Babur’s invasion of India marked the start of a dynasty which would rule India for centuries to come. Ibrahim Lodi’s defeat to Babur in the battle of Panipat in1526 ended the rule of the Delhi Sultanate and started the rule of the Mughal empire. The early Mughal rulers faced many challenges while they were attempting to consolidate their position in India.  In this essay, we will see what kind of challenges were faced my Babur and his successor Humayun.

One of the first challenges faced by Babur came from his own men. His men thought that as the conquest was over, they had no reason to stay in India and wanted to go back. This above statement is supported by Satish Chandra who informs us that, “Many of his begs and armymen thought that their struggles had been amply rewarded and it was time to return home! As it was,  they found little in India to attract them”( Chandra 2007.  p. 31). There was also a lot of discontent between the local population and Babur’s men. Babur’s begs found India as a foreign country in every way as they were not used to the hot climate and “ Neither ( baked) bread, nor the hamams ( public baths), or social intercourse of the type they were accustomed to were available in India” ( Chandra 2007, p.32). Babur dealt with this challenge by calling a council meeting and informing his men that he would refuse to leave India. However, he told his nobles that if they wanted to go back they could. Fortunately for him, only one of his nobles went away. He also faced challenges from his own brothers and the Timurid princes as they had wanted to follow the Timurid tradition of partioning the empire.

Babur also faced external challenges during his time in India, from Rana Sangha and from the Afghans that had occupied the eastern part of India. It is important to know that it was Rana Sangha who had initially invited Babur to invade India as he thought that Babur would come to India, defeat the Afghans, loot their cities and go back home, just like his predecessors had done. Rana’s strategy took a major blow went he found out that Babur had decided to stay in India and establish an empire. He saw this as a bigger threat than the Afghan and thus , “ After the battle of Panipat,  Sangha began to  make efforts to gather around a grand coalition which would either compel Babur to leave India, or confine him to Punjab” ( Chandra 2007, p. 33)  Even though Rana Sangha formed a Rajput-Afghan alliance, he suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of Babur in the battle of Khanua on 16 March 1527. He dies in 1528 when he was poisoned by his own sardars as Rana Sangha wanted to restart his conflict with Babur and they thought that this plan was suicidal. Babur also defeated the Afghans who were led by Biban and Shaikh Bayazid in the battle of Ghagra on 5 May 1529, and thus gave a complete victory to the Mughals.

After Babur’s death, his son Humayun faced an uphill task in trying to continue his fathers' legacy. One of the major concerns was the administration of the empire. Babur’s system of administration “ implied leaving the task of day to day administration largely in the hands of his begs who were given large tracts in the assignment ( wajh).” ( Chandra 2007, p. 47). Humayun wanted to centralize the administration.  Humayun was very conquest-oriented and thus paid most of his attention towards expanding his empire and paid little focus towards the administration.

Like Babur, even Humayun had internal conflicts during his reign. After his brother Kamran captured Punjab, it amounted to a de facto partition of the empire. This showed weakness in Humayun and because of that many expected his two older brothers, Askari and Hindal, to also stake their claims. During his reign, Babur had also harbored some Timurids who had fled from the Uzbeks. After Babur’s death, even these Timurids wanted to take advantage of Humayun and pressed to have a dominion of their own.

There was more as “ Along with these internal difficulties the most serious external problem Humayun faced was that of the Afghans of the east U.P and Bihar, and that of Bahadur Shah of Gujrat”( Chandra 2007, p. 50) Bahadur Shah was a serious threat to Humayun’s reign. He was the ruler of Gujrat and he carefully monitored Humayun. There were also a lot of Afghan and Timurid refugees who had taken shelter under him and they also taught him the Ottoman's offensive and defensive strategy that had been so successful for Babur. Humayun dealt with this situation fairly well and when both their armies met at Mandsor, he cut off all the food supplies to Bahadur Shah’s camp which led to a severe food shortage and eventually led to him abandoning his camp. Thus, Bahadur Shah’s strategy was turned against himself.  Bahadur Shah was on the run from then on and was eventually killed in a fracas with the Portuguese. The Gujrat campaign had a lot of positives as “ This campaign not only showed Humayun as a vigorous leader and intrepid commander, but destroyed the threat to the Mughals from the side of Bahadur Shah” ( Chandra 2007, p. 61).

The same cannot be said for the Bengal campaign. Humayun was against a Sher Khan, who was a better general and a more skillful tactician than the former. For all of Sher Khan’s achievements, Humayun grossly underestimated him and did not see him as a real threat.  He could not be more wrong as he was promptly defeated by Sher Khan at the battle of Chausa (26 June 1539) which severely weakened him and demoralized his army.  The battle of Kannauj ( 17 May 1940) proved to be the decisive blow for Humayun as his forces were routed and thus Sher Khan was in the pole position of expelling the Mughals from India.  After an unsuccessful attempt to find allies in India, Humayun fled to Iran where he was sheltered by Shah Tahmasp. He did eventually return to capture Delhi in 1555 but died in 1556.

It was also harder for Humayun as administering the empire is much harder than just occupying it. Thus, both Babur and Humayun found it extremely hard to establish an empire in India. BIBLIOGRAPHY:-

Chandra, Satish. 2007. Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals Part Two ( 1526-1748). New Delhi: Har Anand Publications