India in the 18th century

The entire modern history can be divided into two phases. What are those two phases?

Phase -1. Europe vs Indian powers

Phase-2. British Government vs common man.

What are we going to study in India in the 18th century?

1707-1800

Advent of Europeans

British Conquest

Socio-religious reform movement

British policies

Revolt before 1857

Revolt of 1857

So broadly we can classify the chapter into

-Political situation

-Social conditions

-Cultural developments.

We will not delve into the economic affairs as it will be dealt in a different chapter altogether.

Who were the later Mughals? And who were the greater Mughals? What was the period of later Mughals?

We will know in detail in future. But for now, just know that they were the weaker Mughals that couldn't match the standards set by the powerful greater Mughals.

Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb. They were extremely powerfull from all the three ends administratively, militarily and economically.

1707-1857. The last 57 years was hell for them. They were looked down on, disrespected and had no real power.

Define the Mansabdari System.

The word Mansab means “rank.” Mansabdari meant rank-holders. Each Mansabdari was assigned a rank. The greater the rank , the more the power. For example, a Mansabdari ranked 5000 was more powerful than the one with 1000 rank. Moreover , they were also named according to their ranks. Mansabdari with 1000 rank was called ek hazari Mansabdari, the one with 2000 rank was called do hazari Mansabdari and so on and so forth.

What was their work? My god. You don't know…..okay let me explain. On the basis of their rank they were alloted a number of horses and soldiers to maintain. Now , they needed money for that right? In accordance with the horses and soldiers, they were alloted a piece of land as well, which they could use for generating revenue. This revenue, in turn could be used to maintain the troops and a small percentage of it would be paid to the treasury in the form of taxes.

The land that the Mansabdari were given was called

Did the formation of Mansabdari system have any loopholes.

Jagir.

And the Mansabdari was also called Jagirdar.

Yes, the system gave rise to a group, unmatched in power and money. They become the nobility of that era.

The remained in control as long as the Great Mughals were in power, with authority. The moment power began to slip from the hands of the Mughals, these Mansabdari revealed their true colors.

At 1707, when Aurangazeb died , the Mughal Empire had turned very weak. Why?

The Mughal Empire was rendered weak due to two reasons:

1)Deccan expedition- Aurangazeb spend a fortune, almost emptying the treasury just for the sake of annexing the Deccan Region.

2)Religious Orthodoxy: He stubbornly stuck to the core principles of religion and went as far as to destroy the temples. In the process he lost the confidence of Marathas and Rajputs.

What is primogeniture?and how is it related to Mughal Rule?

Unlike Hindus, muslims did not practice primogeniture, which meant that , on the demise of the King, the eldest son is automatically declared as the king. This led to a lot of conflicts between three brothers, Muazzam(eldest) , Azam Shah and Kam Baksh. Finally ,Muazzam emerged victorious and claimed the throne, defeating the other two in the process.

Had primogeniture been practiced in the Muslim Custom, there would have been no bitterness or fraternal strife. And ultimately, Muazzam would have been crowned without the loss of finance, troops , energy that entailed.

After ascending the throne, what were the key developments in Muazzam’s reign?

Muazzam remained as the king for 5 years,(1707-1712). Then Muazzam felt that his name did not fit his position. So , he rechristened him to Bahadur Shah I. Muazzam was very old during his coronation. So he followed an appeasement policy, through which he granted large tracts of land to the nobles. The nobles were already powerful, this further increased their dominance. Instead of tightening the noose around the nobles, Muazzam tried to appease them. The treasury was already running low and this depleted it even further.

How did the Mughals pit Marathas against each other?

For this you need to have a proper grasp over the genetic descendants of the Maratha Empire. After the demise of Shivaji, the elder son Sambhaji ascended the throne. However, death claimed hin at 1689 as he was captured and executed by the Mughals. Then the responsibility of the state had to be borne by the younger son of Shivaji , Rajaram.

Not to forget , that during 1689 itself, at the very moment Sambhaji was executed, the Mughals captured his son , Shaoji and wife.

Now, rajaram is the king. Shaoji(Sambhaji s son) is captured by Mughals. Now again, it seems that the Maratha lineage is cursed and the wizards are none other than Mughals. Rajaram was ruthlessly murdered by the Mughals at 1700. Now , the only person left to take over the throne was the little kunni-munni Shivaji II. He indeed took over, but Queen Tarabai ruled in his stead as regent.

Now, in a beautifullly planned plot, to pit the Marathas against each other, Mughals released Shaoji in 1707, pushing him to go for the throne as the rightful heir. Now, Marathas clashed, thunderous crack shattered the family ties and neither Tarabi nor Shahoji was willing to relent. Finally. Shahoji won and handed Tarabai another territory while keeping the main territory to rule for himself. This is how the Mughals played a master plan.