The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c15.s1.34

c15.s1.34

The only thing that the Mughals could do to reduce these inner marches to a modicum of order was to involve themselves in local affairs and stake their power in the ongoing tussle for local control—an activity that tallied particularly well with their origin and ideology of a war band. The time-honored and, in fact, only way to do this successfully was to make use of the pervasive conflict between the different participants and to enter into alliances with a number of them, so as to control the others. That is, in many ways they had to act, not so much as powerful overlords, although this was certainly their intention, but rather as partners in the affairs of the inner marches.