400 Years After His Death, Why Maharana Pratap Still Dominates Political Rhetoric in Rajasthan
Jaipur: More than four hundred years after his death, Maharana Pratap (1540-1597), the 16th century Rajput ruler of Mewar – the region encompassing modern-day Udaipur and neighbouring districts – once again became the newsmaker in Rajasthan’s political milieu on May 31, 2025.
The occasion was the 485th birth anniversary of Pratap, and the person who invoked his legacy was Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Rajasthan deputy chief minister Diya Kumari, who herself is a member of the erstwhile royal family of Jaipur.
While speaking at a programme organised in Jaipur by the Veer Shiromani Maharana Pratap Sanstha, Kumari said that the greatest achievement of her tenure as an MP from Rajsamand (between 2019 and December 2023 when she was elected to the state assembly) was to change a plaque which stated that Maharana Pratap had lost the battle in Haldighati, fought between the forces of Akbar and Pratap in 1576.
When rewriting history is the ‘greatest achievement’ of a public representative
“Earlier it was written on the plaque in Haldighati that Maharana Pratap lost the battle and Akbar won the battle. When I was the MP in 2021, we changed this writing with our efforts. The jurisdiction was with the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India). If you go to Haldighati today, it is written there that Maharana Pratap won the battle. This is the biggest achievement of my tenure (as an MP),” Kumari had said at the event.
In the same speech wherein she took credit for the change in the description of the battle of Haldighati, Kumari said that since “people say a lot of wrong things, it was time to tell the truth.”
“We need to think about the fact that the correct history of Rajasthan reaches to the people and not the history that was written by Mughals. Mughals had the policy of divide and rule, just as the Britishers did. They would make Rajputs fight Rajputs, Hindus with Hindus so that they could rule. It is sad that for many years, the political parties in our country were also of this mindset and furthered this version of history,” said Kumari.
The fact that a public representative such as Kumari chose to list the change in the description of a historical battle over any other initiative undertaken by her as the “biggest achievement” in Rajsamand – a parliamentary constituency with more than 20 lakh voters – reflects the continuing impact of the state’s feudal history in Rajasthan’s caste-driven politics.
Over the years, in modern-day Rajasthan – which encompasses the area of the region that was once collectively known as Rajputana – historical figures such as that of Pratap and Maharaja Surajmal have become revered symbols of caste assertion for the Rajput and Jat communities, respectively –two formidable forces in the state’s politics which are traditionally opposed to each other.
In the case of Pratap, the outcome of the battle of Haldighati remains a subject around which the political rhetoric is constantly on the simmer.
For years now, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP have been consistent with their efforts – as reflected by Kumari’s recent statement – to present the battle of Haldighati as a military contest between “Hindu forces” led by Pratap and Akbar’s army that represented “Mughal invaders”.
But the hindrances to such an oversimplification of the narrative come in the form of established historical facts which make it difficult to label the battle of Haldighati as a Hindu-Muslim clash.
“Academically speaking, there is no doubt that Akbar won the battle fair and square and Maharana Pratap left the battlefield. There are many sources, from Abul Fazl’s Akbarnama to Khwaja Nizamuddin Ahmad’s Tabaqat-i-Akbari, to Badayuni’s Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh, which attest to this fact,” historian Ruchika Sharma told The Wire.
She added that at the time when the battle of Haldighati took place, religion was almost never the deciding factor while making political alliances, something that was reflected in the fact that Maharaja Man Singh was the commander of Akbar’s forces during the battle against Pratap.
“The reason why there is such an insistence by the BJP and the RSS that Maharana Pratap won the battle, I think stems from some kind of an insecurity, that we must be as great as the Mughals were, which is very sad. Because if you want to celebrate a particular warrior, you can do that with factual history as well. You don’t have to concoct a fake history to consider him as great,” said Sharma.
She added that irrespective of the outcome of the battle, Pratap is celebrated as a hero because he was an exception at a time when most rulers preferred forging political alliances with Mughals instead of waging battle.
“One of Akbar’s biggest policies was to enter into alliances, whether matrimonial or otherwise. Many Rajputs clans got rewarded by getting into such alliances. But Pratap was an exception who was not willing to ally with the Mughals. It is because of this defiance and the fact that he stood against the mammoth Mughal empire, that he should be celebrated,” said Sharma.
The ‘many outcomes’ of the battle of Haldighati
Chandra Shekhar Sharma, professor and head of the history department in government Meera Girls’ College, Udaipur is among the most vocal people who support the claim that Pratap emerged victorious in the battle of Haldighati.
In fact, he says that it was he, who had first written to the ASI, demanding the removal of the plaque in Haldighati which said that Rajputs had retreated from the battlefield.
He claims that politicians such as Kumari, who at the time was the incumbent MP from Rajsamand, picked up the issue only after he first raised it.
“I wrote letters to the ASI, also furnishing proof for my argument that the battle of Haldighati was won by Pratap and his forces. It was after I raised the issue that politicians such as Kumari took it up. I have extensively researched revenue records to prove the fact that Maharaja Man Singh, who was the commander of Akbar’s forces, fled the battlefield after his mahout died,” Chandra Shekhar Sharma told The Wire.
He added that Akbar himself was not present during the battle of Haldighati and had sent Man Singh as the commander of his army, along with Asaf Khan who also served under him.
“Man Singh’s escape established the victory of Maharana Pratap in the battle of Haldighati. How can it be considered a victory for Akbar when his general had to flee? Later, Akbar even symbolically punished Man Singh and Asaf Khan. For many years after the battle, Maharana Pratap continued to allot lands and issue edicts in the region. Udaipur was not added to the list of places from where the Mughals collected revenue. This is further proof that he won the battle,” he said.
Back in 2017, when the then BJP government in the state led by former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje had made revisions in Rajasthan school textbooks, Chandra Shekhar Sharma had authored chapters in the revised textbooks, declaring Pratap as the winner in the battle of Haldighati.
Incidentally, while deputy chief minister Kumari was scathing towards what she termed as the “divide and rule” policy of Mughals during her speech on Pratap’s birth anniversary, she was silent on the role played by Man Singh as the general of Akbar’s forces.
Man Singh is an ancestor of Kumari, with both being a part of the same Kachwaha Rajput dynasty that ruled Jaipur (formerly Amber) till independence.
While Chandra Shekhar Sharma emphatically reiterates the claim that Akbar lost the battle, he disagrees with the BJP’s version that it was a religious conflict, highlighting the fact that Man Singh had led Akbar’s army.
The mountain pass of Haldighati situated near Udaipur. The battle of Haldighati was fought in 1576 between the forces of Maharana Pratap and Akbar. Photo: Deep Mukherjee
“Akbar’s forces were commanded by a Hindu general, Man Singh, while Maharana Pratap’s army had Muslims such as Hakim Khan Suri, a descendant of Sher Shah Suri, who fought against the Mughals alongside Maharana Pratap. These facts prove that it was not a Hindu-Muslim battle or a battle against any invader. Akbar was the emperor of India at the time and not an invader who came from a different country,” said Bhanu Kapil, associate professor and former head, department of history, B.N. University.
Kapil added that the main reason for the conflict was the strategic importance of Mewar, which served as a gateway to places such as Surat, which was famous for its riches and diamond trade.
“In the case of Haldighati, Maharana Pratap had made a retreat from the battle, entrusting command to Jhala Maan, who was later killed by Mughals. Almost the entire army of Maharana Pratap was killed because of which he had to retreat. Later, in subsequent years, Maharana Pratap stayed in exile and used guerilla warfare techniques to reclaim many of these areas. Udaipur continued to be his area of dominance,” Kapil told The Wire.
Kapil notes that in the last three decades, Hindutva groups have often appropriated the legacy of Pratap, presenting the battle of Haldighati as a fight between a Hindu ruler and a Muslim invader.
“This trend started in the early 1990s and coincided with the Babri agitation with Hindutva outfits trying to rewrite history and appropriate historical figures such as Maharana Pratap, presenting him as a Hindu icon who took up arms against Muslims. However, despite these attempts, the historical facts and presence of Hindus and Muslims in both armies make it difficult to see the battle of Haldighati from such a black and white lens,” said Kapil.
Pratap as a symbol of Rajput assertion courted by both BJP and Congress
The Rajput community, which accounts for more than eight per cent of the state’s population, once ruled almost the entire region of Rajputana. Later, land reform legislations introduced by the Congress after independence in the 1950s led to the abolition of the Jagirdari system.
Following the land reforms, communities such as the Jats emerged as powerful agrarian communities with high percentage of land holdings, which many Rajputs saw as a sign of the waning of their former influence.
Over the time, Pratap became a symbol of Rajput might in Rajasthan, with the community glorifying his valour to assert their power in the state’s politics.
Pressure groups such as the Karni Sena, which were at the forefront of protests such as the opposition of the Bollywood movie Padmaavat, have styled themselves as the custodians of Rajput heritage and history, issuing ominous warnings to those who “hurt” the sentiments of the community.
Interestingly, despite the accepted historical fact that Man Singh led Akbar’s forces and fought against Pratap, outfits such as the Karni Sena say that both were on the same side.
“Maharana Pratap is revered by all communities. Even people abroad know the history of Maharana Pratap. He won the battle of Haldighati, which is a known fact. Maharaja Man Singh was with Maharana Pratap and gave him political support. People have distorted history because of politics. Maharana Pratap fought with the Mughals for the entire country. But the Karni Sena won’t let people politicise Maharana Pratap,” Narayan Singh Divrala, national secretary of the Shri Rajput Karni Sena (SRKS) and Jaipur district president of the outfit told The Wire.
While the BJP has made revisions in school textbooks to declare Pratap as the victor in the battle of Haldighati, the Congress, during the tenure of former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, had set up the Maharana Pratap board with the purpose of making the young generation aware of Pratap’s bravery.
The emotive response that the mention of Pratap invokes among the Rajput community, has meant that the 16th century king has continued to be a part of the political rhetoric of both the BJP and the Congress, each party eager to outdo the other in appropriating Pratap’s legacy to gain the upper hand in electoral politics.
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