How did the Company manipulate the privileges given by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb?
Answers
Answer:The ruins of the Mughal rule
The bedrock of the Mughal empire was laid in 1526 by Zahiruddin Babur. The empire reached its full glory in the 16th century during the reign of Akbar. However, the valour of the Mughals came to an end, with the death of its last powerful emperor, Aurangzeb, in 1707 A.D. The road to fall was an array of incidents, from internal rebellion to war of succession, weakening the army. Moreover, the invasion of Nadir Shah (1738-39) was the last nail on the coffin, exposing the vulnerability of the Mughal authority. The reasons for the decline differ in scholarly world, ranging from weak personality traits of the ruler, to crisis of the ruling elite or peasant grievances.
The invasion of Nadir Shah (1738-39) blew up the prestige only to exhibited the vulnerability of the Mughal authority. Photo Source: Nadir Shah by Durand
With the closure of the 18th century, the actual rule of the Mughal emperor was confined only to a limited area around the city of Delhi, the capital. The weakness of the empire led the regional powers to assert their authority. Nonetheless, the symbolic authority of the Mughal emperor prevailed as the emperor was a source of political legitimacy; the newly formed states did not challenge the emperor, but rather persistently looked for his sanction to legitimise their authority. This led to decentralisation of power.
Besides, these new regional power provinces did not have a unified past, as a few of them were founded by provincial Mughal governors, some were rebels against the Mughal state, and a few states that asserted their independence were previously functioning as autonomous but dependent polities.
Bengal, Hyderabad and Awadh were the three successor states of the Mughal empire founded by Mughal provincial governors who never formally severed their links with the centre, but virtually exercised autonomy in matters of execution of power at the local level. The regional power who rebelled and had an autonomous kingdom were the Marathas,the Sikhs, the Jats of Bharatpur and the Afghan kingdoms of Farukhabad and Rohilkhand. Apart from the successor states and the rebel states, there were also a few principalities, like the Rajput kingdoms, Mysore and Travancore, which already enjoyed considerable amount of autonomy in the past and now in the eighteenth century became completely independent.