Causes of the Decline of the Mughal Empire

Causes of the Decline of the Mughal Empire.

• WEAK SUCCESSORS: Later Mughals were worthless, incapable and neglected the administration of the state, in short, they were nalayak unlike earlier Mughals, i.e. they were unworthy to inherit such a vast empire. How we can say that they were unworthy, We saw in the last session how later Mughals were controlled by powerful nobility, such as Zulfiqar khan, Sayyid Brothers and Chin Qilich Khan. We saw how Muhammad Shah Rangeela was more interested in women and kathak and wine instead of showing interest in court affairs, economy, military, and administration.
• FANATICAL RELIGIOUS POLICIES OF AURANGZEB: The Mughal state in the days of Akbar, Jehangir and Shahjahan was essentially a secular state but it changed its character in the reign of the Aurangzeb. He imposed jizya, caused the destruction of temples in the north, which alienated Hindu rulers. But later these policies were reversed by later Mughals seeking cooperation from regional Hindu states. Also, it should be noted that as per Bipan Chandra, the society was divided between upper and lower class, and not between Hindus and muslims. The upper classes of both the religious groups formed the ruling class while the peasants and artisans, Hindu or Muslim, formed the underprivileged majority of society. (Bipan Chandra. History of Modern India (p. 22). Orient Blackswan Pvt Ltd. Kindle Edition.) In short, Aurangzeb’s fanatical religious policies led to revolts by Rajput’s, Sikhs, Jats, and Marathas, which made the large empire unstable.
• SUCCESSION RULES: First of all Aurangzeb left the scene with many problems unsolved and there was no clear line of succession. Whenever the king died, the empire went into civil war, because of this many abled generals, cavalryman, soldiers, infantry and artillery was sacrificed, you can compare it to a fight between brothers when their father dies they start fighting for the property, whereas their job is to take care of their loved ones their subjects in such crisis, their job is to absorb the shock and not to create the shocks. So when kind died princes went to war and the whole philosophy behind these was stronger prince shall rule but this cripples the economy, heavy losses take place, after the death of Aurangzeb in 10-12 years, Mughal Empire saw 6 new rulers and such frequent succession wars weakened the stability of the government and groups evolved in the Mughal Court. If nobility is fragmented in court itself it is obvious that empire was factored in geographical length and breadth because of divergent loyalties of the officials. This highlights the next cause of the decline.
• DEGENERATED NOBILITY: The weakness of the rulers could have been successfully overcome and covered up by an alert, efficient and loyal nobility, but they were fond of luxury lives, it is not like that there was a dearth of abled military commanders, there were abled nobles like Zulfiqar Khan, Sayyid Brothers, Chin Qilich Khan but the issue was that they were not interested to serve the empire they were interested in filling their own coffers and serve their own interest. Degeneration of rulers reflected in the Degeneration of nobility. Other nobles conspired against abled Zulfiqar Khan, Sayyid brothers toppled king whenever they felt like doing so, Chin Qilich Khan founded his own state. Most of the nobles were selfish and lack of devotion to the empire, resulted in the further weakness of the state.
• EXPANSIONIST POLICY: Aurangzeb inherited a large empire still he wanted to extend the boundaries of empire further. Existing transport and communication were not enough to govern such a vast empire. To govern a large empire you need a strong communication lines between the centre and the periphery. For example, when British controlled India from NWFP till Burma and Kashmir to Kanyakumari they relied on strong communication which was provided by telegraph lines, these telecommunication lines served as the backbone of the British Empire in India. But Mughals were technologically not that much advance, there was no significant investment in research and technology in Mughal Era on the other hand Europeans were technically more advanced.
• DECCAN POLICY: Aurangzeb was not ready to accept the Maratha demand for regional autonomy. When Akbar was placed in similar situations he made alliances with the Rajputs but in this regard Aurangzeb was ill-advised, Aurangzeb’s Deccan policy was a complete failure, fall of Qutubshahi and Adilshahi eliminated buffer between Marathas and Mughals. His military campaign drained the resources of the empire, trade, commerce, and industry of Deccan was ruined, many abled generals and cavalryman lost their lives from both sides in these battles. Later on, Maratha’s expansion in the north further crippled the Mughal state from time to time and finally, the foreign invasion gave a death blow to the empire.
• JAGIR CRISIS: As we discussed Mughal nobility became selfish, they made an effort to consolidate jagirs for themselves and serve their own interest. But it was not possible to satisfy all nobles, the land was limited, and there were not enough jagirs for all. On the other hand, those who had jagirs tried to maximize their income at the costly the peasantry, also another thing that they did to maximize own profit is that they reduced military strength so they don’t have to pay more salary to Calvary, as a result, no of sawar which earlier had to maintained reduced in numbers which weakened military strength. To strengthen the empire, rulers tried to recruit more jagirdars instead of consolidating the position of the existing jagirdari system. For doing this rulers started distributing even the Royal Land that is Khalisa land. So as a result revenue from this land reduced and state coffers emptied further. So insert this jagir crisis resulted in reduction in revenue from Khalisa Land and Mughal empire which was essentially a war state lost its military strength eventually as corrupt Jagirdars reduced the number of cavalryman and increase their own profit.
• IJARADARI SYSTEM: After the death of Aurangzeb, Ijaradari system was introduced, here middleman was introduced, we learned that in the last lesson, middlemen could collect as much as they want from peasant as long as they are providing fixed revenue to the empire. This alienated the peasant class. This takes us to the next cause of the decline i.e. Peasant Uprisings.
• SATNAMI, JAT, AND SIKH UPRISING: These people were mostly peasants and unhappy with the oppression of the Mughal officials, they were suppressed by the feudal lords, zamindars and nobles of the state, finally Satnmai, Jat and Sikh revolted mostly in areas near Delhi.
• MILITARY WEAKNESS: We learned that the Mughal state was essential a war state, the military was the backbone of the empire. There was further Deterioration of the army and the jagir crisis also proved disastrous. Jealousy, mutual rivalry reduced the prestige of the Mughal empire Military lacked discipline and fighting morale and contributed; to the decline of the empire.
• SUCCESSOR STATES: Like Hyderabad, Bengal, Awadh did not challenge the sovereignty of the empire but governed their regions independently, this resulted in further loss of prestige and weakness of the empire more visible than ever, new regional states such as Marathas, Sikhs tried to capitalize on this opportunity.
• NEW STATES: Later Mughal tried to pacify these new states but as soon as they sensed the weakness of the empire their demands increased and they weakened the empire.
• FOREIGN INVASIONS: Invasion of Irani Nadir Shah and Durrani Ahmad Shah Abdali gave a death blow to the Mughal empire. Like new regional states, they too sensed the weakness of the Mughal empire and they attacked Delhi whenever they were short of resources and finances.
• The one characteristic that these new states and foreign invasions had in common was that they had the capacity to cause destruction to the Mughal empire but they always fell short when it came to replace the empire and create something new. Even they could have succeeded in making empire out of this struggle, that empire could have been similar to the Mughal empire with stagnant social system, backward economic, social, and political structure. But there is a debate too there is one school of thought which thinks India could have evolved and emerged on the lines of Japan and Meiji restoration. But that is all together with a different discussion.
• This void was eventually filled by Britishers. Europeans had an efficient economic system, top-notch technology, mighty military. They were interested in trade and strong contenders of the Indian seat of power and they became successful. In the last session, we ended our discussion on how after the revolt of 1857 the King was deposed to Burma and the Mughal empire ended and the crown took direct control over India.