Skip to content

Regional Principalities

2020-04-27 12:38 :33


  • Emperor source Political legitimacy
  • Decentralisation and not power vacuum
  • 9th Guru Teg Bahadur exec 1675.
  • GGS estd Khalsa as response to conflict w/ Mug.
  • rise of Jat peasantry carrying arms was cultural reason for rise of Khalsa.
  • 1710 - 1713 Khatri became ijardars/revenue farmers and some Jat peasantry went against Banda Bahadur.
  • By 1765 Sikh polity was structured as misls : horizontal arrangement, chief to smaller soldier got patti/land, Dal Khalsa was above misls.
  • Ranjit Singh.
  • Jat Kingdom of Bharatpur Delhi-Mathura Gokla, Rajaram, Churaman.
  • Suraj Mal consolidated Jat power, supported Marathas against Abdali.
  • Tried reduce dependency on overmighty kinsmen, army of foreigners, Mugh sys to revenue collection.
  • Social mobility from peasants to Rajput was common.
  • R estd 20 major clans during Akbar, paid peshkash as mark of subordination.
  • Norman Zieglar “corporate egalitarianism” ie entitlement of land on the basis of clan, marriage relations was replaced by hierarchial principles of service and loyalty.
  • Norbad Peabody - R. polities were built on webs of criss crossing, non-exclusive relationships - state formations neither founded on the basis of territorial integrity nor absolute and exclusive political loyalties.
  • Aurangzeb in Marwars succession supported Inder Singh against Jaswant singh infant son of Rani Hari, Mewar supported marwar chiefs per SC to estd its pre-eminence and not to further R nationalism.
  • Martand Varma imp powerful bureaucratic state
  • royal monopoly on pepper later on all trade in Malabar
  • Rama Varma art and scholarship bcam imp ![[2.3 Mysore#Mysore |Mysore]]

2020-04-27 12:38:43


  • Chin Qulich Khan 1724 aka Asaf Jah defated Mubariz Khan in 1723 → actual independence from 1740
  • Coins and Khutba still minted on Emperors name
  • Nasir Jung vs Muzaffar Jung [[1.4 Conflict between the French and The English, Carnatic Wars#Second Carnatic War 1749-54 |2nd Carnatic War]]
  • Change in composition of nobility

Cause for the rise of regional principalities :

  • #todo Change this topics Note

2020-04-27 12:38:50


  • Murhsid Quli Khan
    • 1717 became governor given by Aurangzeb reaffirmed by Farrukhsiyar
    • Used to send revenues
    • Encouraged the dev of few powerful zamindars at expense of smaller ones
    • New landed magnates emerged
    • Impetus to merchants and bakers viz Omi chand and Khoja Wajid, Jagat Seth
  • Sarfarz Khan successor ousted by father Shujauddin Muhammad Khan
  • Alivardi Khan succeeded him → break from Mughals
    • Problem of maratha disrupted bengal trade
  • Suceeded by Siraj ud Daula

2020-04-27 12:38:53


  • Saadat Khan apt Governor in 1722, supported Nadir Shah d. 1740
  • Succeeded by Safdar Jang seized Farukhabad
  • 1753 was per Richard Barnett “visible secession of Awadh and Allahabad from remainder of dwindling empire”
  • Shuja ud Daula 1754 bcame wazir

The regional principalities: Nizam’s Deccan, Bengal, Awadh

  1. Discuss the causes of the rise and growth of regional kingdoms with special reference to Deccan in the 18th century. [2011, 30m]
  1. Was it the weakening of the Mughal empire or the rise of regional powers that led to the British conquest of India? Discuss. [2016, 15 Marks]