Invasions

• 1739 - Nadir Shah

• 1748 - 67 - Ahmad Shah Abdali attacked 7 times

• 1765 - Mughal emperor made pensioner of the the British

• But the institutions and traditions continued, especially in the respect of Land Revenue Administration.

The states marked by the three groups:

Rise of British supremacy in 2nd half of 18th century

• This is the rise of British supremacy in the second half of the 18th century. This accompanies the transformation of the company from a trading company to a political power and consolidating power across the Indian subcontinent.

Bahadur Shah I or Muazzam Shah Alam I (1707 - 1712)

War of Succession

• The War of Succession in 1707 started among Aurangazeb's three sons. Eldest brother was Prince Muzzaam, defeated and killed other two, Muhammad Azam at Jajau and Kam Bakhsh near Hyderabad and ascended to the throne, assuming the title of Bahadur Shah I.

Shah - i - Bekhabar (headless king) title

• Bahadur Shah lavishly granted jagirs and promotions which led to the deterioration in the field of administration during his reign. Because of this, he was called Shah - i - Bekhabar (headless king) by Khafi Khan.

Died in 1712

• Bahadur Shah died in 1712.

Policies

• Age - 65 years while throning
• Learned
• Reversed some of the narrowed minded policies of Aurangazeb. ****
• More tolerant towards the Hindus, no destruction of temples
• Followed pacific policy
  • Allowed Maratha Prince Shahu, who was held captive since 1689 to go back to Maharashtra.
  • Made peace with the Rajputs.
  • Made peace with Jat chief Churaman and Bundela chief Chhatrasal, who joined him in the campaign against Banda Bahadur, who revolted with the Sikhs.
  • Peace with Guru Gobind Singh and gave him a high mansab.
    • After his death, the Sikhs revolted under the leadership of Banda Bahadur.
    • Bahadur Shah defeated Banda Bahadur at Lohgarh, the fort built by Guru Govind Singh in the foothills of the Himalayas.
    • The Sikhs later recovered the fort in 1712, when he died.

Nobles emerging as Kingmakers

• Nobles became direct aspirants to the throne, emerging as kingmakers and using princes as pawns.

4 prominent noble sections

• The four prominent ones among the noble section were the Turanis/Iranis/Afghanis/Hindustanis.
  • Turanis and Afghanis were mostly Sunnis, while
  • Iranis were mostly Shias.
  • The Hindustani party, which was mostly comprised of Muslims born in India, got the support of Rajput and Jats.

Jahandar Shah (1712-1713)

War of succession

• In 1712, a war of succession broke out among the 4 sons of Bahadur Shah, leaving Bahadur Shah's dead body unburied for about a month. In this struggle, one of the less able sons, Jahandar Shah, emerged victorious with the help of Zulfiqar Khan belonging to the Irani party. He was a degenerate prince which made Zulfiqar Khan extremely capable, who became his wazir or the prime minister.

Policies

• Reversed the policies of Aurangazeb and followed the pacific policy maintained by Bahadur Shah I.

• He abolished Jaziya tax (per capita yearly tax, historically levied by the Islamic states on the non-Muslim subjects.)

• Khan confirmed the agreement made by his deputy of Deccan Daud Khan Panni and Shahu in 1712 in which the Marathas were granted the Chauth and Sardeshmukhi of the Deccan under the condition that the collections made by the Mughal officials and would be handed over to the Marathas.

• With respect to Rajput, Jai Singh of Amber was appointed as the Governor of Malwa and Ajit Singh of Marwar was appointed as the Governor of Gujarat.

• He continued to pacify Churaman Jat and Chhatrasal of Bundela.

• He also continued to suppress Sikhs .

• Khan gave up the Todar Mal land revenue settlement and introduced a revenue farming or the ijara under which the government established contract with revenue farmers and middlemen who paid the government a fixed amount while they were free to extract whatever they could from the peasant, leading to increased oppression of the peasantry.

Defeated by nephew

• Shah was defeated by his nephew Farrukhsiyar at Agra, which brought the end to the reign of Jahandar within a year. Zulfiqar Khan was also executed.

Farrukhsiyar (1713-1719)

Help of Sayyid brothers

• Farrukhsiyar came to power with the help of Sayyid Brothers Abdullah Khan, who later became his wazir, and Hussein Ali Khan, who later became his Mir Bakshi.

Incapable

• Farrukhsiyar was incapable, cowardly, and allowed himself to be influenced by the worthless platters.

Policy

• The Sayyid Brothers adopted the policy of religious tolerance, abolished jaziya and pilgrimage tax.

Executed Banda Bahadur in 1716

• Captured Banda Bahadur, leader of Sikhs, at Gurdaspur and later executed at Delhi on 19th June 1716.

Farman 1717 to EIC

• The Emperor granted the Farman (royal order) of 1717 to the British East India Company which later became a source of perpetual conflict between the Bengal Nawabs and the English East India Company. The farman was instrumental in increasing Company's stronghold in Bengal, which later colonized Bengal, followed by the rest of India.

Story behind granting a generous farman to EIC

• William Hamilton, a surgeon in the British East India Company, successfully cured Farrukhsiyar of a disease (i.e., the swelling in the groin), after which the marriage of Farrukhsiyar was arranged to the daughter of Raja Ajith Singh of Jodhpur, which was delayed by the illness.

The Farman of 1717 included the following provisions:

• Free of custom duties on trade in Bengal, Bombay and Madras
• Permission to mint own coins
• Fortify Calcutta
• Right to issue passes or dastaks for the movement of goods
• Servants were permitted to carry out private trade.

Sayyids + Peshwa Balaji Vishwanath = killed Emperor

• The Sayyids, with the help of Peshwa Balaji Vishwanath, dethroned and blinded and killed Farrukhsiyar. They raised to throne the two young princes,
  • Rafi ud Darajat - ruled for the shortest period and died of tuberculosis.
  • Rafi ud Daula - took the title of Shah Jahan II.
    • He was an opium addict and died of dysentery.

Roshan Akhtar, made the new emperor

• Made the 18-year-old Roshan Akhtar better known as Muhammad Shah as the emperor of India. All three successors of Farrukhsiyar were mere puppets in the hands of Sayyids. Even their personal liberty to move around and meet people was restricted heavily.

Muhammad Shah or Roshan Akhtar Bahadur (1719 - 1748)

Frivolous

• Weak minded, frivolous, also known as Muhammad Shah Rangila.

Nizam - ul - Mulk killed Sayyids

• A powerful group of nobles, headed by Nizam-ul-Mulk and Mohammed-Amin Khan, began to conspire against the Sayyids. Mohammed Shah succeeded in killing them in 1720 with the help of Nizam-ul-Mulk, another powerful noble.

Shah = Rangeela

• After the fall of Sayyid Brothers, Rangeela falls into the clutches of a dancing girl, Kokhi Jiu, and their eunuch, Hafiz Khidmatgar Khan.

Physical breakup of empire began

• He laid the seeds to the irreversible decline of the Mughal Empire and the physical breakup of the empire now began in his reign.

Powerful nobles began to carve out semi-independent states

• Mushid Quli Khan in Bengal (1717)
• Nizam ul Mulk in Hyderabad (1724)
  • He helped Muhammad Shah in killing the Sayyids' brothers in 1720.
  • Appointed as the wazir in 1722.
  • His departure was a symbol of the fight of loyalty and virtue from the empire and marked the beginning of the physical breakup of the Mughal Empire.
• Shahjad Khan in Awad (1772)

Marathas northern expansion in 1737

Marathas began their northern expansion in 1737. Bajirao I raided Delhi and terrorized the emperor.

Battle of Karnal

• In 1739, Nadir Shah invaded India, defeated the Mughals in the Battle of Karnal, annexed the areas west of Indus, including Kabul, to the Persian Empire.

• The King of Persia, Nadir Shah, invaded India as he was attracted by its well-known fabulous wealth, and the bankrupt Persian Empire found an easy prey in the weak Mughal rule.

• Aurangzeb has kept a vigilant eye over the north-west frontier, knowing its incoming problems. But after his death, the frontier has been neglected for years.

• The danger was recognized only after Nadir Shah occupied Lahore, but the nobles were not ready to agree on a plan for defense. The Emperor Muhammad Shah, accompanied by Nizam-ul-Mulk, marched to confront the invaders at the Battle of Karnal in 1739.

• 13 February 1739, at Karnal, Nadir Shah inflicted a crushing defeat on the Mughal Army, Khan-i-Duran (Mir Bakshi) failed in the battle.

• Sadat Khan, governor of Awadh, and Emperor Muhammad Shah were taken as prisoners.

• Nadir Shah marched to Delhi and ordered a terrible massacre in the imperial capital.

• The devastation of Delhi has been famously lamented by the poets Mir and Sauda.

• He took possession of the Peacock Throne and the Kohinoor Diamond and many other prized items in his loot. The total thunder estimated at 70 crore enabled him to exempt his own kingdom from taxation for three years.

• He also annexed the territory to the west of River Indus.

• This exposed the hidden weakness of the Empire to the Maratha Sardars and the foreign trading companies.

• As Nadir Shah was assassinated in 1747, Ahmad Shah Abdali, also known as Ahmad Shah Durrani, was chosen as the King of Afghanistan and assumed the title Durr - i - Durrani, or Pearl of Pearls.

Invasion of Abdali in 1748 till 1767

• Ahmad Shah Abdali invaded and plundered the Mughal Empire seven times, beginning his first invasion in 1748 and continued till 1767.

• In 1749, defeated the Punjab Governor Muin ul-Mulk. Mulk promised him an annual remittance of 14,000, and Abdali returned.

• In 1752, invaded India for the third time as he stopped receiving the promised remittance regularly from the Punjab governor Muin ul-Mulk. The emperor Ahmad Shah appeased Abdali by surrendering Punjab and Multan.

• In November 1756, he invaded for the fourth time.

In January 1757, he entered Delhi and plundered as far as Mathura and Agra. Before returning back, he recognized Alamgir II as the emperor, Imad ul Mulk as the wazir, and The Rohilla chief Najib-ul-Daulah as the Mir-Bakshi. The Afghani joined Ahmad Shah Abdali in 1757. For a certain period of time, Najib-ul-Daulah and later his son Zabita Khan and grandson Ghulam Qadir exercised undisputed power at Delhi. Najib was the founder of the city of Najibabad in Bijnor district. His son Timur Shah Durrani (wedded to the daughter of Alamgir II) as a supreme agent to safeguard his interests in India.

• In 1759, Najib was expelled from Delhi by Maratha chief Raghunath Rao, who also captured Punjab, forcing Abdali to return to India in 1759 to take the revenge on the Marathas.

• In 1761, he defeated the Marathas in the Third Battle of Panipat. After this, the Mughal Empire had ceased to exist in practice as an all-India empire.

• In 1772 and then 1789, the Marathas escorted the Mughal emperor to the throne of Delhi but they never made an attempt to capture Punjab and Multan or play the defenders of the north-west frontier of India.

Weak successors

Mohammed Shah was succeeded by a number of weak and inefficient rulers. The list as follows:

1. Ahmad Shah (1748-1754)
2. Alamgir II (1754-1759)
3. Shah Jahan III (1759)
4. Shah Alam II (1759-1806)
5. Akbar II (1806-1837)
6. Bahadur Shah II (1837-1857)

Ahmad Shah (1748 - 1754)

• Father Muhammad Shah and Mother Udham bhai, a public dancing girl.

• He was weak and left the state affairs in the hands of his mother Udham bhai, the queen mother, title of Qubla - i - alam, who was of poor intellect and ruled with the help of his paramour Javed Khan, a notorious eunuch.

• During this time, Ahmad Shah of Delhi invaded India twice in 1749 and 1752. He appeased Abdali by surrendering Punjab and Multan. Thus Punjab and Multan were lost to the Afghans.

• In 1752 Ghazi Ud - din Khan Feroz Jang III or Imad ul-Mulk, grandson of Nizam ul-Mulk Asaf Jah, upon the recommendation of Nawab Wasir Safdar Jang, was appointed as Mir Bakshi (paymaster general), and received the titles of Amir ul Umara (Noble of Nobles) and Imad ul-Mulk by the Mughal Emperor Ahmad Shah.

• Jang soon emerged powerful and began to intimidate the emperor himself, who now wished to have him removed from the court. Before that, Jang sought an alliance with Maratha chief Sadashiv Rao Bhau. They blinded and deposed Ahmad Shah in 1754. Raised a puppet ruler Alamgir II. Imad ul-Mulk now became the new Wazir and King. He became a kingmaker.

Alamgir II or Asaf ud-Din (1754-1759)

• was raised by Imad-ul-Mulk
• father Jahandar Shah.
• During this time, Ahmad Shah Abdali invaded India in 1757 and reached till Delhi. Imad invited the Marathas to drive out the Afghans and the Rohillas in March 1758. Marathas led by Raghunath Rao defeated the Afghan garrison at Delhi and expelled Najib in Punjab and occupied Lahore.
• They deposed Timur Shah who was appointed by his father Ahmad Shah Abdali. They instead appointed Adina Beg as the governor of Punjab on behalf of Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao.
• In 1759, Afghan monarch Ahmad Shah Abdali came back to avenge the Marathas. It took to the third battle of Manipur was fought on 14 January 1761 which resulted in a crushing defeat for the Marathas.
• It was also during this regime reign that The Battle of Plassey was fought in June 1757.
• In 1759, Imad-ul-Mulk got the emperor murdered and raised to the throne his puppet Mughal emperor Shahjahan III.

Shah Jahan III (1759-1760)

• He reigned as a Mughal emperor for a very brief period,
• the eldest son of Muhammad Khan Baksh, (the youngest son of Aurangzeb)
• Placed on the throne in December 1759 by Wazir Imad-ul-Mulk,
• Later deposed by the Maratha chiefs.

Shah Alam II or Ali Gauhar (1760 - 1806)

• During 1759-16 Sadashivarao Bhau, deposed the Shah Jahan III and installed Ali Gauhar, the son of Alamgir II as the emperor.

• Ali Gauhar took the title of Shah Alam II. He also authored his own Diwan of poems under the pen name Aftab.

• He was a man of some ability and courage.

• During his time he saw two battles, the third battle of Panipat in 1761 and the battle of Buxar in 1764.

• Ahmad Shah Abdali named Shah Alam II as the emperor and Najib Ud Daulah as the Mir Bakshi.

• Ahmad Shah last invaded India in 1767. His invasion hastened the downfall of the Mughal Emperor.

• The Emperor Shah Alam II was not allowed to enter Delhi for 12 years from 1760 to 1772. Later he was escorted to the throne by Marathas in 1772.

• 1771 Marathas under Mahadji Shinde or Scindia captured Delhi and reinstated Shah Alam II as the emperor in January 1772.

• Shah Alam appointed Scindia in charge of Delhi administration.

• Henceforth, the Scindias remained the overlords of Delhi until Daulat Rao Scindia who was defeated by Lord Lake in 1803.

• Thus he was also came to be known as Fugitive Mughal Emperor

• During his absence, Rohilla leader Najib Ud Daulah and later his son Zabita Khan and grandson Ghulam Qadir exercised undisputed power at Delhi.

• Battle of Buxar in 1764. Shah Alam II along with Mir Qasim of Bengal and Shuja-ud-daula of Awadh fought against the English East India Company, defeated and signed the Treaty of Allahabad in 1765. Terms of the treaty:

• Force to grant Diwani (right to collect revenue) of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa to the British

• The Emperor was given the subsidy of 26 lakh rupees and the district of Kora and Allahabad

• The Emperor allowed to reside in the fort of Allahabad for the next six years as a virtual prisoner of the English

• In 1772 - 73, Shah Alam with the Marathas led an expedition ahead against Rohilla leader Zabita khan, who was earlier appointed as Mir Bakshi by Shah Alam.

• Zabita khan was taken prisoner with his family and other Rohilla leaders.

• His son Ghulam Qadir Rohila was castrated and made to serve as a page in the palace.

• In September 1787, Ghulam Qadir was able to force the emperor to appoint him as Mir Bakshi and Regent. But soon he left Delhi only to reenter next year to take revenge.

• On 30th July 1788, Ghulam Qadir took possession of the royal palace, deposed Shah Alam and blinded him on 10th August 1788. Shah Alam was also referred to as the blind Mughal Emperor.

• Mahadji Scindia hunted Qadir and the blind Shah Alam was restored as the king in October 1788.

• In 1803, Delhi was recaptured by the British after defeating Daulat Rao Scindia and the blind Mughal emperor accepted the protection of the British.

• Shah Alam's power was so depleted that it led to a saying in Persian, "Sultanat-e-Shah Alam, Az Delhi ta Palam". Meaning the kingdom of Shah Alam is from Delhi to Palam. Palam being a suburb of Delhi.

• So in this way he and his successors were only emperors in name, being puppets in the hands of their own nobles or the Marathas or the British.

• The British kept alive the fiction of the Mughal empire until 1858.

• The company's coins continued to carry the stamp of Emperor Shah Alam till 1835.

Akbar Shah (1806 - 1837)

• Akbar Shah II gave the title of Raja to Ram Mohan Roy and sent him to England to seek a rise in the pension.
• In 1835, the English East India Company discontinued issuing coins in his name by deleting Persian lines.

Bahadur Shah II or Bahadur Shah Zafar (1837 - 1857)

• found of poetry, titled Zafar.
• He was the emperor of India during the revolt of 1857.
• After the revolt, he was deported to Rangoon, where he died in 1862.
• The Mughal Empire came to an end on 1st November 1858 with the declaration of Queen Victoria.

Causes of the decline of the Mughal Empire:

The internal weaknesses:

Aurangzeb's misguided policy

• Aurangzeb expanded the empire, which only resembled an inflated balloon. He expanded beyond the point of effective control.
• His policy of religious intolerance antagonized the Rajput, Sikh, Jats, and Marathas.
• He continued the war in Deccan against the Marathas, which depleted the resources of the empire.

Weak successors

The later Mughals were proved to be weak and incapable, becoming victims of the intrigues and conspiracies of the faction-ridden nobles. Some examples are:

1. Bahadur Shah I, also known as Shah -i- Bekhabar, liked to appease all parties by profuse grants of titles and rewards.
2. Jahandar Shah, 1712-13, wildly extravagant.
3. Farrukhsiyar, coward.
4. Mohammed Shah, addiction to wine and women, got the title of Rangeela.
5. Ahmad Shah extended the harem, a separate place for concubines or wives of the emperor, to a very large area where he spent weeks or months.

War of succession and the role of king-makers

• in the absence of a definite law of succession, the nobles started to act like kingmakers.
• Zulfikar Khan after 1712
• From 1713 to 1720, the Sayyid brothers,
• Mir Muhammad Amin and Asaf Jaf Nizam ul Mulk.

Nature of the Mughal State

• essentially a Police state, maintaining law and order and collection of revenues, but failed to foster a feeling of harmony between Hindus and Muslims.
• Some efforts were done by Akbar which were later undone by the bigotry of Aurangzeb.

Degeneration of the Mughal nobility or military aristocracy

• in the late 16th century, Akbar organized this aristocracy through the Mansabdari system.
• The Mansabdas were appointed by the emperor himself and were required to maintain a given number of sawars or horsemen and were often paid in the form of jagir (i.e., landed estate).
• With time, the Mansabdari system became hereditary.
• This was further added to the degeneration of the nobility.
• They spent huge sums on keeping large harems and maintaining a big staff of servants and indulged in other forms of pomp and show which drained their financial resources and weakened their morality.

Shifting loyalty of the zamindars

• the zamindars and the nobles were the two classes that shared stake over with the emperor.
• Different zamindars like Rais, Rajas, Khuts, Thakurs, and Deshmukhs.
• They played an important role in the collection of revenue and local administration.
• They helped the nobility to take advantage of the weaknesses of the empire and establish autonomous states for themselves.

Jagirdari crisis and the resulting court factions

• Satish Chandra defines this crisis as "the available social surplus was insufficient to defray the cost of administration and give the ruling class a standard of life in keeping with its expectations."
• The crisis increased mainly because of the Deccan Wars. The Jagir Crisis led to an unhealthy competition among the nobles in order to have control over good jagirs. Group politics in the Mughal court became an order of the day. Such nobility no longer espoused the cause of the empire. They stopped maintaining the required number of soldiers and horses and became more interested in carving out their own autonomous state. The noble faction included:

1. The Irani group led by Asad Khan and his son Zulfikar Khan
2. The Turani group led by Ghazi-Ud-din Khan Feroz Jung and his son Chin Qilich Khan, also known as Nizam-ul-Mulk
3. The Hindustani group led by the Sayyid brothers The personal interest of Nizam-ul-Mulk (Chin Qilich Khan) and Burhan-ul-Mulk (Saadat Khan) led them to intrigue with Nadir Shah.

Military weakness

• the Mughal military had some inherent weaknesses.
• It was organized in a kind of feudal style where the soldiers held greater allegiance to the Mansabdari than the Emperor, which fostered conditions of indiscipline and revolt.
• The Mughal army usually moved with a huge tail of camps which looked like a city with markets and stores. Women, children, cattle, and other non-combatants accompanied the army, making it unwieldy and reduced it to the likes of an armed rabble.

Empty treasury

• Shah Jahan's zeal for construction,
• Aurangzeb's long wars in the Deccan,
• continuous invasion of foreign powers,
• depleting social law and order (like the plunder and robbery),
• The autonomous states gradually stopped payment of revenue to the centre.
• the financial condition of the Mughal Empire started deteriorating.

Size of empire and rise of regional powers

• During Aurangzeb's rule itself, powerful regional troops like the Sikhs, Jats, Rajputs, and Marathas defied the Mughal authority in a bid to carve out their own kingdoms.
• The Mughal Empire had become too large and unwieldy to be controlled by any ruler from one center, specifically under the medieval conditions of transport and communications.

External challenges:

Rise of Marathas

• Though there were many regional powers rising, the Marathas proved to be a significant regional power
• Propounded the ideal of Hindu Rashtra which could be built only at the cost of the Muslim Empire.
• Though they acted as the defenders of the country against foreign invaders like Ahmed Shah of Delhi, still their idea was to overthrow the Mughal Empire.

Invasion of Irani and Durrani

• Iranian monarch Nadir Shah attacked India in 1738 and 1739 and defeated the Mughal army in the Battle of Karnal.
• His successor Ahmad Shah Abdali invaded India 7 times between 1748 and 1767.
• This kept depleting the Mughal treasury of its wealth and also exposed the weaknesses of the military of the Mughal Empire.

Advent of European powers

• the European trading companies took advantage of the prevailing conditions and started to participate in the court intrigues and hastened the process of disintegration of the Mughal Empire.

Views of prominent historians

William Irvine and Jadunath Sarkar - Personal failings of the emperors and nobles.

According to Sarkar, Aurangzeb was a religious fanatic. He discriminated against the sections of nobles and officials on the basis of religion, which led to a wide-scale resentment among the nobility.

Satish Chandra and Athar Ali - Jagirdari Crisis

according to Satish Chandra, towards the end of Aurangzeb's rule, the Mansabdari-Jagirdhari system went into disarray. This happened because of the shortage of jagirs and overabundance of jagirdars.

Irfan Habib - Agrarian Crisis

The agrarian system had become exploitative, sparking peasant revolts and ruining the imperial stability. The Mughal government tried to extract as much revenue as possible, which ultimately destroyed the peasants' capacity to pay the revenue. Jagirdars were frequently transferred and had little interest in any long-term agricultural development.

M. Pearson, J.F. Richards, and P. Hardy - Deccan Crisis

The leading cause of Mughal decline was the involvement in the Deccan and continuous fight with the Marathas.

Muzaffar Alam and Chetan Singh - Rise of Regional Powers

There was impressive economic progress in Awadh and Punjab opposed to the economic stagnation in Delhi and Agra.