I read with interest the article “The Great hero Sultan Jalaluddin Shah” written by Dr N.A.Baloch, praising and admiring the sultan of his courage, unconquerable will and single minded devotion to the great cause. It is surprising that in the historiography of Pakistan, the conquerors and invaders are always glorified, admired and great achievements are attributed to them generously with high and sounding titles such as ‘Great’, ‘Illustrious’, and ‘Magnificent’. The historians are still fascinated by the theory of  ‘Great Men’ as the makers of people’s destiny and those who change the course of history. Recently, the Institute of Texla, which is based in Islamabad, organized seminars to celebrate the victories of the great conquerors. A conference on the Ghaznavid period in Lahore and a seminar on ‘Shihabuddin Ghori’ in Islamabad were held to project these two conquerors as ‘Great men’ and ‘Great heroes’. Why so much attention on the role of the conquerors? Why so much glorification of wars and victories? Perhaps because we are a nation that, in recent history, has been conquered and subjugated repeatedly by our own conquerors, and that has made us so humble that we, as a people, have lost our integrity and honour and completely surrendered our fate to the Great individuals as our protectors and defenders. There might be another reason for admiring the conquerors that, we, as a nation, have achieved nothing in our recent history; therefore, the past glories are a great source of satisfaction. It gives us a false notion of greatness and dignity. Whatever, may be the cause, we reduce our historiography to wars and the narratives of invaders and ignore the rest.

Interestingly, still the approach to write history is from the above and not from the below. The result is that our historians focus their attention on the role of a great person and completely neglect what happened to the common men as a result of fulfillment of great man’s ambitions and goals. At the cost of peoples’ sufferings and sacrifices, the rulers become great heroes in history. There is a need to change this approach and to highlight the crimes and follies of these great men.

Take the example of Jalaluddin Shah who arrived India after his repeated defeats by Chingiz Khan, the Mongol ruler. He asked Sultan Iltutmish, then the ruler of India, for help. The sultan was a wise and shrewd politician and had no intention to involve himself in Jalaluddin’s affairs and fight his war (a lesson for our rulers not to fight a proxy war which is always a disaster for a country and people). He sent a diplomatic and polite reply to him that “ the climate of the country does not suit your majesty”. Finding no help, the fugitive prince turned towards Multan and Uchh which were ruled by Nasiruddin Qubacha (re. 1206-1228) a benevolent ruler who worked hard to promote prosperity of his people. He was also a great patron of those refugees who were coming to Multan and Uchh from Central Asia as a result of the Mongols conquests. Jalaludddin, after making alliances of the local tribes, defeated Qubacha and forced him to pay huge amount for his expenses. Qubacha to avoid war once paid him the amount but when again he demanded money he resisted and refused to pay. Jalaluddin in retaliation burnt Uchh and left for Sehwan. The governor of Sehwan, finding himself weak, surrendered the city to the aggressor. Jalaluddin stayed there for a month and then marched towards Thatta. On the way he committed all kinds of cruelties: massacring, pillaging, and plundering every town that belonged to Qubacha. He occupied Thatta in 1223 and plundered the environs of the city. He also looted the city of Debal.

It is a great irony of history that a person who was defeated, who saw his country devastated and ruined by the Mongols, witnessed the massacre of innocent people, and wandered from place to place for shelter; that same person, instead of learning any lesson, brought calamity and misfortune to the people of Sindh. Instead of securing a shelter, a place of refuge, and a safe corner for him and for his men, he started to fight, conquer, and occupy cities and towns. He, within a short span of time (1221-1223), reduced the country to ruins. When he departed from Sindh, he left it devastated and burnt.

The impact of his stay proved disastrous not only to the common people of Sindh but also affected the internal politics of the Indian sub continent. Sultan Nasiruddin Qubacha, who consolidated his position and became very popular among his subject, militarily became very weak after his encounters with Jalaluddin and subsequently lost his throne and kingdom fighting against Iltutmish. Secondly, Jalaluddin also brought the Mongol hoards that came to India in his search, and not finding him plundered the country this opened India for the Mongols invasions. They throughout the Sultanate period remained a constant threat to the security of India until they were ruthlessly defeated and crushed by Aluddin Khilji.