Just finished The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor
Emperor Babur spends most of his ink on military and political events, e.g., “The Domain of Kabul is a fastness hard for a foreign enemy to penetrate”. Much of his effort was in dealing with the treachery of family and friends, any of whom could be relied upon to grab for power if Babur went away for a few days. Babur finds time to describe cities and forts, however, and the climate and agricultural riches of various areas: “[Kabul has a very pleasant climate. If the world has another so pleasant, it is not known.”
Babur talks about his own love and sexual desire for a young boy (see nytimes.com and foxnews for how this tradition endures) but mentions almost nothing about young women except that they can be married for political advantage and that sometimes produce children. Drugs and alcohol are consumed in abundance, though Babur recognizes this as un-Islamic and mentions a desire to return to strict observance of Sharia upon his 40th birthday. Babur describes the mix of ethnic groups in Kabul and the profits possible for traders. Babur and his fellows have a tremendous passion for hunting, fishing, and bird-catching.
The last portion of the book covers Babur’s forays into present-day India and Pakistan (whose split, in a way, he can take credit for, having installed Islam in India). Shades of modern-day Fortune 500 companies, Babur marvels at the inexhaustible supply of reasonably skilled labor available in India.
The book can be a bit tough to follow for a Westerner since about half of the people described are named either “Muhammad” or “Hussein” or both. Also, the violence described might make the book disturbing to children. Dogs are treated with cruelty (though not killed, per some of Mohammed’s orders regarding dogs). Enemies may be beheaded, skinned alive, and tortured. Some Muslim groups coexist with Babur’s army, but non-Muslim tribes generally have their men killed and their women and children enslaved. Modern-day Afghanistan is like a tea party compared to the violence described by Babur, who was in fact the perpetrator of much of the violence.
One big difference between Babur’s expeditions and ours is that Babur never went anywhere except for a profit. He was after tribute, taxes, and plunder and would not have engaged in a cash-draining war.
It has to be said that Babur was a Timurid princeling of what is now Uzbekistan (the Uzbeks later drove the Timurid descendants of Tamerlan away), not an Afghan. He merely passed through Afghanistan, and never really held it. Even after conquering half of India, what he really wanted was to recover Samarkand. His memoirs are unique for not being ghost-written in the ghastly florid prose of Persian-style court poets, unlike most of his counterparts’. Come to think of it, would any US President’s memoirs be as direct?
As for Islam in India, it was present long before him, Arab traders having sailed and established in South India as far back as the 7th century, and North India being subject to a series of invaders, starting with Mahmud of Ghazni, 4 centuries before Babur. The people he toppled were the Lodi sultanate of Delhi, and he and his successors would ally (and intermarry) with the Rajputs against other competing Muslim rulers like the formidable Afghan Sher Shah Suri, or the Shia dynasty of Golkonda.
The history of the time should not exclusively be seen in terms of religiously motivated warfare. Those were often just mere rationalizations for propaganda purposes, that were exhumed by the British to keep Indians divided. Even Hindu people like the Rajputs were themselves originally Central Asian nomadic invaders who later assimilated. Even the British were well on the way to do the same before 1857, if you read William Dalrymple’s excellent book “White Mughals”. North India has always been a crossroads scoured by periodic invasions, just like the Middle East or Western Europe.
Fazal: I did not mean to imply that Babur was the first to bring Islam into India, only that the Mughal Empire made Islam a much more popular and widespread religion than if India had not been ruled by Muslims. Nor did I mean to imply that Babur’s warfare was in any way religiously motivated. Sometimes he describes his mass killings of defeated men as motivated by them not being Muslims, but he does not mention Jihad or religion in general as a reason for his battles. He seldom gives a rationale for a battle, in fact. When he does it is in terms of the possibilities for financial gain.
Dear Phil,
Namaskar to you !
I came across your blog and wish to share my experience with you.
The blog that you have shared with us, cannot be considered as trustworthy for yourself until and unless, you go in-dept of all the historical events that took place before and after Babar’s expeditions. It is closely tied with India, where they looted all the money, resources and massacred humans. Their intentions were always common:
– To keep up with their teachings in their sacred texts.
Even today, we can see that there are beggars (Genuine) and people below poverty. These people have primary requirement for bread and water. That is why, these people can easily be converted or exploited to any extent. These people surrendered to these exploiters. On the other hand, people in Islamic communities even if are below poverty, would not surrender for bread and butter as they have already surrendered to their GOD.
No-one has seen God. even if GOD exists then it would be a matter of debate whether he is he or she is she! (I mean to say if he/she has any gender organ associated with it with mouth to eat, ear to listen and eyes to see).
The Islamic Cruelity, Openness in Christianity and Hindu Liberalism have nothing in common.
India celebrates its independence on 15th of July as they consider themselves enslaved by English. But is this the reality ?
Indians were enslaved by Islam for 1000 years, so logically, if the Independence is marked for ousting English from Indian Soil then to justify the true independence Islam should be ousted from India as well.
I am not against Islam for the community in particular. I support logical reasoning and not the textual beliefs of 72 virgins. Islamic/Christian/Hindu propaganda have created confusions. Hinduism when was part of Vedas, was pure and perfect and based on rationalism. To incorporate other religions/areas/tribes, Hinduism adopted a fairy-tale religion. I would often call it as surrender by a poor and exploited to the more flexible system to survive. Hinduism has become so flexible that even so-called muslims of weaker-sections are also considered as part of Hindus.
When we consider English as colonial and imperialistic, they definitely exploited the resources and fought with owners of the land, state and countries. They never massacred entire state subjected to war. They never raped girls, women and children. They developed railway/roadways network, so as to exploit the natural resources but they never ran-sacked and demolished Temples/Mosques. They forged history of the concerned states, but they never did anything which could became a part of history to not to be forgotten.
Wars are inevitable as they are related to many issues and contributed by many factors. From 1950 onwards, people in the West [Christians] have realized that they should live in peace and harmony with each other. Same is happening with Indians and other Asians. When we expect the same thing from some of the famous Cruel-communities, they deny the rational fact that we are humans. For them, the law of science is that they are pure breeds of God. None except them has the right to live peacefully, if denies to adhere to their textual beliefs.
That is why, please research about the status of India and answer the question as to when India was enslaved ?
I hope my concerns are read and questions are addressed in a rational way and not by the means of a textual medium.
Regards,
Saty