Regional States in the Eighteenth Century

The crisis in the Mughal Empire in the eighteenth century finally led to the collapse of the Mughal Empire. As the Mughal authority weakened, the governors of the provinces, subedars, and the big zamindars became powerful and asserted their independence.

The regional states of this period can be divided into three categories:

1. There were some states whose founders were important Mughal nobles and held high mansabs. Though they became independent, they never broke formal ties with the Mughal state. Some of the important states in this category are Awadh, Bengal and Hyderabad.

The founder of the Awadh state was Sa’adat Khan. The founder of Bengal was Mushid Quli Khan and the founder of Hyderabad state was Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah. All three were powerful members of the Mughal nobility and were the governors of these provinces. As the Mughal Empire weakened, there was a large-scale migration of soldiers and administrators from Delhi to these new states that promised numerous opportunities.

In these states the position of the previous zamindars changed. For example, Sa’adat Khan seized a number of Rajput zamindaris and the agriculturally fertile lands of the Afghans at Rohilkhand. Similarly, in an effort to reduce Mughal influence in Bengal, Mushid Quli Khan transferred all Mughal jagirdars to Orissa and ordered a major reassessment of the revenues of Bengal. Revenue was collected in cash with great strictness from all zamindars. As a result, many zamindars had to borrow money from bankers and moneylenders. Those unable to pay were forced to sell their lands to larger zamindars.

Another change in these states was the rise of the bankers and moneylenders or mahajans. The state and the landed class depended on them for loans. These bankers in turn became powerful and influenced the administration. The state auctioned its right to collect taxes to the highest bidders, who were usually bankers and mahajans. In turn, the bankers promised to pay a fixed sum of money to the state. Thus, the state was assured of a fixed income. This system was called the ijaradari system and those who bought the right to collect taxes were known as ijaredars.

The Mughal state had always discouraged this system. There were chances that those who collected the tax would collect much more than fixed, exploiting the peasants and would give less to the state thereby causing a loss to the state revenue.

2. The second category of regional states in the eighteenth century was those states that had already enjoyed a lot of independence during the Mughal rule as watan jagirs. The Rajput states belonged to this category.

3. The third category of regional states was those that had emerged after rebelling against the Mughal authority. The Sikhs, the Marathas and the Jats belonged to this group. For example, the Sikh rebellion against the Mughals led to state-building in the Punjab.