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Mughal India and Central Asia in the Eighteenth Century. An Introduction to a Wider Perspective*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

Jos Gommans
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Extract

During the last two decades our historical ideas about the Mughal Empire have considerably altered. This change of attitude is due to two scholarly tendencies both of which have directed attention away from the Mughal court centres of Delhi and Agra. In an effort to illuminate the processes of Mughal decline, one approach has aimed to stress the emergence of eighteenth-century successor states which grew vigorously independent, but still remained under the sacrosanct umbrella of Mughal authority. Many studies of these new political configurations have seriously questioned the cliché de l'époque of a highly centralized Mughal polity, which now to have been faced with numerous limitations and ‘inner frontiers’. The disenchanting practice of permanent sedition and betrayal could never live up to the expectations of the Mughal ideal of harmony and legitimate obedience. In contrast to this view from below, another approach has tried to enlarge the scale by analysing the various ways in which India was incorporated into the world economy of the Indian Ocean. From this point of view Mughal India became the central part of a dynamic world system with various interactions and interdependencies between often highly urbanized and commercialized states.

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , March 1991 , pp. 51 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1991

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References

Notes

1 The regional studies which support this more balanced interpretation of the Mughal political system are numerous. I would like to mention however: Alam, M., Crisis of Empire in Mughal North India (Delhi 1986);Google ScholarBayly, C.A., Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion (Cambridge 1983);Google ScholarBarnett, R.B., North India between Empire: Awadh, the Mughals and the British, 1720–1801 (Berkeley 1980);Google ScholarFisher, M.H., A Clash of Cultures: Awadh, the British and the Mughals (New Delhi 1987);Google ScholarWink, A., Land and Sovereignty in India: Agrarian Society and Politics under Eighteenth-Century Maratha Svarajya (Cambridge 1986). For the meaning and implications of the ‘inner frontier’:Google ScholarHeesterman, J.C., The Inner Conflict of Tradition (Chicago 1985) 158–180. The most important Indian Ocean studies are:Google ScholarChaudhuri, K.N., Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean (Cambridge 1985);CrossRefGoogle ScholarGupta, A. Das and Pearson, M.N. eds., India and the Indian Ocean 1500–1800 (Delhi 1987);Google ScholarChandra, S. ed., The Indian Ocean: Explorations in History, Commerce and Politics (New Delhi 1987);Google ScholarWink, A., Al Hind, The Making of the Indo-lslamic world I. Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam, 7th-11th Centuries (Leiden 1990)Google Scholar.

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13 Hafiz Rahmat Khan, Khulasat al-Ansab, BM. Ms. Egerton, f. 13a.

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20 Masters, 24–32.

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24 Naquin, S. and Rawski, E.S., Chinese Society in the Eighteenth Century (New Haven and London 1987) 194–195;Google Scholarcf. Markham, C., Narrative of the Mission of G. Bogle to Tibet, and the Journey of j. Manning to Lhasa, with Notes and Lives (London 1879) 124–130;Google ScholarTurner, S., An Account of an Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama in Tibet; Containing a Narrative of a Journey through Bootan and Part of Tibet (London 1800) 372–377Google Scholar.

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26 Wathem, M., ‘Memoir of the U'sbeck State of Kokan’, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 32 (1834) 376.Google Scholar

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28 Wessels, C., Early Jetuit Travellers in Central Asia (The Hague 1924) 25.Google Scholar

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30 Pallas, P.S., Travels through the Southern Provinces of the Russian Empire in the Years 1793 and 1794 I (London 1802) 288.Google Scholar

31 Hambly, G., ‘An Introduction to the Economic Organisation of Early Qajar Iran’, Iran, Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies 2 (1964) 77.Google Scholar

32 al-Hukama, Rustam, Persische Geschichten 1694–1835 Erlebt, Erinnert und Erfunden. Das Rustam at-Tawarih in Deutscher Bearbeitung. Hoffman, I. B. ed. and tr. (Berlin 1986) 254; see alsoGoogle ScholarLockhart, L., The Fall of the Safavi Dynasty and the Afghan Occupation of Persia (Cambridge 1958) 85Google Scholar.

33 Pottinger, Travels in Baloochistan, 204, 224.

34 Durrani, A.M.K., Multan and the Afghans (Multan 1981); many Multani merchants resided in as well, see:Google ScholarForster, G., A Journey from Bengal to England through the Northern Part of India, Kashmir, Afghanistan, and Persia, and into Russia by the Caspian Sea II (London 1798) 134–135Google Scholar.

35 Lambton, A.K.S., ‘The Tribal Resurgence of the Decline of the Bureaucracy in the Eighteenth Century’ in: Naff, T. and Owen, R. eds., Studies in Eighteenth Century Islamic History (Carbondale 1977) 108–129.Google Scholar

36 Comte de Modave, Voyage en Inde, 336; al-Karim, Abd ‘Bukhari, Nadim’ b. Ismali, Histoire de I'Asie. Centrale par Mir Abdoul Kerim Boukhary. Schefer, C. ed. and tr. (Paris 1876) 17Google Scholar.

37 Savory, R.M., ‘The History of the Persian Gulf A.D. 600–1800’ in: Cottrell, A.J. ed., The Persian Gulf States (Baltimore and London 1980) 35. For Masqat slave trade in Baluchistan and Qandahar:Google ScholarLumsden, H.B., The Mission to Qandahar (Calcutta 1860) 108 (some slaves were brought by pilgrims from Masqat);Google ScholarMasson, C., Narrative of a Journey to Kalat (London 1843) 50; Pottinger, Travels in Baloochistan, 63Google Scholar.

38 Elphinstone, Account of Caubul I, 279–280.

39 Very informative recent studies on the Persian Gulf and Oman are: al-Qasimi, M., The Myth of Arab Piracy in the Gulf (London 1986); andGoogle ScholarRisso, P., Oman and Musk al, An Early Modern History (London and Sydney 1986)Google Scholar.

40 Pottinger, Travels in Baloochistan, 281; Masson, Journey in Balochistan, 353.

41 Alam, Travels in Baloochistan, 184.

42 Eighteenth-century Afghan-Jewish communities are found in Las Bela, Peshawar, Herat, Qandahar and Chardzhou. Jewish communities already existed in Bukhara, Kashghar and Iran.

43 Masson, Journey in Balochistan I, 353–356.

44 Vigne, Personal Narrative, 434–435.

45 Michell, 457–458. Thompson reported that after Nadir's expeditions Persian and Indian coins were current in Bukhara, Hanway, Historical Account I, 345. In the early nineteenth century the situation was reversed and cash was imported from Russia and was subsequently carried to Afghanistan and India, Mir Izzat Allah, ‘Travels beyond the Himalaya’, 138; Fraser, Narrative of a Journey, appendix, 95.

46 See for Hunza, Müller-Stellrecht, J., Hunza und China (1761–1891) (Wiesbaden 1978) 4; for Badakhshan:Google ScholarGrevemeyer, J.H., Herrschaft, Raub und Gegenseitigkeit: Die Politische schichte Badahhshans 1500–1883 (Wiesbaden 1982) 102–105; for the booming slave trade in Afghanistan (Herat, Kabul, Balkh): Harlan, 38, 344–45, 82–84, 127Google Scholar.

47 Three valuable recent studies on this transhumance in the Himalayas are: Chandola, K., Across the Himalayas through the Ages: A Study of Relations between Central Himalayas and Western Tibet (Delhi 1987)Google Scholar; Fisher, J.F., Trans-Himalayan Traders, Economy, Society and in Northern Nepal (Berkeley 1986);Google ScholarJosh, M.P. and Brown, C.W., ‘Some Dynamics of Indo -Tibetan Trade through Uttarakhanda (Kumaon-Garhwal) India’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 30 (1987)Google Scholar.

48 For an early nineteenth-century account stating its flourishing condition: Raper, F.V., ‘Narrative of a Survey for the Purpose of Discovering the Sources of the Ganges’, Asiatic Researches 11 (1912) 536–540Google Scholar.

49 Atkinson, E.T., Notes on the History of the Hymalaya of the N.W.P. India (Allahabad 1884) 71–72.Google Scholar

50 See for organisation of these merchant colonies under Chinese rule: Michelle, 149–161; Forsyth, T.D., Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873, with Historical and Geographical Information regarding the Possessions of the Ameer of Yarkund (Calcutta 1875) 95–97Google Scholar.

51 A. Gerard, Account of Kunnawar (London 1841) 184–185; Raper, ‘Narrative of a Survey’, 530.

52 See for Tibetan gold in the eighteenth century: Boulnois, L., Poudre d'Or et Monnaies d'Argent au Tibet (Paris 1983)Google Scholar.

53 Raper, ‘Narrative of a Survey’, 497–498; Rhodes, N.G., ‘The Silver Coinage of Garhwal and Ladakh’ 1686–1871, Numismatic Chronicle 141 (1981) 124–135Google Scholar. According to Moorcroft there was formerly (probably in the second half of the eighteenth century) a much frequented trade route from Najibabad to Khotan and Yarkand via Gartok and Rudok, Moorcroft, W. and Trebeck, G., Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the Panjab, in Ladakh and Kashmir, in Peshawar, Kabul, Kunduz and Bokhara I (London 1841) 373–374Google Scholar. For a discussion of the available material see Boulnois, Poudre d'Or.

54 Alam, Travels in Baloochistan, 262.

55 Forster, Journey from Bengal, 190–191; Wendel, , Les Memoires de Wendel sur lesjat, les Pathan et les Sikh.Deloche, J. ed. (Paris 1979) 131Google Scholar.

56 Devra, G.S.L., ‘A Study of the Trade-Relations between Rajasthan and Sindh/Multan (1650–1800 A.D.)’, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress (1978) 585, 587.Google Scholar Cf. Gupta, B.L., ‘The Migration of Traders to Rajasthan in the Eighteenth Century’, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress (1988) 316;Google ScholarNaqvi, H.K., Mughal Hindustan: Cities and Industries (1556–1803) (Karachi 1974) 246;Google ScholarDeloche, J., La Circulation en Inde avant la Revolution des Transports I (Paris 1980) 58Google Scholar.

57 Leonard, K., ‘The “Great Firm” Theory of the Decline of the Mughal Empire’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 21 (1979).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

58 See for the radius of action of some longdistance traders: Lal, Mohan, Journal of a Tour, 122 (from Kabul: Mulla Rahim Shah); Fraser, Narrative, 114,118ff (from Mashhad: Husayn Marwi)Google Scholar.

59 Adapted from the debate on European imperialism and introduced by Gallagher, J. and Robinson, R., ‘0The Imperialism of Free Trade’, Economic History Review Second Series 6, 1 (1953) 1–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

60 This short study cannot go into the important subject of the ‘triangular nexus between state, producing economy and external commerce’, and just points out some geographical shifts. For a profound discussion see: Subrahmanyam, S., The Political Economy of Commerce: Southern India, 1500–1650 (Cambridge 1990)Google Scholar.

61 Fazl, Abu'l, Akbarnama. Beveridge, H. ed. and tr. (Calcutta 1897 and 1939) 326–353, 398–401,615–619.Google Scholar

62 Makhzan-i Afghani. B. Dorn ed. and tr. (2 vols.; London 1965); for a full discussion of the Indo-Afghan chronicles see the introduction to: Sarwani, Abbas Khan, Tarikh-i Sher Shahi. Ambashthiya, B.P. ed. and tr. (Patna 1974)Google Scholar.

63 Durrani, Ahmad Shah, Nama-yi Ahmad Shah Baba ba Nam-i Sultan Mustafa Salas Usmani. Jalali, G.Jilani ed. (Kabul 1967) 14–15.Google Scholar

64 Cf. Sarkar, J., Fall of the Mughal Empire I (London 1988) 99–100; Elphinstone writes that the Durrani court exactly reflected the model of Nadir Shah's; Elphinstone, Account of Caubul II, 252, 281.Google Scholar

65 Ahmad Shah Durrani, 8–10.

66 Ibidem, 9. Sultanat more in the abstract and general sense of ‘government’ or ‘authority’.

67 Ibidem, 12–13.

68 Ibidem, 14–16.

69 Ibidem, 30.

70 Ibidem, 76–77; in 1757 Ahmad Shah had already re-established Alamgir II (1754–1760) on the Mughal throne and in 1761 he repeated this with the absentee son of the latter, Shah Alam II (1760–1806). In 1758 Ahmad Shah enforced his claims of suzerainty by the expression of the khutba and the sikka.

71 See for the Persian part of the Durrani claim: Mann, O., ‘Quellenstudien zur Geschichte des Ahmad Sah Durrani’, Zeitschrift der Deutsche Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 52 (1989) 118, 161–168, 323–358.Google ScholarCf. , Lambton, ‘The Tribal Resurgence’ and Perry, J.R., ‘The Last Safavids 1722–1773’, Iran. Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies 9 (1971) 59–69Google Scholar.

72 Eighteenth-century autonomous Afghan chiefdoms can be found in: Ruhilkhand, Farrukhabad, Bhopal, Junagadh, Tonk, Kasur, Maler Kotla, Mandu, Kurnool, Nellore, Ginji, Cuddapah, Jhajjar.

73 Law d e Lauriston, 189–190.

74 Hafiz Rahmat Khan, f.51 b. f.52 b.

75 Fletcher, J.E., ‘China and Central Asia, 1368–1884’ in: Fairbank, J.K., The Chinese World Order (Harvard 1970) 220, 359.Google Scholar