The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c22.72

v4.c22.72

Meanwhile, other independent, or practically independent, rulers were emerging. As has been said above, the Hindu chiefs who were included in the empire were men with traditional claims to sovereignty; and their traditional policy was to assert those claims whenever a suitable opportunity offered. This condition was fulfilled in the eighteenth century; and while the old families were busily engaged in strengthening their position, and were seeking to enlarge their domains, sometimes by force, and sometimes by taking farms of adjoining territory, adventurers and soldiers of fortune were pursuing a similar course, using as a base of operations any local influence they might possess, as grantees or otherwise. We thus have various classes—chiefs and farmers, adventurers and grantees—all following the same road. For all classes alike the essential thing was to establish so much authority over a local area that the peasants should be willing to pay revenue in return for some measure of that protection which the empire could no longer provide. Authority could be established only with the aid of force, and successful force tended always to enlarge the area of its operation.