PRE-COLONIAL INDIA

With the necessary caveat that ‘any historical interpretation of the spread of Islam in the subcontinent needs to be attentive to regional specificities in the domains of economy and culture as well as the great variety of Muslims that came to populate the subcontinent’,¹ it is nonetheless possible to locate the beginnings of a consolidated Indo- Islamic culture and mode of statecraft in the Delhi Sultanate of the twelfth century.

The succession of the Delhi sultans ended in a pivotal battle with Zaheeruddin Babar in 1526, establishing thereafter the foundations of Mughal rule. It was Babar’s grandson, Akbar, who ensured the Mughals’ greatest geographic expansion through a set of military conquests extending to territory that was almost equal to that governed later by the British and now comprising the independent states of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. They also oversaw trade that made India a major node not just in the commerce of goods towards Europe but also in a vast Indian Ocean trading zone that included the other major Muslim empires of the time, the Ottomans and Safavids.

Contrary to the myths of inherent degeneracy that gained circulation to describe Mughal decline, it is important to recognise that as a gov­ernmental entity it had some of the features thought consonant with the more evolved and benevolent of the European states. It possessed a rationally-organised administrative structure, a formal and indepen­dent justice system and also a mode of managing a religiously plural population that, at least at higher levels of a class-divided system, was quite inclusive.

In fact, the administrative structure of Mughal rule allowed in many ways for the incorporation of alternate poles of authority than the

Emperor alone.^[3] As a system of rule oriented to securing smooth func­tioning through changes at the top, a permanent administrative struc­ture comprising several intermediary and interdependent functionaries was also introduced throughout the Mughal domain. High patronage positions were regularly granted in large numbers to members of the Hindu and minority Shia communities.^[4]

While certain forms of law were administered that had their deriva­tion from Sharia-based principles, in particular the criminal law, the administration of civic life was left to be done through plural and religiously-founded practice. Imperial edicts lent uniformity to the sys­tem, although it is also agreed that the Mughal Empire did not display the legislative centralisation that would enable its classification as a state.^[5]

Over much of the eighteenth century the Mughal Empire was repeatedly assailed by local contenders to power, making apparent cer­tain tensions and an inability ultimately to manage the sub-continent’s disparate populace through a given complex of power.^[6] In these sites of tension, Europeans found opportunity to benefit by lending mili­tary might to those who would award them economic concessions in exchange for the titular right to rule. In such a manner, the East India Company was a great beneficiary, having extended its domain through the creation of tribute-paying potentates, systems of rule that were inherently unstable and would result within years in the Company’s direct annexation of further parts of the subcontinent. By 1764, the Company had been granted the right to collect land revenue in Bengal by the Mughal Emperor.

Altogether, the displacement of Mughal rule was staged over a long period. In fact, the Mughal Emperor would be retained on a salary by the Company officials until being finally and formally dethroned by the British Crown in 1858.

II.