The eighteenth century is one of the most misunderstood periods of Indian history. It was long believed that the decline of the Mughal Empire after Aurangzeb's death in 1707 brought a "dark age" of chaos and decline to India. Modern historians have shown that this picture is wrong. The eighteenth century was, in fact, a period of great political creativity, economic growth, and cultural activity, as new powers rose across the subcontinent.
As the Mughal Empire weakened, three kinds of new political formations emerged. First, the Mughal successors and their governors - the Nizams, Awadh, and Bengal - created semi-independent states. Second, old rulers like the Rajputs, and new warrior groups like the Sikhs, Marathas, and Jats, established their own kingdoms. Third, the Europeans, especially the British, began to carve out their own territories and influence.
After Aurangzeb's death in 1707, the Mughal emperors grew weak. Emperors like Bahadur Shah, Muhammad Shah, and Shah Alam II could not control the vast empire. The nobles and governors became powerful and stopped sending revenue to the central treasury. The Mughal court became a scene of intrigue and faction fighting.
The Mughal emperor was reduced to a figurehead, yet the imperial title still carried prestige, and ambitious regional powers continued to acknowledge him formally. The empire's weakness allowed the nobles to carve out their own territories, while the regional powers grew at the expense of the centre.
The weakening of the empire also led to widespread peasant and zamindar rebellions. In the Punjab, the Sikhs rebelled against the Mughals. In the Rajputana, the Rajputs asserted their independence. In Bundelkhand and the Doab, the Jats rose up. These revolts were not simply rebellions against a weak state; they were often movements by communities and warriors seeking power and protection of their lands.
The state of Hyderabad was founded by Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah, one of the most powerful Mughal governors. As governor of the Deccan, he established his authority over the region and became independent of the Delhi court, though he formally acknowledged Mughal supremacy. His successors ruled Hyderabad for over two centuries, and the city became a centre of Urdu, Persian, and Deccan culture.
Awadh (Oudh) was founded by Burhan-ul-Mulk Saadat Khan, who was appointed governor of Awadh by the Mughal emperor. Saadat Khan and his successors, especially Safdar Jang, made Awadh a prosperous state with its capital at Lucknow. Awadh became famous for its fine culture, its gardens, and its patronage of the arts and architecture.
Bengal was governed by Murshid Quli Khan, who was appointed by Aurangzeb as the diwan (in-charge of revenue) of Bengal. Murshid Quli Khan made the state prosperous and shifted his capital to Murshidabad. Under his successors, especially Alivardi Khan, Bengal became one of the richest provinces of India, attracting the attention of the British and other European traders.
The Rajput states had been part of the Mughal empire, but as the empire declined, the Rajputs asserted their independence. The Rajput rulers of states like Amber (Jaipur) and Jodhpur reclaimed their watan jagirs (hereditary estates) and reasserted their authority. The rulers of Amber, for example, stopped paying tribute to the Mughals and expanded their own territories.
The Rajput states, however, did not achieve complete independence. They had to deal with the rising Maratha power and later with the British. The Rajput kingdoms, with their strong traditions of loyalty and honour, maintained their identity even as the wider political world around them changed.
The Sikh community grew into a powerful political force in the eighteenth century under the leadership of Guru Gobind Singh, the last of the ten Gurus, and his followers. Guru Gobind Singh founded the Khalsa in 1699, a community of Sikh warriors sworn to defend their faith. Under leaders like Banda Bahadur, the Sikhs rose against the Mughals in the Punjab.
After much struggle, the Sikhs organised themselves into twelve misls (confederacies), which eventually united under Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who established a powerful Sikh kingdom with its capital at Lahore in the early nineteenth century.
The Marathas, who had risen under the leadership of Shivaji in the seventeenth century, became the most powerful group in India in the eighteenth century. Under the Peshwas (prime ministers) of Pune, the Marathas expanded their control over most of central and western India. They collected taxes from the Mughal territories, defeated the Mughal forces in the north, and even captured Delhi in 1771.
The Maratha kingdom was not a single unified state but a confederacy of powerful families - the Sindhias of Gwalior, the Holkars of Indore, the Gaekwads of Baroda, and the Bhonsles of Nagpur. Their power, however, was checked by the British, who defeated them in the Anglo-Maratha wars.
The Jats of the region around Delhi and Agra, led by Churaman and later Badan Singh, established a powerful state under the leadership of Suraj Mal, whose capital was at Bharatpur. The Jats of Bharatpur controlled a fertile and rich region, and their fort at Bharatpur was famous for its strength.
After Shivaji's death, his grandson Shahu, who was a prisoner of the Mughals, was released in 1707. Shahu established his capital at Satara and appointed a Peshwa (prime minister) to manage the administration. The most famous Peshwas were Balaji Vishwanath, Baji Rao I, and Balaji Bajirao. Baji Rao I expanded Maratha power into Gujarat and central India, and his son Balaji Bajirao extended Maratha control into the Punjab.
The Peshwas shifted their capital from Satara to Pune. They collected chauth (a quarter of the revenue) and sardeshmukhi (a further 10 percent) from the areas they controlled, using these taxes to finance their armies and administration. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the Marathas were the most powerful political force in India.
In 1761, the Marathas suffered a crushing defeat at the third battle of Panipat against the Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Abdali. The battle was a disaster for the Marathas, who lost many of their leaders and soldiers. Though the Marathas recovered later, the defeat checked their expansion and allowed the British to grow in strength in Bengal and the south.
The European trading companies, especially the British East India Company, took advantage of the political fragmentation of the eighteenth century. They built their own armies, fortified their settlements, and began to interfere in the politics of the Indian states. The British East India Company had already gained control of Bengal after the Battle of Plassey in 1757.
By the end of the eighteenth century, the British had become a major political and military power in India, competing with the Marathas and the kingdom of Mysore. The eighteenth century thus ended with the British on the path to establishing colonial rule, but the century itself was a period of vigorous political life and cultural creativity across the subcontinent.
| Power | Founder/Leader | Region |
|---|---|---|
| Hyderabad | Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah | Deccan |
| Awadh | Burhan-ul-Mulk Saadat Khan | Awadh, capital Lucknow |
| Bengal | Murshid Quli Khan | Bengal |
| Marathas | Shivaji, later Peshwas | Western and central India |
| Sikhs | Guru Gobind Singh, then Ranjit Singh | Punjab |
| Jats | Suraj Mal | Bharatpur |
| Event/Term | Details |
|---|---|
| Khalsa | Warrior community founded by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699 |
| Misls | Twelve Sikh confederacies |
| Peshwa | Prime minister of the Maratha state |
| Chauth | A quarter of the revenue collected by the Marathas |
| Sardeshmukhi | An additional 10 percent levy collected by the Marathas |
| Third battle of Panipat | 1761, Marathas defeated by Ahmad Shah Abdali |
The eighteenth century was a period of dramatic transformation in Indian politics. As the Mughal Empire declined, new powers rose to fill the vacuum: the successor states of Hyderabad, Awadh, and Bengal; the resurgent Rajputs, Sikhs, Jats, and especially the Marathas under their Peshwas; and finally the European trading companies, above all the British East India Company. Modern historians now see this century not as an age of darkness but as a time of political creativity and economic vigour, in which the culture of Lucknow, Hyderabad, and the Sikh and Maratha kingdoms flourished. The century ended with the British poised to conquer India, but it had been a brilliant Indian century of its own.