FALL OF MUGHALS

1. Introduction

• The period of the Great Mughals, which began in 1526 A.D.
• with Babur’s accession to the throne, ended with the death of Aurangzeb in 1707 A.D.
• Aurangzeb’s death marked the end of an era in Indian history. When Aurangzeb died, the empire of the Mughals was the largest in India.
• Yet, within about fifty years of his death, the Mughal Empire disintegrated.
• The signs of degeneration were unmistakably visible in the institutions and systems intrinsic to its cultural character and administrative policies.
• The general rot that had begun to set in during the reign of Aurangzeb could not be curtailed by his weak successors, and the recurrent war of succession worsened the situation further.
• The Mughal army too was weakened by a dearth of able commanders; there was no further introduction of military reforms or new technologies as had been done by Akbar.
• The political situation in Northern India indicated the waning of the glorious days of the Mughal Empire

2. Reasons for the decline of the Mughal Empire 

There are several reasons identified by historians for the decline and disintegration of the mighty Mughal Empire Causes of the decline of Mughal Empire.

• The Mughals did not follow any law of succession like the law of primogeniture.
• Consequently, each time a ruler died, a war of succession between the brothers for the throne started.
• This weakened the Mughal Empire, especially after Aurangzeb.
• The nobles, by siding with one contender or the other, increased their power.
• The successors of Aurangzeb were weak and became victims of the intrigues and conspiracies of the faction-ridden nobles.
• They were inefficient generals and incapable of suppressing revolts.
• The absence of a strong ruler, an efficient bureaucracy and a capable army made the Mughal Empire weak.

• The history of India during the time of Akbar, Jahangir and Shahjahan was made by Bairam Khan, Munim Khan, Muzaffar Khan Abdur Rahim Khan Khana, Itmad Ud daulah and Mahababat Khan, Asaf Khan and Saadulla khan.
• But with the decline in the character of the later Mughal Emperors also set in the character of the nobility wealth and leisure which the foreign Muslims acquired in India fostered luxury and sloth and the presence of many women in their harems encouraged debauchery, which, in their turn, undermined their character and love of adventure.
• Consequently, physical, moral and intellectual degeneration overtook the governing classes.

 Aurangzeb’s Religious Persecution of the Hindus

• Aurangzeb failed to realize that the vast Mughal Empire depended on the willing support of the people.
• He lost the support of the Rajputs who had contributed greatly to the strength of the Empire.
• They had acted as pillars of support, but Aurangzeb’s policy turned them into bitter foes.
• The wars with the Sikhs, the Marathas, the Jats and the Rajputs had drained the resources of the Mughal Empire.
• Akbar had won over the Hindus by giving them religious tolerance and opening careers to talent irrespective of caste, race or creed. He had enlisted Hindu Warrior tribes, chiefly the Rajput as reliable defenders of his throne.
• The Rajputs under him and his three immediate successors had carried the Mughal banner to the extreme corner of the subcontinent of India and also into the heart of Central Asia.
• But Aurangzeb reimposed the hated jiziya on the Hindus, distrusted the Rajputs and made an unworthy attempt to convert the heir to the gaddi of Marwar to Islam.
• Hence the Rajputs were alienated and were determined to fight the Mughal oppressor.
• The Rathors and Sisodias remained practically in rebellion till the downfall of the Empire. Their example was followed by the Bundelas and the Sikhs.

• The demoralization of the Mughal Army was another major reason for the decline of the Mughal Empire, the Mughal army which by origin and composition became weak and defective.
• It consisted chiefly of contingents recruited and maintained by the high offices and nobles who were assigned revenues of large tracts of the country for their maintenance.
• On account of this the individual soldier looked upon his mansabdar as his chief and not as his officer.
• There was no touch between the emperor and the individual soldiers who were paid by their commander or mansabdar and not directly from the Royal treasury.
• The inherent defects of this radical and sound system work aggravated during the reign of Aurangzeb and his successors.
• As the authority of the later Mughal emperors relaxed, the great nobles or officers of the empire began to convert the assignment which they held for maintaining troops, into their hereditary possessions.
• This left the emperor without a strong body of personal troops to enable him to assert his authority. Besides, on account of the weakness of imperial authority, the mansabdars became so jealous of one another that a commander often deliberately refrained from bringing three- fourth won battle or a siege to a successful conclusion if he felt that another officer would share the credit of a success.
• It became the habit of the Mughul officers from the last quarter of the 17th century to be in treacherous correspondence with the enemy.
• As the emperor and the Mir Bakshi themselves lacked ability and firmness of character they could not enforce proper discipline in the army which was reduced to a well-armed mob.
• Military crimes were overlooked even by Aurangzeb and no regular punishments were inflicted for dereliction of duty.

• Shah Jahan’s zeal for construction had depleted the treasury.
• As well as Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb’s long war in the south had further drained the exchequer.
• They Increased the state demand to one-half of the produce of the soil and as the revenue demand rose, the production fell in the same proportion.
• The cultivators began deserting their fields but they were compelled by force to carry on the cultivation.
• Bankruptcy began to stare the Mughal government in the face in the times of Aurangzeb and his successors who had to fight many wars to gain the throne and retain it.
• The economic collapse came in the time of Alamgir II(1754- 1759 ) who was starved and the revenues even of the royal privy purse-estate were usurped by the unscrupulous Wazir Imad-ul-Mulk.
• A month and a half after his accession, AlamgirII had no suitable convenience to enable him to ride in procession to the Idgah and he had to walk on foot from the harem to the stone mosque of the Fort.
• The wonder is that the bankrupt Mughal government lasted for another 50 years

• The Mughal Empire had become too large to be controlled by any ruler from one centre i.e. Delhi.
• The Great Mughals were efficient and exercised control over ministers and the army, but the later Mughals were poor administrators.
• As a result, the distant provinces became independent.
• The rise of independent states led to the disintegration of the Mughal Empire.

• Aurangzeb Deccan's policy which caused the destruction of the best soldiers and undermined the Mughul prestige beyond repair, contributed materially to the downfall of his dynasty.
• He destroyed the Shia Kingdoms of Bijapur and Golconda and waged a long, endless war for extermination against the Marathas.
• This obliged the hardy Marathas to fight in self-defence and when success came to them they were encouraged to take up the offensive, cross the Narmada and invade the Mughal provinces in Northern India.
• The Hindus in Northern India were already alienated by Aurangzeb's policy of religious persecution and the Hindu officers and vassals of the empire were either indifferent or secretly hostile to the Mughal cause.
• This creates an opportunity for the Marathas.
• They appealed to the common sentiments of Rajput and of the Hindus who secretly allied themselves with Bajirao when the latter boldly proceeded to execute his policy of striking at the withering trunk of the Mughal Empire in the belief that after the fall of that Empire, the independent provincial Muslim dynasty would fall of them.
• Thus, within thirty-one years of Aurangzeb's death, his successor had to wage war with the Sikhs, Jats, Bundelas, Rathores, kachwaha and Sisodias and no Hindu tribe of military value was left on their side.
• The Emperor's long absence from Northern India lead to many provincial governors becoming independent, with some regions even turning turbulent.
• The long Deccan wars of Aurangzeb, thus, contributed to the decline of the Mughal Empire

• The Mughal emperor was a highly centralized bureaucratized structure with the emperor at the top his vitality depended upon the strength of the military aristocracy, who were placed just below him.
• With the introduction of the mansabdari system in civil and military organisation in the late 16th century Akbar, had accommodated the aristocracy within this structure.
• Those mansabdars who were not paid in cash were awarded a jagir or landed estate instead of a salary.
• They were the jagirdars who were required to collect the revenue from the particular jagir of which one part would go to the state and the other two parts would cover his personal expenses and the maintenance allowances for his soldiers and horses.
• During the last years of Aurangzeb's reign, the number of jagirdars appointed had risen to such a great number that there was a serious shortage of paibaqi land (land earmarked to be given as jagirs).
• This decrease in the resources of the Empire ruptured the functional relationship between the emperor and the aristocracy indicating the beginning of inefficiency within the imperial Mughal administrative system.
• As a result of this economic crisis in the 18th century the various ethno-religious groups within the aristocracy began competing with each other.
• About four-fifths of the land revenue of the Mughal Empire was under the control of mansabdars and jagirdars; but this income was unevenly distributed among them, creating jealousies within the aristocracy- particularly at the time when the resources of the Empire were diminishing.
• This economic situation known as the 'Jagirdari crisis' of the 18th century- has been defined by Satish Chandra in the following words, 'the available social surplus was insufficient to defray the cost of administration, pay for Wars of one type or another and to give the ruling classes a standard of living in keeping with its expectations'. In this situation, the actual revenue collection was much less than what had been estimated, thereby diminishing the expected income of the jagirdars.
• The crises increased during the last year of Aurangzeb's reign mainly because of the Deccan war, since a greater number of mansabdars was required, the ensuing political turmoil made the collection of revenue a more difficult task. The Jagirdari crisis led to unhealthy competition to gain control over the fertile Jagir.
• This added to the already existing factionalism at the Court after the death of Bahadur Shah in 1712 A.D. The problem intensified as low-ranking officials now found it difficult to maintain their lifestyle with the meagre amount they got from the jagirs.
• As a result of several diverse yet interrelated factors led to the decline of the Mughal Empire with dramatic suddenness within a few decades following the death of Aurangzeb.
• The period of the great Mughals, which constitutes a glorious era in medieval Indian history ended in this manner, yielding way to the establishment of many independent regional kingdoms in its wake.