Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, A.D. 1000–1800 c12.84

c12.84

After the death of Aurangzeb (1707), centrifugal forces were let loose in northern India. The Mughal princes fought wars of succession, and in one battle (between Shah Alam and Azam Tara), "one hundred and eighty thousand horsemen lay dead, without speaking of the "infantry or the elephants."⁶⁰ Many provincial governors declared independence, and also fought with neighbouring states for self-aggrandisement. The eighteenth century in its demographic decline is comparable in many ways to the fifteenth. In the Punjab the Sikhs rose under their leader Banda, whose depredations and killings in the Punjab and U.P. were commensurate only with the ruthless way in which he and his followers were crushed and killed. The Jats were also destroying and killing and in turn were being killed. The Marathas were speading in all parts of the country with the help of the sword, and Gujarat, Malwa, Rajasthan, Bengal and the Delhi region—indeed the whole of northern India—witnessed massacres and killings on a large scale. From 1720 onwards Gujarat enjoyed no respite from "perpetual skirmishing, murder and robbery in open day: caravans pillaged, and villages burning or desolated."⁶¹ Rajputana's population suffered similarly if not more. Maratha invasions and internal feuds disseminated population. The situation in Mewar about the end of the eighteenth century is graphically described by Tod. He writes, "the agriculturist never certain of the fruits of his labour, abandoned his fields, and at length his country; mechanical industry found no recompense, and commerce was at the mercy of unlicensed spoliation. In a very few years Mewar lost half her population, her land lay waste..."⁶² The conditions similar to Mewar prevailed almost throughout Rajasthan.⁶³ In Bengal the continual attacks of the Marathas adversely affected its population. U.P. and Delhi regions suffered equally badly. The Mughal power had reached its nadir of decline. Maratha wars and ambition against Delhi were keen. "It is significant that the chief gateway of every Maratha fortress is Delhi Gate." The French and the English also joined in this sanguine business. Whether they joined hands with the Indian princes in their wars and increased the strength of the armies on the two sides, or they themselves fought against Indian rulers, the result was the same : greater loss to Indian numbers.