Profile
Settings
Refer your friends
Sign out
Among all the states that were carved out of the old Mughal Provinces, three states stood out prominently. These states were Awadh, Bengal, and Hyderabad. All three states were founded by the Mughal noble members, who were the governors of major provinces as well. Sa’adat Khan of Awadh, Murshid Quli Khan of Bengal, and Asaf Jah of Hyderabad were the three main governors.
Let us take a look at three major provinces and their key roles as a Mughal province.
Hyderabad
The founder of Hyderabad, Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah, one of those powerful rulers of the Mughal empire which history rarely sees. Hence, he then became the first governor of Awadh and was then given charge of Deccan. As the governor, he had complete control over the political, administrative, and financial powers. He was responsible for bringing in upskilled soldiers and administration from the northern side of India who gave new opportunities to the south side of the sub-continent. Even though he was a servant of the Mughal empire, he was an independent ruler without asking for any inputs from Delhi. He was responsible for bringing skilled soldiers and administrators from the north and giving them jagirs.
When it comes to the state of Hyderabad, they were always under struggle because of the Maratha empire and the Telugu warriors on the other side. When it came to the ambitions of the Nizam, they wanted control over the textile areas of the Coromandel coast, which were checked by the British while they were becoming the most powerful in the continent.
Awadh
Saadat Khan was appointed as the governor of Awadh in the year 1722 which was considered to play a huge role in breaking up the Mughal empire. It was a developing region responsible for the power over the rich alluvial Ganga plain and the trade route between Bengal and the north of the country. The governor was responsible for managing the financial, military, and political affairs of the Awadh province. He tried decreasing the influence that the Mughal empire had on Awadh by decreasing the number of officers appointed by the Mughals. He also reduced the number of Rajput zamindars and the fertile lands of the Afghans. The revenue farmers agreed to pay the government a fixed amount of money and in turn, they were given enough freedom in the collection of taxes. These new developments helped new groups like the bankers and moneylenders to command the revenue management system from the past.
Bengal
The governor, Murshid Quli Khan helped get Bengal away from the control of the Mughal province. Similar to the rulers of Awadh and Hyderabad the governor had control over all administrative revenue of the state. With an effort to reduce the influence that Mughal had over Bengal, he transferred the Jagirdars to Orissa and ordered the reassessments of the revenues to happen in Bengal. The revenues were collected very strictly from the zamindars, this caused a problem because they were not able to sell the lands to the larger zamindars.
The formation of a regional state in the eighteenth century Bengal led to considerable change amongst the zamindars. There was a close connection noticeable between the state and the bankers in Hyderabad and Awadh as well. During his reign, they became extremely prosperous.
Similarities between Hyderabad, Awadh, and Bengal
The Mughals did not like some of the administrative systems, one of them being the Jagirdari system. There was a new relationship that developed between the nawabs and the bankers creating a financial system that relied largely on money lending and this increased the prosperity of many banking houses. Throughout the subcontinent, the merchants and the bankers were gaining a stake in the new political order. The method of taxes deferred. They believed that rather than depending on the officers of the state all the three regimes were contracted with the revenue farmers for the collection of their revenue.
These three states held roles of great influence on the history of the Mughal empire. Being the center of administration and power, the three states shared many similarities among them, even though they lay geographically distant from each other. The three states were also centers of dissent against the administrative systems such as the Jagirdari systems. Often there remained constant tussles within the neighboring kingdoms and regions for the balance of power. These states were also centers of textile and raw materials, thus linking their modern-day development to the historical importance associated with these states from the time under the Mughal rulers.
After the detestment faced by the jagirdari system, an Ijaradari system came about where the farmers were responsible to pay their taxes to an Ijardar. Under this system, right of collecting revenue of a particular area was auctioned to the highest bidder. This was also the time where bankers became people of interest as a new relationship between nawabs and moneylenders started to form. This led to the creation of a financial system dependent on lending money. This in turn increased the prosperity of many moneylending families and earned them power and prestige within these States emerging within the wide expanse of the Mughal Empire.
Conclusion
We discussed how the Mughal Empire progressively disintegrated into a variety of separate, regional kingdoms over the 18th century. These are classified into three categories: States that were former Mughal provinces, such as Awadh, Bengal, and Hyderabad, had rulers who maintained official relations with the Mughal emperor. Watan jagirs were states that had experienced significant independence during the Mughals. And lastly, states ruled by Marathas, Sikhs, and others like the Jats.
