Later Mughals v2.c17.s1: Sec. 97.—Degeneration of Mughal Aristocracy.
Later Mughals v2.c17.s1
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Sec. 97.—Degeneration of Mughal Aristocracy.
v2.c17.s1.1
The invasion of Nadir Shah involved the Mughal Empire in disgrace spoliation and dismemberment. It was, however, not a cause of the decline of the Empire, but one of the clearest symptoms of that decline. The Persian conqueror merely revealed to the world a fact accomplished long before. He broke the spell under which men had been regarding a gorgeously dressed corpse as a strong man.
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How was the work of Akbar and Shah Jahan, Man Singh and Mir Jumla, thus undone? Why did the seemingly flourishing State of Aurangzeb fall down like a house of cards only 31 years after his death? In reviewing the history of these 31 years, we find first of all a startling decline in the character of the nobility and the efficiency of the army. For this the havoc of civil war was to some extent responsible. In the thirteen years following the death of Aurangzeb, seven bloody battles of succession* had been fought among his descendants in which large numbers of Princes nobles and the best soldiers had perished. Equally destructive of officers and men were the armed contests between rival nobles. For instance, the Nizam could confirm himself in the viceroyalty of the Dakhin only after defeating three rivals. For the governorship of Gujarat there were three ruinous encounters in which Shujaat Khan and Rustam Ali Khan fell and Sarbuland Khan was defeated.
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∗ Bahadur Shah two, Jahandar Shah three, Farrukh-siyar one, and Muhammad Shah one.
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The loss caused by domestic discord among the Mughals themselves was multiplied by the slaughter in operations against rebels like the Sikhs, Jats, Bundelas and Mahrattas and on two occasions against the Rathors. The gaps thus created in the ranks of the martial nobility were not filled by the natural succession of worthy offspring, nor by the rise of new men from the commonalty and recruits from abroad in sufficient number and of the right quality. To the thoughtful student of Mughal history nothing is more striking than the decline of the peerage. The heroes adorn the stage for one generation only and leave no worthy heirs sprung from their loins. Abdur-rahim and Mahabat, Sadullah and Mir Jumla, Ibrahim and Islam Khan Rumi,—who had made the history of India in the 17th century, —were succeeded by no son, certainly by no grandson even half as capable as themselves. In reading the huge biographical dictionary of the Mughal peerage (the Masir-ul-umara in 3 volumes of 900 pages each), one frequently comes across such entries as these: "This nobleman (naming a general or minister of the first rank) died in such and such a year; he left two sons who did not attain to much advancement" or that "he had three sons none of whom did anything worthy of being recorded here." Often, while the career of the founder of the family occupies eight or ten pages in this dictionary, his son's achievements are exhausted in half a page, and the grandson meets with a bare mention which he earns merely because he is his father's son.
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Throughout the Mughal period, the best Muslim recruits for civil administration and war alike were foreign adventurers or converted Hindus. The strong and efficient exotics rapidly deteriorated on the Indian soil. Therefore, while the infusion of fresh blood into the nobility from the indigenous Muhammadan population and the foreign immigrants permanently settled in this country did not take place, the only hope of the continued life and vigour of the State lay in the regular flow of the right type of recruits from Bukhara and Khurasan, Iran and Arabia. When this flow stopped, the Empire shrivelled up like a tree cut off from its sap.