Mughal Administration c5.s3: § 4. The imported foreign elements in the Mughal administrative system.
Mughal Administration c5.s3
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§ 4. The imported foreign elements in the Mughal administrative system.
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First, the Mughal governmental system took its colour from the race and creed of its sovereigns. They were a foreign Muhammadan dynasty who settled in India eight centuries after Islam had been adopted in certain countries outside India and a new administrative type had been developed in those countries.
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Our Turkish conquerors brought with themselves to their new home the type of administration which had long been known to extra-Indian Muslim countries as the model, and which had been proved by the experience of centuries as the most successful, viz., the administrative system of the Abbasid Khalifs of Iraq and the Fatimid Khalifs of Egypt. The Mughal administration presented a combination of Indian and extra-Indian elements; or, more correctly, it was the Perso-Arabic system in Indian setting.
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The principles of their government, their church policy, their rules of taxation, their departmental arrangements, and the very titles of their officials, were imported ready-made from outside India. But a compromise was effected with the older native system already in possession of the field and familiar to the people governed. The details of the imported system were modified to suit local needs. The existing Indian practice and the vast mass of Indian customary law were respected so far as they did not run counter to the root principles of all Islamic governments; and in all non-essential matters, in the spectacular side of politics,* and, generally speaking, in village administration and the lower rungs of the official ladder, the Indian usage was allowed to prevail, while the foreign model swayed almost exclusively the Court (which was a personal matter for the sovereign) and the higher official circles, (who drew their inspiration from Persia and Egypt).
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This foreign element in the Mughal administration can be easily illustrated from the provincial administration. As Professor C. H. Becker of Hamburg writes: "In the early centuries of Arab rule two political functions were sharply distinguished [in Egypt, viz.,] the governorship and the treasury. The governor, [called] *āmir*, had control over the military and police only...Alongside of him was the head of the treasury, [called] the *‘āmil*...These two officers had to keep a strict watch on one another. As head of the military and executive, the *amir* was the first [in authority], but they were equal in rank and the administrator of the treasury even had the greater influence [over the sovereign.]" (*Encyclopædia of Islam*, ii. 13.)
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Now, this was exactly the relation between the *subahdar* or provincial governor and the *diwan* or revenue chief of the province. A concrete illustration of the official antagonism between the two and their mutual recriminations to their master—for, it was the duty of each, in the words of Prof. Becker, "to keep a strict watch over the other,"—can be found in the account of the History of Orissa in the 17th century, based on contemporary official papers, published in my *Studies in Aurangzib's Reign*, xiv §15.
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∗ Lord Clive performed the *punyāh* ceremony at Murshidabad! Here we have a Hindu revenue usage coming down from very ancient times through the Muhammadan age to the early British period.
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So, too, in the division of the administration into departments the model of Islamic lands outside India was followed.
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The second characteristic is that the Government was military in its origin, and though in time it became rooted to the soil, it retained its military character to the last. Every official of the Mughal Government had to be enrolled in the army list; he was given a *mansab* as the nominal commander of so many horsemen, which determined his pay and status. Civil servants, judges of Canon Law, superintendents of post, excise or customs, and even clerks and accountants of the higher grades, were all ranked as *mansabdārs*, *i.e.*, members of the army. Their names were arranged in the gradation-list of the army, they were paid by the *Bakhshis* or military paymasters and their promotion took the form of an increase in their nominal command. From this it followed that the Treasury or spending department of the Government was only one for the civil and military services alike, or in strict theory there was no civil Treasury at all. We should, however, remember that though the salary-bills were passed by the *Bakhshis* or military paymasters, the actual payment (except to the field army during a campaign)
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was made by the Diwān, who was reckoned as a civil officer.
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Thirdly, the main point to be noted about the land revenue system of Mughal India is its long and close adherence to the old practice, procedure and even tradition of the country. Indeed, the early Muhammadan conquerors very wisely retained the old Hindu revenue system intact, employed the old Hindu revenue officials, and seldom interfered with the working of this department so long as the land-tax was regularly collected and there was no striking default or peculation.
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This remark is true of the land revenue alone, which has always been the most traditional and conservative branch of Government activity in India. But in the case of the other sources of State income, the Quranic law and the practice of older Islamic States outside India exercised their full influence, and we find in Indo-Muhammadan history repeated attempts to adjust the actual practice of the Government in the revenue department to the theory of the Canon Law of Islam in this matter.∗ Thus, the entire revenue system of the Mughal empire as it was developed in the 17th century was a resultant of two forces,—the time-honoured Hindu practice and the abstract Arabian theory.
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∗ E.g., Firuz Shah Tughlaq (in Elliot, iii. 377.)
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Between these two discordant elements the compromise was not always happy or successful, and the dead weight of Indian usage in the end proved too heavy for the orthodox zeal of Quranic purists.
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like Firuz Shah Tughlaq or Aurangzib. When they closed their eyes, or even in their lifetime, after a brief span of strict adherence to the Quranic precept and abolition of "innovations" (bida't), things fell back into their old traditional grooves. The subject will be more fully discussed in a subsequent chapter.