NCERT
Class 7
History (Our Past II)
Chapter - 18th Century Political Formation
Give a note on Awadh province
Answers
Answer:
Awadh was known as the granary of India and was important strategically for the control of the Doab, the fertile plain between the Ganges and the Yamuna rivers. It was a wealthy kingdom, able to maintain its independence against threats from the Marathas, the British and the Afghans.
Awadh is bounded by the Ganges Doab to the southwest, Rohilkhand to the northwest, Nepal to the north, and Purvanchal to the east. Its inhabitants are referred to as Awadhis.From the pre-historic period to the time of Akbar, the limits of the subah (imperial top-level province) and its internal divisions seem to have been constantly changing, and the name of Oudh, or Awadh, seems to have been applicable to only one of the ancient divisions or Sarkars, nearly corresponding to old Pachhimrath. The title of Subehdar (governor) of Awadh is mentioned as early as 1280 AD, but it can only have denoted the governor of the tract of the country above defined. The Awadh of Mughal Badshah (emperor) Akbar was one of the twelve (or fifteen) subahs into which he divided the Mughal Empire as it stood in 1590. As constituted at the end of the sixteenth century, the Subah contained five sarkars, viz. Awadh, Lucknow, Bahraich, Khairabad and Gorakhpur, which in turn were divided in numerous mahals and dasturs (districts)
They were suspicious of this system that they inherited.
Their methods of tax collection were different, they hired “revenue farmers to collect the taxes”.
They used practice of Ijaradari rather than jagirdari.
They wanted to expand and receive land as security against loans.
They knew the loopholes of the system and that how jagirdars become powerful if not checked in time.