Old NCERT Gist (Satish Chandra): Summary of India in The 1st Half of 17th Century - History for UPSC CSE

POLITICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE DEVELOPMENTS
Jahangir (1605-1627)
(i) In 1605, Prince Salim succeeded with the title Jahangir (Conqueror of World) after the death of Akbar.
(ii) He defeated and imprisoned Son Khusrau.
(iii) He also beheaded Guru Arjun, the 5th Sikh Guru and one of the supporters of Khusrau.
(iv) One of his supporters, Guru Arjun, the fifth Sikh Guru, was beheaded.

Shah Jahan (1627-1658)
(i) Shah Jahan launched a continued war in the northwest frontier to recover Kandahar anc other ancestral lands.
(ii) His Deccan policy was more successful.
(iii) He defeated the forces of Ahmadnagar and seized it.
(iv) Both Bijapur and Golconda signed a treaty with the emperor.
(v) Shah Jahan engraved four Mughal provinces in the Deccan - Khandesh,
Berar, Telungana and Daulatabad

POSITIVE:
(i) Internal peace in the south in the states of Bijapur and Golconda.
(ii) Alliance with the Rajputs, Afghans and the Marathas.
(iii) Stability in India's relations with neighbouring Asian powers such as Iran, the Uzbeks anc the ottoman Turks

NEGATIVE:
(i) The growing prosperity of the ruling classes did not filter down to peasants.
(ii) Mughals were oblivious of the growth of science and technology in the west
(iii) Succession problem created political instability.

NURJAHAN
(i) In 1611, Jahangir married Mehrunnisa who was known as Nur Jahan (Light of World).
(ii) Asaf Khan elder brother of Nur Jahan was appointed as Khan-i-Saman, a post reserved for the nobles.
(iii) In 1612, Asaf Khan's daughter, Arjumand Banu Begum (later known as Mumtaj), married Jahangir's third son, prince Khurram (later Shah Jahan).

SHAH JAHAN'S REBELLION
(i) The immediate cause was his refusal to proceed to Qandhar which had been besieged by the Persians.
(ii) This enraged Jahangir and he wrote harsh letters to Shah Jahan.
(iii) This made situation worse and he marched at Agra creating instability.

FOREIGN POLICY OF MUGHALS
(i) Three powerful empires -
(a) The Uzbeks in the Trans -Oxania
(b) The Safavids in the Iran
(c) Ottoman in the Turkey
(ii) Uzbek and Mughals were Sunnis and Iran was a Shia power
(iii) Uzbek were responsible for expulsion of Babur and therefore natural enemy
(iv) Ottomon threat from the west made the Persians keen to befriend the Mughal
(v) Good relations with them helped:
(a) Trade with central Asia
(b) If Mughals had a stronger army they would have engaged in struggle with Ottomans.
(c) Mughals were not ready to engage Turkish sultan as he would claim superiority.

AKBAR AND UZBEKS
(i) Uzbeks had anti shia sentiments against safavida
(ii) Their narrow-minded policy was not appealing to Akbar
(iii) At the same time Akbar had no desire to get embroiled with the Uzbeks unless they directly threatened Kabul or the Indian possessions.

RELATIONS WITH IRAN & QANDHAR QUESTION
(i) Qandhar was vital for the defence of Kabul
(a) Additionally, it was strongest fort and well provided with water
(b) It provided natural line of defence
(ii) Iran's emperor Shah Tahmasp agreed to help Jahangir take shelter; when Sher Khan ousted; provided he transferred Qandhar to Iran.
(iii) During Shah Jahan's rebellion Qandhar passed from Mughals to Persians
(iv) Persain culture was embraced by nobility especially by Nur Jahan

SHAH JAHAN'S BALKH CAMPAIGN
(i) The victory of the Mughal at Balkh paved the way for negotiations with the Uzbeks.
(ii) The campaign was a military success and gained Mughals little political advantage.
(iii) The natural border= Kabul-Ghazni-Qandhar line so laboriously established by Akbar was breached.

MUGHAL PERSIAN RELATIONS
(i) The setback at Balkh led to revival of Uzbek hostility in the Kabul and the natural border areas.
(ii) Several attacks were made by Mughals to quell them but to no avail.
(iii) With growing weakness of the Safavids and Uzbeks the Qandhar doesn't had the same strategic importance as it was.
(iv) Therefore, Aurangzeb decided to not contest in the fights at Qandhar and just focus on natural scientific border to provide security from foreign invasions

GROWTH OF ADMINISTRATION
MANSABDARI SYSTEM CHANGES:
(i) Jahangir introduced a system whereby selected noble could maintain a large quota of troopers without raising their zat. This was called du-aspah sis-aspah system.
(ii) Shah Jahan aimed at drastically reducing the numbers of sawars a noble was required to maintain. Just one third of his rank. E.g if rank of noble is 3000zat 3000sawar he would not maintain more than 1000 troopers wherein he could maintain 2000 troopers if his rank was 3000 sawar duaspah sisaspah
(iii) Payment was not made in cash but the nobles were given Jagirs to get the revenue and additionally the social prestige of having land
(iv) Revenue dept. Assessed the revenue earned and the document was called jama-dami or assessed income based on dams
(v) As the number of mansabdars kept growing and financial resources of the state were shrinking. The above modifications were not enough.

The mansabdari system was a complex one. Its efficient functioning depended upon a number of factors:
(vi) Functioning of the dagh system
(vii) Jagirdari system
(viii) Jama-dani can be inflated
(ix) Selection of men at different levels

THE MUGHAL ARMY
(i) Apart from mansadari, Mughal emperors used to entertain individual troopers called ahadis.
(ii) Ahadis=gentlemen troopers
(iii) Walashahis=corps of royal bodygaurds
(iv) The army consisted of:
(a) Heavy artillery
(b) Light artillery moved with the emperor wherever he wanted.