THE RISE AND FALL OF THE MUGHAL EMPIRE
Sticking to his guns: the secret of Baber’s success
Baber’s mobile artillery was a striking innovation for India. Big guns used
in the siege of fortresses had been known in India for some time. The
Mongols had introduced them during their raids, and the sultans of Delhi
had accordingly been forced to increase their fortifications. But light field
artillery and muskets were new to India, and they gave Baber a decisive
advantage over his adversaries.
Baber was also sticking to his guns in another sense of the term: his
army was composed of more or less autonomous units led by generals
whom Baber could impress with his strategic genius, but not necessarily
with his ambitious long-term plans. These generals and their troops
wanted to go home with their loot; Baber, on the other hand, was
determined to claim India as his patrimony, as the country had once been
conquered by his ancestor Timur. From the very beginning he treated
Indians as his subjects and not as his prey, and he severely punished
marauders among his own soldiers. When Timur had come to India,
however, he had returned after a short victorious campaign; Baber’s
generals expected him to do likewise. Baber, though, had made up his mind
to stay on. He treated his generals in a diplomatic way, consulted them
before every battle, and parted amicably with those who wanted to leave.
Thus he achieved what he could not have done by simply giving orders:
many generals decided to stay with him.
Baber’s son Humayun, whom he loved very much, had participated in the
battle of Panipat as a young man. Later Baber had sent him to Afghanistan
to hold the fort there. As luck would have it, Humayun returned to Delhi
when his father was seriously ill. But then he himself became sick. Baber
prayed to God that he should take his life and save Humayun’s; God, it
seems, responded and Humayun succeeded to the throne. His succession
was by no means a foregone conclusion: according to Mughal custom all
royal princes were equally entitled to inherit power, which led to many
rivalries in later years when Mughal princes fought each other until the most
competent, the most ruthless, or simply the luckiest ascended the throne.
When Humayun succeeded Baber it was due to his good luck, for a
powerful minister had sponsored another prince and Humayun had returned
just in time to stake his claim as his father’s favourite son. This luck soon
deserted him, however. After some daring campaigns of conquest, Humayun
was deprived of his empire by the Afghan Sher Shah and, like Baber in the
wake of his defeat by the Usbeks, Humayun travelled abroad as a landless
fugitive. On one of these travels Humayun’s son, Akbar, was born in Sind in
- Humayun left him with his brother and rival in Afghanistan and went
on to Persia, where he lived in exile for several years. After Sher Shah’s death
he reconquered India in 1555 with Persian support. But only a year later he
died by falling down the steps of his library at Purana Qila in Delhi.