Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led four-day Somnath Swabhiman Parv, commemorating 1,000 years since Mahmud of Ghazni’s 1026 invasion and destruction of the Somnath Temple, was more than a symbolic act of remembrance.

Arguably, it is time for a reassessment of how medieval Islamic invasions were later reframed through manipulated cultural narratives, especially the one surrounding Sufism.

In this context, it is pertinent to examine the writings of Amir Khusro, often projected as a leading symbol of India’s Sufi tradition. When the Somnath Temple was again desecrated in 1299 during Alauddin Khilji’s campaign and its debris thrown into the sea, Khusro wrote: “So the temple of Somnath was made to bow towards the Holy Mecca, and the temple lowered its head and jumped into the sea; thus, one may say that the building first offered its prayers and then took a bath."

Between 1309 and 1311, Khilji’s general Malik Kafur plundered major temples at Chidambaram, Srirangam, and Madurai. Describing the slaughter of Hindus and the desecration of the Ling Deo temple at Chidambaram, Khusro chillingly celebrated, recounting gleefully when the heads of Brahmins “danced from their necks and fell to the ground at their feet."

The role played........

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