Introduction

Akbar had evolved and perfected various ways to govern his Empire. One of the mechanisms was the Mansabdari System. It evolved and matured during Akbar’s time. The two numbers ‘zat’ and ‘sawar’ assigned to a Mansabdar defined his position in the court and the number of cavalry he commanded. This system worked for some time and thereafter like most other systems, a crisis developed within itself. The Jagirdari System was evolved to pay the salary of the Mansabdars. In fact both were complex apparatus to mop up the surplus of the agrarian sector. As Irfan Habib would say ‘All these mechanisms were to secure the bulk of the peasants’ surplus.’

We saw the evolution of the Jagirdari System, its development and working, the different types of jagirs that existed in the Mughal Empire and dealt with some of the difficulties that the Jagirdars faced. They ranged from the rates of collection fixed by the Centre to the mid-season transfer of the jagirdars. We saw some of the rights of the Jagirdars. We had also seen some of the functionaries in this system. We shall deal with some more officials in the Jagirdari System. We shall look at the crisis that developed in this system leading to its demise.

There was three-tier administration. Staff of the Jagirdar

1) Local officials: a) The Qanungo and b) Chaudhury

2) Staff of the Empire

3) Imperial officials

Local officials: Chaudhury

The Qanungo was either a Kayasth or Kshatriya of Northern India. They were good in revenue. In Bengal in the early 18th century most of the Qanungos were Kayasthas. In case of the Chaudhury, which is the second of the local officials, he was a Zamindar (a leading zamindar). How the Chaudhury evolved

and came into this position is a long history. It has been ascertained that Chaudhury originated from the 14th century onwards. Chaudhury’s function as a local official unaffected by the transfer of the Jagirdar is to collect the Imperial revenue. Chaudhury is also a hereditary office; it is for his life and after the death his succession would require an imperial ‘sanat’/ order. He may also be revoked only by the Imperial order.

Chaudhury has another function. He collects revenue from the smaller Zamindars and also becomes a ‘Zamindar’ i.e. a zamin surety for the smaller zamindars. So Chaudhury has two very important functions although he has certain other functions as well. For example he distributes the agricultural loan called the Takawi Loan to the peasants along with the Mukaddam, who is the headman of the area. He also helps to formulate the Jamadami (the demand for the revenue) and signs the Jamadami order along with the Mukaddam. Without his seal and signature the Jamadami is not valid.

Chaudhury: Role and Remuneration

The role of the Chaudhury was very significant in the Mughal administration. His holding consisted of his whole property including palatial houses and the land assigned to him by the emperor. He was given some remuneration for his services. This remuneration was always a proportion of the land revenue that he collected. In fact the Mughal government cleverly used the knowledge of the Zamindar about the land and its productivity to maximize the land revenue collection.

Chaudhury gets certain remuneration for his services. In the beginning it was 2 ¼% in Gujarat. Later this was reduced and finally it was reduced to 5/8%. But during the later years of Aurangzeb his remuneration increased, given certain cash allowance called ‘nankar’ and also certain ‘Inam’ lands. Since he is a zamindar, his core zamindari i.e. his personal zamindari is assessed either at a

lower rate or he is not paying any revenue for his own land. So Chaudhury has certain privileges and certain functions. as a zamin of the smaller zamindars he gets 5% of the revenue paid by them. Chaudhury continued till the British days although from 18th century onwards their functions, powers and duties of the zamindar changed to a considerable extent.

According to Abul Fazl the zamindars in the Mughal empire could muster about 4.5 million retainers mostly infantrymen. In addition to these they were the imperial staff appointed by the emperor. All in all as a historian would say ‘it was a viscous circle of coercion helping to maintain a machinery of coercion.

The Imperial Official

The head of the imperial official in the province is the diwan-i-suba (diwan who is in charge of the finance and the revenue). He has a fairly large number of staff in each province and he has certain powers. He could report against the Jagirdar to the emperor but he cannot remove the Jagirdar. If the emperor gives the command that the Jagirdar should be removed diwan-i-suba may then take the help of others to remove the Jagirdar. But on his own he can only report.

The diwan-i-suba has certain other officials as well. One who was fairly important is the faujdar. Technically he is the military representative of the Mughal emperor in the province. He is not supposed to be under the diwan-i-suba but under the subedar. But because of the collection of the revenue involved, the faujdar had to obey the order of the diwan-i-suba. So he is not under the diwan-i-suba but has to follow his orders so far as revenue collection is concerned.

Some of the bigger zamindars had problems with the faujdar and during the later years of Aurangzeb he tried to solve the problem by giving faujdari powers to the bigger Jagirdars. This did not solve the problem at all.

Apart from the faujdar, the other person was called Wakia-nawis. He is actually the news reporter. He has no power to remove anybody but he could give adverse report against somebody on which some action maybe taken. It is stated that the Wakia-nawis was very corrupt but some were honest too. These are the staff of the Imperial officials.

In the 27th year of Akbar he ordered a new official be appointed called Amin. This Amin created by Akbar has the same power a diwn-i-suba. But in 1634 during the reign of Shah Jahan the post of Amin was abolished because it was thought to be a mere duplication of the work that diwan-i-suba was doing. So there were certain changes within the staff pattern of the Imperial officials in the jagir itself. But basically these remained more or less the same except that in the 18th century the faujdars were becoming too much powerful.

Problems in the Jagirdari System

In the early days of Akbar (till the 31st year of Akbar), the jama i.e. the revenue estimate of the Khalsa was ¼ of the total jama. The Mughals divided the land into two types as far as revenue is concerned – the Jagirdari areas and the Khalsa areas (managed by the state). In the 31st year of Akbar Khalsa occupied ¼ of the total jama. After the death of Akbar during the time of Jahangir this changed abruptly. The reasons are not very clear even today. But it appears that after accession, Jahangir increased the number of the Mansabdars, increased their salaries and gave more jagirs. So at one point of time it became a strain on the Mughal Empire. As a result of this during the time of Shah Jahan certain measures were taken to reduce their salaries. But so far as the Jagirdari System is concerned, Shah Jahan tried to follow the policy of Akbar in the

sense that he tried to increase the Khalsa land. By the end of his reign Khalsa land had reached 1/5 of the jama of the Mughal Empire almost to the point where Akbar had left it.

During the first 20 years of Aurangzeb the Khalsa land increased more and more. But during the last years of Aurangzeb there was a crisis which could be seen very clearly in the fact that after a certain time no jagir was available for the Mansabdar. One of the contemporary writes Anand Ram Muklis stated that it is very difficult to get a jagir but it is almost impossible to take possession of it without a very large force. So Aurangzeb had to increase the number of Mansabdars because of his wars in Rajputana and in Deccan. Instead of the Rajputs he had taken the Deccanis and the Marathas and the number of Mansabdars increased to a great extent during the last 20 years of his reign. This led to a severe crisis in the Jagirdari System.

Problems in the Jagirdari System (Contd.)

After the death of Aurangzeb this problem increased. During the first years of Bahadur Shah he had given Mansabs to almost anybody he met in the darbar. The number of Mansabs increased tremendously but there was no jagir. So there was fierce faction fighting within the court on which Prof. Satish Chandra written a book ‘Parties and Politics of the Mughal Court 1707 – 1740’. Here he had shown that the faction fighting is not based on religious grounds which was earlier thought. This was based on personal loyalties and personal interests.

The problem was tried to be resolved by the Mughal court and the secretary of the dead Aurangzeb, Hinayatullah tried to make some reforms. But by that time the vested interest in the court had solidly entrenched themselves and the emperors did not have any power at all. By the mid 1720s during the time of Farruksiyar who was a very incompetent emperor with is incompetent wazir

Abdullah Khan, the court order was a mere paper; nobody listened to it. Furthermore the diwan Ratan Chand gave Ijara (contract) mostly to the Hindu merchants and the Kashmiris. It is not clear why the Kashmiris, but the Hindu merchants and the Mutsuddis (clerks) of the court maneuvered to get mansabs and Ijaras in the jagirs. This led to serious problems and in 1721 Mizam-ul-Mulk who founded the dynasty in the Deccan in Hyderabad was appointed the wazir. He tried to cancel the Ijara and tried to increase the Khalsa land. He tried to solve the problem. But by that time it was too late because of the vested interests.

Thus nothing was done; things continued to deteriorate as years rolled on. Some of the Jagirdars, particularly the big ones like Sadat Ali Khan or Awadh or Murshid Quli Khan of Bengal created their principalities out of the jagir and became almost semi autonomous kings themselves.

That is why earlier emperors transferred the Jagirdars at short intervals. It had its own problems but it did not give the Jagirdar an opportunity to settle down. Once a Jagirdar becomes stable they establish themselves as kings. This was the beginning of the end of the Jagirdari System.

Almost till the end of 1740 these people and their descendents used to get the formal order of succession from the Mughal emperor which was obviously given for money. But after that the whole thing changed. The Mughal Jagirdari System developed into something else by the 1740s and the Jagirdars had the Provincial setups of their own later becoming kings by themselves.

Crisis of the Jagirdari System

Different people have different opinions. Eminent historians such as Irfan Habib, Athar Ali, Satsih Chandra and Siddiqui have given different reasons. Some agree and some do not.

The earlier historians of 19th century did not pay much attention to the Jagirdari System or their crisis. Irfan Habib in ‘The Agrarian System of the Mughal Empire’ had shown that the Jagirdari crisis is linked to the crisis of the Mughal Empire. But it is basically a crisis in the agrarian system. Because the agrarian system was in crisis therefore the Jagirdars began to oppress leading to peasant revolts that were supported by the smaller Zamindars and the Mughals were in the difficulties.

The second opinion could be seen in the writings of Prof. Satish Chandra. He said that due to various reasons the aspirations of the upper class could not be met by the existing revenue resources. Therefore there was a greater oppression not only by the Jagirdars but also by the Zamindars. As a result there were revolts and there was intense faction fighting within the court resulting in the paralysis of the court; there was no decision in the court excepting one or two cases.

Athur Ali in his ‘The Mughal Nobility under Aurangzeb’ followed the opinion of Prof. Satish Chandra. He called it a Jagirdari crisis. To him the crisis of the Mughal Empire was basically a Jagirdari crisis. He had given not only the crisis in agriculture but also various administrative measures and problems like the Emperor Aurangzeb leaving north India during the last 20 years and staying in the Deccan creating a deadlock in the north Indian Mughal administration. To Athar Ali it was a Jagirdari crisis but it is slightly different from Irfan Habib.

Crisis of the Jagirdari System (Contd.)

According to N.A. Siddiqui who had worked from 1707 to 1752 on the Mughal land revenue system. He also found that the Jagirdari crisis was the crisis of the jagirdars not necessarily a crisis in the agrarian system. The crisis was that of the Jagirdars because due to various wars and difficulties the Jagirdars could not collect the revenue of their salary, could not maintain the sawar and therefore they had to oppress the peasants and the problem starts. After a certain time no Jagirdar was transferred; he remained as long as he wanted. Siddiqui had produced a copy of the order of a diwan during this period. It shows that the diwan accepts that the Jagirdars could only en transferred when they wanted.

Therefore the crisis was manifold – not only a crisis in the agrarian sector or the higher aspiration of the Mughal ruling class or the Jagirdars not being able to collect the revenue or the institution of the Ijara but there was also the faction fighting. So it was a breakdown of a polity not only of one particular system but a breakdown of a Mughal polity in all its different whorls known to us. It is this failure to reform, to survive, and to re-establish itself that the English East India Company took advantage of.