We often wonder just why our city and the land was invariably ruled by foreigners. They stole our wealth, murdered our people and left us ashamed of our ancient language. The unanswered remains: “Will we bounce back to greatness?”

Invariably the invaders came from the West, except for the British who first conquered Bengal and then moved westwards. They came by sea, while the remaining by land. In origin most western invaders were primarily of Uzbek origin, first taking cities of Afghanistan. Even Mahmud Ghazni was of Turkish-Uzbek origin. The warlords of Uzbekistan and Mongol areas were always fighting among themselves for control of their capital Samarkand. Those who failed moved to the south.

The last piece was about the terrible Timur the Lame and how he devastated Lahore and the Punjab countryside murdering hundreds of thousands. This holocaust took place at the end of the Tughlaq period, who were also of Turko-Uzbek-Mongol origin. To follow these barbarians was the Mughal ruler Babar, who was also of Uzbek-Mongol origin. He claimed to be an offspring of the Genghis Khan and Timur family line and sought to outdo his ancestors.

Babar was born in Andijanin, the Fergana Valley of Uzbekistan. His father Umar Shaikh Mirza II was the governor of Fergana from 1469 to 1494. Babur ascended the throne of Fergana in its capital Akhsikath in 1494 at the age of 12 and immediately faced rebellion. He conquered Samarkand two years later, only to lose Fergana soon after. In his attempt to reconquer Fergana, he lost control of Samarkand too.

The sheer strength and ferocity of the Uzbek opposition forced Babar to seek territory far from Uzbekistan. His logical choice was Afghanistan and further afar India. His writings show that he wanted a reasonable space between his future kingdom and the Uzbeks. But still he made another attempt to take Samarkand and was beaten hollow.

That experience made him concentrate on conquering India. His book titled ‘Babarnama’ clearly states that he had no option but to head eastwards. He wanted to restrict his ‘planned’ kingdom to the edge of the river Chenab. “To the east should be the Chenab river, in the middle the mighty Indus and to the west the river Kabul”. It was an ambitious plan but was possible given his fast Uzbek horsemen.

This was part of his ambition to follow in the footsteps of his ancestor Timur. He had a detailed account of the way in which Lahore and the countryside was plundered. So, his starting point was Kabul. There he consolidated and collected his new army.

He set off towards conquering lands up to the river Chenab, which was completed in 1519. The land beyond was ruled by the Lodhi ruler Ibrahim, who had a formidable army. So, Babar consolidated, increased the number of horsemen he had, and for five years collected all the wealth needed to launch a massive invasion towards Lahore and onwards towards Delhi.

The tactics and strategy of the tyrant Timur the Lame was before him. Only this time he planned to be more ferocious. Backing his efforts were the traders of Kabul, who over time, and still to this day secretly do, support any capture of the Punjab and Indian markets. In 1524, he set off after the crumbling Lodhi empire had a lot of defections. Lodhi defectors joined forces with Babar. In his arrogance, he decided to invite Daulat Khan Lodhi, the Governor of Punjab and Alaudin Lodhi, an uncle of Ibrahim, to join forces with him. They amazingly obliged.

His first step was to send an envoy to Ibrahim with the claim that he was the rightful heir to the throne of India, as he was an offspring of Timur. Sultan Ibrahim Lodhi rejected the letter sent and detained the envoy. So, in 1524 Babar the Mughal invader set off for Lahore. It was the beginning of the Mughal Empire being put into place.

Along the way he ordered, just as Timur had before him, to eliminate any opposition and the order was, as he himself wrote: “I cannot waste time with prisoners, except for slaves which can be sold for a profit”.

In the summer of 1524, the forces of Babar faced those of Ibrahim Lodhi just outside Lahore. The Mughals launched a ferocious attack using sword-yielding Uzbeks. Within a few hours the Lodhi forces crumbled, and it was at this point that Babar brought forth the logic of Timur the Lame, whereby everyone was butchered, and their heads hung on poles. But Babar wanted to outdo his ancestors.

At this point I would like to pause and remind our readers that the Mughal history we read in schools misses out the slaughtering that Babar carried out, as also did Timur. A parallel example in relatively recent times is that of Algeria where the “cultured” French butchered ten million Algerians to conquer their land. Such was the vengeance Babar unleashed on Lahore.

He ordered that not only should every person in the walled city of Lahore, for in those days that was the entire city itself, be butchered, the city itself and the dead were to be burnt down. His soldiers were ordered not to leave till it was completely burnt down and “nothing but ashes could be seen”.

For two days Lahore burnt and, in Babar’s estimation, “eliminated from the face of the earth”. This was the way Lahore was treated by the coming of the Mughals. Once flattened to ashes Babar moved on towards Dipalpur after appointing a rebel Lodhi uncle of Ibrahim named Alam Khan as governor of Lahore with the task of rebuilding the city.

At Dipalpur, so legend has it, he came across the sage and Sikh founder Guru Nanak and his Muslim companion Bhai Mardana. He impressed the Mughal invader to spread love by forgiving, and not by murdering the innocent. It was a message that, allegedly, moved Babar for Guru Nanak was set free to roam the world.

Babar moved on towards Delhi, but only to learn that Daulat Khan Lodhi had rebelled. So, Babar returned to Lahore and before he could reach the destroyed city Daulat Khan surrendered. In keeping with what the Guru had recommended he pardoned Daulat Khan.

What is amazing is that within three weeks of crossing the Chenab, Babar had captured the whole of the Punjab, in the process reducing Lahore to ashes. But then he swiftly also partially started reconstruction of the mud-walled fort, as well as a few houses.

But his objective was the capture of Delhi and the whole of India. Babur with 10,000 horsemen and 100 guns he had acquired from the Turks who had recently invented it, marched on to Delhi, and on reaching Panipat on the 20th of April 1526, met Ibrahim Lodi’s numerically superior army of 100,000 soldiers and 100 elephants.

In the morning of the 21st of April, the Mughal horsemen swiftly encircled the Lodhi army, using his crude cannons to scare the war elephants.

In the murderous battle Ibrahim Lodhi was killed and the Lodhi Empire suddenly crumbled within one day. The Mughal Empire had arrived. He was to write: “Within half a day the Lodhi Empire was defeated and laid to dust”. But then he also had smaller challenges like that from Rana Sanga, all of whom he ruthlessly eliminated.

What we see of the Mughals in Lahore today is the result of several murderous invasions, resulting with the wealth of the land being used for foreign grandeur. The last two such events of 1857 and 1947 we will also dwell on soon.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2024