Islamic Empires:

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Islamic Empires

• The Mughal Empire and India

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• Indian subcontinent at the end of the fifteenth
  century.

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• Indian subcontinent under the expansive Mughal
  Empire

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Introduction

• Portuguese sailor Vasco da Gama discovered Indian
  subcontinent was divided among several Hindu and
  Muslim kingdoms in 1498.
• By the mid-1500s that was no longer the case.
• Mughals were foreign (Mongolian) and Muslim.
• United Indian subcontinent under one government
  for the first time since 183 BCE
• Mogula powerful person.
• Similar social structure as Ottoman Empire

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Facts on India

• Not a real country of India until 1940s
  certainly not a united nation, as we will see.
• India just refers to the subcontinent.
• Divided between Hindus and Muslims after 1500.
• Population also contained Buddhists, Sikhs,
  Gurkhas (Nepal).
• Major regions included Bengal, Hyderabad, Madras,
  Rajputana, Punjab, Kashmir, Ceylon (Sri Lanka),
  and Bombay.

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Babur (r. 1525-1530)

• Founder of the Mughal dynasty, descendant of
  Genghis Kahn.
• Began in Afghanistan
• Conquered Delhi in 1526 using gunpowder, mobile
  cavalry, mounted elephantsmodern warfare.
• Consolidated Indian states of the north

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Akbar the Great (r. 1556-1605)

• Founder the Mughal Empire
• Contemporary of Elizabeth I and Süleyman
• Responsible for uniting most of the Indian
  subcontinent.
• Policy of imperial expansion.
• Gunpowder empire
• Governmental reforms, cultural patronage, and
  religious toleration.

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Akbars Reign

• Policy of toleration and acceptance.
• Married a Hindu princess and employed Jesuit
  missionaries as advisors.
• Abolished certain restrictions on Hindus.
• Restricted power of ulama
• Became hostile to Islam created a new faith
  called the Din-i-Ilahi (Divine Faith)combined
  aspects of different religions and the central
  belief was that the emperor and his decisions
  were perfect.
• Mughal version of divine right of kings.
• Created an Indian Empire more so than Islamic

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Akbars Successors

• Jahangir (r. 1605-1627), Akbars son, unpopular
  and inept
• Allowed English merchants to establish a trading
  post at Surat on west coast.
• Jahan (r. 16278-1658)
• Military campaigns and building projects strained
  the economy and treasury
• Religious toleration revoked piecemeal
• Aurangzeb (r. 1658-1707)

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Golden Age of Mughal architecture under Jahan
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Aurangzeb

• Killed his brother and imprisoned Jahan.
• Devout Muslim and reinstituted restrictions on
  Hindus.
• Policies lead to unrest and revolt throughout
  India.

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Aurangzebs Policies

• Restrictions on Hindus
• Forbade satiimmolation of Hindu women on her
  husbands funeral pyre.
• Forbade castration of men to create eunuchs.
• Forbade Hindus to build new temples.
• Reinstituted poll tax on all Hindus abolished by
  Akbar
• Introduced forced conversion to Islam.
• All this led to revolts among large Hindu
  population.
• Radical Sikhism and Hindu Maratha nationalism

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Zamindar System

• A type of feudal system put in place by
  Aurangzeb.
• Designed to collect taxes from peasants.
• Made a large wealthy class of Indian
  aristocrats--zamindars.
• Later, peasants who owned land would be known as
  zamindars.

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Mughal Empire at the end of Aurangzebs reign in
1707
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Enter the British

• The English move into Bengal as the Mughal empire
  is falling apart in the 1700s.
• British East India Company came and built textile
  factories.
• Also exporting cotton, indigo, opium, and tea
• Tribute system established
• British promised to protect smaller Bengal states
  for a fee, or subsidy
• British East India Company had a small army of
  British troops to defend it mainly from French
  and Mughals.
• British feel threatened by Mughals

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Mughal Opposition

• Battle of Plassey, 1757, 3,000 British troops
  defeat Mughal army of 30,000.
• Mughal attempt to expel the British
• As a result, British East India Company obtains
  right to tax the local population of Calcutta
  (where the factories were).
• Battle of Buxar, 1767, British seize the emperor
  and install a puppet.

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East India Company Rule

• Taxes
• Move their operation into the interior of the
  continent.
• Built large estates in east, money now in the
  hands of British and sent to Britain.
• Local Indian industries put out of business.
• Famine and bankrupt countrymore taxes.
• Inept rule over next 100 years.

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East India Company and Culture

• Cultural imperialism not a major concern of the
  company
• Goal was to make money
• Some interest in Indian culture
• Friendships and intermarriages
• Officers required to learn Persian and Sanskrit
• Christian missionary activity discouraged
• Paternalism
• British educational system slowly introduced

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Cultural Affects

• British Enlightenment and Christian ideas
  influenced small but powerful Indian elite
• Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833)
• Worked for East India Company
• Father of Brahmo Samaj, Hindu reform movement
• Challenged Hindu practices and British rule
• Merged European-Christian morality with Hindu
  thought
• Alienated many Indian elite

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Indian Uprising of 1857

• East India Company began hiring native troops for
  its private army (cheaper than British
  troops)sepoys (Hindu Muslim).
• In 1857, Brits issued new Enfield rifles to sepoy
  infantrymen.
• The problem? Muzzleloader that used paper
  cartridge covered in beef fat and pig lard.
• Protest turned into rebellion against British and
  fighting between Hindus and Muslims.
• Finally put down by British army.

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Sepoy Mutiny, 1857
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British-Indian Relations

• As a result, the Crown takes power away from the
  East India Company.
• India becomes a colony in 1858.
• Creation of the British Raj
• British presence largely brutal and impersonal.
• India fully integrated into British economy as a
  market for goods and provider of raw materials.
• Paternalism

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Life Under the Raj

• Stability and surprisingly honest government.
• Modernization
• Many Indians educated
• Women even allowed to attend college.
• Modernized the countryrailroads, highways,
  telegraph, postal service, etc.
• Religious reform
• Outlawed sati and female infanticide.
• Reigned in the thuggee cult (thugs).

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1815 print depicting sati ritual with Western
rulers critiquing
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Thuggee made sacrifice to the Hindu goddess Kali
in the fall of the year by strangling
travelersbasically they were bandits. Killed
some 2,000,000.
Kali
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Impact of British Rule

• Economic ruin of lower and middle class Indians.
• Thousands of Indians had just left peasant farm
  work to work in small factoriesput out of work
  (large number of Bengali women).
• Forced to return to the land or emigrate as
  indentured labor
• 1861-1865, growing cotton, not food
• White supremacyIndians made second-class
  citizens in their own countryprohibited from
  certain all-white facilities and sections of
  cities (cantonments).

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Indian Response

• Uprising of 1857 largely anti-foreign
• After 1885, resistance became nationalist
• Creation of Indian National Congress (INC)
• Modernist, secularist, republican
• Gopal Gokhale, Mohandas Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru
• Muslim League
• Creation of separate Muslim Indian state