DOCSLIB.ORG

The Last Mughal Transcript

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Last Mughal Transcript The Last Mughal Transcript Date: Monday, 7 July 2008 - 12:00AM THE LAST MUGHAL William Dalrymple I have just flown in from Delhi, which today is a city of about 15 million people, if you count the various suburbs on the edge that have sprung up over the last few years. In contrast, if had you visited Delhi 150 years ago this month, in July 1858, you would have found that this city, which was the cultural capital of North India for so many centuries, had been left completely deserted and empty. Not a single soul lived in the walled city of Delhi in July 1858. The reason for this was that in the previous year, 1857, Delhi became the centre of the largest anti-colonial revolt to take place anywhere in the world, against any European power, at any point in the 19th Century. That uprising is known in this country as 'the Indian Mutiny', is known in India as 'the First War of Independence'. Neither the Indian Mutiny nor the First War of Independence are particularly useful titles. What happened in Delhi was much more than a mutiny of soldiers, because it encompassed almost all the discontented classes of the Gangetic Plains, but was not quite a national war of independence either, as it had rather particular aims of restoring the Mughal Dynasty back to power. Whether we call it an 'uprising' or 'rising', by it the two institutions which had formed North Indian history for the previous 300 years came to an abrupt and complete halt. In human affairs, dates rarely regulate the ebb and flow or real lives. Historians impose them on history, but in most occasions, life continues despite the events that historians like to demarcate as boundaries. But 1857-8 is one of those rare moments that acts like a complete guillotine. Everything in North India that happened before then comes to an abrupt halt and everything changes direction. The first of those institutions which came to a close in 1857 was the East India Company. People talk about the British conquering India, but, far more sinisterly, it was not the British or British Government per se, but a multinational trading corporation based in Leadenhall Street, here in the City of London. The East India Company was a company: it existed to create profit for its shareholders. A helpful image might be to think Microsoft with armies, or McDonalds with territorial ambitions. It is the ultimate example of continent-scale corporate irresponsibility. The company, which was founded in 1599, the same year that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, had existed in India for 250 years before the uprising, and a very different set of relations had governed the interface between the merchants from London and the Indians it traded with than was to be the case for the subsequent ninety years of the Raj. When the British think of themselves in India, they think of people waving Union Jacks, or possibly gunning down people in Jalianwalabag, but the Raj is, oddly enough, the kind of the bit of the iceberg above the water. It is only ninety years. The period of the East India Company, which lasted 250 years, is a far more ambiguous, interesting and uncharted bit of history. The other institution which came to a dead halt in 1857 was the Mughals. The Mughals are one of the few dynasties in the world to have become an adjective. You do not talk about a Hollywood Tudor, or a business Plantagenet, but you do talk about a Hollywood Mughal. The word has become synonymous in the English language with power, might and prestige. The Mughals arrived in India in 1560, only a short period before the British arrived with the Company. Babur came from what is now Uzbekistan, Fergana. By clever use of artillery, he defeated the Lodhi Dynasty, which was the last of a succession of Muslim dynasties that had been in North India since the 12th Century, and over a period of generations, they conquered almost all of Northern India, all of modern Pakistan, all of modern Bangladesh, most of modern Afghanistan, and a slither of Persia. For the British or the English of the time, what was remarkable about the Mughals, as the adjective implies, was their power and their might. The English arrived in India not as part of some sort of Elizabethan NGO bringing clean water, good wells or children's aid to India; they arrived as ragged Tudor outsiders and were regarded as barbarians by the Mughals, who were the rich, sophisticated magnates of the time. India was the richest country in the world. Today, we are beginning again, sixty years after the end of colonialism, to associate India with wealth, entrepreneurship and go-ahead policies, but this was very much the reason for the Elizabethan interest in India. It was the silks and textiles of Bengal, the spices of Kerala, and the unlimited quantities of gold which India had. It also had the only sources of diamonds in the world before the discovery of the New World mines. The Mughals brought all this to fruition, seen most significantly in buildings like the Taj Mahal or the Indian military tradition, but what, in a sense, to us today is most remarkable about the Mughals is the way that they defy almost all the media stereotypes of Islamic fanaticism and the association of Islam with words like 'terrorism' and so on. The Mughals, at a time when, here in the City of London, Jesuits were being hung, drawn and quartered for their faith; at a time when, in Spain and Portugal, the Inquisition was doing a version of water-boarding to anyone who did not subscribe to the doctrines of the Catholic Church; at a time when, in Rome, Giordano Bruno was being burnt at the stake in Campo de'Fiori; in Fatehpur Sikri, the Emperor Akbar, by far the most interesting and remarkable of the Mughals, was summoning to Fatehpur Sikri, Sunni, Shia, and Sufi Muslims, Hindus of Saivite and Vaishnavite persuasion, as well as Hindu atheists, Buddhists from the Himalayas, Zoroastrians and Jains from Gujarat, Jews from Cochin, Jesuits from Goa. All were called to the court so that they might sit together and form what is really the world's first multi-religious discussion group to discover where the different religions of the world could agree, where they differed, and what they might learn from each other. At the end of it, Akbar declared that, 'No man may be compelled in matters of religion,' there can be no compulsion in matters of religion, which is a quote from the Koran. He said that these matters of faith must be decided by reason. At the time, this was a revolutionary concept. There was no similar declaration in Europe for another 250 years, until the time of the Enlightenment. So before one believes the huge and ignorant generalisations of certain American scholars, or take in the kind of rubbish that one reads the right-wing press, and even the quality press, where you will often read people sounding off about Islam, fanaticism and clashes of civilisation, there is much from this period that defies all stereotypes. By the time that the man I am going to speak about tonight, Bahadur Shah Zafar, 'The last Mughal' as the title of my book points out, comes to the throne in 1832, 200 years have passed since the time of Akbar, and the Mughal dominions have contracted dramatically from the wide empires of Akbar to only the walls of Delhi. But the same Mughal traditions of tolerance, religious pluralism, and multi-ethnic and multi-religious court life continues. Ascending the Mughal throne in his mid-sixties, in the 1830s, when the treasury was empty, the Mughal Army had long vanished, the riches and piles of diamonds which attracted the merchants to the court of Akbar had long been dispersed and robbed, Zafar's extraordinary achievement is that, almost uniquely in history, he acted as catalyst for one of the great renaissances of Indian history in a time of extreme economic decline. In almost all places in the world where you have exciting moments when the whole pace and pulse of artistic life transforms itself into some form of renaissance, it almost always take place during times of economic growth, for very simple reasons: that you need to have money to patronise great buildings and most artistic renaissance. What is unique about Zafar, who was a mystic poet, a calligrapher, a poet and an amazing writer on philosophy and higher Sufi mysticism, is that rather than by power of patronage, he leads by example and produces one of the great moments of Indian literature, in Delhi. Zafar's court is the court of the poets Ghalib or Zauq, which is to Urdu poetry and to modern Indian poetry what names like Marlow and Shakespeare is to Elizabethan drama. It is the highest of names - Ghalib, in particular, is a world class genius. His poetry is dense and difficult, but to give you a picture both of Ghalib's own writing and the kind of mores of the court at the time, I would just read you one of his letters. This is very typical of Ghalib's prose. He is writing to a friend of his whose mistress has just died, and the man is in mourning for this woman, and Ghalib says: 'Cut it out! I don't like the way you are going on. In the days of my lusty youth, a man of perfect wisdom counselled me: Abstinence, I do not approve of; dissoluteness, I do not forbid.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • In the Name of Krishna: the Cultural Landscape of a North Indian Pilgrimage Town
    In the Name of Krishna: The Cultural Landscape of a North Indian Pilgrimage Town A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Sugata Ray IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Frederick M. Asher, Advisor April 2012 © Sugata Ray 2012 Acknowledgements They say writing a dissertation is a lonely and arduous task. But, I am fortunate to have found friends, colleagues, and mentors who have inspired me to make this laborious task far from arduous. It was Frederick M. Asher, my advisor, who inspired me to turn to places where art historians do not usually venture. The temple city of Khajuraho is not just the exquisite 11th-century temples at the site. Rather, the 11th-century temples are part of a larger visuality that extends to contemporary civic monuments in the city center, Rick suggested in the first class that I took with him. I learnt to move across time and space. To understand modern Vrindavan, one would have to look at its Mughal past; to understand temple architecture, one would have to look for rebellions in the colonial archive. Catherine B. Asher gave me the gift of the Mughal world – a world that I only barely knew before I met her. Today, I speak of the Islamicate world of colonial Vrindavan. Cathy walked me through Mughal mosques, tombs, and gardens on many cold wintry days in Minneapolis and on a hot summer day in Sasaram, Bihar. The Islamicate Krishna in my dissertation thus came into being.
    [Show full text]
  • Sources of Maratha History: Indian Sources
    1 SOURCES OF MARATHA HISTORY: INDIAN SOURCES Unit Structure : 1.0 Objectives 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Maratha Sources 1.3 Sanskrit Sources 1.4 Hindi Sources 1.5 Persian Sources 1.6 Summary 1.7 Additional Readings 1.8 Questions 1.0 OBJECTIVES After the completion of study of this unit the student will be able to:- 1. Understand the Marathi sources of the history of Marathas. 2. Explain the matter written in all Bakhars ranging from Sabhasad Bakhar to Tanjore Bakhar. 3. Know Shakavalies as a source of Maratha history. 4. Comprehend official files and diaries as source of Maratha history. 5. Understand the Sanskrit sources of the Maratha history. 6. Explain the Hindi sources of Maratha history. 7. Know the Persian sources of Maratha history. 1.1 INTRODUCTION The history of Marathas can be best studied with the help of first hand source material like Bakhars, State papers, court Histories, Chronicles and accounts of contemporary travelers, who came to India and made observations of Maharashtra during the period of Marathas. The Maratha scholars and historians had worked hard to construct the history of the land and people of Maharashtra. Among such scholars people like Kashinath Sane, Rajwade, Khare and Parasnis were well known luminaries in this field of history writing of Maratha. Kashinath Sane published a mass of original material like Bakhars, Sanads, letters and other state papers in his journal Kavyetihas Samgraha for more eleven years during the nineteenth century. There is much more them contribution of the Bharat Itihas Sanshodhan Mandal, Pune to this regard.
    [Show full text]
  • British Reaction to the Sepoy Mutiny, 1857-1858 Approved
    BRITISH REACTION TO THE SEPOY MUTINY, 1857-1858 APPROVED: Major /Professor mor Frotessar of History Dean' ot the GraduatGradua' e ScHooT* BRITISH REACTION TO THE SEPOY MUTINY, 1857-185S THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS By Samuel Shafeeq Denton, Texas August, 1970 PREFACE English and Indian historians have devoted considerable research and analysis to the genesis of the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 but have ignored contemporary British reaction to it, a neglect which this study attempts to satisfy. After the initial, spontaneous, condemnation of Sepoy atrocities, Queen Victoria, her Parliament, and subjects took a more rational and constructive attitude toward the insurrection in India, which stemmed primarily from British interference in Indian religious and social customs, symbolized by the cartridge issue. Englishmen demanded reform, and Parliament-- at once anxious to please the electorate and to preserve the valuable colony of India--complied within a year, although the Commons defeated the first two Indian bills, because of the interposition of other foreign and domestic problems. But John Bright, Lord Edward Stanley, William Gladstone, Benjamin Disraeli, and their friends joined forces to pass the third Indian bill, which became law on August 2, 1858. For this study, the most useful primary sources are Parliamentary Debates. Journals of the House of Commons and Lords, British and Foreign State' Papers, English Historical Queen Victoria's Letters , and the Annual' Re'g'i'st'er. Of the few secondary works which focus on British reac- tion to the Sepoy Mutiny, Anthony Wood's Nineteenth Centirr/ Britain, 1815-1914 gives a good account of British politics after the Mutiny.
    [Show full text]
  • FALL of MARATHAS, 1798–1818 A.D. the Position of Marathas in 1798 A.D
    M.A. (HISTORY) PART–II PAPER–II : GROUP C, OPTION (i) HISTORY OF INDIA (1772–1818 A.D.) LESSON NO. 2.4 AUTHOR : PROF. HARI RAM GUPTA FALL OF MARATHAS, 1798–1818 A.D. The Position of Marathas in 1798 A.D. The Marathas had been split up into a loose confederacy. At the head of the Maratha empire was Raja of Sitara. His power had been seized by the Peshwa Baji Rao II was the Peshwa at this time. He became Peshwa at the young age of twenty one in December, 1776 A.D. He had the support of Nana Pharnvis who had secured approval of Bhonsle, Holkar and Sindhia. He was destined to be the last Peshwa. He loved power without possessing necessary courage to retain it. He was enamoured of authority, but was too lazy to exercise it. He enjoyed the company of low and mean companions who praised him to the skies. He was extremely cunning, vindictive and his sense of revenge. His fondness for wine and women knew no limits. Such is the character sketch drawn by his contemporary Elphinstone. Baji Rao I was a weak man and the real power was exercised by Nana Pharnvis, Prime Minister. Though Nana was a very capable ruler and statesman, yet about the close of his life he had lost that ability. Unfortunately, the Peshwa also did not give him full support. Daulat Rao Sindhia was anxious to occupy Nana's position. He lent a force under a French Commander to Poona in December, 1797 A.D. Nana Pharnvis was defeated and imprisoned in the fort of Ahmadnagar.
    [Show full text]
  • The Keys to British Success in South Asia COLIN WATTERSON
    The Keys to British Success in South Asia COLIN WATTERSON “God is on everyone’s side…and in the last analysis he is on the side with plenty of money and large armies” -Jean Anouilh For a period of a period of over one hundred years, the British directly controlled the subcontinent of India. How did a small island nation come on the Edge of the North Atlantic come to dominate a much larger landmass and population located almost 4000 miles away? Historian Sir John Robert Seeley wrote that the British Empire was acquired in “a fit of absence of mind” to show that the Empire was acquired gradually, piece-by-piece. This will paper will try to examine some of the most important reasons which allowed the British to successfully acquire and hold each “piece” of India. This paper will examine the conditions that were present in India before the British arrived—a crumbling central political power, fierce competition from European rivals, and Mughal neglect towards certain portions of Indian society—were important factors in British control. Economic superiority was an also important control used by the British—this paper will emphasize the way trade agreements made between the British and Indians worked to favor the British. Military force was also an important factor but this paper will show that overwhelming British force was not the reason the British military was successful—Britain’s powerful navy, ability to play Indian factions against one another, and its use of native soldiers were keys to military success. Political Agendas and Indian Historical Approaches The historiography of India has gone through four major phases—three of which have been driven by the prevailing world politics of the time.
    [Show full text]
  • LESSON 3 India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan G Stan India, Pakistan, and Afghanis
    LESSONLESSON 3 India,India, Pakistan,Pakistan, andand AfghanistanAfghanistan QuickQuick WriteWrite magine this: The year is 1921, and you’re a teenager in school in India. Your land has been Iunder British rule for as long as anyone can remember. You’re starting to hear about independence for India, though, and it sounds like an exciting idea. But what kind of independence? Self-rule within the British Empire? Or complete independence, like what What approach should the Americans got after 1776? British India have taken to independence? Why? India is a vast country—Hindus and Muslims are only two of its mixture of religious and ethnic groups. Could one country possibly be big enough to include everybody? Won’t some groups get lost? Should certain groups be guaranteed a share of seats in Parliament? Maybe two or more smaller countries would make more sense. British India could draw the map so that each territory LearnLearn AboutAbout was pretty clearly Hindu or Muslim and everybody spoke the same language. What do you think is best, • the precolonial history of the Mughals in the Indian and why? subcontinent • the encounter with Europe and the colonial period in the region • the history of the struggle for independence in South Asia • what caused the partition and war between India and Pakistan • how Muslim-Hindu strife affects the politics and economics of South Asia • which groups have struggled for control in Afghanistan and why 176 CHAPTER 2 Asia 75162_C2L3_p176-199_AFJROTC_FINAL.indd 176 11/9/09 1:55 PM The Precolonial History of the Mughals VocabularyVoca bulary in the Indian Subcontinent •Indian subcontinent You read briefl y in the Introduction about the Mughal Empire •aristocrat in the Indian subcontinent.
    [Show full text]
  • Phoolwalon Ki Sair.Indd 1 27/07/12 1:21 PM 1
    CORONATION To the south of the western gateway is the tomb of Qutb Sahib. was meant for the grave of Bahadur Shah Zafar, who was however PARK It is a simple structure enclosed by wooden railings. The marble exiled after the Mutiny and died in Burma. balustrade surrounding the tomb was added in 1882. The rear wall To the north-east of the palace enclosure lies an exquisite mosque, Phoolwalon was added by Fariduddin Ganj-e-Shakar as a place of prayer. The the Moti Masjid, built in white marble by Bahadur Shah I in the early western wall is decorated with coloured fl oral tiles added by the eighteenth century as a private mosque for the royal family and can be Delhi Metro Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. approached from the palace dalan as well as from the Dargah Complex. Route 6 ki Sair The screens and the corner gateways in the Dargah Complex were Civil Ho Ho Bus Route built by the Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar. The mosque of Qutb Lines Heritage Route Sahib, built in mid-sixteenth century by Islam Shah Suri, was later QUTBUDDIN BAKHTIYAR KAKI DARGAH AND ZAFAR added on to by Farrukhsiyar. MAHAL COMPLEX The Dargah of Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki continues to be a sacred place for the pilgrims of different religions. Every week on Thursday 5 SHAHJAHANABAD Red Fort and Friday qawwali is also performed in the dargah. 5. ZAFAR MAHAL COMPLEX 6 Kotla 9 Connaught Firoz Shah Adjacent to the western gate of the Dargah of Place Jantar Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki, this complex Mantar 2 7 8 NEW DELHI has various structures built in 3 Route 5 1 Rashtrapati the eighteenth and nineteenth 4 Bhavan Purana century.
    [Show full text]
  • Expansion and Consolidation of Colonial Power Subject : History
    Expansion and consolidation of colonial power Subject : History Lesson : Expansion and consolidation of colonial power Course Developers Expansion and consolidation of colonial power Prof. Lakshmi Subramaniam Professor, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata Dynamics of colonial expansion--1 and Dynamics of colonial expansion--2: expansion and consolidation of colonial rule in Bengal, Mysore, Western India, Sindh, Awadh and the Punjab Dr. Anirudh Deshpande Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Delhi Language Editor: Swapna Liddle Formating Editor: Ashutosh Kumar 1 Institute of lifelong learning, University of Delhi Expansion and consolidation of colonial power Table of contents Chapter 2: Expansion and consolidation of colonial power 2.1: Expansion and consolidation of colonial power 2.2.1: Dynamics of colonial expansion - I 2.2.2: Dynamics of colonial expansion – II: expansion and consolidation of colonial rule in Bengal, Mysore, Western India, Awadh and the Punjab Summary Exercises Glossary Further readings 2 Institute of lifelong learning, University of Delhi Expansion and consolidation of colonial power 2.1: Expansion and consolidation of colonial power Introduction The second half of the 18th century saw the formal induction of the English East India Company as a power in the Indian political system. The battle of Plassey (1757) followed by that of Buxar (1764) gave the Company access to the revenues of the subas of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa and a subsequent edge in the contest for paramountcy in Hindustan. Control over revenues resulted in a gradual shift in the orientation of the Company‟s agenda – from commerce to land revenue – with important consequences. This chapter will trace the development of the Company‟s rise to power in Bengal, the articulation of commercial policies in the context of Mercantilism that developed as an informing ideology in Europe and that found limited application in India by some of the Company‟s officials.
    [Show full text]
  • HUMAYUN's TOMB – Critical Assessment of the Restoration
    HISTORIC PRESERVATION THEORY AND PRACTISE NILIKA MISTRY HUMAYUN'S TOMB – Critical Assessment of the Restoration by Aga Khan Trust for Culture Humayun's Tomb is one of the most important structures that introduced the Persian Style of architecture to India. The structure was constructed at the center of the charbagh (four-fold style of landscape architecture) in 1569 by a Persian architect Mirak Mirza Ghiyas. The tomb was declared UNESCO's world heritage site in 1993 for being the first structure to introduce the charbagh style of landscape architecture and for being the first grand mausoleum in India. Over the years, many changes have been made to the structure as well as the charbagh, depending on the authorities or the people maintaining the complex. Some of the changes have also been the result of the important events that have taken place in the history of India. This paper talks about how the recent restoration of the complex by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture(AKTC) has negatively affected the preservation of the important historic events that took place in and around the complex. The Aga Khan Trust for Culture, founded in 1988 and registered in Geneva, Switzerland is a private, non-denominational, philanthropic foundation. It was founded by His Highness Aga Khan, the founder of Aga Khan Development Network and the 49th hereditary Imam ( Spiritual leader) of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims. 1 AKTC, in partnership with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), started its work in India by restoring the gardens of Humayun's Tomb as a gift on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Independence of India in 2004.
    [Show full text]
  • The Expansion of British India During the Second Mahratta
    Hist 480 Research essay The expansion of British India during the second Mahratta war The strategic, logistic and political difficulties of the 2nd Anglo- Mahratta campaign of General Lake and Arthur Wellesley primarily against Dawlut Rao Scindia and Bhonsla Rajah of Berar By John Richardson 77392986 Supervised by Jane Buckingham 2014 ‘This dissertation is submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of BA Honours in History at the University of Canterbury. This dissertation is the result of my own work. Material from the published or unpublished work of other historians used in the dissertation is credited to the author in the footnote references. The dissertation is approximately 10,000 words in length.’ 1 Abstract The period of British colonialism and the expansion of British influence in India occurred over a number of years. This research paper focuses primarily on the period from 1798 to 1805, with particular reference to the period of conflict in 1803. While many aspects of this period are well known, a number of less well recognised influences have had considerable impact on the capacity for British expansionism. This research paper examines the influence of the second Anglo-Mahratta wars, and in particular of the simultaneous campaigns of General Lake and Arthur Wellesley, primarily against Dawlut Rao Scindia and Bhonsla, Rajah of Berar. These campaigns have particular political and military significance, and mark a change in Anglo-Indian relations. The military strategies, intentions and outcomes of these are discussed, and recognition given to the innovations in regard to logistics and warfare. These elements were central to the expansion of British influence as they resulted in both the acceptance of the British as a great martial power, and helped to create a myth of the invincibility of British arms.
    [Show full text]
  • The Last Mughal: the Fall of Delhi, 1857 Pdf, Epub, Ebook
    THE LAST MUGHAL: THE FALL OF DELHI, 1857 PDF, EPUB, EBOOK William Dalrymple | 608 pages | 07 Sep 2009 | Bloomsbury Publishing PLC | 9781408800928 | English | London, United Kingdom The Last Mughal: The Fall of Delhi, 1857 PDF Book A must read for all Indians. Although all these attacks were beaten off, the besiegers were ground down through exhaustion and disease. At the pivotal moment of his doomed reign, Zafar concentrated not on his role as a leader of men or on the sparing of innocent lives, but rather on his flowers. Three Bengal Native Infantry regiments the 38th, 54th and 74th were stationed in barracks 2 miles 3. When the heir apparent dies of cholera or maybe poisoning? On a dark evening in November , a cheap coffin is buried in eerie silence. Although they had ample warning of disaffection among the Bengal Army after earlier outbreaks of unrest at Berhampur , Barrackpur and Ambala , they had assumed that at Meerut, where the proportion of European to Indian troops was higher than anywhere else in India, the Bengal units would not risk open revolt. View Product. Mughal Empire. Simply put: This is how history should be written. After this, it was accepted that the odds were too great for any assault to be successful until the besiegers were reinforced. I wanted insight into complicated Muslim, Sufi, Hindu, Christian relations and got exac Fast paced, flashing like an epic movie, round about page I was convinced of Dalrymple's brilliant talent, incorporating Urdu texts and British writings from the era to show how a tolerant creative, if excessive Mughal court was torn asunder by violence and racism; how something so small and inconsiderate as to how bullets were manufactured could erupt into such violence, followed by even greater revenge.
    [Show full text]
  • The Great Mughals
    1450–1750 1527 Babur leads 1540 Humayun 1579 Akbar abolishes the property tax on 1628 Shah 1658 Shah Jahan THE MUGHAL DYNASTY his army to victory becomes a royal non-Muslims in an important symbolic act Jahan accedes dies and Aurangzeb After an initial period of expansion and consolidation, the in an important exile, leaving that implied Muslims and non-Muslims were to the throne. accedes to the Mughal Empire remained a stable and vibrant entity for over battle against a Sher Shah Sur no longer unequal within the empire. throne. 170 years (1556–1719). A long, slow decline ended with the confederacy of as undisputed ruler empire’s dissolution in 1857. Rajput kings of northern India. 1605 Akbar dies and Jahangir at Kanua. accedes to the throne. 1500 1550 1600 1650 1700 1750 1800 1850 1530 Babur dies; Humayun 1627 Jahangir dies. 1654 The Taj Mahal 1707 1739 Nadir Shah sacks 1838 Accession of the last Mughal accedes to the throne. is completed at Agra. Aurangzeb Delhi and seizes the emperor, Bahadur Shah II. 1585 Akbar transfers the capital dies. Mughal treasury. from Fatehpur Sikri to Lahore. 1555–56 Humayun restores Mughal rule. 1648 Shah Jahan takes up 1857 The Indian Mutiny leads to the dissolution of the Dies 1556. Akbar accedes to the throne 1571 Akbar moves the empire’s capital from residence in his new capital, Delhi. Mughal Empire and rule over India by the British crown. with Bairam Khan as regent. Agra to a newly built city at Fatehpur Sikri. The Great Mughals One of the most powerful states of the 17th century, the Mughal Empire had a complex administrative system that enabled it to rule over more than 100 million people across most of the Indian subcontinent.
    [Show full text]