Question

Why 18th century of india is a dark age aaccording to historians;?

Answer 1

18
th
Century Debate in IndiaDiscuss the ways in which recent historical writings have challenged the view that the 18
th
century was a ‘Dark Age’ in India?
The 18
th
century has been a subject of historical debate among scholars. It represents a phase of transition between medieval and modern periods. The decline of Mughal power in the 18
th
century was characterized by the rise of autonomous states during the same period. Earlier the historians regarded this period as crisis torn but recent researches have tried to study 18
th
century states as separate entities possessing elements of dynamism and growth.The 18
th
century has been conventionally viewed as a period of decline anarchy and economic decay or simply put as the
Dark Age
. It was held at the decline of Mughal state corresponded with an overall decline.!ccording to
James ills
 he opined that the coming of the "ritish rescued India from its gloomy e#istence. $owever the recent historiography has refutedthis structure of overall gloom and opines that the period was infact mar%ed by the rise of regional powers and reconfiguration of economic and political e&uations.The 18
th
century polities should also be seen in the conte#t of continuity with the Mughal political system and also changes introduced to suit the new political situation.The division of the 18
th
century into two periods of transition by
!eema Alavi
'
•
(radual decline of the Mughal Empire especially after the death of !urangzeb in 1)*) and the subse&uent rise of the regional political order
•
+onsolidation of "ritish colonial power through English East India +ompany ,EI+-  !fter "attle of /lassey ,1)0)- and "attle of "u#ar ,1))-  EI+ founded in 1** by a 2oyal +harter outsets the 3utch the 4rench the /ortuguese and other regional powers by the second half of the 18
th
century.The 18
th
century reflected the political transformation from Mughal decline to "ritish colonialism but the socio5economic forces at the local level continued tooperate as before but the local groups shifted their political allegiance. 6ith the decline of Mughal Empire the virtually independent zamindars performed the tas% of collection of revenue and the local rulers used these resources for sustaining court and armies. 7everal types of political formations emerged in this period ranging from successor states to zamindaris which later got absorbedinto the category of /rincely states under the "ritish.