“The Mughals gave us culture” — Debunking apologist claims for the Mughal Empire (thread)

There is no denying Mughal culture is quite beautiful and has its influence in South Asia.

When one force occupies the territory of another — as a result, the invading culture obviously leaves behind an influence and imprint in that nations culture. Nowadays, a common...

claim that arises to counter and cover up the atrocities of the Mughal Empire from the pages of history is “without the Mughals, your culture would be nothing” In the rampant sugarcoating and excessive over-glorification of the Mughals...

one who claims such things doesnt stop to critically think...
is this is even a valid argument?
does culture excuse oppression?

Its an age-old classic colonial tactic for those who deny/whitewash colonial histories to try and justify or hide oppression by boasting of how ‘great’ the culture subsequently left behind is.

The invading culture can appear glorious, for example, through forms like architecture — especially if there is structural & consistent destruction and degradation of the native architecture/culture while exerting and promoting their own culture under means of superiority

— which the Mughals did. “No they didnt, they were religiouslly tolerant” (Sources below)

Mughal culture being “beautiful and leaving influence” does NOT excuse the religious persecution, rapes and other atrocities, genocides, and the Islamic extremism of the Mughal Empire.

Take for instance, the Spanish Conquistadors from Spain who exported their culture, their religion of Christianity and their language of Spanish from their origin to Central & South America — which was all majorly forced upon the Incas and Aztecs through brutality & subjugation

Pointing out beautiful parts of Spain culture and how Mexicans use their culture today, does NOT excuse what their civilization had went through nor historically paint the Conquistadors from Europe in a good light;

In the same logic, Mughal culture does not equal an ejection of Mughal oppression.

Moreover, Islamic culture is largely a borrowing of a bunch of other cultures that have long existed. [1] [2] particularly pre-islamic Persian culture. [3]

The Mughals simply created a mashup of Persian, Arab, Byzantine, Turkish, and Indian culture!
This mashup culture is exquisite! However, couldnt the Mughals have spread this culture... by peace?
Culture can be spread without invasion, destruction, and religious fundamentalism.

Furthermore, Mughal culture is not possible without the plundering of Indian riches, the appropriation of the Persian creativity, and especially not possible without domes and minars which originally came from the Roman byzantine! [4]

Sources:
[1] The Persian Presence in the Islamic World by Richard G. Hovannisian & Ehsan Yarshater
[2] Christian and Byzantine Architecture By Richard Krautheimer, Slobodan Ćurčić

[3] Two Centuries of Silence by Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub
[4] Taul, Stephen. Islamic Architecture: Origin, History & Styles. Chapter 2. Lesson 12.

As of today — Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Indian cultures have some influence from British culture, including the entire language of English. This result of their colonialist occupation does NOT require Desis to feel thankful...

... or feel highly grateful to the British or imply that we’d be without a language if it wasnt for the British, and such as so certainly cannot be used to excuse the horrors of British colonialism.

Similarly, we cannot use Mughal culture to excuse
Mughal horrors.

“If you hate Mughals, stop eating Biryani and stop wearing wearing Shalwar Kameez.”

This sounds exactly like the favorite argument of right-wing white supremacists when they try to defend their colonialism:
“if you hate white people then stop using your phone, skyscrapers, and science and stop wearing jeans!”

This is clearly an invalid argument for obvious reasons, because we know discoveries like science, phones and skyscrapers could not have been made without contributions of non-european people from all around the world too! This logic is applicable to the first argument above.

In the realm of architecture and attire...

And thats that. You can bookmark this tweet and drop it the next time to save your breath against bigots who try to act like we should be thankful, or as if they created our culture or as if Biryani and a Jalebi excuses religious persecution & genocides.

Important things to understand are that there are key differences in Muslims as individuals, as well as diversity in (theological) thought including Shia Muslims, Ahmadi Muslims, Quranist, Sufi, Kharijite, Ex-muslims of Muslim background, LGBT+ Muslims, Sunnis and more!