Eighteenth Century in

Indian History:
Historiography
Course: From Plassey to Partition: A History of
Modern India
 Features of 18th century:
Dual Transition
The decline of Mughal Empire and the
Emergence of the Regional Powers

1. Death of Aurangzeb (1707)

2. Persian ruler Nadir Shah’s Invasion (1739)
3. Third Battle of Panipat in 1761
4. Successor States – Bengal, Hyderabad, Awadh
5. Rebel States – Marathas, Sikhs, Afghans
 Features of 18th century:
Dual Transition
Transition to Colonial Rule
1. Battle of Plassey (1757) marked the beginning of
political supremacy of the English East India
Company in India.
2. Battle of Buxar (1764) ended in Treaty of Allahabad
(1765) according to which the British East India
Company secured Diwani right over Bengal, Bihar
and Orissa.
 Historiography of the 18th Century
 The 18th century has been projected in historical writings
for considerable period of time as a ‘Dark Age’ in Indian
history characterised by political decay and economic
stagnation.
 However, the recent writings question the earlier
assumptions of the 18th century as ‘Dark Age’ based on
the studies of the regional powers and argue the case for
economic prosperity.
 The ‘Dark Age’ versus ‘Economic Prosperity’ debate
among historians stem from studies on the decline of
Mughal Empire and the rise of regional polities
respectively.
 Historiography of the 18th Century
 The transition to colonial rule in the second half of the
eighteenth century is another matter of debate among
historians. What led to the establishment of English East
India company rule? Was trade a primary motivating
factor behind political power or was political imperative
that pushed trading interest?
 Another concern expressed in historical writings on
transition to colonial rule is the impact of conquest and
commerce on Indian economy. Did colonial conquest
result in complete break with the earlier mode of life, in
particular, economy and governance? Did East India
Company absorb into the vibrant indigenous political
economies?
Select Historiography of the 18th Century
Imperial School
1. William Irvine
Nationalist School
1. Jadunath Sarkar
Aligarh or Marxist School
1. Irfan Habib
2. Satish Chandra
3. Athar Ali
Revisionist School
1. C.A. Bayly
2. Muzzaffar Alam
 Decline of the Mughal Empire:
Historiography
Imperial School:

1. British Imperial administrative narratives projected the 18th century

as one of instability and decay, giving them the moral justification
for conquest and subjugation.
2. William Irvine (1840-1911), the Scottish administrative historian
served in Imperial Civil Service (ICS) in the second half of the 19th
century. He wrote many essays on the early 18th century India in the
pages of The Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal that were compiled
and published under the title Later Mughals. It was a factual
recounting of events of the early 18th century focusing on the lives of
Mughal rulers. In other words, Irvine presented individual centric
history of the early18th century locating the decline of Mughal
empire in the policies of the individual rulers. (Irvine 1971 reprint
edition).
 Decline of the Mughal Empire:
Historiography
Imperial School:
1. Following the death of Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah
in 1748, William Irvine wrote that the factions among
nobility ‘came to blows in the streets and pitched battles
on the plains outside Dihli, and the great anarchy, which is
only another name for the history of the Mughal Empire in
its last days, began, destined to be ended only by the
foreign conquest of the imperial capital half a century
later.’
2. The Imperial-Administrative historians presented 18 th
century as period of political chaos and crisis that created
a vacuum destined to be filled by the English East India
Company.
 Decline of the Mughal Empire:
Historiography
Nationalist Historiography:
1. Jadunath Sarkar argued that it was a crisis of personality –
weak emperors and incompetent commanders – that were
responsible for the downfall of the Mughal Empire. In
particular, Aurangzeb’s orthodox religious policies has
been attributed for the alienation of Hindus from the
Mughal rule. Aurangzeb’s expansionist policies especially
his Deccan campaigns, it was argued, resulted in weakening
of economy that led to frequent peasant rebellions. These
peasant rebellions were understood as Hindu reaction to the
orthodox religious policy of Aurganzeb. (Sarkar 1924).
2. The 18th century was presented as a politically chaotic and
economically crisis prone period.
 Decline of the Mughal Empire:
Historiography
Aligarh
 School:
1. IrfanHabib – Fiscal Collapse and Peasant Rebellions (Habib 1963).
Habib argued that the high land revenue demanded by the Mughal state
caused large scale rural exploitation leading to peasant migration and
rebellion.

2. Satish Chandra – Institutional flaw (1959), Jagirdari Crisis (1982).

Structural flaws in Mughal institutions – Mansab and Jagir – leading to
fiscal crisis. Later, Chandra argued that Jagirs became few and infertile
leading to shortage of revenue collection. This resulted in Jagirdari crisis.

3. M. Athar Ali – Political expansion into less fertile areas leading to

shortage of resources and administrative shortcomings (Ali 1966).
 Historiography - Summary
Nationalist School
 Focused on individual rulers
and their policies
 Examined the decline in
terms of the religious
policies of rulers
 Accepted 18th century as
Dark Age characterised by
political chaos and
economic downfall
Aligarh School
 Highlighted structural
problems like the crisis of
Mughal institutions.
 Provided secular causes for
the decline of empire
 Implicitly acknowledged 18th
century as Dark Age
characterised by imperial
political decline and
economic crisis
The Rise of Regional States and Economic
Prosperity: Revisionist School
 C.A. Bayly argued that there was a rise of new group of
intermediaries trained in mercantile and agrarian economy
– zamindars, merchants and bankers in power – located
between the revenue based state and agrarian masses
performing variety of functions and asserted their
independence from imperial control. (Bayly, 1983)
 Muzaffar Alam’s study of Awadh and Punjab pointed to
the remarkable economic growth and prosperity which
resulted in zamindari unrest in the region. The increased
commercialization and monetization of the economy is a
feature of Awadh and Punjab. The zamindari class refused
to comply with Mughal authority and started asserting
regional power. (Alam, 1986)
 Summary of Historiography on Mughal
Decline

Itis difficult to arrive at a convenient middle ground

between the ‘conventional’ and ‘revisionist’ histories on
Mughal decline. Nor is it easy to dismiss them.
The idea of decline is perhaps an inadequate theme for
understanding the 18th century in Indian history.
The 18th century is not a dark age, nor an age of overall
decline. The decline of one pan-Indian empire was
followed by the rise of another, the intervening period
being dominated by a variety of powerful regional states.
The century should be considered as a distinct
chronological whole.
REGIONAL STATES DURING THE 18TH CENTURY
 Transition to Colonial Rule
Historiography
Was the conquest of India by English East
India Company an accident or was it the
outcome of a pre-meditated project?
Was there a conscious or consistent
British policy for political conquest of
India?
What was the connection between trade
and conquest?
 European
Settlements
in India
 Transition to Colonial Rule
Historiography
Cambridge School:
1. P.J. Marshall argued that the growth of territorial
empire in India was neither planned nor directed
from Britain. It was the initiative of the officials
of the East India Company operating in India
which decided the course of action.
2. It was the political fragmentation and instability
following the decline of the Mughal power that
actually facilitated the territorial expansion of
the Company. (Marshall 1988)
 Transition to Colonial Rule
Historiography
1. According the Cambridge historian C.A. Bayly,
the imperial expansion was primarily motivated
by the fiscal and military needs of the Company,
rather than interests of trade. (Bayly 1989)
2. It was argued further that the British were only
responding to the developments in Indian
politics during the 18th century and exploiting
the opportunities that came their way. This is
‘sub-imperialism’ that has no connection with
the policy from England. (Gallaghar and
Robinson 1961).
 Transition to Colonial Rule
Historiography
1. Oxford Historian Pamela Nightingale argued that the
spurt in production and trade during the 18th century
created a condition where Indian textiles began to be
exported and paid for in bullion. At a time when
mercantilist critique of the drain of bullion
intensified access to Indian revenue was seen as one
way to solve the problem. (Nightingale 1970)
2. Rudrangshu Mukherjee argued that there was a
simultaneous nature of British political and
economic expansion into Awadh. Thus, trade and
flag were interrelated in the age of mercantile
domination. (Mukherjee 1982)
BRITISH EXPANSION IN INDIA
1757 - 1858
 Early Colonial Rule
Continuity or Change?
1. The Nationalist and Marxist historians in India
viewed colonialism as an economic and political
disjunction. Nationalists like Dadabhai Naoroji, R.C.
Dutt and after independence historians like Irfan
Habib, Ranajit Guha considered colonialism as
representing a break with the past.
2. C.A. Bayly, PJ Marshall, Burton Stein, David
Washbrook argued that there was a continuity in
trading and administrative institutions of precolonial
and early colonial India. Further, according to them
the critical impact of colonial rule on Indian society
began only by the early 19th century.
 Conclusion
The debate on the nature of the 18 th century has engaged
both historians studying Mughal India as well as those
more interested in colonialism.
The first half of the 18 th century is about Mughal decline
and the rise of regional states. Here, the perspectives are
divided between ‘Dark Age’ and ‘Economic Prosperity’
depending on the location of enquiry.
The second half of the 18 th century is about transition to
colonialism. Here the concern seem to be the factors that
led to the political conquest of India by English East
India Company and the impact it created on Indian
economy, society and polity.
 References
C.A. Bayly, Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the
Age of British Expansion, 1770-1870, 1983.
C.A. Bayly, Imperial Meridian: The British Empire and the World, 1780-
1830, 1989.
Irfan Habib, The Agrarian System of Mughal India, 1963.
J. Gallaghar and R. Robinson, Africa and the Victorians: The Official
Mind of Imperialism, 1961.
Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, 5 Volumes, 1921-24.
Jadunath Sarkar, The Fall of the Mughal Empire, 4 Volumes, 1932-38.
M. Athar Ali, The Mughal Nobility Under Aurangzeb, 1966.
Muzaffar Alam, The Crisis of Empire in Mughal North India: Awadh and
the Punjab, 1707-1748, 1986.
P. Nightingale, Trade and Empire in Western India, 1784-1806, 1970.
P.J. Marshall, The Oxford History of the English Empire, Vol. 2, The
Eighteenth Century, 1988.
 References
 R. Mukherjee, ‘Trade and Empire in Awadh, 1765-1804’, Past and
Present, 94, 1982, pp. 85-102.
 Satish Chandra, Parties and Politics at the Mughal Court, 1959.
 Satish Chandra, Medieval India: Society, Jagirdari Crisis and the
Village, 1982.
 William Irvine, Later Mughals, 2 Volumes, 2nd Reprint,1971.