Eighteenth Century Political Formations

1. Describe about the crises faced by the Mughal in the last of 17th century.

The Mughal Empire started facing a variety of crises towards the closing years of the 17th century. These were caused by a number of factors. Emperor Aurangzeb had depleted the military and financial resources of his empire by fighting a long war in the Deccan. Under his successors, the efficiency of the imperial administration broke down and it became difficult for the Mughal emperors to keep a check on their powerful mansabdars.

Nobles appointed as governors (subadars) often controlled the offices of revenue and military administration (diwani and faujdari) as well. As the governors consolidated their control over the provinces, the periodic remission of revenue to the capital declined. In the northern and western India Mughals faced many rebellions including revolts of peasant and zamindari.

These groups were now able to seize the economic resources of the region to consolidate their positions. After Aurangzeb, Mughal were unable to arrest the shifting of political and economic authority into the hand of provincial governors, local chieftains and other groups.

2. Write a short note on Maratha kingdom.

The Maratha kingdom was another powerful regional kingdom to arise out of a sustained opposition to Mughal rule. Shivaji carved out a stable kingdom with the support of powerful warrior families (deshmukhs). Groups of highly mobile peasants, pastoralists provided the backbone of the Maratha army. These forces used to challenge the Mughals in the peninsula. Chitpavan Brahmanas served Shivaji’s successors as Peshwa (principal minister).

Poona became the capital of the Maratha kingdom. Under the Peshwas, the Marathas developed a very successful military organization. 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. He possessed the right to levy chauth and sardeshmukhi in the entire region. The frontier of Maratha domination expanded into Rajasthan, Punjab, Bengal and Orissa, Karnataka, Tamil and Telugu region in the south.

3 Describe religious policy and administration of Shivaji.

Religious Policy of Shivaji: Shivaji was a heartfelt Hindu but he had great respect for Islam as well as Quran and employed large number of Muslims in his army. Grants for construction of mosques were also provided by him. Thus, his religious policy was very much liberal.

Administration of Shivsyi: Shivaji was a very brave and wise warrior. His kingdom was divided into two parts:

• homeland which was under direct control and was called Swarajya.

• the territories adjacent to Mughal territories called Mughlai.

Shivaji kingdom collected two types of the taxes known as chauth and Sardeshmukhi. Prant or provinces of the empire were divided into several parganas and each pargana was consisted from various villages. The headmen of villages were called as Patel.

Thus, the administrative system of Shivaji was quite well in view of the tax collection and controlling over the prant as well as kingdom.

4. Divide the states of 18th century into three overlapping groups.

States of the 18th century can be divided into three overlapping groups:

(i) States that were old Mughal provinces like Awadh, Bengal and Hyderabad. They were extremely powerful and quite independent, the rulers of these states did not break their formal ties with the Mughal emperor.

All three sites were founded by members of the high Mughal nobility who had been governors of large provinces- Sa’adat Khan (Awadh), Murshid Quli Khan (Bengal) and Asaf Jah (Hyderabad). All three had occupied high mansabdari positions and enjoyed the trust and confidence of the emperors. The two of them had zat rank of 7,000 each.

(ii) States that had enjoyed considerable independence under the Mughals as watan jagirs. These included several Rajput kingdoms.

(iii) States under the control of Marathas, Sikhs and others like the Jats. These had seized their independence from the Mughals after a long-drawn armed struggle.