The Human Race: A Lose-Lose Game
We are all destined to go to our graves at some point. From time immemorial, humans have striven to hasten the other’s arrival at that end point sooner than nature intended
By Anil Madan
A few days ago, in a muse, I mentioned India’s history of being conquered by marauders over the centuries and wrote: “It seems that the only marauder India escaped was Genghis Khan, the Mongol.” My friend Mathew who lives in India, sent a link to an article on Timur, a/k/a Tamerlane who, he noted, was “likely descended from Genghis and ancestor to Babur.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timur
Babur was, of course, the first Mughal Emperor of India.
Human casualties Hiroshima & Nagasaki. Pic – Prime Video
Mathew wrote: “I don’t think there is any real hope for an extended future for mankind – perhaps less than a couple of centuries hence… But I concede that doomsday for humanity has been predicted and failed many times over, so maybe I will be proved wrong.”
Mathew also sent me a video of an interview with Yuval Noah Harari. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB5Ul3GHFxA. More on that later, perhaps in a follow up article.
I agree with Mathew’s despairing assessment of the prospects for humanity, but I think a grace period of a couple of centuries is too generous. From my perspective, we humans continue to refine the art of exterminating each other, and at some point, in the not-too-distant future, some demented member of our race will succeed in doing the unthinkable. It does not seem to me a good proposition to bet that humans will show restraint and not use weapons of mass destruction. It happened once at Hiroshima. After seeing the destruction, one might have bet on a NEVER AGAIN proposition. But it happened twice. As I write on August 6, 2025, the 80th anniversary of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima, it is well to remember that just three days later, a second nuclear attack was unleashed on another Japanese city, Nagasaki.
Ever since the first successful nuclear test and the use of two nuclear bombs on civilians, the metaphorical sword of Damocles has been suspended over the world by a single horsehair… or one might say, by a single horse’s ass.
Mathew’s reference to Timur, or Tamerlane, and his ancestor (sort of) Genghis Khan spurred me to investigate a bit. They turn out to be interesting examples of human depravity lurking under a veneer of respectability.
Although I intend to write about this problem of humans killing humans as a worldwide phenomenon, the historical context of India’s experience is illustrative.
Genghis Khan, a relative latecomer to the marauders and killers of human history was the founder and first lord or chief (Khan) of the Mongol Empire comprising large parts of China and Central Asia. His reign lasted for 21 years in the 13th century. His reputation for ruthlessness is well-deserved. His army was responsible for the deaths of millions — estimates range from 20 to 40 million, or 11-13% of the world’s population during his time. One estimate ran to 60 million dead, but its veracity is dubious. Like many despotic tyrants, he claimed Divine Right. He believed that the shamanic supreme deity had destined him for world domination. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genghis_Khan
Tamerlane or Timur ruled from the latter part of the 14th century (1370) into the early fifteenth century (1405). He apparently shared a common ancestor with Genghis Khan. He founded the Timurid Empire which spanned parts of what is today’s Afghanistan, Iran and parts of Central Asia. He was reputedly one of the greatest military tacticians and remained undefeated in battle. He was, like Genghis Khan, a brutal conqueror. His armies are estimated to have caused the deaths of perhaps as many as 17 million. https://www.warhistoryonline.com/medieval/tamerlane-middle-east.html
On the other hand, this ruthless killer was revered as a patron of the arts and sciences, engaged with intellectuals, and his reign has been called the Timurid renaissance. The veneer was perhaps a personal camouflage to keep him from looking at what he truly was.
Babur (1483-1530) was the great-great-great-grandson of Timur (1336 – 1405). Babur, then 12-years old, took the throne of Fergana in Uzbekistan in 1494. His troops repulsed a rebellion and conquered Samarkand two years later. In ensuing battles to control the capital Fergana, he lost control of Samarkand. In 1501, his attempt to recapture both the regions failed when the Uzbek prince Muhammad Shaybani defeated him.
In 1504 at age 21, he conquered Kabul. Partnering with another emperor, he reconquered parts of Turkestan, including Samarkand, only to again lose it and the other newly conquered lands to the Shaybanids.
In terms of Indian history, this is where things took a major turn. After his third defeat at Samarkand, Babur directed his attention to India. Enlisting aid from the Ottoman and Safavid empires, he defeated Ibrahim Lodi who was then Sultan of Delhi. This victory in the First Battle of Panipat in 1526 marks the founding of the Mughal Empire in India.
The Kingdom of Mewar was adjacent to the Delhi Sultanate. Its ruler Rana Sanga gathered a coalition of almost 100,000 Rajput troops to take down Babur. But Babur was a wily chap and with half the number of soldiers, used skillful troop positioning, gunpowder and cannon artillery to inflict a major defeat of Sanga. This was the opening for the expansion of the Mughal Empire into the northern India.
When he was older (keep in mind that he died at 47), Babur became more tolerant of non-Islamic religions than his predecessors and ancestors. He allowed followers of these faiths to coexist peacefully at his court and across his empire. Perhaps the Timurid Renaissance was in his genes, as he showed an affinity for theology, poetry, geography, history, and even biology. This savage warrior was also said to have humanistic religious and philosophical stances.
But tolerance was hardly the watchword in his early years as a ruler. Babur ruled for 4 years and his son Humayun, who succeeded him, for 26. During those thirty years, violence against Hindus and Sikhs was common. In fact, Guru Nanak, the founder and spiritual saint of the Sikh religion, commented on Babur’s cruelty in four hymns. There are some historical suggestions that this period of violence and abuse of Sikhs by the Mughals was responsible for the transformation of the Sikhs from peaceful and introspective people to a race of fighters for their own survival. Babur admitted in his autobiography, Baburnama, that he set out to kill Hindus, Sikhs, and non-Sunni Muslims who were considered apostates. An immense number were killed.
I cannot find any precise figures for the number of people Babur killed. There is a bit of information in some articles I have read, but how reliable is it?
https://www.sikhnet.com/news/islamic-india-biggest-holocaust-world-history
This article suggests that some 200-300 million Indians were killed during the Mughal rule and British Raj (in which I include the predecessor East India Company).
World War I accounted for some 15-22 million deaths, and WWII 70-85 million. The WWII number may or may not include 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis.
We have not accounted for those killed in the Korean War, the Vietnam War, those killed by China in Tibet and Xinjiang, and certainly not those killed in the Middle East and Africa over time. Nor have we accounted for those killed during the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. Nor for the millions of Native American tribal people who were killed.
Have we learned nothing? It appears so. Dmitry Medvedev, the Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council casually threatens the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine and lately, reminds the world that Russia has ended its moratorium on the deployment of short- and medium-range nuclear missiles. He warns that Trump is playing an ultimatum game with Russia and: “Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country. Don’t go down the Sleepy Joe road!” Medvedev had said. (The nickname “Sleepy Joe”, originally coined by Donald Trump to mock Joe Biden during his presidency, suggests that Biden is slow, disengaged, or ineffective as a leader.) And China has ramped up production of nuclear warheads, with plans to add thousands more by 2030.
I take no solace in Mathew’s observation that historically, doomsday predictions for humanity have gone by the boards. In this age of Artificial Intelligence, my prediction is that Natural Stupidity will win out. So far, man’s record of killing his fellow man has been a remarkably repetitive one. Our history of having weapons of mass destruction is relatively short. The joy of oppressing others is a much older story.
We are all destined to go to our graves at some point. From time immemorial, humans have striven to hasten the other’s arrival at that end point sooner than nature intended.
In this race against itself, the human race — the only entrant — is determined to come in second.
Cheerz…
Bwana
Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 8 August 2025
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