Dr. Ishwari Prasad has
very aptly pointed out that “India was a congeries of States at the beginning
of the 16th century, and likely to be the easy prey of an invader
who had the strength and will to attempt
her conquest.” In fact, there was no strong central authority in the country
and it was divided into numerous “mutual warring States” to achieve the
supremacy of power. Of course, there was no State hesitating to do so, provided
it had the required sufficient strength for it. The Indian sub-continent was a
disintegrated one, and the advantage of this disintegration was gained by the
invader, Babur, as Edwards and Garrett have very wisely reaffirmed, ”As had
happened more than once in past history, the internal dissensions of the
country made it an easy prey to a determined invader.”
Babur, in his
Tuzuq-i-Babari, mentions the political conditions of the country: “At the time
when I conquered that country, five Mussalman kings (of Delhi, Bengal, Malwa,
Gujrat and the Bahmanis) and two Pagans (of Mewar and Vijayanagar) exercised
the royal authority. Although there were many small and inconsiderable Rais and
Rajas in the hills and woody country, yet these were the chief and the only
ones of importance.”
I.
Delhi:
The Central Power: The first Muslim ruler mentioned by
Babur is the Sultan of Delhi. In the beginning of the 16th century,
it was under the rule of Sikander Lodhi (1489 – 1517 A.D.), who had succeeded his
father, Bahlol (1452 – 1489 A.D.). Sikander proved to be a successful ruler,
although by his dogmatic policy he lost the confidence of the non-Muslim
subjects, yet succeeded in winning the hearts of his chiefs and nobles, upon
whose support his power rested.
In 1517 A.D., Sikander was succeeded by
Ibraham Lodhi, on whose accession, comments Ahmed Yadgar, “many nobles became
aware of his fieble disposition and raised the standard of opposition.” In
fact, he lacked all those qualities which were essential for a ruler. As the
chiefs and soldiers were satisfied with Sikander, the situation had totally
changed under Ibraham. It was under him that the Afghans were divided on the
question of the Division of Empire. Many nobles stood to revolt against him.
All this was because of his proud and suspicious nature. He even adopted a very
stern policy against his own relatives and chiefs, and even declared that
‘kingship knows no kinship’. The result was that Punjab and Jaunpur openly
started rebellious activities. Therefore, Rushbrooke Williams writes, ”Not only
did he alienate his nobles upon whose support his power rested, not only did he
drive into active opposition the very men he ought to have conciliated at all
hazards, but to make matters worse, he attempted to play the tyrant.”
II.
Other
States in the North
(A) Muslim Zonal States-
1.
Towards
the East of Delhi:
(a) Jaunpur: In
1473 A.D, Bahlol Lodhi defeated the Sharqi ruler of Jaunpur, and since this
period the State was under the Delhi Sultan. But in 1517 A.D, Jalal Khan led a
revolt against his brother, Sultan Ibraham. However, the revolt was crushed.
Jalal Khan was imprisoned while trying to flee, and the Sultan got him murdered
privately, when he was being taken to Hansi.
(b) Bihar:
Immediately after the accession of Ibraham Lodhi to the throne, the Eastern
region openly raised the revolt. The Afghans in Bihar formed independent State
under Darya Khan Lohani, who remained its ruler in the first quarter of the 16th
century.
(c) Bengal:
Nasir-ud-Din Nusrat Shah of the Hussain dynasty was the ruler of Bengal. He was
a very efficient and capable administrator and also a very ambitious person In
the East, he was the most powerful ruler and by 1521 A.D, he had extended his
kingdom to Monghyr and Hajipur. He was very popular among his subjects and was
the first Muslim ruler in Bengal to form the composite culture there. He got
some Hindu books, including the Mahabharata
translated into Bengali.
2.
In
the South-West of Delhi
(a)
Malwa:
About
the ruler of Malwa, Babur writes, “Sultan Mahmud reigned in the country of
Malwa, which they likewise call Mandu. This dynasty was Khalji. Rana Sanka, a
Pagan, had defeated them and occupied a number of their provinces. This dynasty
had also become weak.”
In 1519 A.D, during the rule of Mahmud
II, Malwa fell into the hands of a Rajput, Medini Rai. He gave all the high
posts to the Rajputs, which caused jealousy to Mahmud II and other Muslims.
Mahmud got help from Muzaffar Shah of Gujrat, but Medini Rai with Rana Sanga’s support
defeated Mahmud, but restored him to his throne.
(b)
Gujrat:
It
was ruled by the Tang race. In the opening of the 16th century, its
ruler was Mohammad Begarha (1458 – 1511 A.D.), the greatest ruler of Gujrat. He
was succeeded by Muzaffar Shah II, the contemporary ruler of Babur’s invasions.
For him, Babur writes, “He was a prince, well skilled in learning and fond of
reading the hadis. He was constantly
employed in writing the Koran.” He
was defeated by Mewar’s Rana Sanga in 1519 A.D. His death in 1526 A.D caused
political confusion in the State.
3.
Towards
North-West of Delhi
(A) The Muslim States:
(a)
Punjab:
During
the first quarter of the 16th century, Punjab was a part of the
Delhi Sultanate. Its governor, Daulat Khan Lodhi, had become a rebel because of
the stern policy of Sultan Ibraham. He started making preparations to assume
independence and in order to accomplish his ambitions, he sought help from
Babur, and invited him to invade India. Dr. A.L. Srivastava writes, “The
north-western province of the Sultanate was thus not in a position to put up
any resistance against a foreign invader.”
(b)
Kashmir:
Zain-ul-Abidin (1420 – 1470A.D.), the Sultan of Kashmir, adopted the policy of
religious toleration and is known as the Akbar of Kashmir. Mohammad Shah
remained the ruler of Kashmir from 1499 A.D. to 1526 A.D. However, Kashmir did
not play any important role in the politics of Northern India.
(c)
Sind:
The Sumras ruled over Sind up to 1521 A.D, when its ruler Feroz was defeated by
Shah Beg Arghun, the ruler of Qandahar and laid the foundation of the Arghun
dynasty. He was succeeded by his son, Shah Hussain, who also annexed Multan.
(B) The Hindu States
(a)
Orissa:
Orissa
was ruled by Rudra Pratap Dev during this period. No Muslim ruler was
successful in defeating this State. Though Orissa was not interested in the
politics of Northern India, it remained in constant wars against the Muslim State
of Bengal in the east and the Hindu State of Vijayanagar in the South.
(b)
Mewar:
The ruler of Mewar was the lion hearted Rajput, Rana Sangram Singh, better
known as Rana Sanga, who according to Babur “has attained his present high
eminence only in these later times by his own valor and his sword. His original
principality was Chittor. During the confusion that prevailed among the princes
of the kingdom of Mandu, he seized a number of provinces which had depended on
Mandu, such as Rantpur, Sarangpur, Bhilsan and Chanderi.”
Rana Sanga was the head of the Rajput
clan of his times and the most superior power in India. He was an experienced
warrior who had fought 18 pitched battles against the rulers of Malwa and
Delhi. He was a great diplomat and an ambitious ruler. With the assistance of
other Hindu rulers of the Central Provinces, he wanted to establish the Hindu
rule in the entire North, overthrowing the Muslim States. For his ambitious
task he even joined hands with Babur against Ibraham Lodhi.
III.
States
in South India
1.
Muslim
Zone
(a)
Khandesh:
The
territory of Khandesh lay between the rivers Narmada and Tapti. Gujrat had been
trying to annex Khandesh, resulting to which both the States remained in
constant wars. Since 1508 A.D, there was no stability in the politics of
Khandesh. Adil Khan III was the ruler of Khandesh till 1520 A.D, and was
succeeded by Mohammad I. Khandesh showed no interest in the politics of North
India, because of the long distance between Delhi and Khandesh
(b)
Bahmani
Kingdom: Mahmud Gawan was an able Prime Minister of the Bahmani
Kingdom. However, immediately after his death in 1481 A.D, the downfall of the
Kingdom started. After 1482 A.D, it split into five independent States: (i)
Ahmednagar, (ii) Bijapur, (iii) Golconda, (iv) Bidar, and (v) Berar. These
States remained in constant mutual warfare, and also against the Hindu
Vijayanagar Empire.
In the Bahmani States, there were two
factions consisting of
(i) Indian nobles – who were the native
Muslims, and
(ii) Turkish nobles – who came from Central
Asian territories.
These
political factions resulted into the political confusion in the States.
Internally, as well as externally, the position was not very good.
2.
Hindu
State of Vijayanagar: Vijayanagar was the most extensive
Hindu State in India. During the opening of the 16th century, it was
under the Saluva dynasty (1490 A.D. – 1505 A.D.) and was succeeded by the
Taluva dynasty. Krishnadeva Raya (15009 A.D. – 1530 A.D.) was the greatest
ruler of this empire. He was a great diplomat and an able economist.
Militarily, the State was extremely strong under his rule. It can be noted by
the fact that he defeated the Bahmanis many a times. He w as also engaged in
direct clashes with Orissa and Mysore.
3.
Advent
of a foreign power : Portuguese
The Portuguese were a newly established foreign
power in the South. Albuquerque was an undaunted Governor of the Portuguese. In
1510 A.D, the Portuguese defeated the Bahmanis, annexed Goa from them and
established themselves there.
Military
strength: Militarily, India cannot be said to be a weak power
at that time, even though it did not face the enemy successfully. Numerically,
its strength is estimated to be nearly 7 lakhs. Rana Sanga is believed to have
assistance of seven Rajas, nine Raos, 104 chieftains with titles of Rawat and
Rawal, 500 war-elephants, 80,000 horsemen, adding to it unlimited cavalry. Thus
in numbers, Indian army was not weak. But number never cares for the military
power of a country. In case of India, lack of unity and the inexperience of the
Indians was the major reason of the weakness of India’s military strength. For
Sultan Ibraham Lodhi, Babur writes, he “was an inexperienced young man,
careless in his movements, who marched without order, halted or retired without
method and engaged without foresight.”
The Indian States were
not equipped with modern arms, which had weakened them militarily. Moreover,
the Jagirdari system was also the worse. Dr. A.L. Srivastava has summed up the
military conditions of India as: “Though there was no dearth of soldierly
talent, we lagged behind other countries in matter of military progress,
qualities and caliber of weapons and development of tactics. … The
fortification and defense of the north-western frontier was completely
neglected. The military condition of the country was thus far from satisfactory.”
Thus the political
conditions in India were far from satisfactory during the opening of the 16th
century. There was not a single State to face an invader successfully. What we
find in the politics is the attempts made to fulfill the selfish motives by the
native chiefs and nobles. Prof. Rushbrooke Williams sums up the conditions in
these words, “The Muhammedan powers were weak, distracted by their own
divisions; the Rajput confederacy, led by Mewar, was almost ready to seize the
empire which lay within its grasp. But the Fates willed otherwise. That Sangram
Singh was cheated of his prize, that the forces of Islam were re-established,
that the Rajputs were doomed to endure rather than enjoy.”
