18th Century Political Formations

18th Century Political Formations

• The boundaries of the Mughal Empire were reshaped as numerous independent kingdoms emerged
• By 1765, the British had successfully taken control of major parts of territory in eastern India
• Political conditions in India changed dramatically in the 18th century, within a short period
• The chapter looks at the emergence of new political groups in the subcontinent during the first half of the 18th century, from 1707 (Aurangzeb's death) to 1761 (the Third Battle of Panipat)

Crisis of the Empire and the Late Mughals

• The Mughal Empire faced crises towards the end of the 17th century
• Emperor Aurangzeb depleted the empire's resources through a long war in the Deccan
• The efficiency of the imperial administration decreased under Aurangzeb's successors
• Later Mughal emperors struggled to control powerful mansabdars
• Nobles appointed as governors, or subadars, controlled offices of revenue like diwani & faujdari
• Governors gained political, economic, and military power over regions of the Mughal Empire
• Governors consolidating control over provinces resulted in declined revenue remission to the capital
• Peasant and zamindari rebellions in northern and western India were caused by mounting taxes or attempts by chieftains to consolidate their positions
• Rebellious groups were able to seize economic resources to consolidate their positions
• Mughal emperors after Aurangzeb were unable to stop the shift of political and economic authority to provincial governors, chieftains, and groups

Financial Bankruptcy

• Contemporary accounts detail financial ruin
• Great lords were helpless and impoverished
• Peasants raise plenty of crops yearly but their lords saw nothing of either
• Agents on the spot are virtual prisoners in the peasants' hands
• The collapse of all order and administration meant that even if a peasant reaped a harvest of gold, his lord saw not even a wisp of straw
• Lords were not able to keep an armed force or pay the soldiers

Nadir Shah and Delhi

• Nadir Shah leader of Iran, plundered Delhi in 1739
• Nadir Shah took immense amounts of wealth
• Ahmad Shah Abdali, the Afghan ruler, plundered north India five times between 1748 and 1761
• The devastation included:
  • Sixty lakhs of rupees
  • Thousands of gold coins
  • Nearly one crore worth of gold-ware
  • Nearly fifty crores worth of jewels, including the Peacock Throne
• Those who had been masters were now in dire straits
• Recluses were pulled out of their corners, the wealthy turned into beggars, and those who owned property were now homeless
• Shahjahanabad was turned into rubble
• Nadir Shah attacked the Old quarters of the city and destroyed a whole world that once existed there
• The empire was weakened by competition amongst nobles, divided into Iranis and Turanis factions
• Later Mughal emperors were controlled by these two groups
• Mughal emperors Farrukh Siyar (1713–1719) and Alamgir II (1754–1759) were assassinated

Mughal Decline

• Governors of large provinces, called subadars, and large zamindars consolidated their power in different parts of the subcontinent
• Examples of consolidation included in Awadh, Bengal, and Hyderabad were seen

The Rajputs

• Rajput kings from Amber and Jodhpur served under the Mughals
• They were permitted autonomy in their watan jagirs as a reward
• In the eighteenth century, the rulers tried to extend control over adjacent regions
• Ajit Singh, Jodhpur ruler, was involved in the factional politics at the Mughal court
• Rajput families claimed the subadari of Gujarat and Malwa's provinces
• Raja Ajit Singh of Jodhpur governed Gujarat
• Sawai Raja Jai Singh of Amber governed Malwa
• Emperor Jahandar Shah renewed these offices in 1713
• The Rajputs extended territories by seizing portions of imperial territories near their watans
• Nagaur was conquered and annexed to Jodhpur while Amber seized sizable portions of Bundi
• Sawai Raja Jai Singh founded Jaipur, his new capital
• In 1722, he was given the subadari of Agra
• From the 1740s onward, Maratha campaigns into Rajasthan put severe pressure on the principalities, thereby checking their expansion
• Rajput chieftains built forts on hilltops, which became power centers.
• These forts housed majestic structures with extensive fortifications, urban centers, palaces, temples, trading centers, and water harvesting structures.
• The Chittorgarh fort had many water bodies
• Sawai Jai Singh of Amber constructed five astronomical observatories called Jantar Mantar, each in Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain, Mathura & Varanasi, with instruments to study heavenly bodies

Raja Jai Singh

• Raja Jai Singh's description was recorded in a Persian account from 1732
• Raja Jai Singh's power at its height
• He governed Agra for 12 years & Malwa for 5-6 years
• He possessed large army, artillery & wealth
• His sway extended from Delhi to the banks of the Narmada

The Sikhs

• Organization of Sikhs into a political community during the 17th century, to assist regional state-building in the Punjab
• Guru Gobind Singh fought several battles against the Rajput and Mughal rulers, both before and after the establishment of the Khalsa, in 1699
• After Guru Gobind Singh's death in 1708, the Khalsa revolted against the Mughal authority under Banda Bahadur
• Khalsa declared their sovereign rule by striking coins in the name of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh
• They established their own administration between the Sutlej and the Jamuna
• Banda Bahadur was captured in 1715 and executed in 1716
• Sikhs organized themselves into jathas (bands), and later misls (combined forces)
• Their combined forces were known as the grand army called dal khalsa
• All members met at Amritsar at the time of Baisakhi and Diwali to make collective decisions known as resolutions of the Guru, called gurmatas
• A system called rakhi gave protection to cultivators on the payment of a tax of 20% of the produce
• Guru Gobind Singh had inspired the Khalsa with the belief that their destiny was to rule (raj karega khalsa)
• The well-organized Khalsa resisted the Mughal governors and Ahmad Shah Abdali, who had seized Punjab and Sirhind from the Mughals
• In 1765, the Khalsa declared their sovereign rule by striking their own coin, bearing the same inscription as the one of Banda Bahadur
• Sikh territories extended from the Indus to the Jamuna rivers
• Divided under different rulers
• Maharaja Ranjit Singh reunited these groups and established his capital at Lahore in 1799

The Marathas

• The Maratha kingdom was established by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (1630)
• The Maratha kingdom arose out of the opposition to Mughal rule
• Shivaji (1630-1680) carved out a stable kingdom using the support of families called deshmukhs
• Highly mobile, peasant-pastoralists (kunbis) provided the backbone of the Maratha army
• Shivaji challenged the Mughals in the peninsula through military actions
• After Shivaji's death, power was wielded by a family of Chitpavan Brahmanas who served Shivaji's successors as Peshwa (principal minister)
• Poona became the Maratha kingdom's capital

The Peshwas

• The Marathas developed a military organization
• Their success lay in bypassing fortified areas, raiding cities, and engaging Mughal armies
• Between 1720 and 1761, the Maratha empire expanded, gradually chipping away at the authority of the Mughal Empire
• Malwa and Gujarat were seized from the Mughals by the 1720s
• By the 1730s, the Maratha king was recognized as the overlord of the entire Deccan peninsula
• The Marathas possessed the right to levy chauth and sardeshmukhi in the entire region
• After raiding Delhi in 1737, the frontiers of Maratha domination expanded into Rajasthan, the Punjab, Bengal, Orissa, Karnataka, and the Tamil and Telugu countries
• These territories were not formally included in the Maratha empire, but were forced to pay tribute as a way of accepting of Maratha sovereignty
• Expansion provided resources but also made other rulers hostile, so the Marathas did not get support during Panipat
• The Marathas developed an administrative system
• With conquest complete, revenue demands were gradually introduced with local conditions in mind
• Agriculture was encouraged and trade revived to raise powerful armies
• Maratha chiefs such as Sindhia of Gwalior, Gaekwad of Baroda, and Bhonsle of Nagpur were able to raise powerful armies
• Campaigns from 1720s onward did not challenge the growth and prosperity of the cities in the region
• Ujjain and Indore expanded under the patronage of Sindhia's and Holkar's
• These cities functioned as commercial and cultural centers
• New trade routes were established
• The silk that was produced in Chanderi now had a new outlet in Poona

The Jats

• The Jats consolidated their power during the late 17th and 18th centuries
• Under Churaman, they gained control over territories west of Delhi, and by the 1680s, they dominated the region between Delhi and Agra
• They became virtual custodians of Agra
• The Jats were agriculturalists, and towns like Panipat and Ballabhgarh became trading centres.
• Under Suraj Mal, the kingdom of Bharatpur emerged as a strong state
• Nadir Shah sacked Delhi in 1739, many city notables took refuge there
• Jawahir Shah, Suraj Mal's son, had 30,000 troops and hired another 20,000 Maratha and 15,000 Sikh troops to fight the Mughals
• At Dig, the Jats built an elaborate garden palace from architectural forms first associated with royalty under Shah Jahan
• The Jat state reached its peak under Suraj Mal, who consolidated the kingdom at Bharatpur
• The areas under Suraj Mal's political control included parts of modern eastern Rajasthan, southern Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi
• Suraj Mal built forts and palaces
• The Lohagarh fort in Bharatpur is considered one of the strongest forts in the region
• Sardeshmukhi resulted in 9-10% of the land revenue being paid to the head revenue collector in the Deccan