hello guys and welcome to another edition of the defenders of India series
today's episode is going to be about Maharana Pratap Maharana Pratap was a
ruler of Mewar of the Sisodia clan of Rajputs and he was born to Maharana
Uday Singh the second and Jaiwanta Bai. Maharana Pratap is widely regarded as a great hero and one
of India's most famous freedom fighters and he's regarded as a freedom fighter
is because he spent his entire life fighting alone and fighting an uphill
battle where all the kingdoms and all the kings around him were capitulating
and were submitting and surrendering to the Mughal Empire he was the only one
that kept fighting in 1567 when Prince Pratap Singh was only 27 the capital of
Mewar, Chittor, was surrounded by the Mughal forces of Emperor Akbar Maharana
Uday Singh decided to leave CHittor and move his family to Gogunda rather than
surrender to the Mughals after the death of Maharana Uday Singh
Rani Dheer Bai wanted her son Jagmal to succeed him but senior courtiers
preferred Pratap, as they realized that jagmal would be disastrous for the
kingdom and Pratap would make a much better King and eventually the courtiers
wishes prevailed and Maharana Pratap was made the new king the Mughal emperor
Akbar had control of large areas of Mewar, but was still intent on securing
a stable route to gujarat through Mewar when maharana Pratap was crowned king in 1572
akbar sent a number of envoys and diplomatic missions asking the rana to
become a subject of the Mughal Empire just like many other Rajput leaders
had done in the region the last of these missions was headed by Raja maan Singh
who was the brother-in-law of Akbar himself Maharana Pratap, when he found out
about Raja maan Singh became very angry that his fellow Rajput was aligned with
someone who had forced the subjugation of so many Rajputs and was angry at the
fact that he had aligned himself with the people that had
forced so much death and destruction upon the Rajputs and upon his culture and
therefore he refused to the terms of Raja Man Singh and refused to surrender
to Akbar therefore war became inevitable in
preparation of the war and long after the war Maharana Pratap himself
undertook several penances not only because his finances forced him to do so
but also because he wished to remind himself and all of his subjects why they
were undertaking this pain to win back their freedom that their right to exist
as they wished to win back their culture and their homeland it is also important
to remember that during this point all Rajput kings and kingdoms around him
were crumbling and surrendering to the Mughal Empire except for him does the
Battle of Haldighati was fought on 18th of June 1576 between Maharana Pratap and
Akbar's forces led by maan Singh of Amber unfortunately the Mughal army
found a traitor in Pratap's office brother Shakti Singh who told them about secret
passes in the Haldighati. after a fierce battle that lasted more than
three hours Pratap found himself wounded and the day lost. Maharana Pratap
chieftain maan Singh jala exchanged armors with Maharana Pratap to confuse the
Mughal army. this allowed Maharana Pratap to make his escape and live to fight
another day. Maharana Pratap favorite host Chetak, he
also perished in this battle he was killed by Mughal archers even though the
Mughals won the day this was not a very decisive victory for them because
Maharana Pratap was still able to make his escape and he was still out there
resisting the Mughals so the Mughals knew that as long as Maharana Pratap was
alive and was resisting they would not be able to have a stable Mewar and a
stable route through Mewar to Gujarat as a result of this battle however most
of Mewar except for the hills fell in Mughal hands but Mharana Pratap did not
give up fighting. however the relentless attacks of the
Mughal army had left Maharana Pratap army weaker and he barely had enough
money to keep it going it is said that his children had to eat bread made of
grass at one point and watching his children suffer and watching them
starving broke his heart, cracked his will and he thought about
surrendering to the Mughals at one point he also wrote a letter to Akbar where he
expressed a willing, to maybe surrender Akbar then showed this
letter to another Rajput in his court Prithviraj rathore. Prithviraj rathore
requested and obtained Akbar's permission to send a letter back to
Pratap to confirm whether it was indeed Pratap who had written this letter but
what he wanted to do was to convince Maharana Pratap to not submit and not
surrender to the Mughals. so he wrote a letter back and in the letter he wrote a
very famous poem and when Maharana Pratap read the poem from Prithviraj rathore, it strengthened his will and it reminded him of what he was fighting for
and he decided not to surrender to the Mughals after all and continued fighting
it was at this time that one of his ministers Bhama Shah came and offered
Maharana Pratap all of his wealth a sum that would enable Maharana Pratap to
support an army of 25,000 soldiers for 12 years thus he was able to continue
fighting the mughals. mughals pressure on Mewar are relaxed after 1579
following rebellions in bengal bihar and Mirza Hakeem's incursion into the
punjab in 1582, Maharana Pratap was able to attack and occupy the Mughal post at
Dewair in 1585, Akbar moved to Lahore and remained there for the next
few years watching the situation in the northwest
this allowed Maharana Pratap to recover a lot of the lost territory in western
Mewar including kumbhalgarh, Udaipur and Gogunda
during this period he also built a new capital Chavand near modern Dungarpur
Maharana Pratap through his relentless efforts eventually managed to free most
of mewar except for the capital Chittor. in 1597 however Maharana Pratap
was seriously injured in a hunting accident and he passed away aged 56 On
January 29 1597 a question that has been asked recently is why do we speak of
Maharana Pratap? what did Maharana Pratap do that was so
great? you will see this in the media and you will see this in you know the
leftist circles often asking why do we celebrate the Rajputs?
why do we celebrate Maharana Pratap? he did not win the Battle of Haldighati, he
lost a lot of his area and it's not like he expanded his area outside of Mewar
so why do we really celebrate Maharana Pratap and the answer to that question
is the reason we celebrate Maharana Pratap and the reason we Revere him is because
he represents really well the Hindu struggle and the Hindu spirit and the
Hindus battle for survival he represents the spirit of being beaten down
repeatedly but not giving up being at your lowest but not giving up
he watched every Rajput Kingdom around him crumble and fall but he did not give
up his spirit cracked but it did not break he never stopped fighting for his
civilization and for his culture he represents perfectly our culture and our
civilization's struggle for survival struggle for self-determination and for
freedom. he represents what we are as a people and as a culture and what we
should always aspire to be - indomitable. again guys thank you very much for
watching today's video I hope you enjoyed today's episode on Maharana
Pratap if you did please leave a like on the episode please leave a thumbs up
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guys again thank you very much for watching today's episode I hope you
enjoyed it I will see you for the next episode and until then stay happy stay
healthy and I'll see you soon