The province of Sindh had become independent towards the end of The Reign of Mohammad Tughluq. At the beginning of the 16th century, there was a lot of confusion and lawlessness in the country. The Sumra Dynasty was decaying and Shah Beg, Governor of Kandhar, had an eye on Sindh. In 1520, Shah Beg, defeated the Subras and occupied the province. His son, Shah Hussain, annexed Multan. The power of the Afghans was at its height on the eve of Babur’s invasion of India.

Babur himself gave account of India on the eve of his invasion. He referred to five Muslim Kings and two Hindu Kings. According to him, the greater part of Hindustan was under the Sultan of Delhi, although there were other independent and powerful states.

To quote Babur himself, “The five kings who have been mentioned are great princes and are all Mussalmans, and possessed of formidable armies and rulers of vast territories. The most powerful of the pagan princes, in point of territory and army, is the Raja of Bijanagar. Another is the Rana Sanga who has attained his present high eminence, only in these later times, by his own valour and his sword. His original principality was Chittor.”

According to Edwardes and Garret, although India was politically divided, yet culturally she was becoming one. The spread of the Bhakti Movement was bringing the Muslims and the Hindus nearer one another. There was a better understanding between the two. The great apostles of the Bhakti Movement were Ramananda, Vallabhacharya, Chaitanya, Namdeva, Kabir and Nanak. Their teachings set aside the caste-distinctions and thereby brought both the Hindus and the Muslims together.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

The Sufis in Islam supplemented the work of the reformers of the Bhakti Movement. The result of all this was that the Hindus began to respect the Muslim Saints and the Muslims began to respect the Hindu Yogis. The Bhakti Movement gave an impetus to the growth of such vernaculars, as Hindi, Bengalee, Marathi and Maithili.

Sanskrit flourished in the courts of the Hindu Kings. Rup Goswami, a Minister of Hussain Shah of Bengal, composed several works in Sanskrit and Vidagdha, Madhava and Lalita Madhava are most important among them. In the field of Architecture, a new contribution was made by the combined efforts of the Hindus and Muslims.

Agriculture was in a flourishing condition. However, on account of the frequent invasions, villages were built and destroyed very often. Ordinarily, there was always a surplus of corn produced in the country. There was a lot of trade with Malaya, China, Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran, Tibet and Bhutan. The upper and middle classes in India was fond of luxury. However, the common people were poor. But the whole, the country was prosperous.

India was full of good soldiers, but there was not much of discipline and training. The Indians refused to accept the latest inventions in the field of military science. It was difficult for them to fight against the latest weapons of the West. There was also clannishness among the people. No wonder, the Indian Army was no match for Babur.