Question

Enlist the factor which led babar to conquer India

Answer 1

The grand Mughal Empire was founded by Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur the Chaghati Turkish Mughal emperor, who according to all estimates is one of the most fascinating personalities in all history. He spent his greater part of his life outside India and though Lane-Poole says, his permanent place in history rests upon his Indian conquests. Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur was born on 14th February 1483 in Andijan the capital city of Ferghana now in Uzbekistan. He was the son of Umer Sheikh Mirza, the sovereign of Ferghana, by his wife Kutlug-Nigar Khanum Begum ,the daughter of Yunis Khan Mongol descended from Chaghati Khan, the second son of Changaiz Khan (Temuchign). Although Babur hailed from the Barlas tribe which was of Mongol origin, his tribe had embraced Turkic and Persian culture, converted to Islam and resided in Turkestan and Khorasan. His mother tongue was the Chaghatai language (known to Babur as Turki, “Turkic”) and he was equally at home in Persian, the lingua franca of the Timurid elite. Babur the fearless military commander entered in to the heart of India in 1526 A.D. When Ibrahim Lodhi ascended the throne in1517 A.D., the political structure in the Lodi dynasty had dissolved due to abandoned trade routes and the depleted treasury. The Deccan was a coastal trade route, but in the late fifteenth century the supply lines had collapsed. The decline and eventual failure of this specific trade route resulted in cutting off supplies from the coast to the interior, where the Lodi Empire resided. The Lodi Dynasty was not able to protect itself if warfare were to break out on the trade route roads; therefore, they didn‟t use those trade routes, thus their trade declined and so did their treasury leaving them vulnerable to internal political problems. Sultan Ibrahim Lodi the Ghazali Afghan (1489–1526 A.D), the youngest son of Sikandar, was the last Sultan of Delhi and a fearless military leader and kept out the opposition for almost a decade. He was engaged in warfare with the Afghans and the Mughals for most of his reign and died trying to keep the Lodi Dynasty from annihilation but was defeated in 1526 at the Battle of Panipat. This marked the end of the Sultanate of Delhi, and the rise of the Mughal Empire in India led by Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur.

Answer 2

Answer:

Babar obtained Kabul and Ghazni in Oct. 1504. “Without a fight, without an effort.” in view of the internal disorder there. He also conquered Kandhar, only to lose it within a few weeks. In 1511 Babar with the help of Shah Ismail Safavi of lran recovered Samarqand and also occupied Bukhara and Khurasan. As a price for Shah’s help, Babar even embraced Shiaism and agreed to accept Shah’s suzerainty, a step which Humanyun had to repeat during his exile in Iran. This also created lots of problems for all subsequent Mughal rulers as the Shah of Iran continued to claimed suzerainty over the Mughal empire. However, Babar was defeated in May 1512 by Ubaid Ullah Khan at Kul-I Malik and was eventually forced to abandon the entire Trans-oxiana. Thus ended in smoke his dreams in Central Asia and was forced to think of India.

Ibrahim Lodi had ascended the throne of Delhi in 1517. A headstrong prince, he failed to carry most of his nobles along. Many of the top ranking Lodi, Lohani, Farmuli and Niyazi Afghans revolted and the Sultan had to resort to force to suppress their rebellions. Alam Khan Lodi, an uncle of the Sultan, claimed the throne of Delhi for himself and was supported by some disaffected nobles. Daulat Khan Lodi,the governor of Punjab, behaved like a defacto ruler. When sultan tried to contain Daulat Khan he went to the extent of joining hands with Babar. The sultan imprisioned Dilawar Khan, Daulat Khan’s son, but he managed to escape.

Ibrahim Lodi sent a army to Punjab and was able to defeat Daulat Khan. At this point of time Babar led his fourth expedition to India, captured Punjab and divided it among Daulat Khan, Dilawar Khan and Alam Khan.

Soon after Babar’s return to Kabul Alam Khan tried to capture Delhi. He succeeded in gathering an army of 30 to 40 thousand men and his game plan was to attack Delhi at night so that taking advantage of the dark and without a loss of face, the disaffected Afghan nobles could cross over to his side. Ibrahim also feared this development and stayed inside his tent till dawn when the invaders were attacked and repulsed.

However, this raid made it clear that Ibrahim was not in a position to fully trust his own men, particularly if the battle was fought at night.

Babar reached Panipat on April 12, 1526 and feared an immediate attack by Ibrahim. However, this did not happen. Ibrahim fully understood his advantage, had no intention to attack. His plan was to force Babar to face the Indian summer and cut off his supplies. Certainly the Indian summer could have done the same thing to Babar as the North Indian winter did to Marathas in 1761. It was for this reason that Ibrahim refused to be provoked by raids of Babar during the next seven days. This made Babar desperate. His army was on the verge of loosing heart as he himself admits. On the advice of his”Hindustani well wishers” he sent a raiding party of four to five thousand men against Ibrahim on the night of 18th-19th April. The raid failed but was enough to scare Ibrahim who wanted to avoid a night battle for fear of internal sabotage These were the circumstances which made Ibrahim change his well thought out plan and accept the risk of an offensive, which led to his defeat.

Had Ibrahim been sure of the loyality of his own men, he would have struck to his original plan and forced Babar to retreat. It also makes clear that the mutual distrust of the Afghans played as big a role in their defeat at Panipat as the guns and Tulghama of Babar. There is every reason to believe that the event could have taken the opposite tum had the Afghans not been a house divided against themselves. Alam Khan who worked against the Afghan cause was ignored after Panipat and Dilawar Khan subsequently died in the prision of Shershah, who expelled from India Humayun, the son and successor of Babar.