Who Were The Mughals?

Introduction

The disintegration of the Delhi Sultanate under weak Lodi rulers and segmentation among the Rajputs offered a golden opportunity to the Central Asian rulers. They had been waiting to invade India to expand their power. One such Central Asian invader was Babur, who, after losing control of his paternal principality, Farghana, sought to conquer territories of the Indian subcontinent. Babur was the founder of the Mughal empire in India.

He was believed to be the descendant of Amir Timur and Genghis Khan. At a very young age, Babur succeeded his father and became the ruler of Farghana(Modern day Uzbekistan). Then he attacked Samarkand in 1497CE and conquered it. However, within a short period, he lost both Farghana and Samarkand and became a wanderer. Then Babur was invited by Daulat Khan Lodi to help him remove Ibrahim Lodi from the throne. Babur took advantage of the situation, conquered some Indian territories, and established himself as the ruler at the beginning of the Mughal Empire.

The Mughal Empire

The foundation of the Mughal empire was laid in 1526 by Babur after defeating Ibrahim Lodi in the first battle of Panipat. This empire continued to expand till 1707, as it included most of the Indian subcontinent; afterwards, later weak Mughals could not expand the empire, and it came on to the verge of decline and ultimately ended in 1857. So the Mughal emperors ruled India for more than three hundred years.

The Mughal empire was also known as the ‘gunpowder empire’ because it was for the first time that gunpowder technology was used in India to establish his rule. The Mughal empire was one of the greatest empires of medieval India, comprised of powerful rulers like Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir, Shahjahan and Aurangzeb. During the Mughal period, India witnessed cultural enrichment, architectural development and excellent administrative policies, which helped rulers to consolidate their power in almost the whole of India, including parts of Baluchistan and Afghanistan.

An Empire in Fragments

During the eighteenth century, the vastness of the Mughal empire, which stretched across northern India and even included parts of southern India, became a problem for later Mughals to manage. Along with this, the internal tensions and continuous external challenges from outside paved the way for weakening the empire. Ultimately, the Mughal empire was fragmented into two different categories of regional states.

The successor states, such as Bengal, Awadh and Hyderabad, the states which came into power due to the destabilization of the Mughal centralized political structure. The other was ‘new states’, which declared them as independent of the Mughal rule, established by rebels of the Mughal dynasty like the Maratha confederacy, Jats and Sikhs. In this way, the Mughal empire was broken into several fragments by the end of Aurangzeb’s reign.

Networks of Trade and Bureaucracy

During the Mughal rule, the surplus of agricultural produce led to the development of a network of trade with other countries. The Mughals promoted trading activities within the empire and outside as well. For that matter, they used to provide the required protection to foreign traders. The inland tax and customs duties were also reduced. At that time, India used to export spices, opium, and indigo along with silk, woollen and cotton textile. And items they used to import included horses, bullions and luxurious goods like perfumes, corals and wine for the royal class.

As far as the Mughal bureaucracy was concerned, they had centralized administration in which the ultimate decision-maker was the King. He was assisted by a team of ministers and officials, including Wazir, mir Bakshi, Qazi mir saman etc.

The empire was further divided into 15 provinces or subas headed by a governor or subedar. These provinces were further divided into districts or sarkars under a faujdar. Furthermore, districts were subdivided into smaller units called parganas supervised by shiqdars. All villages in parganas were governed by muqaddam under the Panchayats.

For the efficient military administration Mughals introduced ‘Mansabdari’ system. The Mansabdars were recruited, appraised and removed from their position by the Emperor.

Building the Mughal State

Though the Mughal Empire was established by Babur in 1526 by defeating Ibrahim Lodi (the last Tughlaq ruler), it was sustained by his successors like Akbar, Shahjahan, Jahangir and Aurangzeb, who consolidated the empire by overcoming obstacles on their way to the expansion of the empire. They established efficient administration and bureaucracy in order to build a powerful Mughal state. In fact, Akbar maintained a diplomatic policy to win the trust of his Hindu rivals as well as he adopted the policy of religious tolerance, which helped him in building a vast and powerful state.

Internal Problems

There were many internal tensions started occurring by the end of Aurangzeb’s reign. These tensions included a war of succession, difficulty in managing a vast empire, defects in the Mansabdari system, nobility getting more powerful, and some policies of Aurangzeb (like Deccan and religious policies) aroused rebellions by Rajputs, Sikhs, jats and Satnamis.

External Rivals for Power

By the second half of the eighteenth century, external rivals of the Mughals took advantage of the weak rulers after Aurangzeb. Foreign invaders such as Nadir Shah from Iran and Ahmad Shah Abdali from Afghanistan completely ravaged the Empire.

The plunder by Nadir shah exposed the weakness of the Mughal Empire to the English East India Company(EEIC), which came for the trading purpose. This gave them hope to expand british empire by taking charge of political issues. Ultimately, in 1857 the last Mughal ruler, Bahdur Shah Zafar was deported by the British, thus formally ending the Mughal rule in India.

Conclusion

At the onset of the sixteenth century, India portrayed political disunity. The powerful Delhi Sultanate was beset with problems. Their power was confined to the area in and around Delhi. Even the Deccan, Bahmani and Vijyanagar kingdoms were disintegrated into smaller parts. Therefore, the absence of any central authority and continuous internal conflicts gave Babur the opportunity to end the Delhi Sultanate and mark the beginning of a new empire known as the Mughal Empire. The empire reached its zenith during the rule of early Mughals but started moving towards the end after Aurangzeb, as his successors were weak to uphold the empire; along with this, the continuous external challenges in the form of several invasions from the north-west and eventually the acquisition of power by the English East India company shook the foundation of the empire and ultimately ended the Mughal rule in 1857.

FAQs

Q.1. What was Mansabdai system?

Ans. The term ‘mansab’ denotes to an office or rank. A mansabdar was an officer holding a high rank. The Mansabdar was responsible for maintaining the discipline and imparting training to soldiers. The mansab or rank was given on the basis of the nature and importance of the job.

Q.2. What do you understand by ‘war of succession’?

Ans. War of succession’ refers to a war over the accession to the throne in absence of clear policy.

Q.3. What was Aurangzeb’s Deccan policy? What were the consequences of this policy?

Ans. Aurangzeb spent the latter half of his rule in the Deccan to conquer the independent kingdoms in the south.

The results of his policies were −

• Even though he annexed Bijapur and Golconda, it became difficult for him to administer these kingdoms from Delhi.

• His prolonged war with Marathas exhausted the resources of the state with his valuable time.

• His absence in the north during the deccan war, resulted in the outbreak of multiple revolts.

Q.4. Explain the religious policy of Akbar.

Ans.

• Akbar advocated tolerance towards all religions, which was known as his policy of Sulh-i-kul (universal peace).

• He abolished Jizyah(tax on non-muslim) and pilgrimage tax.

• He built temples and even celebrated Hindu festivals.

• He built Ibadat Khana for religious discussions.

Q.5. Who was Mir Bakshi?

Ans. Mir Bakshi was the head of the military department and the paymaster of all mansabdars. He was also the head of the intellectual gatherings, who could give recommendation to the emperor for military appointments.