In paintings and idols, the 18th century Maratha queen Ahilyabai Holkar is usually shown draped in a cream-and-gold saree, its pallu covering her head, a serene smile on her face, and a flower-bedecked shivling in her hands. The same image scaled up to enormous proportions, conveying a deep sense of religious devotion, towered over Kartavya Path in the national capital as the Republic Day parade rolled down Raisina Hill this year.
The Madhya Pradesh tableau, dedicated to the legacy of Ahilyabai, had a huge statue of the Holkar queen perched atop a lotus forming the front section of the float; the central part showcased her repute as a justice-oriented administrator; and the rear segment portrayed the temples restored and constructed during her reign, complete with a glimpse of the ghats as well as her fort in the then capital city of Maheshwar.
If Ahilyabai’s religiosity was celebrated in the heart of the nation at the Republic Day parade, around the same time, a controversy erupted over the alleged damage done to a ghat constructed by Ahilyabai in Varanasi during a demolition drive. Idols depicting the same image as the one that loomed over Kartavya Path were also allegedly damaged, resulting in widespread public outrage and a political furore. Ahilyabai’s legacy — which left a deep imprint in the pages of history and earned the respect of chroniclers of the time for the quiet and understated manner in which she ruled and ensured peace and prosperity for her subjects — is no longer in the realm of history alone; it is at play in the midst of contemporary politics.
The BJP-RSS is on an overdrive to portray Ahilyabai as an ideal Hindu ruler, a nationalist figure, and a symbol to reach out to women voters. Her status as an icon of the backward castes (the Holkars hail from the shepherding community) also makes her legacy suitable for the BJP to use as part of its outreach to OBCs. However, the developments in Varanasi and the strong reactions they have evoked bring to light the complications that the ruling dispensation’s efforts to appropriate Ahilyabai’s legacy can run into.
The celebrations of the 300th birth anniversary of Ahilyabai by the ruling dispensation and the Sangh Parivar, which began in September 2024 and have lasted longer than a year, have placed the legacy of the queen within the space of the politics of the day. However, Ahilyabai has a much more enduring presence in the pages of history. She is an abiding figure in popular lore across central India, where she ruled, and especially in Maharashtra, where she was born.
An accidental ruler
Ahilyabai (May 31, 1725-August 31, 1795) headed the house of Holkars, the rulers of the then Indore State in the Malwa region, part of the Maratha confederacy, from 1767 to 1795. She was, however, an accidental ruler. She was not born into royalty and ascended to the throne under tragic circumstances. Born in Chaundi village in Jamkhed in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra (Ahmednagar was renamed Ahilya Nagar in October 2024), her father Mankoji Rao Shinde was the village head. Malhar Rao Holkar, the head of the Holkar royal family of Indore and a commander in the Peshwa army, had seen the 8-year-old Ahilyabai feeding the poor at a temple when he halted at Chaundi en route to Pune. Impressed by her piety, he approached her father for her hand in marriage to his son Khanderao Holkar.
Khanderao succumbed to injuries received in the battlefield when Ahilyabai was only 29. Her father-in-law did not allow her to commit sati and instead groomed her in statecraft and administration. Malhar Rao passed away in 1766, and Ahilyabai lost her son Male Rao Holkar a few months later. It was under these circumstances that she became the ruler of Indore.
People protest against the demolition drive and the alleged damage to Ahilyabai’s effigies at Manikarnika Ghat, in Prayagraj on February 1, 2026. | Photo Credit: PTI
In 1767, Ahilyabai shifted the capital of the Holkar empire to Maheshwar, on the banks of the Narmada, and ruled from there until 1795. Her demeanour as a queen is described by chroniclers as the very antithesis of a person wielding power. She lived a life of simplicity and administered without much fanfare. Her piety and devotion to the Hindu cause is well documented: she revived and constructed temples and sites sacred to Hindus across the country. But she also made a mark as a just and efficient ruler. Popularly called Lokmata, she pursued socio-economic policies that were pro-people, constructing roads, dharmshalas, and water bodies. She encouraged the weaving of Maheshwari saris, with special support for women weavers.
The book Rulers, Leading Families And Officials In The States of Central India, published by the government in 1935, states that Ahilyabai’s rule “is still looked upon as a golden age”. It elaborates: “Her charities extended all over India and the results of her toleration, justice and careful supervision of all departments of the State were shown in the greatly increased prosperity of her dominions and the comparative peace which lasted so long as she lived.”
The government today has found in Ahilyabai an icon that suits its political purposes in more than one way. This is evident in the series of events it has held at both the Central and State levels to commemorate the queen’s 300th birth anniversary. The celebrations have included a grand women’s conference in Bhopal on May 31, 2025, jointly organised by the Union Ministry of Culture and the Madhya Pradesh government, and attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Speaking at the event, Modi described Ahilyabai as a “great protector of India’s cultural and spiritual heritage”.
He said: “Three hundred years ago, when India was in the shackles of slavery, Lokmata Ahilyabai carried out such noble deeds that future generations will always remember her…. When our temples and sacred sites were under attack, she took it upon herself to restore and protect them. You can see her statue even today at Kashi Vishwanath.”
The BJP-led Madhya Pradesh government was especially proactive in commemorating the anniversary. A meeting of the State Cabinet was held at Ahilyabai’s Rajwada Palace in Indore on May 19, 2025. Dance-dramas portraying the life and times of Ahilyabai were organised in various cities. The State government also produced a film documenting Ahilyabai’s life and contributions. At an event in Khargone on April 1, 2025, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said that Ahilyabai made efforts to protect and preserve Sanatan Dharma during challenging times. “She built Somnath, Kashi Vishwanath jyotirling, and established river ghats across the country,” he said.
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The RSS too organised events to mark the birth anniversary of Ahilyabai, portraying her as an ideal Hindu ruler and the epitome of ideal womanhood. In his speech on Vijayadashami in October 2024, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said: “She [Ahilyabai] was proud of dharma, sanskriti, and motherland, a great example of outstanding moral values, and a ruler with an excellent understanding of war strategy. Even in the most adverse circumstances, the way she displayed incredible ability and managed the family, the State — and due to her national vision, the societal harmony and culture — by restoring pilgrimage sites and constructing temples even outside her State boundaries [makes her] a role model worth emulating for us all, including the matrushakti [maternal-powers] to this day. Along with this, she is also a bright symbol of the splendid tradition of the capability and leadership of the women of Bharat.”
Explaining the RSS and the BJP’s interest in Ahilyabai, Deepak Tiwari, veteran journalist and a former Vice Chancellor of the Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Communication, Bhopal, said: “Ahilyabai has been an icon for the RSS and the BJP for decades because of her role in reconstructing Hindu temples and sites. However, there is now a more determined campaign to reimagine her in the context of the current political requirements. She is projected as an affirmation of the present government’s policies at the Centre and in the States.”
Ahilyabai’s secular approach
But what is strikingly missing from this selective commemoration of Ahilyabai are significant details about the Holkar queen’s secular approach and her emphasis on maintaining social harmony.
Historical accounts describe her as a secular leader who took measures to be inclusive of Muslims. Proceedings of the Meetings, Volume XIII of the Indian Historical Records Commission mentions that the mosques that stood in the territory conquered by the Holkars continued to receive their old grants and stood undamaged, while Muslim saints even in far-off provinces received support. According to the records, the sanad (grant) of Malhar Rao Holkar to Murad Fakir was upheld by Ahilyabai, and she made a donation of 1,000 rupees to a Sufi saint on January 18, 1785. This, the records noted, is “typical of this phase of Hinduism which may be styled Rational Hinduism”.
In the book The Founding of Maratha Freedom (1934), the historian S.R. Sharma describes Ahilyabai as “peaceful and statesmanlike”, who ruled over the affairs of the government with great tact and statesmanship and earned for herself a unique reputation.
In Life and Life’s-Work Of Shree Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar, Volume II of Holkar State History, edited by Vasudeo V. Thakur, Ahilyabai is stated to have “brought about, by precept and practice, a happy and harmonious combination of contending cultures that were at strife and struggle for over ten centuries, by allowing each to have its own course unimpeded — not by union, but by unity”.
Construction work at the Manikarnika Ghat stalled amid the protests alleging damage to Ahalyabai’s images, in Varanasi on January 19, 2026. | Photo Credit: PTI
Thakur writes: “She freed the Hindu culture, and allowed it a free unfettered course to run. She allowed the Islam culture a definite place and purse to follow its own path in the national evolution…. The Devi has pointed out the path or the direction by which different cultures can ‘live and let live’ in India. Hers was, therefore, a super-human mission, and she fulfilled it.”
Thakur also notes Ahilyabai’s scrupulous upholding of the ancient practice of offering gifts to mosques and maulanas and her donations to fakirs, which reveal the “rational” side of her religiosity. Mahadev Jankar, president of the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, a former State Cabinet Minister in Maharashtra, and a prominent leader of the Dhangar community to which Ahilyabai belonged, said: “The BJP and the RSS have distorted the legacy of Ahilyabai Holkar. She was secular. If she built temples, she also gave grants for the construction of Sufi shrines and masjids. We are not comfortable with the manner in which Ahilyabai is being used to legitimise the politics of BJP-RSS.”
Ironically, while the BJP functionaries highlight Ahilyabai’s contribution in the development of sites sacred to Hindus, including in Varanasi, the party is on the defensive over the alleged damage done to a madhi (raised platform) at Manikarnika Ghat in the city on January 10 during a demolition drive undertaken as part of the redevelopment of the ghat. (Manikarnika Ghat holds a unique significance for Hindus as it is believed that being cremated at this ghat grants moksha [liberation].)
Protests against the demolition
Protests erupted when it was alleged that the demolition damaged the idols of Ahilyabai, who had in 1791 restored Manikarnika Ghat, one of the few sites where she placed idols in her own image worshipping the Ganga. Ahilyabai’s descendants expressed outrage and hurt over the alleged damage to the madhi and Ahilyabhai’s idols.
The Khasgi Devi AhilyaBai Holkar Charities Trust issued a statement on January 14 signed by its president, Yeshwantrao Holkar, in which it was stated: “On January 10, 2026, without due notice or warning, allegedly under instructions from the municipal authorities, Manikarnika Ghat was demolished in a matter of hours. This was done with complete disregard to the site’s history or importance.” In a statement issued on January 19, the trust said that the idols of Ahilyabai were recovered and relocated to the Gurudham temple in Varanasi.
The BJP finds itself in a tricky situation as opposition parties have accused it of disrespecting the very person it has been projecting as its icon. On the back foot because of these developments in Varanasi, the Yogi Adityanath government accused the opposition parties of spreading fake, AI-generated videos of the demolition of Ahilyabai’s idols. Chief Minister Adityanath visited Varanasi on January 17 and asserted that no idols of Ahilyabai had been damaged. The Varanasi Municipal Corporation launched a probe to find out if there had been any negligence during the demolition, even as FIRs were filed against several people, including political leaders such as Sanjay Singh of the Aam Aadmi Party and Lok Sabha MP Rajesh Ranjan (known popularly as Pappu Yadav), for allegedly circulating AI-generated videos and images of the demolition.
“The Manikarnika Ghat incident, together with the ire of the dominant castes over the UGC [University Grants Commission] guidelines to curb discrimination, as well as the BJP’s dispute with Shankaracharya Swami and Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati, have together created an unusual situation where the BJP is on the defensive over its primary political agenda and is being asked questions by its core support base,” said the senior journalist and political commentator Ravindra Jain.
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The Varanasi incident also threatens to create problems for the party as it bids to expand beyond its core dominant caste support base. Besides celebrating Ahilyabai as a champion of the Hindu cause, the party has been highlighting the queen’s backward caste origins in an attempt to reach out to OBCs. Ahilyabai is revered by the Gadariya community (originally shepherds) as an icon and symbol of pride. The Holkars belong to the Dhangar caste from Maharashtra, a sub-caste of Gadariya. Other Gadariya sub-castes include Pal and Baghel.
After its poor showing in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha election in 2024, the BJP recalibrated its strategy to reach out to OBC communities such as the Mali, Dhangar, and Vanjare, a strategy that is popularly referred to as the MADHAV (MA for Mali, DH for Dhangar, and V for Vanjare) formula.
The Gadariyas, who are estimated to form around 8.5 per cent of the population in Uttar Pradesh, are an important part of the OBC pie that the BJP wants within its fold. However, the anger amongst and the protests by the Dhangar, Pal, and Baghel communities over the events that unfolded in Varanasi show that the BJP might face an uphill task in its efforts to seek their support.
“The entire community is deeply pained over the bulldozing of the ghat in Varanasi. I have gone there and I have seen the damage done to the ghat and the idols of Ahilyabai first-hand. And when we protested, the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh lathicharged us and filed cases against us,” said J.P. Dhangar, president of the Rashtriya Dhangar Mahasabha.
The Gadariyas have also expressed dissatisfaction with their share in power and representation in decision-making processes. Sensing their discontent, the Samajwadi Party appointed Shyam Lal Pal, a Gadariya, as its State president in the middle of the Lok Sabha election in 2024.
But anger persists in the communities. Jankar said: “We do not trust either the intent or the policies of the BJP and the RSS. There is anger in the community over not being given any political representation. Not a single MP has been sent from our community in Maharashtra. Our people are now educated. We are no longer just bhed bakri wala [sheep and goat farmers] people. We want to go to Delhi.”
Almost inevitably, politics appears to have come in the way of an honest retelling of Ahilyabai’s story, with many important aspects of the peace-loving queen’s reign being drowned out in the political din.
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