The longest-lasting of the Muslim empires that ruled much of India before British colonialism. Founded on April 21st 1526 at the Battle of Panipat, when Babur, a Central Asian descendant of Tamerlane and Genghis Khan (hence "Mughal", from "Mongol"), defeated the last sultan of Delhi. At its height, the empire was one of the world's richest and most powerful. Its rulers adopted customs of Indian kingship, married locally and in effect became Indian.
The cuisine known globally as "Indian" is in India called "Mughlai". The tandoor, a clay oven, came from the Persianate world, as did samosas, sherbets, various desserts and biryani—India's most-ordered dish on delivery apps for ten years straight. The sitar, made famous by George Harrison, is a product of the Mughal era. The sherwani, worn by grooms Hindu and Muslim, evolved from Mughal court dress.
The language of the Mughal court infuses the vocabulary of most northern Indian languages; "Hindi" and "Hindu" both come from "Hind", the Persian name for the river known in English as the Indus. Four of India's ten most popular ticketed historical sites for local tourists, and six among foreigners, were built by Mughals. The Taj Mahal tops both lists. India's prime minister delivers Independence Day speeches from the Red Fort, a Mughal monument in Delhi that features on the back of the most common banknote.
Akbar, a Mughal emperor, was fascinated by religious practices and commissioned Persian translations of Hindu epics. Aurangzeb, his great-grandson, was a keen demolisher of temples.
Narendra Modi's BJP insists the Mughals destroyed temples and humiliated Hindus. In 1990, when the BJP held just 16% of seats in parliament, it launched a national campaign demanding a temple on the ground said to be the birthplace of Lord Ram in Ayodhya. At that site stood a mosque built during the reign of Babur. In 1992 a mob demolished the mosque under the gaze of BJP officials, sparking a nationwide conflagration that forged the party's base, eventually propelling it to office. By early 2024, when Modi consecrated the promised temple, the BJP held 56% of seats. The party has spent the past decade renaming Mughal cities, rejecting Mughal cuisine and writing Mughals out of history books.
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