Mughal Administration c17.s7.1

c17.s7.1

Muhammadan dominion over India was spread more by individual chieftains and adventurers than by the direct action of any organized central power. There was, no doubt, always a lawful Sultan as the theoretical king; but the enthusiastic and fanatical generals who conquered the Hindu provinces beyond the frontiers, owed only a nominal allegiance to this Central Government, and they were usually masters of their own troops and treasures, instead of being merely salaried servants removable at a word from the Sultan. Macaulay in his famous essay on the Popes has described how the Roman Catholic Church utilizes the enthusiasm of unattached or irregular fanatics to convert new peoples without having to devote its regular priesthood to the work, but deriving full advantage from the voluntary action of these enthusiasts. Similar was the policy of the central monarch of Muslim India during the period of expansion and conquest. He maintained excellent relations with the enterprising adventurers of his own faith; he profited by their bold initiative and zealous exertions, without having to spend his own men or money. At the same time he kept them pleased by not insisting upon too much subordination to himself or too rigid a control of the provinces won and ruled by them.