Fw: [vedic_research_institute] Did Babur Love India?

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Did Babar love India?Vinod

Kumarhttp://www.kashmirherald.com/featuredarticle/babar1.htmlPart IThere is an

extremely disturbing and alarming trend amongst the Indian intelligentsia to

glean from history what suits their bias. Rather than accept the historical

fact that the Muslim invasion of India has, by almost all accounts (including

the historical writings of the invaders themselves), been the bloodiest in the

history of the World, these "scholars" try to project a more "respectable"

account of the Islamic invasion of India. Anyone who rejects this rosy picture

of history is immediately dismissed as being a Hindutva freak. Thus, when even

a respected journalist like Naipaul, dares to speak the truth, he is accused of

succumbing to the Hindutva propaganda. Amulya Ganguli in one of articles in The

Hindustan Times claims that Naipaul has a "warped vision of (Indian) history"

and yet it is actually Ganguli who distorts Indian history by trying to present

Babur as someone who loved India.Ganguli claims that "There is nothing in

Babur-nama to indicate that Babur "despised" India. Citing Babur's description

of India flora and fauna, Ganguli tries to prove Babur loved India. That, if

anything is a tremendous stretch. Five years of Babur's memoirs prior to his

fifth and final expedition to India are missing -- so we shall never know what

his exact motives were, but one thing that is clearly evident from the portions

of the Babur-nama that have survived is that what Babur liked most about India,

were its "masses of gold and silver" and the large revenue (52 krurs --

estimated by Erskine to be 4,212,000 British Pounds).The following couplet,

taken from the Babur-nama, might give some clue as to why Babur came to

India:"For Islam's sake, I wandered the wilds,Prepared for war with pagans and

Hindus,Resolved myself to meet the martyr's death,Thanks be to God ! a ghazi I

became."Unable to bear the heat and other travails of the country, soon after

coming to India, a large section Babur's army wanted to return to Kabul. This

naturally concerned him. He summoned all his generals, took counsel, and and

made a stirring speech: "By the labours of several years, by encountering

hardship, by long travel, by flinging myself and the army into battle, and by

deadly slaughter, we, through God's grace beat these masses of enemies in order

that we might take their broad lands. Why after all this should we abandon

countries taken at such a risk? Was it for us to remain in Kabul, the sport of

harsh poverty?"Loathing Hindustan, Khwaja Kalan, one of his generals left India

with the following couplet inscribed on the wall of his residence in Dihli:"If

safe and sound I cross the Sind,Blacken my face ere I wish to for Hind"Babur

longed for Kabul and what he thought of Hindustan is evident from the following

verse written to Mulla Ali Khan who had gone there:"As for you have gone from

this country of Hind,Aware for yourself of its woes and its pain,With longing

desire for Kabul's fine air,You went hot-foot forth out of Hind.The pleasure

you looked for you will have found thereWith sociable ease and charm and

delight;As for us, God be thanked ! we are still alive,In spite of much pain

and unending distress;Pleasure of sense and bodily toilHave been passed-by by

you, passed-by too by us"Babur contemplated leaving India several times -- he

was here only for four years -- but he was not going to leave his empire which

he had built with so "much hardship" and "great slaughter" and where he had

found immense wealth on a mere whim without securing it properly. What he could

not do -- leave Hindustan -- while alive, he did after his death by leaving

instructions that his body be conveyed and buried in Kabul. India, for him was

a place to be conquered for Islam. And he wrote: "by the help of our victorious

soldiers the standards of Islam have been raised to the highest

pinnacles."Babur's heart was always in Kabul and Tramontana as he expressed in

his letter to Khwaja Kalan who, as stated above, had left for Kabul

earlier:"Boundless and infinite is my desire to go to those parts. Matters are

coming to some sort of settlement in Hindustan. This work brought to order,

God willing! My start will be made at once. How should a person forget the

pleasant things of those countries?"Ganguli describes Babur's visit to temples

on September 29, 1528, in Gualiar which is described on page 613 of his memoirs

translated by Beveridge and comments "There is little to suggest from these

passages that Babur was full of animus against the Hindus." But Ganguli in his

zest to "glean from history what suits his bias" conveniently forgets to tell

the readers what Babur did a day earlier on September 28, at Urwa described on

the preceding page. In Babur's own words "Three sides of Urwa are solid rocks,

not the rocks of Biana but one paler in colour. On these sides people have cut

out idol-statues, large and small, one large statue on the south side being

perhaps 20 qari (yds) high. Urwa is not bad place; it is shut in; the idols

are its defect; I for my part, ordered them destroyed."He also conveniently

forgets to talk about the transformation of a temple into a mosque at Sambhal

and in Ayodhya on Babur's orders.To from this group, send an email

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