Mughal Empire

By the end of its expansion that occurred between the 16th and 18th centuries, the small North Indian kingdom created by Babur (r. 1526-1530) had transformed into a vast empire. Around the year 1700, it spanned a territory of more than 1 million square miles, stretching from Afghanistan to the southern reaches of the large Deccan Plateau in central India and encompassing modern-day Bangladesh. With a majority-Hindu population totalling some 150 million, it far exceeded its two major rivals – the Ottomans of Istanbul and the Safavids of Iran – in terms of both size and resources.

Its success can be explained by a number of factors. At a military level, it is generally attributed to the combined use of a mobile light cavalry (mounted archers), artillery and a defence tactic known as a ‘wagon fort’. And at an economic level, the empire primarily owed its prosperity to its domination of the richly fertile Indo-Gangetic Plain, which not only boasted an abundance of agricultural workers, but also a flourishing textile industry. The annexation of Gujarat and Bengal in the last quarter of the 16th century opened the door for the Mughals to access the Indian Ocean. This connected the empire to the major international merchant routes – both overland and maritime – linking Europe with Asia, which it incidentally supplied with plentiful spices, cotton fabrics and precious stones. These riches were exploited by an administrative system that would grow increasingly centralised over the course of the 17th century, albeit still always giving the local players some room to manoeuvre. The Mughals’ political success was, in fact, largely a result of their ability to unite military and bureaucratic elite from varying backgrounds and beliefs. Adopting a twofold Indianisation and ‘cosmopolitanisation’ movement that emerged during the reign of the second Mughal emperor, Humayun (r. 1530-1540 and 1555-1556), the dynasty enlisted a whole host of local players (Muslims, Hindus, warriors, educated persons and scribes), as well as countless ‘wordsmiths and officers’ from Iran and Central Asia, among its dignitaries.

While establishing their dominance over a dynamic that was more inclusive than it was exclusive, the Mughals fought tirelessly against the risk of fragmentation inherent in any complex formation comprising numerous separate parts. They did this by progressively introducing a series of institutions (both administrative and ceremonial) aimed at firmly cementing the monarch as the head of the state apparatus. Simultaneously developing a Persian-language court culture transcending ethno-religious affiliations also served as a powerful driver of integration. Fusing the arts of war, the arts of peace and the notion of a mystical quest, theirs was a philosophy centred on universal values to which the dignitaries were unwaveringly able to subscribe.

This Mughal political culture survived the gradual decline of centralised imperial authority throughout the 18th century and the concurrent emergence of autonomous regional powers. Viewed from the perspective of the capital, Delhi, the 1700s were undeniably a dark time marred by factional conflicts in the court and a series of destructive invasions led by the new rulers of Iran (Nadir Shah, r. 1738-1747) and Afghanistan (Ahmad Shah Abdali, r. 1747-1772). Seen through a regional lens, however, this century of transition bore anything but the grim hallmarks of a crisis. Several of the emperor’s provincial representatives indeed took advantage of the weakened central authority to subjugate the various local leaders who had resisted Mughal control and create autonomous successor states. This was particularly the case in Awadh (in present-day Uttar Pradesh), Bengal, Hyderabad (East Deccan) and indeed Arcot (in Tamil Nadu). Elsewhere, it was groups of peasant warriors – formed partly around a shared ethnic, religious and regional identity and partly based on a common fight against the Mughals – who broke away, the best known examples being the Marathas of the Deccan, the Sikhs of the Punjab and the Jats of Bharatpur (eastern Rajasthan).

None of the successor states that emerged in the 18th century were able to challenge the imperial scheme, and they all continued to owe at least part of their legitimacy to the fact that they were recognised by the dynasty. Devoid of any real power from the 1760s onwards, the Mughal empire remained a necessary political reference for another century until the anti-British rebellion by the sepoys in 1857. In 1858, the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah, who had been involved in the uprising, was deported to Burma, while the imperial territories came under the control of the British Crown. The Raj was born.

Publié en septembre 2024