The History of Humāyūn (Gulbadan Begam) 3.6.3

3.6.3

It has suggested itself to me as possible that Khalifa’s plan of superseding Humayun was meant to apply only to Hindustan, or at least to a part of Babur’s dominions. Abu-sa'id had partitioned his lands amongst his sons; provinces so varied as Babur’s seem to demand division even more than his grandfather’s had done. We look back to Babur across Akbar’s Indian Empire, and may not give sufficient weight to the fact that Dihli and Agra were not the centre or the desired heart of Babur’s. He wanted Farghana and Samarqand and much more beyond the Oxus, and he had taken decisive steps towards securing his object through both his elder sons, and had given them charge and work of extension in those countries. Kabul was the true centre of his desired empire, and to force the Uzbegs back in widening circle was his persistent wish. If Mahdi or any other competent man had ruled in Dihli, by whatever tenure, this would not necessarily have ruined Humayun, or have taken from him the lands most coveted by Babar. All Babar’s plans and orders were such as to keep Humayun beyond the Hindu-kush, and to take him across the Oxus. The dislike of the royal army to Hindustan was a large factor in the question of centralizing government there, and so too would be the temptations to indolence afforded by its climate and customs, to which it was easy to foresee from Humayun’s life in Sambhal that he would readily succumb.