Example Of Essay On The Mughal Empire- John Richards

Introduction

Before the invasion by the Mughal in 1526, the subcontinent of India was composed of several Hindu and Muslim Kingdoms. However on the arrival of the Mughal Empire, in the early 16 century, northern India which was mainly ruled by the Muslim, were overpowered by the firepower of Mughal. However the local society was not displaced from their place but they were pacified and balanced through new practices of administration which led to a more uniform, systematic and centralized rule.
The main contribution of Mughal in Indian was the development of unique architecture. During the era of Mughal, the emperors of the Muslims built many monuments, which were especially the Shahjahan. These monuments included the UNESCO world heritage site Taj Mahal which resembles one of the best of Mughal architecture. Other World Heritage Sites that resembles Mughal architecture includes; the Red Fort, Fatehpur Sikri, Agra Fort, Humavun’s Tomb and finally the Lahore Fort. Today all this places, Forts and Tomb built are located at Agra, Delhi, Fatehpur Sikri, Lahore, Sheikhupura, Aurangabad, Dhaka, Jaipur, Kabul and many are in Pakistan, Indian, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The descendants of Babur’s adapted the customs and traits of the South Asians and become less or more naturalized (pg 28).
The influence of Mughal can be evidenced in cultural contribution such as; the bringing together of the smaller kingdoms through the adaptation of imperialistic, central government, the Turkic and Arab land new trade routes. The Mughal architecture in the local Indian architecture is majorly noticed in the places constructed by Sikh and Rajputs rules, gardening of the Landscape, Indian culture and art amalgamated with Persian culture and art and the Mughlai cuisine development. Although the Mughals land is now divided into Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Bangladesh there effect can still be widely experienced in the current years. Furthermore the emperor Tombs are distributed all over the parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. The Mughal tradition was generally divers’ heritage from the regeneration of the Indian, Persian and European traditions.
During the expansion of commerce, Mughal rule gave an introduction to new political and commercial elites long the eastern and southern coasts of India. As a result of the disintegration of the empire, most of the elites were in a position to control affairs of their own. In 1658, Shah Jahan’s felt sick, as a result of his poor health condition he allowed his elder son to lead the kingdom. This was not received well by the younger brother who was known as Aurangzeb. He then joint hand with the Islamic convention against his elder brother in which he defeated him and ascended on to power and then executed his elder brother. His father recovered and when he claimed the seat back, he was declared unfit to lead the empire and was put to jail (pg.160). During this period, the reign of Aurangzeb acquired political strength once again but his religious intolerance and conservatism undermined the Mughal society stability. He managed to expand the empire to enable the inclusion of all the Southern Asia but on his death most parts of the empire where in rebellion.
Considering the economy of the empire, the introduction of the new economic policies in the Mughal Empire, which ensured the payment of taxation in a silver currency which is well regulated and the derivation of most of the revenue from the sector of agriculture, enabled the artisan and the peasants to join the large markets. In addition to that, the peace maintained by the empire during the 17 century was some of the determinant for the rise of the Indian economy. This resulted to the greater support of the painting, textiles, architecture and literary form. The empire classic period began in 1556 when Akbar the Great came into power. Under his leadership and that of his son Jahangri, India enjoyed both religious harmony and economic growth. This was mainly as a result of the strong army and diplomacy, which enabled him to be in a position to expand the empire in various directions that enabled him to control the whole of India subcontinent. He managed to create a new set of nobility devoted to him from the Indian social group military aristocracy and supported development in the culture and modern government implementation while at the same time increasing the European trading company trades. India developed a steady and strong economy leading to economic development and commercial expansion.
In 1599 after Akbar moved his capital to Agra, he implemented two approaches that were effective in the administration of the large territory and also involving diversity in ethnical groups in to his kingdom service. In 1580, he requested for the statistic of the obtained local revenue for the past decade so that he could analyze the trend and understand the production and price fluctuation details of the different crops grown in the empire, for this to be possible, he was assisted by Raja Todar Mal who was a Rajput King. He provided a revenue that the poor in the empire could afford but at the same time providing maximum profit for the empire.
Akbar also introduced policy of assimilation and reconciliation of Hindus who were the majority in the empire. He further reworded the Hindu chiefs with very high ranks in his government and encouraged the intermarriages between the Rajput and the Mughal, allow the construction of new temples, not forgetting that he personally took part in the celebration of Hindu festivals such as Diwali, which was known as the light festival and scraped out the tax imposed on the Muslim society (pg. 218)
Even though the empire performed well it was also faced with rebellion. In 1669 the peasants of Bharatpur rebelled and formed the Bharatpur state, in 1657 a surprising attack was launched on Shaista Khan by Shivaji and will having war against Auranzeb. Shivaji again attacked the Deccan and tried to gain control of that territory but were over powered. Shivaji was captured in 1689 and executed. In 1679 Durgadas Rathore clan rebelled when permission was not given by Aurangzeb for young Rathore to be made a prince. In 1672, Satnami which was a group who lived in the area next to Delhi and were under the command of Bhirbhan managed to take control of the Narnaul administration, however they were eventually killed when Aurangzeb come personally to intervene in which very few people managed to escape. Finally the 1671 Saraighat Battle which took place in the Mughal Empire easternmost region against the Ahom Kingdom. Mughal Empire was victorious and their victory was led by Shaista Khan and Mir Jumla II.
In Richard work, he marginalized women in his analysis. I agree to this because the women had defined specific role to play in leadership. This was because the leadership of this time was linked majorly to ability of a person to have an authority over people and take various dangerous actions for the sake of the empire.

Conclusion

The strength of Mughal and the effective leadership practices is what led to the economic growth experience in India. This effective leadership was attained through inclusion of all the kingdoms to the government and the fair policies and revenue charges that could also be afforded by the poor in the kingdom.

Work cited

Johnson, Gordon, and John F. Richards. The New Cambridge History of India: 1, 5. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993. Print.