Question

How wrong policies for defence became the cause for decline of mughal empire

Answer 1

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●One of the most important causes of the downfall of the Mughal empire was the degeneration of the army which by its origin and composition was defective. The Mughal army consisted chiefly of contingents recruited by the high officers and the nobles. They were assigned revenues of large tracts of land for their maintenance. There was no bond of closeness between the emperor and the individual soldiers. As the later Mughal emperors were weak, the powerful nobles began to convert the assignments which they held for maintaining troops into hereditary possessions. As early as the reign of Shah Jahan, the military inefficiency of the Mughals was exposed by the failure of the Qandahar campaigns. The same inefficiency was also revealed in Aurangzeb’s war with the Marathas. This degeneration of the army contributed to its fall.
One of the most important causes of the downfall of the Mughal empire was the degeneration of the army which by its origin and composition was defective. The Mughal army consisted chiefly of contingents recruited by the high officers and the nobles. They were assigned revenues of large tracts of land for their maintenance. There was no bond of closeness between the emperor and the individual soldiers. As the later Mughal emperors were weak, the powerful nobles began to convert the assignments which they held for maintaining troops into hereditary possessions. As early as the reign of Shah Jahan, the military inefficiency of the Mughals was exposed by the failure of the Qandahar campaigns. The same inefficiency was also revealed in Aurangzeb’s war with the Marathas. This degeneration of the army contributed to its fall.
Another cause of Mughal downfall was the deterioration and demoralisation in the Mughal Army. The abundance of riches of India, the use of wine and comforts had their evil effects on the Mughal Army and nothing was done to stop the deterioration. The soldiers cared more for personal comforts and less for winning battles. In the words of Irvine, "Excepting want of personal courage, every other faults in the list of military vices may be attributed to the degenerate Mughals; indiscipline, want of cohesion, luxurious habits, inactivity and commissariat and cumbrous equipment."
The impotence of the Mughal Annies was declared to the world when the Mughals failed to recapture Qandhar in spite of three determined efforts made by them. In 1739, Nadir Shah not only plundered the whole of Delhi but also ordered wholesale massacre. When such a thing happened without any effort on the part of the ruler to stop it, he forfeited the right to command allegiance from the people. The Mughal States was a police state and when it failed to maintain internal order and external peace, the people lost all their respect for the Government.
Another cause of Mughal downfall was the widespread corruption in the administration. The exaction of official perquisites from the public by the officials and their sub-ordinates were universal and admitted practice. Many officials from the highest to the lowest took bribes for doing undeserved favour.

Answer 2

 

When mighty empires like that of the Great Mughals decays and falls, it is because many factors and forces have been at work. The beginnings of the decline of the Mughal Empire are to be traced to the strong rule of Aurangzeb.

Aurangzeb inherited a large empire, yet he adopted a policy of extending it further to the farthest geographical limits in the south at great expense in men and materials.

In reality, the existing means of communication and the economic and political structure of the country made it difficult to establish a stable centralised administration over all parts of the country.

Thus Aurangzeb's objective of unifying the entire country under one central political authority was, though justifiable in theory, not easy in practice.

One of the basic failures of Aurangzeb lay in the realm of statesmanship. He was not willing to accept to the full the Maratha demand for regional autonomy, failing to grasp the fact that Shivaji and other Maratha sardars represented forces which could not be easily crushed.

Akbar, placed in similar circumstances, had made an alliance with the Rajput princes and chiefs. Aurangzeb too would have been well-advised to win over the Maratha sardars.

Instead, he chose to suppress them. His futile but arduous campaign against the Marathas extended over many years; it drained the resources of his empire and ruined the trade and industry of the Deccan.

His absence from the north for over 25 years and his failure to subdue the Marathas led to deterioration in administration; this undermined the prestige of the empire and its army, led to the neglect of the vital north-west frontier, and encouraged provincial and local officials to defy central authority and to dream of independence.

Later, in the eighteenth century, Maratha expansion in the north weakened central authority still further.

Aurangzeb's conflict with some of the Rajput states also had serious consequences. Alliance with the Rajput rajas with the consequent military support was one of the main pillars of Mughal strength in the past.

Aurangzeb himself had in the beginning adhered to the Rajput alliance by raising Jaswant Singh of Marwar and Jai Singh of Amber to the highest of ranks.

But his short-sighted attempt later to reduce the strength of the Rajput rajas and to re-extend imperial sway over their lands led to the withdrawal of their loyalty from the Mughal throne.

Wars with the Rajput rajas further weakened the empire and encouraged separation. In particular they tended to create a wall between the Hindu and the Muslim upper classes.

The strength of Aurangzeb's administration was challenged at its very nerve center around Delhi by the Satnami, Jat, and Sikh uprisings.

Even though the number of people involved in these uprisings was not large, they were significant because they were popular in character peasants formed their backbone.

All of them were to a considerable extent the result of the oppression of the Mughal revenue officials over the peasantry. They showed that the peasantry was deeply dissatisfied with feudal oppression by zamindars, nobles, and the state.

Aurangzeb's religious orthodoxy and his policy towards the Hindu rulers seriously damaged the stability of the Mughal Empire.

The Mughal state in the days of Akbar, Jahangir, and Shahjahan was basically a secular state. Its stability was essentially founded on the policy of non-interference with the religious beliefs and customs of the people, fostering of friendly relations between Hindus and Muslims, opening the doors of the highest offices of the state to nobles and chiefs belonging to different regions and professing different religions.

The Mughal alliance with the Rajput rajas was a visible manifestation of this policy. Aurangzeb made an attempt to reverse this policy by imposing the jizyah, destroying many of the Hindu temples in the north, and putting certain restrictions on the Hindus.

In this way he tended to alienate the Hindus, split Mughal society and, in particular, widened the gulf between the Hindu and the Muslim upper classes.

But the role of the religious policy of Aurangzeb in causing the decay of Mughal power should not be over-stressed. This policy was followed only in the latter part of his reign.

It was speedily abandoned by his successors. As we have seen earlier, the jizyah was abolished within a few years of Aurangzeb's death. Amicable relations with the Rajput and other Hindu nobles and chiefs were soon restored; and some of them such as Ajit Singh Rathor and Sawaifai Singh rose to high offices under the later Mughals