Question

Discuss the political and economic condition in india during 18th century

Answer 1

India of the 18th century failed to make progress economically, socially, or culturally at a pace, which would have saved the country from collapse.

The increasing revenue demands of the state, the oppression of the officials, the greed and rapacity of the nobles, revenue-farmers, and zamindars, the marches and countermarches of the rival armies, and the depredations of the numerous adventurers roaming the land during the first half of the 18th century made the life of the people quite despicable.

India of those days, was also a land of contrasts. Extreme poverty existed side by side with extreme rich and luxury. On the one hand, there were the rich and powerful nobles steeped in luxury and comfort; on the other, backward, oppressed, and impoverished peasants living at the bare subsistence level and having to bear all sorts of injustices and inequities.

Even so, the life of the Indian masses was by and large better at this time than it was after over 100 years of British rule at the end of the 19th century.

Answer 2

The political instability of India can be seen in the defragmentation of the Mughal empire into a number of autonomous, regional states. During this time, Hyderabad was ruled by a Nawab appointed by the Mughal emperor.  Murshid Quli Khan and Alivardi Khan took the advantage of the weakness of central power and hence, made Bengal virtually independent. Rajput also took advantage of the disintegration of the central authority and declared their states as independent from the Mughal rule. Such was the case with Awadh and Mysore.  

The basic unit of the Indian economy was self- sufficient village economy. The main source of the income of government was the land revenue. With reference to trade, some of the towns developed as the commercial centres such as Decca and Ahmedabad were famous for its cotton products, Murshidabad, and Agra was famous for silk fabrics, which attracted traders worldwide. The large scale of domestic and foreign trade resulted in the rise of the mercantile class and the banking system. Therefore, it can be concluded that trade flourished in India during this time and gave rise to the capitalist economy in the eighteenth century India.