Mughals : The Mughal Administration

 Akbars conquests subdued the powerful Rajput princes, particularly after his army captured the apparently impregnable fortress of Chitor in 15 !, using mines and artillery" Akbars reorgani#ation of the army ga$e the %ughal &mpire in 'ndia a permanent, powerful instrument of control" (ut his finest achie$ement was the organi#ation of a system of land ta)ation" *his was administered by his able +indu minister, Raja *odar %al ,the process was named bandobast-" *he wealth of the 'ndian princes and 'ndian states had always depended on ta)ing crops grown by peasant farmers" Agriculture was highly producti$e" %any areas grew two, or e$en three, crops a year" *hese included crops such as wheat, barley, and millet, as well as rice, cotton, and sugar cane, which needed a considerable quantity of water" Akbar and his finance ministers decided to reorgani#e the land ta)ation system and
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link it to the administration of the empire" *his was done in two ways" .irstly, Akbars officials made a detailed land sur$ey to measure how much land was under culti$ation, its fertility, and the kinds of crops grown" /tandard rates of ta)ation were then imposed" *he peasants culti$ating the fields knew e)actly how much their ta) was, and when they had to pay" /econdly, Akbar started a new administrati$e system known as jagirdari" A military or ci$il officer in charge of a district was gi$en a certain quantity of land for a limited period, instead of being paid a salary from the central treasury" A military officer was also e)pected to keep a certain number of ca$alry soldiers, and he had to pay for these soldiers out of his jagir, or land grant" *hese units of ca$alry made up the %ughal standing army" *he holders of the jagir were mo$ed from place to place e$ery two to three years so that they did not become local landowners, with selfish interests" *he success of the system depended on the accuracy of the land sur$ey, and the calculation of the $alue of the agricultural production of each $illage"
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 'n addition, Akbars officials di$ided the empire into pro$inces and districts" A military officer, often a prince belonging to the royal house, acted as the $iceroy ,go$ernor- of the pro$inces" A separate official, called the dewan, collected ta)es, and sent the money to the central treasury in 0elhi" *he economic prosperity of %ughal 'ndia was greatly helped by these reforms, and there was a big e)pansion of trade" 1ew towns and cities were built, and the production of basic goods such as cotton cloth increased" *here was no elaborate system of judicial courts such as the (ritish later introduced" Criminal cases in the towns were dealt with by go$ernment2appointed %uslim qa#is or law officers administering the %uslim code" 'n the countryside, go$ernment courts only e)isted at the district headquarters or other small towns3 the imperial officers were only concerned with large scale crime such as gang robbery" 4rder was maintained in the $illages largely by the $illage elders themsel$es" *hus the $illager saw the go$ernment mainly in the guise of a re$enue2collecting agent, as a judge in a dispute, or as an
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army which plundered him"

Mughals : Jahangir

5ahangir ,15 621 7!was the fourth %ughal emperor of 'ndia" 0uring his reign, which lasted from 1 85 until his death, he continued the e)pansion of the %ughal empire" 5ahangir was sa$ed from a war of succession by the pre2decease of his brother and had only to deal with a short2 li$ed re$olt of his eldest son 9husrau" 5ahangir was known as a patron of the arts" +e was also known for his genuine sense of justice" *his was marred by his outbursts of cruelty, and his dependence on drugs such as opium and alcohol" +e could be genial one minute and $iolent the ne)t" +e was also critici#ed for gi$ing way too often to his scheming :ersian wife, 1ur 5ahan ,;ight of the <orld-" +is attachment to 1ur 5ahan was commemorated by a special issue of gold mohurs ,coins-" 5ahangir was born in the palace city of .atehpur /ikri, near Agra, in what is now the
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'ndian state of =ttar :radesh" +is father was the %ughal emperor Akbar" 5ahangirs father named him %uhammad /ultan /alim, but he took the title 5ahangir ,<orld2Conquerorwhen he became emperor" 'n 1 1>, 5ahangir captured the last great Rajput fortress of Rajasthan, and two years later he took o$er half the kingdom of Ahmadnagar on the 0eccan :lateau" +e granted trade concessions to the (ritish in return for their na$al support against the :ortuguese"

Mughals : Shah Jahan /hah 5ahan was a man of greater mark, though less attracti$e than 5ahangir, in spite of his ob$ious faults" /hah 5ahan was a man of great e)ecuti$e ability, to which he added a lo$e for the magnificent and a refined artistic sense,
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especially for architecture" /hah 5ahan ,156721 - was the fifth ruler of the %ughal &mpire in 'ndia" +e became ruler in 1 7?" At his succession he e)ecuted all the male %ughal collterals, the descendants of his brothers and uncles, although at that time they had little political significance" 0uring his reign, the %ughals reached their golden age, with $aults crammed with treasures and with architecture in magnificent style" +e was in a special sense the architectural director of the day and there seems to be little doubt that the great buildings of his reign, the *aj %ahal, the 0elhi .ort, and 5ama %asjid, and the reconstruction of the Agra .ort, would not ha$e been what they are without his personal inspiration and direction" /hah 5ahan is best remembered for the perfectly proportioned *aj %ahal, an immense tomb of white marble built for his wife in Agra, 'ndia" *hese and other buildings still stand as e)amples of %ughal glory" +is romantic lo$e for %umta# %ahal ,his wife- did not hesitate to e)pose %umta# to the rigours of tra$el in all states of health so that she died at the age of @6 after gi$ing birth to her fourteenth child" *he dynasty began its
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decline because too much money was spent on lu)uries and too much effort was wasted in war" /hah 5ahans reign was a troubled one, and one of his sons took his throne by force"

Taj Mahal *aj %ahal is one of the most beautiful and costly tombs in the world" *he 'ndian ruler /hah 5ahan ordered it built in memory of his fa$ourite wife, %umta# %ahal, who died in 1 76" *he tomb stands near the city of Agra, in northern 'ndia, on the south bank of the 5umna Ri$er" About 78,888 workers were employed in its construction, completed after some 78 years by about 1 58"

According to tradition, the *aj %ahal was designed by a *urkish architect" 't is made of white marble and rests on a platform of red sandstone" At each corner of the platform stands a slender minaret ,prayer tower-" &ach tower is >8"5 metres high" *he building itself is almost 5! metres square" A dome co$ers the centre of the building" 't is o$er 71 metres in diameter and @ "5 metres high" :assages from the %uslim holy book, the Auran, decorate the outside along with inlaid floral patterns" A central room contains two cenotaphs ,monuments-" Bisitors can see the monuments through a car$ed alabaster screen" *he bodies of /hah 5ahan and his wife lie in a $ault below" *he tomb stands in a garden" ne)t page CC Mughals : Aurangzeb Aurang#eb ,1 1?21!8!-, was an emperor who ruled what is now 'ndia and :akistan from 1 5? until his death" 0uring his reign as monarch of the %ughal &mpire, he conquered se$eral states in southern 'ndia" Aurang#eb, a de$out %uslim, tried to
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make all his people follow the doctrines of 'slam, the %uslim religion" +e differed from Akbar in consciously tolerating +indus rather than treating them as equals" +e placed special ta)es on +indus and destroyed +indu temples and images, such as the destruction of 9ashi Bishwanath temple and erection of a mosque in its place" Aurang#eb also destroyed many works of art because he feared that they might be worshipped as idols" Aurang#eb was born in 0ohad, near Ahmadabad" 'n a struggle for the throne, Aurang#eb murdered his three other brothers, including the crown prince 0ara /hukoh, and deposed /hah 5ahan, the reigning emperor, to sei#e the throne for himself" /hah 5ahan died a prisoner in the fortress of Agra" Aurang#ebs reign was one of the longest in the history of the %ughal dynasty" +is rebellion and acts of cruelty toward his family at first aroused public horror and dislike" Det there was no law recogni#ed in 'slamic states to nominate a legal successor to the king" *he succession was often settled by wars and by murders" *he new emperor, Aurang#eb, was a
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strict %uslim" *o begin with, he followed the policy of making peace with the non2 %uslim peoples he conquered and bringing them into the imperial ser$ice" (ut the policy broke down, and in the latter part of his reign, Aurang#eb imposed a much stricter form of 'slamic rule" 'n 1 !6, he reintroduced the ji#iya, a poll ta) on non2%uslims" %ilitarily, Aurang#eb set out to protect his northern borders and subdue the independent %uslim kingdoms in the 0eccan and south 'ndia" (y 1 68, the whole of the 'ndian subcontinent lay within the %ughal &mpire" Aurang#eb won swift political and military success, through his abilities as a soldier and politician" (ut his conquests brought him great trouble toward the end of his reign" *he wars were e)pensi$e and the military officers were rewarded for their ser$ice by the grant of new jagirs" *he jagir2holders ta)ed the peasants mercilessly, causing many to flee from the $illages" %uch land was left unculti$ated as a result" Aurang#ebs reign was troubled by de$elopments in west and south 'ndia" As early as the 1 8s, /hi$aji, a +indu
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chief of western 'ndia, had built up a strong pri$ate army and begun to raid %ughal towns and cities" +e captured and sacked the great port of /urat" /hi$ajis followers, known as the %arathas, were $ery good ca$alry fighters" *hey took all the strong fortresses from the %ughal go$ernors" Aurang#eb had to fight the %arathas, and many other local chiefs in the south, who were constantly rebelling against %ughal rule and trying to reestablish their independence" Mughals : The Last Mughals *he $isible decline of the empire can be dated from 1!17, the year of the death of (ahadur /hah 1" (ut it remained an apparently imposing institution until the '!58s, and few thought its doom ine$itable before then" *he first stage in the process was succession wars which left a puppet in the hands of kingmakers" *he kingmakers o$erreached themsel$es when the third choice pro$ed a cle$er youth who disposed of them in the course of two Dears"
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*his youth was %uhammad /hah, who reigned for twenty2nine years until 1!>?" *he twenties saw the ne)t stage when the empire was $irtually di$ided into two" Asaf 5ah, 1i#am2ul2mulk, baulked in his reforming intentions as chief minister in 0elhi, went back to his 0eccan pro$inces and became the $irtually independent ruler of the southern half of the %ughal empire with +yderabad as its capital" *he empire bad crushed the /ikhs in 1!1 , but it found itself helpless against the %arathas" 'n 1!@? the %arathas plundered the suburbs of 0elhi and dictated a peace which di$ided the two hal$es of the empire by the cession of the pro$ince of %alwa" 'n 1!@6 came the humiliation of the :ersian 9ing 1adir /hahs in$asion" 1eglect, ineptitude, di$ided counsels, and treachery led to military debacle at 9arnal, the occupation of 0elhi, massacre, and wholesale plunder" 1e$ertheless, when 1adir /hahs back was turned, with the :eacock *hrone in his train, the empire seemed to reco$er and e$en repelled the first of the Afghan incursions in 1!>?" <ith %uhammad /hahs death the collapse began" A ci$il war between ri$al
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ministers left a headlong and ruthless youth in power, which murdered two emperors and called in the %arathas before $anishing into obscurity" *he south was already the 1i#ams domain" 9abul was lost to 1adir /hah in 1!@6" /indh and fertile Eujarat with /urat went in 1!58, prosperous 4udh in 1!5> and the martial :unjab to the Afghans in the same year" (engal still sent tribute but was $irtually independent" *he cause of this collapse is usually put down to the effeteness of the emperors" *his was certainly one cause since personality was one of the main imperial pillars" (ut it was not the only cause or necessarily the $ital one" Another important reason was Aurang#ebs policy of treating the empire as a %uslim state instead of an 'ndian state with 'slam as the state religion" <hich alienated +indus to such an e)tent that they had no desire of allowing %ughal empire to continue" %artial groups like the /ikhs and the 5ats were encouraged to open re$olt" And the %arathas with their in$incibility and Euerrilla warfare had all the capabilities to ruin the %ughals and form another empire"

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 Mughals : Europeans in India - Part I &uropean interest in 'ndia has persisted since classical times and for $ery cogent reasons" 'ndia had much to gi$e &urope in the practical form of spices, te)tiles, and other oriental products" <hen direct contact was lost after the fall of Rome and the rise of %uslim Arabs the trade was carried out through middlemen" 'n the late %iddle Ages it increased with the increasing prosperity of &urope" 't should be remembered that spice trade was not just a lu)ury trade at that time" /pices were used to preser$e meat through the winter" *he trade suffered two threats in the later middle ages" *here was the threat of %ongol and *urkish in$asion which interfered with the land routes and threatened to engulf the sea route through &gypt, and there was the threat of monopoly shared between Benetians F &gyptians" Crusading #eal against %uslims and commercial #eal against spice
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monopolists were the moti$es which sent Columbus to America and Basco da Eama to Calicut in 1>6?" Basco da Eama told the first 'ndians he met on the %alabar Coast that he came to seek GChristians and /pices" *he Christians he was seeking were the legendary people to be rescued from %uslim encirclement3 they were in fact Abyssinians whom da Eama ne$er met" *he :ortuguese soon found that %alabar was as important a centre for re2e)port of spices from the &ast 'ndies as for the sale of its own limited range of pepper and cardamom" *hey also found that the trade with &gypt and so with &urope was in the hands of Arab merchants" /o a double strategy was de$eloped" A series of strong points was established so as to dominate both the &ast 'ndies and the Arabian sea" *he object of the former measure was to control the spice trade at its principal sources from 5a$a to the %ulucca 'slands ,home of the clo$eand of the latter to cut off the Arabian2 managcd spice trade from south 'ndia to &gypt and the :ersian Eulf" 'n this way the &uropean spice trade would be di$erted to :ortuguese ships and toll
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could be taken ,by a system of licencesof all the remaining maritime trade of the 'ndian 4cean" *he :ortuguese were largely successful in their $enture because of the superior power of their ships, whose guns could blow most Gcountry ships of the time out of the water, of the daring and endurance of their captains and men, and of the genius of Aflonso de Albuquerque"H 't was he who in 1518 captured Eoa on the west coast of 'ndia from the /ultan of (ijapur and made it the capital of the :ortuguese eastern empire" continued"""" Mughals : Europeans in India - Part II *he :ortuguese ne$er attempted largescale conquest but they did impinge on 'ndian affairs and they carried their culture with them" :olitically their control of the sea irked %ughal and preceding %uslim rulers because of the toll they took of the trade from the port of /urat and the pilgrim traffic" 'n sei#ing and
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retaining their strong points they acquired a reputation for cruelty and perfidy because their practice on both these points was below the current 'ndian standard" *hey were deeply impregnated with the idea that no faith need be kept with an infidel" 't was from this period that the word feringi ,lit" farangi, frank- acquired the opprobrium" 'n religion they were intolerant to the e)tent of allowing no +indu temples in Eoa and introducing the 'nquisition ,15 8-, both measures which can be regarded as sub2standard from the 'ndian standpoint" /ocially the policy of Albuquerque in encouraging mi)ed marriages had important results" +is object was to rear a population possessing :ortuguese blood and imbued with :ortuguese Catholic culture who would be committed by race and taste to the :ortuguese settlements and so form a permanent self2perpetuating garrison" *he result was the race long known as ;uso2 'ndians and now as Eoans" .rom early times they spilled o$er from the :ortuguese settlements and formed
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communities of their own which tended towards disorder and piracy" 4ne such at +ughli was suppressed by /hah 5ahan in 1 @7" *he 0utch sent their first fleet to the &ast in 1565" (eing commercial realists they went straight to the source of the spice trade in the &ast 'ndies, established themsel$es at (ata$ia ,now as pre$ious to their arri$al called 5akarta-, and proceeded to oust the :ortuguese" *hen they established a chain of posts through Ceylon and Capetown to connect themsel$es with their home base and proceeded to de$elop a great Asian network of trade" *he 0utch had Gfactories or warehouses as far north as Agra but they took no part in politics or cultural contacts" *heir eccentric tombs at /urat and their factories at Cochin and 1egapatam are their principal memorials in 'ndia" 4nly in Ceylon did they e)ercise dominion in the plains from Colombo and lea$e a li$ing memorial in the (urgher community" Mughals : Nadir Shah
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 Aurang#ebs death had created a $oid in the %ughal empire which none of his successors were able to fill" .requent struggles for throne and betrayal of ministers had resulted in the weakening of the empire" 1adir /hah, who from being a chief of dacoits had become the king of :ersia, saw the weak empire as an opportunity" 'n 1!@?, 1adir /hah proceeded to in$ade 'ndia" *he e)cuse for the in$asion being that the %ughal emperor %uhammad /hah had insulted the :ersian en$oy at the royal court of 0elhi" +e o$erran the western frontiers of %ughal empire capturing Eha#ni, 9abul and ;ahore in 1!@6" <hen 1adir /hah crossed 9hyber :ass the Eo$ernor of :unjab requested the %ughal &mpire to reinforce the defences in :unjab, but the then %ughal emperor %uhammad /hah turned a deaf ear towards his genuine request" /oon 1adir /hah stormed :unjab, %uhammad /hah reali#ing the danger asked 9han 0auran and 1i#am2ul2%ulk to lead the %ughal forces against 1adir /hah" (ut the two declined, so ultimately
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%uhammad /hah decided to lead the forces himself" *he two forces met at 9arnal, but soon the %ughal forces were encircled and defeated" *he 1awab of Awadh /aadat 9han was taken prisoner and 9han 0auran was seriously wounded" *he defeat of the %ughal army created confusion in their ranks" *he 1i#am played the role of mediator and persuaded 1adir /hah to return to :ersia on recei$ing 78 million rupees" %ughal emperor pleased with 1i#am conferred him the title of GAmir2=l2=mra and also appointed him the :rime %inister" 5ealous /aadat 9han approached 1adir 9han and told him that he should not get satisfied with such a paltry sum which e$ens a pro$incial go$ernor can gi$e him" *his had an electrifying effect on the :ersian ruler and the grandeur of 0elhi flashed before his eyes" *riumphant 1adir /hah entered 0elhi along with the humbled %ughal &mperor" *he keys of the 0elhi fort and treasure had already been surrendered" An amount was also settled with 1adir /hah as a condition for his return" (ut a rumour spread that 1adir /hah has been
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killed" Riots were sparked off in 0elhi in which few :ersian soldiers were killed" As 1adir /hah heard of this he straightaway rode into the city, in the city he saw the corpses of :ersian soldiers lying on the streets" 1ear the /unhari masjid of Roshnuddola, some people hurled stones at him also a stray bullet killed a :ersian soldier" +e was enraged3 he ordered a general massacre at all those localities where the bodies of :ersian soldiers were found" Consequently on 11th of %arch 1!@6 citi#ens of 0elhi were plundered and slaughtered, some historians say that nearly 8"7 million people were killed" 1adir /hah on his return after plundering and slaughtering 0elhites for 5! days, took with him the famous G:eacock throne built by /hahjahan and the legendary G9oh2i2noor along with 88 million rupees worth of jewellery, gold worth 18 million rupees and coins worth million rupees" +is total collection of booty was worth !88 million rupees and also took care to include in his train 188 elephants, !888 craftsmen, 188 stone2 cutters and 788 carpenters" 1adir /hahs in$asion did an irreparable
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damage to the %ughal &mpire" %ughal pro$inces across the 'ndus were seceded to the :ersians" ;ater on inspired by the antics of 1adir /hah his successor Ahmad /hah Abdali too in$aded 'ndia se$eral times between 1!>? and 1! ! and plundered 0elhi"

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