India an Introduction by Khushwant Singh

Author:Khushwant Singh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2011-01-10T00:00:00+00:00

Babar (1526-30)

“I never ceased to think of the conquest of Hindustan,” wrote Babar in his Memoirs. He had convinced himself that as a descendant of Chenghiz, Hulagu and Taimur he had a right to conquer India. His ambitions were fired by stories he heard of India's wealth.

Babar

Babar overcame his enemies in his native Samarkand, advanced eastwards through Afghanistan into India. In the course of seven years from 1519 to 1526 he entered India five times. From the very first, Babar came determined to stay. “Do not hurt or harm the flocks or herds of these people …” he warned his soldiers. “Possession of this country by a Turk has corne down from of old; beware not to bring ruin on its people by giving way to fear or anxiety; our eye is on this land and on this people; raid and rapine shall not be.” This was said in 1519 when he was on his second expedition and in occupation of much of northwestern Punjab.

The next year when Babar came back to the Punjab he sensed that disputes between different branches of the Lodhi Afghans (one of whom ruled over Delhi) could be exploited to his advantage. After a pause of four years Babar re-entered India, and having subjugated the Punjab, made preparations to advance on Delhi. He wrote in his Memoirs: “On Friday, November 17, AD 1525, when the sun was in Sagittarius, I set out on my march to invade Hindustan … putting my foot in the stirrup of resolution, and taking in my hands the reins of faith, I marched against Sultan Ibrahim, son of Sultan Sikandar, son of Sultan Bahlol Lodhi Afghan, in whose possession the city of Delhi and Kingdom of Hindustan at that time were.”

Babar's adversary Ibrahim Lodhi was a man of limited ability. By his arrogance he had forfeited the support of his Afghan kinsmen. “Kings have no kin,” he had proclaimed somewhat haughtily. Although he was able to muster 100,000 men to oppose the 10,000 Mughals under Babar's command, not many in his host had stomach for battle. The issue was settled on the morning of the twenty-first of April 1526, on the field of Panipat. Babar's superior tactics – the deployment of cavalry against lines of chained elephants and, above all, the use of artillery – won him a decisive victory in six brief hours. By noon 20,000 of the Lodhi army, including Sultan Ibrahim, were slain and the remainder in full retreat. Babar did not give them time to regroup. He sent his son, Humayun, on to take Agra, while he himself marched to occupy Delhi.

The capture of Delhi and Agra (Humayun obtained the fabled Koh-i-noor diamond at Agra) did not bring the rest of northern India to heel. Though Babar exhorted the Indians not to “fly from our conquest”, but make terms with it, the Rajputs banded together in a determined effort to expel him from the country. They were led by Rana Sanga whose body bore marks of his martial exploits: he had lost an arm and an eye and had eighty scars on his person.

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