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"Farmers
have eaten sour grapes and children's teeth are set on
edge" - Old Testament
 Now
that the Ayodhya Ram Temple issue is once again to the fore,
preceded by a communal riot triggered following the Godhra
incident where 58 Hindu Kar Sevaks were charred to death
allegedly by Muslims, it is time once again to go back in
time and turn the leaves of history books for understanding
the Mughal conquest of Hindu India. It began in April 1526
when the armies of the Sultan of Delhi Ibrahim Lodi and
Babur met at Panipat, 80 kms due North of Delhi and Ibrahim
Lodi lost the battle.
Zahir-ud-din-Muhammad, otherwise known
as Babur or "The Tiger", was showing interest in the disturbed
affairs of Punjab, which was nominally under the Lodi rule.
Since Punjab bordered Babur's Afghan kingdom, he made his
first foray across the northwest frontier into Punjab in
the year 1505. Sikandar Lodi, who was at that time the Sultan
of Delhi, did not take Babur's ambitions seriously. Instead,
he was focusing on Tomars, the Rajputs of Gwalior.
While
the Lodis squabbled amongst themselves, Babur after 20 years and five exploratory incursions, toppled
Sikander's successor and took both Delhi and Agra after
the decisive battle at Panipat in April 1526 thus inaugurating
in India a Mongol or Mughal empire. This Mughal Empire ruled
India as supreme power for two centuries covering most part
of India. Surprisingly, nobody called Babur "Tiger of India".
Otherwise, today we would be praising Babur too as "Tiger
of India!"
Here
a thought crosses my mind. People who have no self-esteem
or pride and are happy always admiring the real or imaginary
virtue of other people, their culture and their proselytizing
religion, are bound to perish at the end of a century or
after many centuries like the civilization of Greece, Rome,
Persia so on and so forth. In fact, it was slowly happening
to India, but then British came….
The
multilateral Indian sub-continent began to jell into the
monolithic Indian sub-continent with Babur as first of the
great Mughals. In retrospect, it was a starting point and
a blessing in disguise to unite a balkanized Hindu India
of many kingdoms. Babur was a great warrior and a born adventurer.
No wonder, a British historian has spoken of him a few words:
"To Babur, success was an ultimate certainty and failure
but a temporary inconvenience". What a beautiful expression
of Babur's self-confidence and fighting quality!
According to historians, Babur always sought publicity.
He made decisions after deliberations. He was charismatic
and convivial and rejoiced in the adulation of his comrades.
His career in India after the battle of Panipat seeks volumes
for his courage and genius. He loved life and was a mighty
toper, known as a chronic drinker. Yet he was repentant
of sinfulness of intoxicants. However, whenever there was
a war to be fought he would give up alcohol and impose prohibition.
His life was as much dictated by fate as by his forebears-
ancestors.
It
is said, on his mother's side Babur was a distant descendant
of the legendary Chenghiz Khan of Mongolia and on his father's
side, he was a fifth-generation descendant of Timur (who
had in 1938 sacked the Tughluqs' Delhi). No doubt, Babur
was a child of destiny being a descendant of Timur thereby
making a "dubious claim to legitimate sovereignty in northern
India". It appears, Babur had least interest either in India
or Kabul because his inheritance from his parents was in
Ferghana, a minor kingdom to the east of modern city of
Tashkent in central Asia.
Babur
was born in Ferghana in the year 1484. He was of Mongol
blood and was educated here. Turki was his first language.
He loved the language very much, so much so he called himself
and his followers as Turks. Islam, of course, was his religion
and used this faith effectively in the exigencies of military
campaigns.
to
be continued….
Part 1 | Part2
K.B.Ganapathy,
Editor,
Star of Mysore, Evening daily,
Mysore.
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