dexter
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This is the irony of our history textbooks, the British came in 1612 to India for trading. In 1757, it defeated Siraj-ud-Daulah in Bengal to establish colonies on Indian soil. We had one full chapter on Aurangzeb in our History books, but it never mentioned that Aurangzeb had defeated British in 1690. Aurangzeb pardoned British and allowed them to continue business in India. While Mughal and Maratha Empire fell, British established their stronghold on India.
We were told British to be trading partners in India till they won Bengal in 1757. It never mentioned about the Child’s war fought by the Mughal Empire against British between 1686–1690.
With the fall of Constantinople in 1453, sea was the only route to export our goods. Mughal Empire contributed to 24% of the world’s GDP till 1600s, mainly because of thriving textile, diamond and spices industry. Trade is very important for any country’s growth and the Child’s war was on trade policies rather colonial expansion.
Mughal Empire under Aurangzeb in 1690
The East India Company opened its first factory, or trading post, at Surat on the west coast in 1612, and in the next half century established a chain along the coast.
Trouble first arose in Bengal, where Shayista Khan was trying to introduce some order and regard for the Mughal government in place of the lax administration of his predecessor, Shah Shuja. The foreign settlements of the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the British, emboldened by their superiority on the sea, had become truculent, and in distant regions considered themselves subject to no checks from the Mughal government. Shah Shuja, partly out of his general indifference to financial considerations and partly to gain support in the coming struggle for the throne, was particularly generous to the foreign traders. To the English factory which was opened at Hugli in 1651, he gave an order in 1652 permitting open trade in Bengal on a payment of three thousand rupees annually in lieu of customs dues. In the succeeding years the Company's trade multiplied many times, but, insisting on the authority of Shuja's order, it refused to increase its contribution or pay any of the normal taxes. When Shayista Khan objected, difficulties arose between him and the English. The attitude of the Company's officers may be judged from a letter addressed to London in 1665:
Your Worship must consider that these people are grown more powerful than formerly, and will not be so subject to us as they have been, unless they be a little beaten by us, that they may understand, if they impede us by land, it lieth in our power to requite them by sea. … In fine … your affairs will be quite ruined if this Nabob [Shayista Khan] lives and reigneth long.
The first attempt by the English to wage war against the Mughals was made in 1686 when Sir Josiah Child, the powerful governor of the East India Company, persuaded the government to send a small fleet to India to seize and fortify Chittagong. The expedition was an utter failure; and far from gaining any territory, English traders were expelled from all their factories in Bengal. After that Emperor Aurangzeb issued orders for the extirpation of the English, and the confiscation of their property. The English possessions were reduced to the fortified towns of Madras and Bombay.
In 1689 the strong Mughal fleet from Janjira commanded by the Sidi Yaqub and manned by Mappila and Abyssinians firmly blockaded Bombay. After a year of resistance, the English surrendered, and in 1690 the company sent envoys to Aurangzeb's camp to plead for a pardon. The company's envoys had to prostrate themselves before the emperor, pay a large indemnity, and promise better behavior in the future. The emperor withdrew his troops and the company subsequently re-established itself in Bombay and set up a new base in Calcutta.
Meanwhile on the west coast, the English had also angered Aurangzeb. English pirates operating out of Bombay were seizing ships taking pilgrims to Mecca; among them was the Ganj-i-Sawai owned by the emperor himself. They were also minting coins in Bombay with a superscription containing their own king's name. Aurangzeb ordered the seizure of the Surat factory and the expulsion of all Englishmen from his dominions. He relented because of the English control of the pilgrim trade in the Arabian Sea, and also, it appears, because they had a powerful advocate at court in the wazir, Asad Khan.
French illustration of an Englishman requesting pardon from the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb
After levying a fine of one and a half lakhs of rupees Aurangzeb allowed them to return to their factories; and for the next fifty years, the English merchants refrained from any further attempts to establish themselves as a territorial power.
If British were forced to leave, did the Mughals have the technology and capacity to transport goods to Europe? Aurangzeb might have sensed the same and felt that it would be better if British continue its trading operations in India by paying some taxes in return to the Mughal Empire.
At present, evidence about Aurangzeb is fragmentary and contradictory, and his personality was more complex than either his admirers or critics are willing to acknowledge. In the context of conflicting evidence, the tendency for each group is to emphasize the elements supporting its point of view. These verdicts are liable to be modified in the light of the vast material which remains to be utilized, and all judgment of Aurangzeb, at this stage, can only be provisional.Whatever view is taken should not obscure, however, Aurangzeb's solid and abiding achievements. He greatly enlarged the Mughal empire and much of what he accomplished has endured. A large part of what is East Pakistan (Bangladesh) today was either conquered or consolidated during his reign. In the Deccan he annexed vast areas which were to remain centers of Mughal culture and administration for more than two centuries. He selected and promoted administrators whose work constitutes a landmark in the history of the regions entrusted to them—Shayista Khan and Murshid Quli Khan in Bengal, and Nizam-ul-Mulk in the Deccan. He tried to reduce the Irani preponderance in administration and attracted some gifted Turani families to the service of the Mughals. He also trained a body of men who were to sustain the empire through a period of foreign invasions and repeated internal struggles for the succession. Viewed in this light, Aurangzeb can be seen not as the instigator of policies that led to ruin, but as the guardian of the Islamic state in India.
We were told British to be trading partners in India till they won Bengal in 1757. It never mentioned about the Child’s war fought by the Mughal Empire against British between 1686–1690.
With the fall of Constantinople in 1453, sea was the only route to export our goods. Mughal Empire contributed to 24% of the world’s GDP till 1600s, mainly because of thriving textile, diamond and spices industry. Trade is very important for any country’s growth and the Child’s war was on trade policies rather colonial expansion.
Mughal Empire under Aurangzeb in 1690
The East India Company opened its first factory, or trading post, at Surat on the west coast in 1612, and in the next half century established a chain along the coast.
Trouble first arose in Bengal, where Shayista Khan was trying to introduce some order and regard for the Mughal government in place of the lax administration of his predecessor, Shah Shuja. The foreign settlements of the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the British, emboldened by their superiority on the sea, had become truculent, and in distant regions considered themselves subject to no checks from the Mughal government. Shah Shuja, partly out of his general indifference to financial considerations and partly to gain support in the coming struggle for the throne, was particularly generous to the foreign traders. To the English factory which was opened at Hugli in 1651, he gave an order in 1652 permitting open trade in Bengal on a payment of three thousand rupees annually in lieu of customs dues. In the succeeding years the Company's trade multiplied many times, but, insisting on the authority of Shuja's order, it refused to increase its contribution or pay any of the normal taxes. When Shayista Khan objected, difficulties arose between him and the English. The attitude of the Company's officers may be judged from a letter addressed to London in 1665:
Your Worship must consider that these people are grown more powerful than formerly, and will not be so subject to us as they have been, unless they be a little beaten by us, that they may understand, if they impede us by land, it lieth in our power to requite them by sea. … In fine … your affairs will be quite ruined if this Nabob [Shayista Khan] lives and reigneth long.
The first attempt by the English to wage war against the Mughals was made in 1686 when Sir Josiah Child, the powerful governor of the East India Company, persuaded the government to send a small fleet to India to seize and fortify Chittagong. The expedition was an utter failure; and far from gaining any territory, English traders were expelled from all their factories in Bengal. After that Emperor Aurangzeb issued orders for the extirpation of the English, and the confiscation of their property. The English possessions were reduced to the fortified towns of Madras and Bombay.
In 1689 the strong Mughal fleet from Janjira commanded by the Sidi Yaqub and manned by Mappila and Abyssinians firmly blockaded Bombay. After a year of resistance, the English surrendered, and in 1690 the company sent envoys to Aurangzeb's camp to plead for a pardon. The company's envoys had to prostrate themselves before the emperor, pay a large indemnity, and promise better behavior in the future. The emperor withdrew his troops and the company subsequently re-established itself in Bombay and set up a new base in Calcutta.
Meanwhile on the west coast, the English had also angered Aurangzeb. English pirates operating out of Bombay were seizing ships taking pilgrims to Mecca; among them was the Ganj-i-Sawai owned by the emperor himself. They were also minting coins in Bombay with a superscription containing their own king's name. Aurangzeb ordered the seizure of the Surat factory and the expulsion of all Englishmen from his dominions. He relented because of the English control of the pilgrim trade in the Arabian Sea, and also, it appears, because they had a powerful advocate at court in the wazir, Asad Khan.
French illustration of an Englishman requesting pardon from the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb
After levying a fine of one and a half lakhs of rupees Aurangzeb allowed them to return to their factories; and for the next fifty years, the English merchants refrained from any further attempts to establish themselves as a territorial power.
If British were forced to leave, did the Mughals have the technology and capacity to transport goods to Europe? Aurangzeb might have sensed the same and felt that it would be better if British continue its trading operations in India by paying some taxes in return to the Mughal Empire.
At present, evidence about Aurangzeb is fragmentary and contradictory, and his personality was more complex than either his admirers or critics are willing to acknowledge. In the context of conflicting evidence, the tendency for each group is to emphasize the elements supporting its point of view. These verdicts are liable to be modified in the light of the vast material which remains to be utilized, and all judgment of Aurangzeb, at this stage, can only be provisional.Whatever view is taken should not obscure, however, Aurangzeb's solid and abiding achievements. He greatly enlarged the Mughal empire and much of what he accomplished has endured. A large part of what is East Pakistan (Bangladesh) today was either conquered or consolidated during his reign. In the Deccan he annexed vast areas which were to remain centers of Mughal culture and administration for more than two centuries. He selected and promoted administrators whose work constitutes a landmark in the history of the regions entrusted to them—Shayista Khan and Murshid Quli Khan in Bengal, and Nizam-ul-Mulk in the Deccan. He tried to reduce the Irani preponderance in administration and attracted some gifted Turani families to the service of the Mughals. He also trained a body of men who were to sustain the empire through a period of foreign invasions and repeated internal struggles for the succession. Viewed in this light, Aurangzeb can be seen not as the instigator of policies that led to ruin, but as the guardian of the Islamic state in India.
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