History · Modern History
The 18th century witnessed the spectacular collapse of the Mughal Empire through a combination of weak successors, Aurangzeb's legacy of flawed policies, fiscal crises, external invasions by Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali, and the rise of powerful regional states. This fragmented political landscape — alongside a thriving but technologically stagnant socio-economic order — created the conditions that the British East India Company would decisively exploit.
The first half of the 18th century saw the collapse of an empire that had been the envy of the world for nearly two centuries. The Mughal Empire, at its peak under Akbar and Aurangzeb, had unified a vast subcontinent under a single administrative framework. But by 1707 — the year Aurangzeb died — the foundations were already cracking. What followed was not a sudden fall but a prolonged disintegration: weak emperors on the throne, nobles fighting for power, regional governors asserting independence, and foreign invaders exposing the empire's hollowness.
Understanding India on the eve of British conquest means understanding why a civilisation that was economically rich, culturally vibrant and politically sophisticated could not mount a unified defence against a trading company from a small island nation.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1658–1707 | Reign of Aurangzeb — beginning of structural decline |
| 1707 | Death of Aurangzeb; war of succession begins |
| 1709–12 | Bahadur Shah I — last emperor of whom anything favourable can be said (Sidney Owen) |
| 1712–13 | Jahandar Shah — Zulfikar Khan's izara system introduced |
| 1713–19 | Farrukhsiyar — Sayyid Brothers ('King Makers') dominate; 1717 Farmans to British |
| 1719 | Rafi-ud-Darajat — shortest-reigning Mughal (Feb 28 to June 4) |
| 1719–48 | Muhammad Shah 'Rangeela' — independent states emerge |
| 1724 | Nizam-ul-Mulk establishes independent Hyderabad |
| 1737 | Baji Rao I raids Delhi with 500 horsemen |
| 1738–39 | Nadir Shah invades; Battle of Karnal (Feb 13, 1739); Delhi looted |
| 1747 | Ahmad Shah Abdali elected successor of Nadir Shah |
| 1748–54 | Ahmad Shah (Mughal) — incompetent; Udham Bai and Javid Khan rule |
| 1748–67 | Ahmad Shah Abdali's repeated invasions of India |
| 1751–52 | Mughals cede Punjab to Ahmad Shah Abdali |
| 1754–58 | Alamgir II — Battle of Plassey fought in his reign (1757) |
| 1757 | Abdali captures Delhi; Alamgir II recognised as emperor |
| 1758 | Najib-ud-Daula expelled from Delhi by Marathas |
| 1759–1806 | Shah Alam II — Third Battle of Panipat (1761), Battle of Buxar (1764) |
| 1761 | Third Battle of Panipat — Abdali defeats Marathas |
| 1765 | Treaty of Allahabad — Shah Alam II grants Diwani of Bengal, Bihar, Orissa to EIC |
| 1799 | Ranjit Singh conquers Lahore |
| 1806–37 | Akbar II — coins bearing Mughal names stopped (1835) |
| 1837–57 | Bahadur Shah II (Zafar) — last Mughal; exiled to Rangoon after 1857 |
| 1858 | Mughal Empire formally ended — Queen Victoria's proclamation (November 1) |
Prince Muazzam, the eldest son of Aurangzeb, became emperor at age 63 after a two-year war of succession, killing his brothers Muhammad Azam and Kam Bakhsh. He took the title Bahadur Shah (later called Bahadur Shah I). The historian Khafi Khan derisively called him Shah-i-Bekhabar ('unaware king').
His policy was conciliatory: released Shahu (Maratha prince) from captivity, confirmed Rajput chiefs in their states. But he took military action against the Sikh leader Banda Bahadur, who had attacked Muslims in Punjab. Bahadur Shah I died in February 1712. Sidney Owen's assessment: he was the last emperor of whom anything favourable can be said — after him came only rapid dissolution.
Jahandar Shah became emperor with the backing of the powerful noble Zulfikar Khan, who was appointed prime minister. Zulfikar Khan introduced the izara system (revenue farming) to improve imperial finances. Jahandar Shah abolished Jaziya (poll tax on non-Muslims). He was overthrown and killed by Farrukhsiyar.
Farrukhsiyar killed Jahandar Shah with help of the Sayyid Brothers — Abdulla Khan and Hussain Ali — who came to be called the 'King Makers'. He followed a policy of religious tolerance, abolishing Jaziya and the pilgrimage tax. In 1717, he issued the famous farmans to the British East India Company — the 'Magna Carta of the Company'. In 1719, the Sayyid Brothers, aided by Peshwa Balaji Vishwanath, dethroned Farrukhsiyar — he was blinded and killed. This was the first time in Mughal history that an emperor was killed by his own nobles.
He ruled for the shortest period among all Mughal emperors — barely 97 days.
Placed on the throne by the Sayyid Brothers. He was an opium addict and ruled for a few months before dying.
Raushan Akhtar, chosen by the Sayyid Brothers, became emperor and acquired the title 'Rangeela' due to his luxurious, pleasure-loving lifestyle. Despite a 29-year reign, no imperial revival took place.
With help from Nizam-ul-Mulk, Muhammad Shah killed the Sayyid Brothers. In 1724, Nizam-ul-Mulk became the wazir and founded the independent state of Hyderabad — a critical moment in Mughal disintegration. In 1737, Baji Rao I raided Delhi with a mere 500 horsemen — a humiliation that revealed the empire's helplessness. In 1739, Nadir Shah defeated the Mughals at the Battle of Karnal and imprisoned Muhammad Shah.
An incompetent ruler who left governance in the hands of Udham Bai (the 'Queen Mother'), titled Qibla-i-Alam, who ruled through her paramour Javid Khan — described as a notorious eunuch of poor intellect.
A grandson of Jahandar Shah. Ahmad Shah Abdali reached Delhi in January 1757 during his reign. The Battle of Plassey was fought in June 1757 during his reign — though Alamgir II had no role in it.
A brief, largely nominal reign.
His reign witnessed two decisive events: the Third Battle of Panipat (1761) and the Battle of Buxar (1764). Under the Treaty of Allahabad (August 1765), Shah Alam II came under East India Company protection at Allahabad and issued a farman granting the Company the Diwani (revenue rights) of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa in perpetuity — a watershed in British imperial expansion. In 1772, the Marathas took him to Delhi; in 1803, after the defeat of Daulat Rao Scindia, he again accepted British protection. Henceforth, Mughal emperors became pensioners of the English.
He gave the title of Raja to Rammohan Roy. In 1835, coins bearing names of Mughal emperors were discontinued — a symbolic erasure.
The last Mughal emperor. The Revolt of 1857 attempted to declare him Emperor of India. He was captured by the British and exiled to Rangoon where he died in 1862. The Mughal Empire formally ended on November 1, 1858 with Queen Victoria's proclamation.
The north-western borders — always the traditional invasion corridor into India — had been neglected by later Mughals. Two foreign invaders delivered mortal blows.
Nadir Shah, the Persian emperor, invaded India in 1738–39. He conquered Lahore and decisively defeated the Mughal army at the Battle of Karnal (February 13, 1739). Muhammad Shah was captured. Delhi was looted and devastated — seventy crore rupees were extracted from the treasury and nobles' safes, along with the Peacock Throne and the Kohinoor diamond. Nadir Shah annexed Mughal territory west of the Indus including Kabul. India was now wide open to further north-western attacks.
As Jon Wilson (India Conquered) observed: Nadir Shah's 57 days as de facto ruler of Delhi created aftershocks that transformed India's politics — breaking existing centres of authority and laying the ground for the East India Company to conquer territory in India for the first time.
Ahmad Shah Abdali (also called Ahmad Shah Durrani) was elected Nadir Shah's successor after the latter's death in 1747. He invaded India multiple times between 1748 and 1767:
Panipat (present-day Haryana, on the banks of Yamuna, between Ganga and Indus plains) was repeatedly chosen as a battlefield because of: strategic location on the route from Khyber Pass to Delhi; flat terrain ideal for cavalry; proximity to Delhi for easy supply logistics; location on the Grand Trunk Road (built by Sher Shah Suri, 1540–45); short monsoon season; and skilled local artisans who could replenish war materials.
| Battle | Year | Combatants | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| First | 1526 | Babur vs. Ibrahim Lodi | Founded Mughal Empire; ended Delhi Sultanate |
| Second | 1556 | Akbar vs. Hemu | Continued Mughal rule |
| Third | 1761 | Marathas vs. Ahmad Shah Abdali | Ended Maratha bid for all-India supremacy |
Historians debate the primary causes. Two broad schools exist:
The truth encompasses both. Key causes:
Mughal governance was personal despotism — entirely dependent on the character of the ruler. The later emperors were incapable, weak and licentious. Unlike Akbar or Aurangzeb, they neglected state administration entirely.
With no principle of primogeniture, every succession triggered a war of brothers — draining resources, killing talented princes, and fostering court factionalism over patriotism.
Aurangzeb reversed Akbar's inclusive policy by reimposing Jaziya (poll tax on non-Muslims) and discriminating by religion. This alienated the Rajputs — previously the most loyal supporters of the Mughal throne — and pushed them into opposition. The Sikhs, Jats and Marathas also rose in revolt against Mughal authority.
Aurangzeb spent the last 26 years of his life fighting an exhausting and ultimately futile war in the Deccan. This kept him away from the capital for decades, drained imperial treasury, and allowed the Marathas to develop their strength while Mughal power eroded elsewhere.
The number of nobles (amirs) and their ranks (mansabs) had increased disproportionately while available jagir lands stagnated. Aurangzeb tried to paper over the crisis by showing inflated income figures from jagirs on record — a shortsighted measure that led nobles to squeeze peasants harder, antagonising both nobility and peasantry.
Zamindars — hereditary local landowners known as rais, rajas, thakurs, khuts or deshmukhs — were critical intermediaries for revenue collection and local administration. As the empire weakened, they shifted their allegiance to local nobles and regional powers, encouraging regional rather than imperial loyalty.
The nobility — comprising mansabdars, jagirdars and subahdars — was deeply factionalised along lines of religion, homeland and tribe (Irani, Turani, Afghani, Hindustani, Rajput). In the absence of strong central leadership, factional rivalries consumed imperial energy.
The Mughal army became increasingly inefficient. William Irvine (Army of the Indian Mughals) argued that military inefficiency was the principal — if not the sole — cause of the empire's final collapse: the empire was ready to crumble at the first touch long before any Persian, Afghan or European conqueror appeared.
Endless wars, the luxurious lifestyles of emperors and nobles, reduction in khalisa lands, and stagnation in agriculture all combined to produce a severe fiscal crisis. Scientific and technological stagnation prevented economic revival. The empire had become too vast to be efficiently governed from a weakened centre.
The invasions of Nadir Shah (1739) and Ahmad Shah Abdali (1748–67) were the death-blows — exposing the military hollowness of the empire and stripping it of territory and treasure.
European trading companies interfered systematically in native politics — the English EIC in particular exploited succession disputes and played regional powers against each other, hastening the empire's disintegration.
The states that emerged from Mughal decline fall into three categories:
Mughal provinces that broke away while nominally acknowledging Mughal sovereignty.
Hyderabad: Founded by Kilich Khan (Nizam-ul-Mulk) of the Asaf-Jah dynasty. Zulfikar Khan had first conceived the idea of Deccan independence but died in 1713. Kilich Khan defeated and killed Mubariz Khan in the Battle of Shakr-Kheda (1724), assumed control of the Deccan, became viceroy in 1725, and conferred on himself the title Asaf-Jah.
Awadh: Founded by Saadat Khan (Burhan-ul-Mulk), a Shia who had conspired against the Sayyid Brothers. Driven from court, he established an independent principality. He committed suicide under pressure from Nadir Shah's extortion demands. He was succeeded by Safdar Jang.
Bengal: Founded by Murshid Quli Khan — a capable ruler who made Bengal prosperous. Succeeded in 1727 by Shuja-ud-din. His successor Sarfaraz Khan was killed in 1740 by Alivardi Khan (deputy governor of Bihar) at Gheria, who made himself independent by paying yearly tribute to the Mughals.
States that emerged due to the destabilisation of Mughal control.
Mysore: Located at the junction of Eastern and Western Ghats, ruled by the Wodeyars. Eventually came under the control of Haider Ali, who constantly warred with the British. His son Tipu Sultan continued the resistance.
Rajput States: The Rajputs reasserted independence in the 18th century. Bahadur Shah I had to march against Ajit Singh (1708) who allied with Jai Singh II and Durgadas Rathor. At their peak, Rajputs controlled territory from south of Delhi to the western coast.
Kerala: Martanda Varma established an independent state with Travancore as capital, extending from Kanyakumari to Cochin. He organised his army along the Western model.
The Marathas: Under the Peshwas, the Marathas uprooted Mughal authority from Malwa and Gujarat. They claimed the right to inherit the Mughal dominion. Their ambitions were checked at the Third Battle of Panipat (1761) — but they recovered rapidly and offered the most formidable challenge to the British EIC.
The Sikhs: Guru Gobind Singh transformed the Sikhs into a militant sect. After the defeat and death of Banda Bahadur, the Sikhs reorganised into 12 misls (confederacies). Ranjit Singh (son of Mahan Singh of the Sukarchakiya misl) unified them — conquered Lahore in 1799 and Amritsar in 1802. By the Treaty of Amritsar with the British, Ranjit Singh acknowledged British rights over the cis-Sutlej territories. He modernised his army with European help. In 1838, the English forced him to sign the Tripartite Treaty with Shah Shuja and the English Company — allowing British troops passage through Punjab. Ranjit Singh died in 1839; his successors could not hold the state together.
The Jats: Agricultural Jat settlers around Delhi, Mathura and Agra revolted against Aurangzeb's oppressive policies. After initial setbacks, Churaman and Badan Singh set up the Jat state of Bharatpur. Jat power reached its zenith under Suraj Mal, whose state extended from the Ganga in the east to the Chambal in the south, covering the Subahs of Agra, Mathura, Meerut and Aligarh. After Suraj Mal's death in 1763, the state splintered into petty zamindar-controlled areas.
Rohilakhand and Farrukhabad: Products of Afghan migration into India. Ali Muhammad Khan exploited the post-Nadir Shah power vacuum to set up Rohilakhand (Himalayan foothills between Kumaon and the Ganga). The Rohillas faced continuous pressure from Jats, Awadh, Marathas and eventually the British. Mohammad Khan Bangash (an Afghan) set up an independent kingdom around Farrukhabad, east of Delhi.
Most regional states continued to acknowledge the Mughal emperor as a symbolic umbrella — even Maratha and Sikh rebel chiefs recognised imperial supremacy formally. The polity was collaborative, relying on zamindars, merchants, local nobles and chieftains. But these states shared critical limitations:
Technically backward but sustained by hard peasant labour. Peasants rarely received adequate reward for their efforts — forced to pay exorbitant amounts to the state, zamindars, jagirdars and revenue-farmers simultaneously. The situation worsened further under British rule.
India was largely self-sufficient and a net exporter. Its exports (cotton textiles, raw silk, silk fabrics, hardware, indigo, saltpetre, opium, rice, wheat, sugar, pepper, precious stones) exceeded imports. Trade was balanced by inflow of silver and gold — India was known as a 'sink of precious metals'.
Major textile centres: Dacca, Murshidabad, Patna, Surat, Ahmedabad, Broach, Chanderi, Burhanpur, Jaunpur, Varanasi, Lucknow, Agra, Multan, Lahore, Masulipatnam, Aurangabad, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Madurai; Kashmir for woollen manufactures.
Ship-building flourished in Maharashtra, Andhra and Bengal. The Zamorin of Calicut used Muslim Kunjali Maraikkars for his navy. Shivaji's navy defended the west coast against the Portuguese. According to Bipan Chandra, European companies purchased Indian-made ships for their own use.
Imports came from: Persian Gulf (pearls, raw silk, wool, dates, dried fruits, rose water); Arabia (coffee, gold, drugs, honey); China (tea, sugar, porcelain, silk); Tibet (gold, musk, woollen cloth); Africa (ivory, drugs); Europe (woollen cloth, copper, iron, lead, paper).
J.T. Sunderland's assessment: India was a greater industrial and manufacturing nation than any in Europe or Asia — famous for textiles, jewellery, pottery, metalwork, architecture, shipping and commerce.
18th-century Indian education was traditional and could not match rapid Western advances. Knowledge was confined to literature, law, religion, philosophy and logic — with no study of physical sciences, technology or geography. Over-reliance on ancient learning discouraged original thought.
Elementary education was widespread: pathshalas (Hindu) and maktabs (Muslim) taught reading, writing and arithmetic. Higher Hindu education was at chatuspathis or tols (famous centres: Kasi/Varanasi, Tirhut/Mithila, Nadia, Utkala). Higher Muslim education at madrasahs — Persian was the court language; Arabic for Quran and Muslim theology. Azimabad (Patna) was a famous centre for Persian education.
Society was traditional, hierarchical and fragmented. Despite broad cultural unity, people were divided by caste, religion, region, tribe and language.
Hindu society: Patriarchal family system; caste was central. Beyond the four varnas, numerous sub-castes permanently fixed social rank. Profession was mainly caste-determined though with large-scale exceptions. Caste councils and panchayats enforced norms.
Muslim society: Despite Islam's message of equality, Muslims too were divided by caste, race, tribe and status. Sunni-Shia divisions; Irani, Afghan, Turani and Hindustani Muslim nobles remained separate. Sharif Muslims (nobles, scholars, priests, military) looked down upon ajlaf Muslims (lower-class Muslims) in a manner paralleling Hindu caste hierarchy.
In the patriarchal system (with some exceptions in Kerala), women had little individual agency. Upper-class women were confined at home; lower-class women worked in fields. Exploitative customs — purdah, sati, child marriage, polygamy — persisted. Hindu widow's plight was particularly miserable. The dowry evil was widespread especially in Bengal and Rajputana. Efforts at widow remarriage by Raja Sawai Jai Singh of Amber and Maratha General Prashuram Bhau failed.
European travellers reported widespread slavery in 17th-century India. Economic distress, famines and poverty drove some to sell their children. Higher-class Rajputs, Khatris and Kayasthas kept women slaves for domestic work. The status of Indian slaves was relatively better than European — they were treated as hereditary servants rather than chattels; marriages among slaves were permitted; their offspring were considered free. The advent of Europeans intensified the slave trade — European companies purchased slaves from Bengal, Assam and Bihar for American and European markets. Abyssinian slaves were sold at Surat, Madras and Calcutta.
The decline of the Mughals dispersed patronage to regional courts: Hyderabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Murshidabad, Patna, Kashmir.
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This chapter covers Background / Context, Chronology / Timeline, The Last Mughals: Weak Rulers after Aurangzeb, External Challenges: Invasions from the North-West, Causes of the Decline of the Mughal Empire. It is organized as revision-ready notes followed by a linked practice quiz.
For A Fragmented Subcontinent: India Before the British Tightened Their Grip, focus on definitions, dates, places, institutions, distinguishing features, and factual comparisons in the chapter. Then use the quiz to check recall and identify gaps.
Use the A Fragmented Subcontinent: India Before the British Tightened Their Grip chapter headings to organize an answer framework. Connect causes, consequences, comparisons, examples, and evidence wherever the notes provide them instead of memorizing isolated facts.