Chapter 8 — Eighteenth-Century Political Formations

Aurangzeb's long Deccan war depleted the empire's military and financial resources. After his death, governors (subadars) took control of revenue (diwani) and military (faujdari) administration and reduced remittances to the capital. Peasant and zamindari rebellions added further pressure, and invasions by Nadir Shah (1739) and Ahmad Shah Abdali (five raids, 1748–1761) weakened the empire severely.

Nadir Shah, the ruler of Iran, sacked and plundered Delhi in 1739. He took immense wealth including sixty lakhs of rupees, nearly one crore worth of gold-ware, nearly fifty crores worth of jewels, and the Peacock Throne. Contemporary accounts describe Shahjahanabad being turned to rubble and the wealthy reduced to beggars.

The Sikhs organised themselves into bands called jathas, and later into misls. Their combined forces were known as the dal khalsa (grand army). The entire body met at Amritsar at Baisakhi and Diwali to take collective decisions called gurmatas (resolutions of the Guru). A rakhi system offered protection to cultivators in exchange for a tax of 20 per cent of the produce.

After Guru Gobind Singh's death in 1708, the Khalsa rose in revolt against Mughal authority under Banda Bahadur's leadership. They declared sovereign rule, struck coins in the name of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh, and established their own administration between the Sutlej and Jamuna. Banda Bahadur was captured in 1715 and executed in 1716.

Chauth was 25 per cent of the land revenue claimed by zamindars, collected by the Marathas in the Deccan. Sardeshmukhi was 9–10 per cent of the land revenue paid to the head revenue collector in the Deccan. The Marathas levied both across territories they controlled or dominated.

The Khalsa was instituted by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699. Guru Gobind Singh inspired the Khalsa with the belief that their destiny was to rule (raj karega khalsa). After his death the Khalsa continued to resist Mughal authority and declared sovereign rule by striking their own coin in 1765.

After Shivaji's death, effective power in the Maratha state was wielded by a family of Chitpavan Brahmanas who served as Peshwa (or principal minister). Under the Peshwas, the Marathas developed a very successful military organisation and expanded their empire significantly between 1720 and 1761. Poona became the capital of the Maratha kingdom.

Sawai Raja Jai Singh was the ruler of Amber. He held the governorship of Malwa and was given the subadari of Agra in 1722. He founded the new capital at Jaipur. He constructed five astronomical observatories (Jantar Mantars), one each in Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain, Mathura, and Varanasi.

The humiliation of the later Mughals was severe: Farrukh Siyar (1713–1719) and Alamgir II (1754–1759) were assassinated by their nobles, while Ahmad Shah (1748–1754) and Shah Alam II (1759–1816) were blinded by them. For a long time the later Mughal emperors were puppets in the hands of the Irani and Turanis noble factions.

Suraj Mal consolidated the Jat state at Bharatpur during 1756–1763. When Nadir Shah sacked Delhi in 1739, many of the city's notables took refuge at Bharatpur. His son Jawahir Shah commanded 30,000 troops of his own and hired an additional 20,000 Maratha and 15,000 Sikh troops. Suraj Mal built the Lohagarh fort in Bharatpur, regarded as one of the strongest forts in the region.

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