Causes of Mughal Political Disintegration

The disintegration of the Mughal Empire in the early eighteenth century reshaped the political landscape of the Indian subcontinent. After the death of Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707, the central administration collapsed rapidly under the weight of internal structural failures, agrarian unrest, succession disputes, and devastating foreign invasions.

Structural and Administrative Crises

Administrative decay weakened the central framework that had held the empire together for nearly two centuries.

The Jagirdari and Mansabdari Crisis

• The Be-jagirdi Problem: The number of mansabdars (officials) increased dramatically, while the total area of crown lands (Khalisa) and fertile revenue grants (Jagirs) shrank.
• Declining Revenues: Land grants failed to generate expected revenues, forcing officials to squeeze higher taxes from the peasantry.
• Revenue Farming (Ijaradari): Late Mughal emperors increasingly assigned land revenue rights to contractors (ijaradars), who exploited farmers to maximize short-term profits.

Aurangzeb’s Deccan Policy and Religious Shifts

• The Deccan Ulcer: Aurangzeb spent nearly twenty-five years (1681–1707) fighting in the Deccan, which drained the imperial treasury and neglected northern administration.
• Religious Alienation: Reimposition of Jizya (tax on non-Muslims) in 1679 and strict orthodoxy alienated Rajput rulers, Marathas, and Hindu subjects, breaking the broad social coalition built by Akbar.

Dynastic and Political Instability

The imperial court at Delhi became a center of political intrigue, eliminating effective central control over distant provinces.

Succession Wars and Weak Rulers

• Absence of Primogeniture: Every imperial succession triggered violent civil wars among princes, destroying trained military commanders and depleting state reserves.
• Incompetent Later Mughals: Successors after Aurangzeb lacked leadership skills. Bahadur Shah I earned the name Shah-i-Bekhabar, while Jahandar Shah and Muhammad Shah ‘Rangeela’ neglected state duties.

Court Factionalism and Kingmakers

• Rival Noble Groups: Mughal nobility fractured into four major ethnic factions: Irani, Turani, Afghan, and Hindustani. These groups fought for influence rather than serving imperial interests.
• The Sayyid Brothers: Between 1713 and 1720, the brothers Abdullah Khan and Hussain Ali Khan operated as kingmakers in Delhi, appointing and assassinating emperors like Farrukhsiyar.

Military Flaws and External Invasions

The Mughal military failed to keep pace with changing warfare tactics and technology, leaving the empire defenseless against external aggression.

Military Stagnation

• Lack of Technological Innovation: The imperial army relied on heavy cavalry and cumbersome baggage trains, lacking light field artillery and modern firelock muskets.
• Neglect of Naval Power: The state failed to build a permanent navy, leaving maritime trade and coastal defenses exposed to European colonial powers.
• Mercenary Character: Soldiers owed allegiance to individual commanders rather than the emperor, causing widespread mutinies when salaries were delayed.

External Invasions

Foreign campaigns delivered fatal blows to Mughal prestige and financial solvency.

Agrarian Unrest and Emergence of Regional Powers

Oppressive taxation policies alienated agrarian communities, leading to widespread regional revolts that carved independent states out of former Mughal provinces.

Community Rebellions

• Maratha Expansion: Under Peshwa Baji Rao I, Maratha forces conquered Malwa, Gujarat, and Bundelkhand, restricting Mughal rule to Delhi and surrounding areas.
• Sikh Resistance: The Khalsa, formed by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699 and led militarily by Banda Singh Bahadur, established independent control across Punjab.
• Jat and Bundela Revolts: Jat peasants under Gokula, Raja Ram, and Suraj Mal carved out the state of Bharatpur near the imperial capital.

Rise of Successor States

• Breakaway Governors: Provincial governors (Subahdars) stopped remitting annual revenue to Delhi and established hereditary dynasties in Hyderabad (Nizam-ul-Mulk, 1724), Bengal (Murshid Quli Khan, 1717), and Awadh (Saadat Khan, 1722).

Key Fact File and Historical Trivia

In 1717, Mughal Emperor Farrukhsiyar granted the British East India Company duty-free trading rights (Dastak) in Bengal, Bihar, and Odisha in exchange for an annual fee of 3,000 rupees. Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah I defeated the Mughal governor Mubariz Khan at the Battle of Shakarkheda in 1724, establishing the autonomous state of Hyderabad while remaining nominally loyal to the Mughal throne. Emperor Shah Alam II signed the Treaty of Allahabad in 1765 after losing the Battle of Buxar, transferring the Diwani (revenue rights) of Bengal, Bihar, and Odisha to the East India Company and becoming a pensionary of the British. In 1803, British troops under General Gerard Lake defeated Maratha commander Daulat Rao Scindia at the Battle of Delhi, establishing direct British military control over Delhi and turning the Mughal emperor into a royal prisoner. The last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah II ‘Zafar’, was tried for treason after the Revolt of 1857, deposed by the British, and exiled to Rangoon in Burma, where he died in 1862.