Punjab Under The Great Mughals

About the Book

Punjab Under the Great Mughals brings out the peculiarities of the concepts and strategies followed by the Mughal emperors and their impact on governance. Mughal sovereignty as well as governance assumed colours different from the ones identifiable during Sultanate. The Mughal sovereignty was not of Sunni variety. It was Changezian, Timurian, Persianate, and Sultanian, all rolled into one. The anchor of the governance was not Shariat; it was sovereign-specific. The Mughal emperor was considered himself as exalted as divine and thus worthy of magnificence, deserving to be displayed through progression in architecture, calligraphy, painting and court glamour. This was true by and large, until Aurangzeb possessed baton and altered the nature of the governance to make it Sunni Muslims-specific and anti-non-Muslims with significant consequences.

The politics which the Mughal emperors embraced from time to time has been amply taken care of in this study. Whereas Punjab developed economically and in terms of stability, certain cracks appeared. There emerged a need for opening or identifying avenues for industrial surplus to be invested fruitfully. Bureaucratic structure needed overhaul because Mansabdari system was not amenable to improvement, owing to the shrinkage of crown lands. Aurangzeb, despite his personal qualities of integrity, honesty and perseverance, was too obsessed with Islamic unitarianism to forge a right type of approach to the looming problems. The ultimate upshot was that Suba of Lahore, instead of presenting an example of stable, harmonious and prosperous society, skidded fast into the vortex of instability, inter-communitarian strife and economic erosion.

The book shall be useful to students and academics of History, especially those interested in the history of the Sikhs, the Punjab and the Great Mughals.