From demanding the restitution of mosques claimed to have been built after demolishing temples, the Hindutva brigade has now in its crosshairs a minor fort where the descendants of the person who built it have been living for over four centuries. A new-fangled outfit, Manhar Kheda Durg Kalyan Samiti, recently petitioned the district magistrate of Shamli, west Uttar Pradesh, claiming that the fort of Jalalabad, in Thana Bhawan block of the district, was usurped by one Jalal Khan after poisoning a Rajput king in the 17th century. They appealed to Chief Minister Adityanath to name the fort Manhar Kheda and hand it over to the Archaeological Survey of India, after, presumably, evicting the owners.

I asked the Shamli-based Samajwadi Party leader Prof Sudhir Panwar about this brewing contest over history. He said Manhar Kheda has never been part of popular memory. Panwar directed me to Noorul Hasan Rashid Kandhlavi, director of the Mufti Ilahi Bakhsh Academy and author of several books on the region’s history.