nandini

Muhammad Shah Notes: Muhammad Shah was the Mughal Emperor during Nader Shah’s invasion.

Answer: The formation of a regional state in eighteenth century Bengal led to considerable change amongst the zamindars. Hyderabad and Awadh was evident in Bengal under the rule of Alivardi Khan (1740-1756). During his reign the banking house of Jagat Seth became extremely prosperous.

A series of foreign invasions affected Mughal Empire very badly. Attacks by Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali, which were themselves the consequences of the weakness of the Empire, drained the Empire of its wealth, ruined its trade and industry in the North, and almost destroyed its military power.

Many historians blame Aurangzeb for the decline of mughal empire, They said he reimposed the jizya tax on non-Muslims , he even took tax from the local people , he spent 25 years out of his empire to fight with the Maratha’s and made Sikhs and Hindus live according to Islam.

Aurangzeb ruled for forty-nine years over a population of 150 million people. He expanded the Mughal Empire to its greatest extent, subsuming most of the Indian subcontinent under a single imperial power for the first time in human history.

Mughal empire fragmented into different independent states. Mughal empire expanded from Kashmir in the North to Kanyakumari in the South. Subsequent Mughal emperors consolidated their power and became wealthy.

During the reign of Jahangir the peasants were so cruelly and pitilessly oppressed that the fields remained unsown and grew into wildernesses. For Mughal authorities the flight of the peasants to the lands of chief was sufficient justification for military expeditions being sent against them.

The Mughal Empire owes its decline and ultimate downfall to a combination of factors; firstly Aurangzeb’s religious policy is regarded as a cause for the decline of the Mughal Empire as it led to disunity among the INDIAN people. Another reason was unworthy and incompetent successors of Aurangzeb.

Murshid Quli KhanMurshid Quli Khan was founder of the independent state of Bengal.

iv)In the 18th century, the Sikhs organised themselves into a number of bands called jathas and later on misls. Their combined forces were known as the grand army (dal khalsa). v)A system called rakhi was introduced, offering protection to cultivators on the payment of a tax of 20 per cent of the produce.