Decline of Mughals & 18th-Century India — Part 9: One-Page Revision Summary & Glossary
Part 9: One-page revision summary table covering all 18th-century India themes plus a 12-term glossary of key concepts.
Modern India — Part 1 of 5
One-Page Revision Summary
| Theme | Key Points |
|---|---|
| 18th-Century Debate | Dark Age (Sarkar) vs Age of Transition (Satish Chandra); empire-centric vs region-centric approaches; 'long century' 1680s–1820s |
| Mughal Decline: Internal | Irani-Turani factionalism; Saiyid Brothers (1713–1720); weak emperors 1707–1748; jagirdari crisis (Satish Chandra, Athar Ali) |
| Mughal Decline: Agrarian | Over-exploitative fiscal system; tri-polar conflict (Habib); peasant revolts of Jats, Mewatis, Sikhs; 20% transmission loss |
| Nadir Shah (1739) | Battle of Karnal; captured Muhammad Shah; looted 70 crore rupees; took Peacock Throne and Kohinoor; acquired territory west of Indus including Kabul |
| Third Battle of Panipat (1761) | 14 Jan 1761; Afghans vs Marathas; 28,000 Maratha dead; Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao died of grief; benefited British most |
| Hyderabad | Founded 1724 by Nizam-ul-Mulk; independent in practice; death 1748 triggered French-backed Muzaffar Jang succession war |
| Awadh | Saadat Khan appointed 1722; subdued zamindars; regional ruling group (Shaikhzadas, Afghans, Hindus); economic prosperity |
| Bengal | Murshid Quli Khan (1717); fiercely independent nawabs; no religious discrimination; Plassey 1757; Buxar 1764 |
| Marathas | Peshwa system (Balaji Vishwanath); chauth and sardeshmukhi; Nana Saheb (1740–61); failed all-India empire; weak administration and technology |
| Sikhs | 12 Misls; secular polity; exploited Abdali invasions; Ranjit Singh unified late 18th century |
| Mysore | Hyder Ali overthrew Nunjaraj 1761; French military model; defeated British near Madras 1769; Tipu Sultan from 1782 |
| Jats | Suraj Mal (1756–63); Bharatpur; feudal despite peasant origins; his death = decline of Jat state |
| Carnatic Wars | 1st (1746–48); 2nd (1749–54, Dupleix vs Clive, Arcot 1750); 3rd (1756–63, Wandiwash 1760, Treaty of Paris 1763) |
| British Rise | Plassey 1757; Buxar 1764; Dual Government 1765; 5.7 mn drained 1766–68; Regulating Act 1773 |
| Historians | Habib (agrarian crisis); Satish Chandra (jagirdari crisis, no Dark Age); Muzaffar Alam (regional variation, transformation); Cambridge School/Indianist (continuity, Indian agency) |
Glossary
Chauth: A levy amounting to one-fourth of land revenue, collected by Maratha chiefs from areas assigned to them, theoretically in exchange for protection from external aggression.
Sardeshmukhi: An additional levy of ten percent of land revenue claimed by the Marathas as the traditional revenue of the sardeshmukh (chief headman of a region); together with chauth, it constituted the Maratha fiscal system in conquered areas.
Jagirdari System: The Mughal system of assigning parcels of land (jagirs) to mansabdars in lieu of cash salaries, granting them the right to collect and retain land revenue from those areas. Called Jagirdari crisis when jagir supply fell short of demand.
Mansabdar: A Mughal imperial officer holding a numerical rank (mansab) indicating his position in the military-administrative hierarchy and the number of cavalry he was required to maintain.
Diwani: The right to collect land revenue and administer civil justice in a territory. The Company's acquisition of the diwani of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa in 1765 was the foundation of British territorial power in India.
Dual Government: The administrative arrangement in Bengal post-1765 under which the Company exercised revenue (diwani) powers while the Nawab nominally retained responsibility for law and order (nizamat), allowing the Company to extract revenue while avoiding accountability.
Successor States: Former Mughal provinces — Hyderabad, Bengal, and Awadh — whose governors established de facto independence while maintaining nominal allegiance to the Mughal emperor and continuing Mughal administrative traditions.
New States: Regional polities formed through rebellion against Mughal authority — the Marathas, Sikhs, Jats, and Afghans — whose leadership came from outside the traditional Mughal nobility and who originated in popular peasant movements.
Misls: The twelve Sikh confederacies that controlled Punjab in the mid-eighteenth century, a decentralised secular political arrangement eventually unified by Ranjit Singh into the Sikh Kingdom.
Irani-Turani Factionalism: The rivalry within the Mughal nobility between Persian Shia nobles (Iranians) and Central Asian Sunni nobles (Turanis), which destabilised the imperial court particularly after Aurangzeb's death in 1707.
Wazir: The chief minister of the Mughal Empire, responsible for coordinating civil administration and fiscal affairs; the office became a prime prize in noble factional struggles during the eighteenth century.
Jagirdari Crisis: The structural fiscal problem arising from a growing shortage of jagirs relative to the number of mansabdars requiring them, intensifying factional conflict, undermining administration, and ultimately accelerating the fragmentation of the Mughal Empire.