.
Why is the author bringing in religion in this article? Is it being done to please Muslims? If crediting Muslim rulers for building these monuments is being done, then the author should complete the truth, not say half truths.
First these so called Muslim monuments were built on earlier Hindu monuments (destroyed by destruction loving invaders)
Second even if they were forcibly built by Muslim rulers, the labourers were Hindus (Rajasthan). And lastly due to tourism these monuments help local Muslims with employment
What abt the indirect revenues they bring to the the city like hotel stay, transport may be any means railway bus ,taxi etc which all contribute to the gdp and not to forget the back money now being generate by charging high price then then rate printed on the ticket.
u fools be logical n c the numbers dnt go on jihad . n other things
lets the dogs bark elephants will always ignore the dogs.
if ur so pissed then lock down these building n the the downfall of people coming to the city n loss of business.
What is special about it? Do you not know how much ASI charges for these so called Muslim monuments? Irfan Habib is a communal Muslim in the garb of communism, as I personally know him. Sanya Dhingra in her anti BJP ideology forgets the truth. Irfan Habib, Sanya, and all their anti Hindu friends and followers must be reminded that there are several Hindu and Sikh temples which generate more revenue than these Muslim buildings, and temples earning is spent on Muslim and Christian development. Sanya and Irfan Habib should also mention that several of Muslim buildings were built after destroying Hindu temples on the same spot…Qutab Minar complex. Chill otherwise all your jihadi secularism will be stripped.
Built by Hindu rulers, Tirupati generates 50 times more revenue than Taj Mahal and 18 times more than all those monuments put together But Tirupati is not enlisted under protected monuments. It is taken over by Secular Indian Govt to squeeze money and loot ancient heritage, and use kafir money for secular use.
The total revenue generated by all these do not equal to one week or one month’s collection made at Tirumala Thirupathi Devasthanam.
Out of l8 world renowned diamonds in l6 th century ,the 13 diamonds was minted in Golconda ,HYDERABAD DN,QULI QUTB SHAHI DYNASTY,the coins value was higher than France
World is moving in fast rate with swift developments. We still staggering over with past achievements done by the olden times worrying about credits being given to the emperors or kings who were the creators of such monuments with jealousy overlooking the foreigners appreciations for our nation which are our nation’s proud possessions. Recently the minds of present generation is being corrupted to generate hatred on past rulers and leaders of India. Indian culture whether based on Hinduism or Islamic principles are the assets of our nation which bring fame and revenue to our nation’s ruling governments. Keeping this in consideration our country was made secular in nature. Let us not forget foreigners who come on tourism to our nation not to visit religious places but to see the coultural activities and monuments that does not attached to religion base.
In her eagerness to introduce religion in the subject of inbound tourism, the author either forgets or overlooks two facts: (1) all five listed in the article form a part of the golden triangle that is a brand in itself. Fatehpur Sikri and Agra Red Fort earn top bucks because of the pull of Taj Mahal, (2) Mughals ruled India for almost 250 years, and that too in not too distant past, and with the exception of Qutab Minar, these monuments are relatively new and well-preserved. That said, there is no doubt that Taj Mahal can be counted as one of the top three most beautiful man-made constructions.
And they are made up of stones and are located in North India. How is it “built by Muslims” make these places highest revenue generating? This headline could very well be that red stone monuments gain more revenue than white stones. Local and International tourists don’t visit these place because these were made by Muslims. Tourists visit these places because of the architecture beauty, ease of access, reputation, and history. Author is unnecessarily bringing in religion.
We neither want the Rulers nor the monuments or the revenue. They were rogue from Turkey. Who looted our country. They also destroyed Nalanda University & Mahadev Vishwanathjee’s Temple in Kashi. Please do NOT have selective amnesia
Madarsas of those days used to teach Civil Engineering & Architecture. It is only recently that they stopped all engineering departments and now only teach Punctured tyre repair-work.
Note, these are the tourist spots that are most promoted, rather than the best tourist attractions of India. That we dont advertise the Brihadeshwara Temple, the Konark Temple. Khajuraro, etc. is yet another example of our warped sense of Indianness. This needs to change!
Correct !! Our Eminent historians ( distortians ) promoted only these in History books. There are countless temples in the South which are fit to be wonders of the world. Plus .. the so called “Mughal built monuments” .. how many of these were really built by Mughals ? Or were they usurped from original Indian rulers ?
Centuries after too the monuments built by Muslim rulers are filling the coffers of public government by substantial revenue. People still say these kings have looted Bharat, a non-nonsensical allegation. They did not go anywhere. They left everything to the nation what all they accumulated while ruling, unlike Europeans who looted, the industrial revolution in Britain could come out from this loot. The GDP of British people dramatically increase after the East India Company started ruling. Even the British Crown did not stop looting. To-day, to some, these looters are bosom friend and those who enhanced the wealth and importance are enemies. Sher Shah Suri gave Bharat the Science of Survey and land management. Allauddin Khilji gave Bharat the rules of minimum price of agricultural produce, which is the HOT problem of THIS day. Moghal and others have brought structural technologies and gave Bharat the monuments that it can rightly BOAST. They lived , died and buried in Bharat. They join the live society, integrated themselves, adopted local culture, they learnt Indian Art, Culture, religion and disseminated the Vedic literature, presented religious liberalism and in fact they were more INDIAN than those who helped the Britishers to continue as rulers. Let us do some soul searching and give proper place to the people who developed and also a proper place to those who looted the ” golden bird” who are responsible for created artificial famine in Bengal and cause death to lakhs of poor. In the words of Honorabel PM Modi ” Sharam karo, Doob maro.”