Question

18th century in india a dark age?comment.

Answer 1

The 18th century has been a subject of historical debate among scholars. Itrepresents a phase of transition between medieval and modern periods. Thedecline of Mughal power in the 18th century was characterized by the rise ofautonomous states during the same period. Earlier the historians regarded this period as crisis torn but recent researches have tried to study 18th century statesas separate entities possessing elements of dynamism and growth.The 18th century has been conventionally viewed as a period of declineanarchy and economic decay or simply put as theDark Age. It was held at thedecline of Mughal state corresponded with an overall decline.!ccording toJames ills he opined that the coming of the "ritish rescuedIndia from its gloomy e#istence. $owever the recent historiography has refutedthis structure of overall gloom and opines that the period was infact mar%ed bythe rise of regional powers and reconfiguration of economic and politicale&uations.The 18th century polities should also be seen in the conte#t of continuity withthe Mughal political system and also changes introduced to suit the new political situation.The division of the 18th century into two periods of transition by!eema Alavi'•(radual decline of the Mughal Empire especially after the death of!urangzeb in 1)*) and the subse&uent rise of the regional political order •+onsolidation of "ritish colonial power through English East India+ompany ,EI+-  !fter "attle of /lassey ,1)0)- and "attle of "u#ar ,1))- EI+ founded in 1** by a 2oyal +harter outsets the 3utch the 4rench the/ortuguese and other regional powers by the second half of the 18th century.The 18th century reflected the political transformation from Mughal decline to"ritish colonialism but the socio5economic forces at the local level continued tooperate as before but the local groups shifted their political allegiance. 6ith thedecline of Mughal Empire the virtually independent zamindars performed thetas% of collection of revenue and the local rulers used these resources forsustaining court and armies. 7everal types of political formations emerged inthis period ranging from successor states to zamindaris which later got absorbedinto the category of /rincely states under the "ritish.

Answer 2

A school of historians like Irfan Habib, Satish Chandra etc have described the 18th century in India as dark age because there was total anarchy after the downfall of Mughal Empire. The old aged institutions of Mughals were declined and the disintegration of India lead emergence of fragmented kingdoms. There was cultural stagnation as well.

These historians point out that there was economic decline in 18th century. The cities were deserted and the century saw the establishment of British rule which was exploitative and repressive.

But Revisionist scholars have criticized the Dark Age Theory and regarded 18th century as age of prosperity because the century saw the emergence of regional kingdoms which were economically much prosperous.