Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c59.s1.6

v4.c59.s1.6

Among social changes, the greatest achievement of British administration and modern civilisation has been the creation of a middle class independent of Government service and therefore more permanent and fundamentally stronger than the mansab-dār families of Mughal India. This class had become, by the year 1947, immensely larger in size, better educated, more influential and closer integrated with our life and government than the āmils and munshis, faujdārs and dāroghas, who formed the only middle class in the Mughal times, and who could not stand as a buffer between the autocratic baronage at the top and the helpless peasants and artisans at the bottom of Mughal Indian society.