The Controversial Legacy of Saif Ali Khan

Bollywood’s actor Saif Ali Khan was in limelight for, of course, wrong reasons. He had recently stirred up controversy by saying his upcoming movie named ‘Adipursh’ will showcase Ravan’s humane side as possible and it will also justify the reason for the abduction of Sita Maa. After getting trolled for his comment he apologised for his Ravan statement.

However, it was not the first time the 50-year-old actor always riggers rows through his statements and actions and released an apology for that. It has now become his habit to do this. The actor has time-and-again courted controversy by coming up with ridiculous theories about India’s cultural past. His fascination for alternative history is not a new phenomenon though.

Saif Ali Khan, who claims to be a history buff, has often waded into controversies with his extremely terrible knowledge about India’s cultural history. However, it is very shameful that belonging to an Indian nawab family he does know about the Indian culture and Indian History.

The context of his anti-Hindu family history can explain the reasons for his statements and actions. His ancestors came to India from Afghanistan & his ancestry in India begins with the arrival of Salamat Khan in 1480 CE. His great-grandson, Muhammed Pir, rose to power in Akbar’s court. Salamat’s descendant Alaf Khan helped the Mughals in their battle against the Hindu Maharaja of Jaipur. He was rewarded with Kalam mahal (which today is known as Pataudi House near Delhi Gate).

In the 18th Century, Alaf Khan of his family assisted the Mughal ruler in his battle against the Maharaja of Jaipur. He was rewarded with Kalam Mahal (which later came to be known as Pataudi House near Delhi Gate) to serve as the family residence.

They assisted the British in their battle against the Marathas. As a reward, the British established the State of Pataudi in 1804 and declared Faiz Talab Khan as the first Nawab of the newly established princely state of Pataudi.

In 1939, Saif’s grandfather Iftikhar Khan married Sajida Begum, daughter of the last Nawab of Bhopal, Hamiduallah Khan. Hamidullah ruled over an area with an 80% Hindu population & was opposed to joining India. On August 2, 1947, Hamiduallah wrote to Muhammad Ali Jinnah expressing his wish to merge Bhopal with the newly formed Pakistan.

“I have throughout the last 8 or 10 years been in my humble way a staunch supporter of Pakistan and a loyal and devoted friend of the Muslim cause in India and the Muslim league. In recent years I took upon myself the task of doing my humble bit in securing the establishment of Pakistan by seeing to it that nothing was done on behalf of the Indian States which would seriously hamper the birth of a separate Muslim State in India,” wrote Hamiduallah. However, Shankar Dayal Sharma led public agitations against the Nawab in December 1948, after which Shankar Dayal jailed Shankar Dayal Sharma for agitating against his plan.

However Sardar Patel foiled Nawab of Bhopal’s ambition. They signed the agreement for a merger with the Indian Union on April 30, 1949.

After the partition, Saif also suggested that his family members who shifted to Pakistan did so as they thought India won’t be a secular country anymore (as if they were moving to a secular state!) Saif’s own grand-uncle Sher Ali who joined Pakistan Army was an advocate of Islamisation through the Army.

Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan Pataudi’s uncle is one of the contenders to head Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in 2012. Isfandiyar’s father Mohammed Ali, who was the younger brother of Mansur’s father Iftikhar Ali, was also a general in the Pak army. The elder General Pataudi opted to join the Pakistani army after partition. A cavalry officer, he served in the Pakistani army until 1958. He was later Pakistan’s envoy to Malaysia and Yugoslavia and served a four-year term as information and broadcasting minister in military dictator General Yahya Khan’s cabinet. Before his stint as DDG-ISI, Major General Pataudi commanded the 25th Mechanised Division of the Pakistani army.

Everyone knows that Saif was involved in the hunting & killing of blackbuck two blackbucks in Rajasthan in 1998 during a film shoot, however, fewer people have known that Saif Ali Khan’s father and former cricket Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi was too has been involved in the hunting & killing of blackbuck. As per reports, police recovered carcasses of a female blackbuck from him after his hunting expedition in Haryana’s Jhajjar district. The police also recovered a 22-bore rifle that was supposedly used for hunting. The rifle was registered in the name of Pataudi’s daughter and Saif Ali Khan’s sister Soha Ali Khan. Later in 2009, Gurgaon’s district magistrate had canceled Soha Ali Khan’s arms license for violating the rules. Six people were convicted in that case, however, Mansur Pataudi’s name was removed from the case only because of his death.

In the saif’s case, Salman Khan was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment by the chief judicial magistrate court (Jodhpur court) in the same case. Besides Saif, actresses Neelam, Tabu, and Sonali Bendre were also co-accused in the case. All four however were acquitted as they got the benefit of the doubt, but their acquittal has been challenged by the state government. The case is currently in the Rajasthan High Court.

Like Mansur, who married Hindu women Sharmila Tagore who later converted into Islam and becomes Begum Ayesha Sultana Khan Saif too married Hindu women. He first married Amrita Singh was a Sikh and later converted to Islam just after the marriage. Their children are Sara and Ibrahim. He then married Kareena Kapoor, however, the actress has not converted to Islam.

Moreover, he named Taimur Ali Khan Pataudi after a Turco-Mongol conqueror who destroyed temples, killed millions of Hindus, and destroyed India. Taimur has not only massacred millions of Hindus, but he humiliated the Indic culture in his autobiography.

He chose to name their child after a man, who in his memoir said, “My object in the invasions of Hindustan is to lead a campaign against the infidels, to convert them to the true faith according to the command of Muhammad (on whom and his family be the blessing and peace of God), to purify the land from the defilement of misbelief and polytheism, and overthrow the temples and idols, whereby we shall be Ghazis and Mujahids, companions and soldiers of the faith before God.” is their choice.

Justifying his son’s name he said it is not Timur it’s Taimur and both are not similar and Taimur was just a little violent and violence was the work of such a general. In the same interview, Saif said that he cannot “realistically name his son Ram.”

In the land of Ram, an Indian citizen who otherwise insists he should not be judged by family history and Pakistan connections can’t “realistically” name his son Ram. Why?