Project file on India in eighteenth century
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Introduction
India in the 18th century had to endure one of the most chaotic periods in its entire history. The Mughal Empire, which had dominated the Indian subcontinent for two centuries, began to decline with internal and external pressures. Following the decline of the empire, numerous local powers strived for independence, and foreign powers began to invade the area, further deteriorating the situation of India and promoting additional disorder.
This paper primarily focuses on the analysis of chief factors, or background which had caused significant disruptions and fragmentation in the area. Since the circumstances of the Indian subcontinent in the period were indeed tumultuous and complex, this paper classifies events in the Indian subcontinent into main three categories, in order to provide convenience to the readers: those in the Mughal Empire, those concerning local powers of the Indian subcontinent, and those related to foreign powers.
II. Brief Narrative History of India in the 18th century
Throughout the end of the 17th century, Aurangzeb brought the empire to its greatest extent, but his political and religious intolerance laid the seeds of its decline. He excluded Hindus from public office and destructed their schools and temples, while his persecution of the Sikhs of the Punjab turned the sect against Muslim rule and roused rebellions among the Rajputs, Sikhs, and Marathas. The heavy taxes he levied steadily impoverished the farming population, and a steady decay of the Mughal government was matched by a corresponding economic decline.
After Aurangzeb's death in 1707, the empire fell into decline. The Mughal Emperors progressively declined in power and became figureheads, being initially controlled by various courtiers and later by rising warlords. Several Mughal Emperors were killed, often after only briefly occupying the throne. The Marathas, as well as powerful officials ruling 'Mughal provinces', in theory, recognized Mughal sovereignty. In actuality, however, the Maratha rulers, the Nizam of Hyderabad, the Nawab of Bengal, the Kingdom of Awadh (Oudh) were independent. Especially, Marathas overran almost all of northern India after 1748.
The empire also had to suffer from the depredations of invaders like Nadir Shah of Persia and Ahmed Shah Abdali of Afghanistan, who repeatedly sacked Delhi, the Mughal capital. Mughal rule was reduced to only a small area around Delhi, which passed under Maratha (1785) and then British (1803) control.
III. Important Keywords & Categorization
From the narrative history of India, we could figure out that the situation of the Mughal Empire was deteriorating with rapidity. In order to simplify the intricate situation of the area, major events are categorized as followed. Based on the following categories, this paper will analyze the factors that motivated the fragmentation of the Indian subcontinent. Eight important points(which are written in bold words) elicited from the narrative history are:
1) Aurangzeb and religious intolerance
2) Rajput
3) Sikh
4) Nawabs (Hyderabad, Awadh, Bengal)
5) Maratha
6) Nadir Shah of Persia
7) Ahmed Shah Abdali of Afghanistan
8) British, or EIC
This paper will focus on how each of the eight key points contributed to the disordered situation in the Indian subcontinent.
IV. The Mughal Empire
Aurangzeb¡¯s achievements significantly affected the destiny of the Mughal Empire in the 18th century. He engaged in constant warfare, significantly increasing the size of his army, and launching numerous military campaigns all along the boundaries of his empire. From 1668, Aurangzeb also reformed a number of rules to force the subjects to follow Islam ideals and initiated several projects, in order to discriminate Hindu from Islam. He banned the construction of Hindu temples, forbade Hindu customs, and revived the tax imposed to non-Muslims, or jizyah.