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From #Mughals to Modi - Historic relation of India and #Uzbekistan
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Samarkand, Uzabekistan late on Thursday evening, just ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (#SCO) Council of Head of States meeting, where he will come face-to-face with Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time since the April 2020 LAC stand-off, as well as Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Mr. Modi was the last of the leaders of eight SCO members and seven invitees to arrive here, and missed both the Pre-Summit dinner hosted by Uzbekistan President Shovkat Mirziyoyev and tree-planting ceremony that all the leaders other than President Xi undertook, leading to speculation that Mr. Modi’s late arrival was meant to avoid any inconvenient “photo-ops” while relations with China and Pakistan remain tense.
Uzbekistan is a speck in modern India’s view of the world but the subcontinent's history has greatly been influenced by a man who was born here in 1483: the founder of the Mughal Empire, Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur.
Given the saffron turn in events, many Indians actively revile Babar. But Uzbekistan celebrates the founder of the Mughal Empire as a national hero. Babur’s home is now a museum. Parks and monuments are dedicated to him. The Uzbekis even have an organisation - the Babur International Foundation - expressly devoted to the study of Babur’s history.
Despite this retrospective adulation, Babur didn't have an easy time in his homeland. Although Babur is descended from the fearsome Timur, he was himself born to a rather modest father, the ruler of the small principality of Fargana. Babur struggled to gain a toehold in his home and was eventually forced into neighbouring Afghanistan. It was here that his military genius flowered and he ruled Kabul for more than a decade. He loved his time in Kabul and after he died, his body was buried in the city. His tomb is still there in the city and in fact, the Kabulis see him as a hero too.
Babur could never go back to his land of birth. Instead, he came to India, where the empire he founded is often seen with hostility in modern times, in spite of being a seminal influence in the formation of modern India. The influence of the Mughal empire can be seen from the fact that in 1857, when the Indian soldiers of the British army revolted, the first place they headed for was the Mughal palace in Delhi. The emperor, although powerless and poor - he received a pension from the British - was still seen a symbol of national unity and thus provided the sepoys the legitimacy they needed.