Why is there a debate on the nature of 18th century?
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A comprehensive debate on eighteenth century in IndiaAs we take an insight into the eighteenth century we must address issuesconnected with both pre colonial (pre 1750s) and colonial trends (post 1750era). To be clear, we must delve into two major debates in the eighteenthcentury- one of them being somewhat concluded on- on whether theeighteenth century is fit to be referred to as a 'dark age'. Most colonial writersincluding the likes of James Mill and that of Indian aristocrats and historianslike Jadunath Sarkar, Iswari Prasad and Tara Chand point out that this was infact a twilight period that characterized by a decline in most areas of life- beit political, economic or cultural. However, more recently there has been athorough revision of this view. KN Panikkar, CA Bayly, Muzaffar Alam, ChetanSingh point out further that this century was an extremely vibrant age withnew trends and whims in cultural and commercial sectors of life. The next debate revolves around whether one must see eighteenth centuryon continuum, or whether there is a break in structure and trends in the1750s. This topic of debate is active and historians like Irfan Habib, Athar Ali,Sushil Chaudhuri, Om Prakash suggest that the acquiring of political controlby the British in the mid eighteenth century had far reaching consequencesand effects which moulded and changed the structure of the Indian economy.However, CA Bayly and Rajat Dutta beg to differ. They suggest that therewere no structural changes and that there was in fact a continuity from thefirst half of the eighteenth century into the second. This line of argument isreferred to as the 'continuity thesis'.Historians don't only record events but also ensure that theycomprehensively interpret the same. Thus, we will come across historianstaking into consideration two important events concerning the history of eighteenth century. The years 1707 and 1757 are held in high significanceand much is interpreted from both in the light of varied perspectives. 1707signifies the death of Aurangzeb after which the steady decline of the MughalEmpire took place. 1757 signifies the victory in the battle of plassey afterwhich the Britishers founded colonial raj in India. The Eighteenth century has always held great significance in the study of Indian history. In general, it is seen under the light of a transitional period inwhich the land based Mughal empire gave way to the colonial rule of the seabased British colonials. The conception about the same scheme of events tillthe 1980s was that the redundant Mughal empire had met its downfall onlydue to its own contradictions and the English East India company had takenadvantage of this, and subjugated India into a colony.However, we must take notice that the transition was not that of a simply