British historian Tom Holland recently visited Mandu in Madhya Pradesh and could not resist writing a thread romanticizing the so-called ‘love’ of the Sultans of Malwa. His ecstatic expressions were epitomized in his tweets about Baz Bahadur, the last Islamic ruler of this Sultanate who was allegedly in love with a shepherdess Roopmati.
However, in his thread, Tom Holland did not include the fact that Baz Bahadur was a cowardly Islamic ruler who left his so-called love only to commit suicide when Mughal tyrant Akbar attacked Malwa. Baz Bahadur fled to Khandesh where a joint force of the rulers of Khandesh and Berar, by defeating the Mughals, gave temporary relief to Baz Bahadur who was later forced to seek refuge in Ranas of Chittor when Mughal forces conquered his kingdom after a year.
Tom Holland started his thread by quoting William Dalrymple, a Scottish person who calls himself an art historian, to call Mandu one of the most singular experiments in pleasure that the world has ever seen. Holland tweeted, “Ghiyath Shahi filled Mandu with no less than 16,000 beautiful female slaves and the good-looking daughters of his feudatory rajahs; the walled hilltop citadel was defended by an army of five hundred armor-clad girls from Abyssinia.”
In the next tweet, Tom Holland described Ghiyath Shah’s other enthusiasms in which he mentioned samosas stuffed with saffron, fried aubergines & ginger; hunting; perfumes, especially aromatic oils; aphrodisiacs, that is, sparrow brains fried in milk and ghee; a mixture of balsam oil, cardamoms, Tibetan musk, and honey to apply on one’s penis, and what not. He was seen enjoying and romanticizing the details as he described the special qualities of the mixture saying that it would produce strong lust, bestow joy on one’s heart, and ensure erection, and a flow of semen.
Here, Tom Holland comfortably whitewashed the fact that Ghiyath Shah – the ruler of Malwa Sultanate – essentially unleashed his so hard-earned masculine lust on those 16000 female slaves and good-looking daughters of Rajahs to exploit them – all of whom were essentially Hindus.
Tom Holland also shared pictures of the mosque built by the first Muslim ruler of Mandu in 1404. The pillars of this mosque came from Jain & Hindu temples destroyed by the Islamist tyrants.
Tom Holland further wrote, “Most romantic of all the stories told about Mandu is the love of its last sultan, Baz Bahadur, for the beautiful shepherdess Roopmati. The Sultan built a lake which was formally declared to be a part of the river Narmada so that she could gaze out over it, & not feel homesick.”
Tom Holland added, “The Sultan originally fell in love with Roopmati because he adored music, and she was a beautiful singer. He built her a palace with wonderful acoustics – here demonstrated to haunting effect by our gloriously talented guide.”
Malwa Sultanate
What Tom Holland did not include in his thread is the actual face of the Islamist rulers of medieval India. The Malwa Sultanate was founded in 1401 by Dilawar Khan, a Turco-Afghani servant of the Delhi Sultanate. Ghiyath Shah mentioned by Tom Holland is the elder son of Mahmood Shah Khalji who replaced Dilawar Khan’s Ghauri dynasty in 1436. The Khalji dynasty ruled Malwa till 1531. After the short tenures of Bahadur Shah and Qadir Shah, Malwa was captured by Shershah Suri in 1542. Shershah Suri appointed Shujaat Khan as his governor in Malwa. Baz Bahadur mentioned in Tom Holland’s tweets is the son of this governor who declared himself independent king of Malwa in 1555, only to get twice defeated by Mughal tyrant Akbar in 1561 and 1562. All this while, the Malwa Sultanate propagated Islam and persecuted Hindu subjects in middle India.
Baz Bahadur who was not courageous
This Baz Bahadur is majorly identified by historians as a king involved in pleasures rather than governance – a trait common to almost every Islamist invader. Baz Bahadur was not that ‘Bahadur’ meaning courageous. Both his so-called love and so-called courage failed the test of tough times. He was defeated by Akbar’s Mughal forces in 1561 when he left his ‘love’ Roopmati behind and fled alone to Khandesh to seek refuge from the ruler of that area Miran Mubarak Shah. He joined hands with Tufal Khan of Berar to defeat the Mughal army. But his Sultanate was finished soon as the Mughals conquered Malwa in 1562. Roopmati committed suicide after Baz Bahadur was defeated in the 1561 battle.
Roopmati
The prime reason for the attack on Malwa by the Mughals in 1561 is cited to be the Mughal commander Adham Khan’s lust for Roopmati. Tom Holland essentially glorified this lust of Islamic barbarians through his tweet. Roopmati was a poetess and singer according to folklore and historic accounts. Some of her poems are available as the collection of manuscripts was translated into English and published by LM Crump in 1926. (Reference: Khare, M.D. (1981). Malwa through the Ages, Bhopal: Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Government of M.P.)
After the fall of Malwa, Baz Bahadur sought refuge from Rana of Chittor. He also roamed to other small kingdoms in Rajputana before surrendering to Akbar in 1570. This Baz Bahadur served the Mughal tyrant Akbar for the rest of his life. In this way, Tom Holland hid half of the facts about the Malwa dynasty while writing the thread and just focussed on romanticizing the lustful Islamic rulers’ alleged ‘love stories’.
