Maharana Pratap won the historic Battle of Haldighati and defeated the Mughal forces, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat said at a rally in Udaipur, Rajasthan, on Wednesday.
The Battle of Haldighati took place on 18 June 1576, between the army of Maharana Pratap of Mewar and the Mughal forces led by Raja Man Singh of Amber on behalf of Emperor Akbar.
RSS chief in the Battle of Haldighati
Terming Haldighati as an “unequivocal victory” for Maharana Pratap, the RSS chief said historical narratives had long favored the invaders while ignoring the indigenous rulers.
Bhagwat asserted that Maharana Pratap clearly succeeded in the battle and accused historians of presenting a “skewed” version of the past.
“Victory in the Battle of Haldighati was won by Maharana Pratap and those fighting on India’s side – that much is clear. The historical debate has been skewed, but the facts contradict this narrative,” he said.
Bhagwat questioned the consensus that the 1576 battle led to strategic success for the Mughal Empire under Akbar, and cited records written by Mughal historians to support his argument.
He added: “If we listen to what the Mongol historians themselves wrote, they mention that in the first attack, they had to abandon their positions and retreat six or seven miles. So, who won? Historians who created skewed narratives existed even in that era.”
What do the facts say?
Many historians consider the battle a tactical victory for the Mughals. Others believe that the result was inconclusive, as the Mughal forces failed to capture Maharana Pratap or control Mewar.
In 2017, Rajasthan school textbooks were revised to state that a Rajput warrior had defeated the army of Mughal Emperor Akbar at the Battle of Haldighati about 450 years ago.
However, many scholars rejected this argument at the time, citing records indicating Maharana Pratap’s withdrawal from the battlefield, even as he continued to wage a guerrilla campaign against the Mughals in later years.
At that time, it was believed that the Rajasthan government relied on the book ‘Maharana Pratap: Kumbalgarh se Chavand’ while reconsidering the narrative of the battle.
KS Gupta, a retired history professor from Mohanlal Sukhadia University in Udaipur, said his work relied on 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 reported at the time.
However, many historians of Rajasthan disagreed with this conclusion.
“If the Mughals lost the battle, they should have left, but the truth is that they never left for several years and Pratap did not give up the fight,” Rima Hoja, author of A History of Rajasthan, told HT at the time.
“Initially, the Rajputs were in control of the war, but then someone spread a rumor that Akbar himself had arrived with a large contingent,” said Professor KG Sharma, then head of the history department at Rajasthan University. “The rumor caused Maharana Pratap and his men to retreat to the hills.”
With input from agencies
