THE RISE AND FALL OF THE MUGHAL EMPIREshunned all pomp and splendour—austere as he had been in his lifetime, he
wanted to rest under the open sky after death. But the ambitious military
campaigns which he conducted throughout his lifetime had been far from
simple and inexpensive. In the century from the accession of Akbar to that
of Aurangzeb, India had experienced an epoch of relative peace and
prosperity. Trade had expanded and urban centres had grown up
everywhere. The agrarian base was strong enough to support the court, the
army and the administration in general. Of course, the connection between
the countryside and the urban centres was a one-way street: the peasants
had to yield their surplus and did not receive much in return, even in
cultural terms, as their religious values and ideas were different from those
of their overlords. The Mughal culture was an urban phenomenon, but
within these limitations it flourished very well. Urdu, originally the lingua
franca of the army camp of the Mughals, emerged as a very flexible
element of civilised literary communication. It absorbed elements of
Persian favoured by the worldly elite, of Arabic studied by Islamic
scholars, and of Hindi, the language of the people. Music, poetry and the
fine arts were at their very best. Rebellions against the Mughal regime
were few and far between. The Great Mughals knew how to accommodate
local and regional elites within their system. Vassals of earlier regimes,
tribal chieftains and village headmen, petty kings and princes were all
recognised under the general category of landlords (zamindars). They
retained their rights and privileges as long as they paid their dues to the
Mughals.
In Aurangzeb’s reign the revenue demand became increasingly oppressive.
There were more and more revolts, which were often led by the zamindars
who confronted the officers of the Mughal government at the head of their
retainers and peasants. Initially these revolts were isolated events; in the
course of time, however, a more broad-based solidarity emerged. Ties of
kinship like those between the Jats, or religious solidarity like that binding
the Sikhs, or a quasi-national feeling like that of the Marathas—all served as
common bonds to lend cohesion to the rebellious spirit.
These revolts against the Mughal government were greatly facilitated by
the spread of light firearms, which were now handled and produced
everywhere. After Baber had introduced these weapons in India they had
become very popular with Indian rulers. Sher Shah is supposed to have had
25,000 matchlock men (toofangchis) in his service. Whereas the casting of
big guns was a complicated and costly affair, even the village blacksmith
could learn to make small firearms; even a peasant could manage to shoot
with them. The Great Mughals explicitly prohibited the manufacture of
firearms in the villages, because they feared that they would be used
against the government. The more the agrarian base of the Mughal state
was eroded by heavy taxation, the more often the peasants seized their
firearms and put up a stiff resistance. Hordes of armed peasants roaming