Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | Times of India | April 4, 2021
When Nadir Shah, the King of Iran, attacked and captured Delhi in 1739 AD, he gave orders for his troops to kill whomsoever they came across and to loot as they pleased. The slaughter lasted from eight in the morning till three in the afternoon and resulted in the death of 30,000 people. The scenes of arson and carnage were terrible to witness. On May 26, 1739, when Nadir Shah departed from Delhi, the spoils he took with him amounted to thirty crore rupees worth of gold, silver and diamonds. The Peacock Throne constructed by Shah Jahan was also transported to Iran on this occasion.
It is said that when the people of Delhi suffered this terrible affliction, some of them went to see the famous scholar, Mirza Mazhar Jan Janan and asked him to offer a prayer that they should be released from the persecution to which Nadir Shah was subjecting them. But all Mirza Jan Janan had to say to them was that the outcome of their own actions had taken on the form of Nadir.
The Mughal state had grown corrupt and inefficient and as a result had become defenceless. Ghulam Husain, one of the most important Indian writers of the mid-eighteenth century described its condition thus: “The roads and passes being neglected, everyone passed and repassed, unobserved; no intelligence was forwarded to court of what was happening; and neither Emperor nor Minister ever asked why no intelligence of that kind ever reached their ears.” In fact, the Emperor and his courtiers conducted themselves so inefficiently in the face of an imminent invasion as to seem almost imbecilic. The Persian army had reached a point just a few miles out of Delhi before they managed to shake off their lethargy. When Nadir Shah found no concerted attempt to oppose him, it is a little wonder that he acted as he did.
When any nation suffers such moral degradation, it ceases to be effective as an active force. With continual dissension in the ranks, no army can act with the strength of unity. Once the rot has set in, there is an increasing tendency for the common good to be sacrificed for personal interests. The members of such a society are without principle and it is strength, not truth to which they bow. Such a nation is like rotten wood, eaten away by decay and destined to disappear from the face of the earth.