To me the best general from India is Vikramaditya Hemu.
As Sher Shah's general he won 22 battles straight with his military brilliance against Afghan commanders. After the death of Sher Shah and his successors, he siezed power being the best leader and outmanouvering all the other Afghan commanders. Mughals were in Delhi, Afghans were in UP And Hemu was in Bihar.
He won the whole of north India and marched from Bengal to Delhi in victory after victory until he took Delhi against the Mughals (who had tried to sieze power after the death of Sher Shah) . The defeat of the Agra garrison was a rout with the Mughal commander fleeing to Delhi.
The Battle of Delhi in 1556 (October) at Tughlakkabad was brilliant. General Tardi Baig Khan of Akbar's army finally met Hemu after Mughal army had been fleeing continuously from Gwalior and Agra. The right flank of Hemu retreated towards Palwal and the main force of the Mughal Army gave chase against Hemu's Afghan commander towards Palwal.
But Hemu stayed put in the center and waited for reinforcements from Alwar. When they came, he fell upon the Mughals with his elephants and cavalry and routed General Tardi Baig Khan. After that he routed the Mughal forces which had gone towards Palwal as well and became the emperor at Delhi.
In the second battle of Panipat, just one month later in november of 1556, his army was already exhausted after the battle of Delhi. He had the stronger army and was better positioned than the Akbar army.
Akbar and Bairam Khan were poised for retreat to Kabul and were waiting far away from Panipat with bodygaurd and cavalrymen to beat a hasty retreat. They had no hope and they should have lost.
Hemu decided to use his war elephants against the cavalrymen of Bairam Khan, keeping his own cavalrymen in reserve. It was a winning tactic and almost routed the Mughal Army. He almost won.
The only reason the battle was lost is because he led the attack himself and a chance arrow hit him in the eye and killed him.Just like King Harold in 1066 at Hastings - when after winning against the Vikings, Harold's men force marched to meet the treacherous Normans - against whom initially the House Carl axe men were winning until a chance arrow struck Harold in the eye.
After that Hemu's army was obviously routed, Hindus and muslims alike were all massacred by Bairam Khan killing some 100,000 people. The genocide continued after the battle was won and the massacres across north India continued for 4 years after that. And it changed the course of history and we ended up with Mughal rule instead of a Hindu empire which seemed likely under Hemu. Just as the 1066 battle changed the course of English history and ended up with foreign Norman rule and brutal suppression of the Saxons (though not massacred wholesale as the Hindus were by Bairam Khan).
If anyone deserves to be called the Napoleon of India, it has to be Hemu.
While Babur and Ahmed Shah Durrani in the 1st and 3rd battle of Panipat were brilliant generals, Bairam Khan in second battle was not brilliant. He won by chance. And our country lost, ending up with the Mughal empire, destruction of temples, forced conversions, massive famines that beggar description and looting of all wealth
No comments:
Post a Comment