Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c11.11

v1.c11.11

The Rājput racial character and habits made them quite unsuitable material for the new type of warfare and the long campaigns which began to prevail in the middle of the 18th century. The use of longer-ranged and more rapidly firing muskets, the elaborate organisation and diversified branches of armies following European lines introduced a radical change to which the Rājputs were incapable of adjusting themselves. The new warfare was incompatible with the system of jealous minutely subdivided clans under which they had been brought up. Moreover, war had now become immensely more costly. The day was past when all fighting could be done by yeomenretainers who left their villages with horse and spear, followed their lord in his battles, and returned to their fields after a brief season's campaign. The poverty of the Rājput States, their sterile soil, sparse immobile population, lack of trade, all kept the resources of their chiefs down to a low primitive standard of scantiness and simplicity. These were quite inadequate for the universal equipment with muskets, the extended use of artillery, the profuse expenditure of munitions both in the field and in the previous training, and the feeding of armies for long campaigns outside the homeland, which the wars of the middle 18th century demanded. The lords of Rājasthān found themselves unable to stand against foes from outside, and could vent their energies in domestic brawls only.