Mariam Karim Ahlawat
To travel is to see the world through different windows, for those who have the good fortune to be able to travel. Travel cannot really be an eye opener unless one has conversations. But one can only have conversation with a gentle people, such as the Uzbeks and who consider Indians their ‘biradar’ or kin. Conversations are the most important…
In an era where human identities and cultures are ruthlessly squeezed into the confines of Lines of Control of Nation States , where civilisations are becoming monolithized instead of syncretic areas of broad sharing and learning of arts, cultures, sciences and languages , where past resentments of battles and domination loom large over present day efforts.
Conversations are important:
Where there is no pride in what is natural to human cultures and races: migrations, syncretism. Where , on the other hand, “purity” is being overemphasised, where there are strong distinctions drawn between yours and mine…where the richness of harmonious union is sadly eschewed in the name of ‘’ purity’’
Conversations are important: Where the past is raised like a palimpsest of glory, true or false, to help people struggling with their identity to redefine themselves and their own importance in the world
Experiencing this ever-growing sentiment in India today, I immediately recognised it in the words of our young guide in Samarqand. He said he was Shax, but I ferreted out his real name from him Shahzad, much better than Shax.
Uzbekistan too is struggling to carve out an identity for itself after having been under the yoke of soviet USSR for over seventy years , till 1991 . Amer Taimur or Taimur the Lame is the main anvil upon which this present-day identity is being reshaped and fashioned. Taimur was the most notorious invader of the 14th century who invaded and defeated 27 Kings and countries and we know well of the terrible sacking of Delhi in 1398. But ‘marauder ‘and ‘conqueror’ are used interchangeably depending on where you belong.
We travelled to the magical city of Samarqand surrounded by snow covered mountains, famous for the striking blue terracotta and inlay work facades and gold painted ceilings of the fourteenth century structures of the Timurid period
The young guide Shahzad, seemed to believe that all Turkic culture began in Uzbekistan. Every good thing had existed before and everything sprang from there…just as today the Indians seem to believe in a similar glorious past.
Young Shahzad told us with much pride of the great conqueror Amer Taimur and how his army of flaming camels wrought destruction upon the defending army of the Delhi sultan Mahmud Shah Tughlaq, such that they were trampled upon by their own elephants.
How terrible I cried, (though I knew the story from before), Is that something to be proud of, when someone attacks and destroys and enslaves a perfectly peaceful city?
Since young Shahzad constantly rued the neglect of Uzbek culture and heritage under the soviets, I used this to ask him if it was a good thing that Russia dominated Uzbekistan and did not respect its culture? So was it a good thing that Taimur raided Delhi and 27 other countries?? I said it was all ‘ghuroor” and of course the Uzbek tongue is peppered with Arabic and Persian words. And he agreed with me finally. Then I asked him if it can be considered a good thing Israel has been besieging the people of Palestine for decades and what is being done to them today? That the Israelis were proud of this? He shook his head. I think it was an important conversation.
The next most intriguing question was that of Babur.
The disenfranchised twelve year old Prince of Ferghana , Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad defeated and exiled by his Timurid and Chagtai relatives from Ferghana, and later on from Samarqand and Kabul where lay his heart, made his way towards Hindustan
He wrote this verse in the Babur nama
‘No one cares for a man in peril.
No one gladdens the exile’s heart.
My heart has found no joy in this exiled state.
Certainly, no one takes joy from exile.’
In the days of unchartered military conquests there was little morality attached to killing and enslaving although the Mughals did not like to identify with their Mongol ancestry because of the mass massacres associated with the campaigns of Chengez Khan.
Young Shahzad like most other Uzbeks claim Babur as “their “prince even if he found a home in the then Hindustan which was of course divided not along the lines it is today.
I think to myself, poor Babur! banished from his homeland and now after his death hated in India as an invader and a foreigner…Babur was the great- great -great grandson of Taimur , but unlike him did not come to India as a marauder , but was invited to help defeat Ibrahim Lodi .
He was not like Taimur or Mahmud of Ghazni who the looted wealth of countries from their temples and mosques. The Mughals took nothing back to their country of origin unlike Taimur Nor Indeed was Babur like the British who only ruled and looted India through the more sophisticated means of colonisation but never made India their home nor adopted its languages as their own. Ghaznavi, Taimur and the British all left after looting whether in a short or a long span of time.
I said to Shahzad, if Babur had settled in India, he would be an Indian would he not, even if his ancestry were Timurid? And Humayun, Shah Jahan and the entire line of Mughals would be Indian according to me since they lived and ruled in India ? I could see that he was re arranging his idea of Babur in his head.
In the Amer Taimur museum there are models of the Taj Mahal, claiming it to be “their” heritage in India. For its construction, masons, stone-cutters, inlayers, carvers, painters, calligraphers, dome builders and other artisans were requisitioned from the whole of the empire and also from the Central Asia and Iran. The Taj is a jewel unlike any other. A jewel in India’s crown and no one else should lay claim to it.
Babur’s portraits hang in the museum in Tashkent, as descendant of Taimur but it is mentioned nowhere that he lived in Hindustan most of his life. Kabul, which he loved, and where he is buried was also part of Hindustan.
It is also noteworthy that in the museums the names of all the mothers of the princes are mentioned but not a hint anywhere to say that Jehangir and Shah Jehan both had Hindu Rajput mothers.
So where did Babur belong? Where did the Mughals who ruled over large parts of India, not as foreigners, but making India their home, where did they belong? Who can claim them as “theirs”?
I declare the Mughals, good or bad , just or unjust, were as Indian as any other rulers , part of Indian history even though they have now been exiled from school history books
Mariam Karim-Ahlawat is a Novelist, playwright, children’s author
