E-Paper
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat says Maharana Pratap defeated Akbar during Battle of Haldighati. What does history say?
The Battle of Haldighati took place in 1576, between the army of Maharana Pratap and Mughal troops led by Raja Man Singh of Amber on behalf of Emperor Akbar.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat said at a gathering in Rajasthan’s Udaipur on Wednesday that Maharana Pratap had won the historic Battle of Haldighati and defeated the Mughal forces.
The Battle of Haldighati took place on June 18, 1576, between the army of Maharana Pratap of Mewar and Mughal troops commanded by Raja Man Singh of Amber on behalf of Emperor Akbar.
RSS chief on Battle of Haldighati
Calling Haldighati an "unequivocal victory" for Maharana Pratap, the RSS chief said historical accounts had long favoured invaders while overlooking native rulers.
Bhagwat maintained that Maharana Pratap had clearly succeeded in the battle and accused historians of presenting a "skewed" version of the past.
"The victory in the Battle of Haldighati was achieved by Maharana Pratap and by those fighting on India's side--this is very clear. The historical debate was skewed, but the facts contradict that narrative," he said.
Questioning the consensus that the 1576 battle resulted in a strategic success for the Mughal Empire under Akbar, Bhagwat cited records written by Mughal historians to back his argument.
"If we listen to what the Mughal historians themselves wrote, they state that in the very first attack, they had to abandon their positions and retreat six or seven miles. So, who won? The historians who created skewed narratives existed even in that era,” he said.
What do the facts say?
Many historians consider the battle a tactical victory for the Mughals. Others believe the outcome was inconclusive, as the Mughal forces failed to capture Maharana Pratap or take over control of Mewar.
In 2017, Rajasthan school textbooks were revised to state that the Rajput warrior had defeated the army of Mughal emperor Akbar in the Battle of Haldighati around 450 years ago.
However, many scholars rejected the argument at the time, citing records indicating that Maharana Pratap withdrew from the battlefield, even as he continued to wage a guerrilla campaign against the Mughals in later years.
At the time, the Rajasthan government was believed to have relied on the book “Maharana Pratap: Kumbalgarh se Chavand” while revisiting the account of the battle.
KS Gupta, a retired history professor from Mohanlal Sukhadia University in Udaipur, said his work drew upon contemporary Persian writings, near-contemporary Rajasthani sources, and the circumstances surrounding the conflict to conclude that the claim that Maharana Pratap was defeated was inaccurate, HT had reported then.
Even so, several historians from Rajasthan disagreed with that conclusion.
“If the Mughals lost the battle, they should have left but the fact is they never left for several years, and Pratap didn’t give up fighting,” Reema Hooja, author of History of Rajasthan, told HT back then.
Professor K G Sharma, then head of the history department at the University of Rajasthan, said, “Initially, the Rajputs were overpowering in the war but then somebody spread the rumour that Akbar himself had arrived with a large contingent. “The rumour caused Maharana Pratap and his men to retreat into the hills.”
With inputs from agencies
