Mughal Empire © Anup Mukherjee
Mughal empire is a fascinating period of Indian History. This is because, the mughal history is so recent so as to blend with the issues of the current times. Many of the monuments of Mughal period are still in use, whether it be mosques, mausoleum or forts. This essay is a brief summary of the Mughal empire from the historical and trade perspective.
Babur founded the Mughal Empire after defeating Ibrahim Shah Lodi at the first battle of Panipat in 1526. Babur died in 1530, leaving an unsettled political situation. His son and successor, Humayun could not hold on to the newly created rule and lost in a series of battles to Sher Shah Suri. Consequently, 1540 onwards, Humayun led a life of refugee, much of this period in the Court of Persian Safavid ruler. It was his son and successor Akbar who then only 14 years old, finally regained the control of Hindustan after winning the second battle of Panipat in 1556.
From 1556 upto 1707, Mughals rule expanded to cover nearly all of the present India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. In this time the Mughals produced great rulers- Akbar, Jahangir, Shahjahan, and Aurangzeb. However from Akbar to Aurangzeb, the Mughals rule had moved from one pole to another in its policies of religious tolerance and relations with its subordinate rulers. Akbar had consolidated the Mughal rule and expanded it through diplomacy, warfare, matrimonial alliance, and a tolerant religious policy. The Mughal Empire continued to expand under his successors Jahangir, Shahjahan and Aurangzeb. From Aurangzeb’s time a decline set in. Aurangzeb had ruled over the largest expanse of the Mughals till date. After his death, the Mughal rule declined, and many regional kingdoms came up. This also happened along with the emergence of British East India Company as a political power. By 1765, the Mughal emperor had become a pensioner of the British East India Company. During the 1857 civil rebellion, the rebels and the mutineers had proclaimed the now symbolic Mughal emperor as the ruler of India. Consequent to the defeat of the rebels, the Mughal rule was also dismantled and the last emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar till his death led a life of prisoner of the British at Burma. In 1858 when the British government took direct control over India, Queen Elizabeth was proclaimed the ruler of India.
Mughal rule was the most significant of the various regimes during the medieval times in India. Belonging to Central Asia, which had trade as the major economic activity, Mughals understood the importance of trade. Their main objective in conquering Gujarat, Bengal and Sindh was to gain control over sea-trade. Moreover, they facilitated the development of overland trade routes when they consolidated their control over Kabul and Kandhar. It is significant that many members of the royal family, as well as influential nobles invested substantial sum in overseas trade. Jahangir and his consort Nur Jahan had investment in ships plying between Surat and Red Sea. Ships of Prince Khurram when he was governor of Gujarat had extensive trade with Mocha. Similarly Ships of Prince Dara, and Aurangzeb traded with Acheh and Bantam. Prince Azim-ush-Shan even declared the entire import trade of Bengal as his monopoly. The ships owned by royal members were generally big ships upto thousand tonnes. The influential nobles and governors would try to monopolise the trade through their regions. Nobles like Mir Jumla tried to monopolise trade of saltpetre, and later on Shaista Khan tried to monopolise trade of salt, bees wax and gold in Bengal. On the other hand, the governor of Lahore, Wazir Khan took commission for every transaction at Lahore.
Unlike other contemporary regimes, Mughals did not make trade a royal monopoly. They wished to have a free trade regime in which different trading groups had a fair chance. This was in contrast to different contemporary regimes viz. in Persia under Shah Abbas silk was a royal monopoly, rulers of South East kingdoms made tin, rice etc their royal monopoly, in South Indian kingdom of Travancore, pepper was a royal monopoly. Also in this endeavour to keep free trade regime open, the Mughals faced hostilities from the European trading companies that aimed to monopolise the sea trade. In Asia, the State force did not back up the trading activity through use of coercion. In contrast, the European trading companies used force and coercion to gain supremacy on the sea trade. In such situation, the biggest handicap of the Mughals was that they lacked an effective navy. To counter such threat, the Mughals usually resorted to playing on the differences among these trading companies, and thus ensured that the seaports like Surat were generally open for free trade.
In such situation, they had to face challenges from European companies. Particularly when the Portuguese, and later on the Dutch tried to take control of sea trade. The long term objective of Dutch were to deny Indian ships to SE Asia, and appropriate all trade of Indian items to SE Asia to themselves. The Dutch even blockaded the port of Surat. The Mughals retaliated by confiscating their possessions on land and arresting their agents. However over a period of time the differences and issues got resolved. Similarly, there were issues with the British East India Company over customs duties. However again on this issue, the differences were resolved in the interest of trade and keeping the balance between the different European trading companies.
As there was regional specialisation in production and manufacture of goods there was much scope for exchange of various items. These goods were transported on bullocks, sometimes in caravans of 30,000. These were mainly used for transportation of food grain items. The costlier goods were transported on camels and mules and on carts. Boats were used on river-ways. There was also a well-developed coastal trade. Bengal was famous for sugar and rice, and also for muslin and silk; area of Coromandal coast for textile; Gujarat was the gateway for foreign trade with the West and specialised in textiles and silk; Lahore was a centre of handicraft production; Sarkhej and Bayana were famous for indigo production; Kashmir was important for shawls and carpets. These places were well connected for inland and overseas trade. At local level, there was a well-developed financial market- sarrafs catered to requirements of currency conversion; money transfer was done using hundis, banking and insurance was also well developed. Most of the trading was done with the network of commission agents known as dallals; while the manufacturing had developed a putting out system, known as dadani. Overseas trade and commerce contributed to influx of silver into the empire that led to its economic stability.
The Mughals also adopted an absolute sovereignty. This particularly took shape during the times of Akbar, when he issued the famous mazhar in 1579. By this proclamation, he extended his powers as Amir i Adil (just monarch) & Amir ul Momnin (leader of faithful) to that of Imam i Adil (supreme arbiter of Islamic law). Thus Akbar was proclaimed higher in rank than Mujtahids (interpreter of Islamic laws eg Mullahs). Akbar was not just Zil i Ilahi (shadow of God on earth), but also, Farr i Izdi (divine effulgence / light of God). Thus the Mughal emperor was both the temporal and the spiritual head of his empire.
An important aspect of the Mughal rule was the creation of a military-bureaucratic system named the Mansabdari system. Though the system itself underwent various transformations depending on the circumstances, the characteristic feature was a single hierarchy that took within its fold both the military and the civilian bureaucracy. This way, the empire was primarily a police state.
However this was to a large extent tempered by the progress in the field of art, culture, and architecture. The Mughal emperors were patrons of these fields and their reign, particularly the times of Akbar, Jahangir, and Shahjahan saw the construction of forts, monuments, mosques and tombs. Both Akbar and Jahangir patronised painting. There was a royal atelier with many painters who captured the various dimensions of life of the Mughals. Incidentally all these paintings were without any religious undertones. Shahjahan being more interested in architecture, his reign witnessed building of finest specimen of Mughal architecture- the most prominent of them being the Tajmahal that was built in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal.
Mughal reign during the times of Akbar saw a shift away form the religious orientation of the state. Akbar abolished the Jizia, and gave equal opportunities for people of different faiths. He also laid down a policy of sulh-i-kul, meaning land of peace and tolerance. By this he not only undermined the influence of the ulema, but also laid firm religious policy for the empire that served it well for at least a century. This policy was reversed during the time of Aurangzeb’s rule. Akbar also founded a spiritual-religion by the name din-i-ilahi; it found only eighteen full time adherents. The Mughal period also witnessed the flowering of the Bhakti and the Sufi movement in the country.
Though the Mughals had come to India as invaders, they took to this country as their own and settled down here. The liberal religious policy and marriages between the Mughals and Hindu princesses brought a period of understanding between the people professing the two faiths. It also led to tempering of hostilities that generally characterised the Hindu-Muslim relations during the medieval times. It also led to cooperation between the Mughals and the Rajputs and various other local zamindars and this gave a period of political stability to the people. Thus Mughal rule, at least till the reign of Shah Jahan witnessed a period of realtive stability, progress and peace.
Bibliography:
1) Satish Chandra, Medieval India (Part-2, Mughal Empire), (Har-Anand, 2001)
2) S.A.A. Rizvi, The Wonder That Was India (Vol-2), (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1987)
3) J.L. Mehta, Advanced Study in the History of Medieval Times (Vol-2), (Sterling, 1988)
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