Zahir-ud-Din Mohammad Babur is
regarded as one of the greatest military generals and conquerors in the world.
During his life time, he found himself busy in the constant battles. The result
was that in due course he came out to be one the greatest military generals of
his time. His initial failures had taught him so many lessons of success.
‘Failures are the stepping stones to success’ prove to be true in Babur’s case.
He had been defeated many a times for Samarqand. He conquered Samarqand thrice
but to lose it all the times. His defeat in Sar-i-Pul taught him the
significance of the Tulughama. In every failure was hidden the secret of his
ultimate success.
An able general is regarded the
one who cares for his soldiers, and Babur was one amongst them. He himself suffered
pains but never thought for his pleasures and comforts while his soldiers were
suffering natural calamities. An example can be cited from Babur’s Memoirs, when after one of his
expeditions, he was trapped in a snow-fall and was forced to take shelter in a
small mountain cave. His soldiers requested him to go inside and have some
rest, but Babur did not agree with them and asked them to share the cave with
them. He writes: “I felt that for me to be in warm shelter and comfort whilst
my men were in the snow and drift, for me to be sleeping at ease inside, whilst
my men were in misery and distress, was not a man’s act, and far from
comradeship. What strong man can stand I would stand; for, as the Persian
proverb says, ‘In the company of friends, Death is a nuptial feast.’ So I
remained in the snow and wind in the hole that I had dug out, with snow four
hands thick on my head and back and ears.”
As a general, Babur also knew the
skill of using the time appropriately. His battles in India confirm this
theory, as to how excellently he displayed the one-week gap period against
Sultan Ibraham. His war-tactics and strategy on the field shows how shrewd
general he was. He knew very well how to attack and when. Every time he forced
his enemies to take the initiative, and let them crowded there, making them
helpless against his strategy. Only then did he start his task, which was made
easy for him.
However, he seems to be a
complete failure as an administrator. He took no steps to consolidate his
conquests in India. He let the prevailing institutions continue in the country.
He even failed to conciliate with the people on whom he was to rule, and this
Babur himself accepts in his diary.
Babur even failed to utilize properly
the treasures he gained from conquered territories. He spent them among the
beggars and the members of his nobility. Consequently, the administration was
weakened financially, and after his death, his successor Humayun had to face a
number of difficulties owing to financial crisis.
He knew the art of winning the
hearts of his soldiers (as he did in Kanwaha), but his subjects remained wholly
alienated to him. He was to them not a ruler but a dacoit. When he had decided
to stay in India, he should have invented new institutions and taken certain
steps in the administrative direction, but he did not care for it.
Dr. R.P. Tripathi has tried to
defend him on the following points:
(i)
He got less time to rule.
(ii)
He was a stranger to India.
(iii)
Despite these problems, he had instituted the
system of Dak-Chowki, and also had
the measurement of land.
But if we look
at these points, they do not cope with reality. The system of posting letters
was only for the private business of the government and had nothing to do for
the public. Also, the measurement of land was not in the entire country, but
was limited only around Delhi. Dr. Tripathi’s view of his being a foreigner and
stranger to India is also not acceptable. He could undertake measures with the
help of able Indians. Moreover, his period of reign was also not brief. Sher
Shah Sur also had ruled for less than five years. During this period also, he
was engaged in numerous battles, yet “he had breathed a new spirit in the old
institutions and turned them into instruments of popular good.”
Sir E.D. Ross
states that Babur held a high place among the sovereigns of his age. V.A. Smith
calls him the “most brilliant Asiatic prince of his age and worthy of a high
place among the sovereigns of any age or country.” Babur was, no doubt, one of
the greatest military generals of his time. He achieved many successes on the
battle-field, but as a statesman he remained a complete failure.
