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International Journal of
DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH

ISSN: 2230-9926 International Journal of Development Research

Vol. 4, Issue, 4, pp. 828-830, April, 2014

Full Length Research Article

THE DECLINE OF THE MUGHAL EMPIRE AND THE EMERGENCE OF POLITICAL AWARENESS:
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES
*Dr. Tahmeena Javed
Department of History, Center of Advance Studies Aligarh Muslim University, India

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Article History: The Enlightenment is much more than the historical period. It helps us to understand the distant
Received 30th January, 2014 conclusions towards which certain assumptions lead; and to decide whether or not, that is where
Received in revised form we want to go. Enlightenment shaped out past and present. It is the story of man’s first attempt to
28th February, 2014 come to grips with the contemporary world and all its unsolved problems. Enlightenment was not
Accepted 15th March, 2014 about beliefs or opinion but an attitude of mind; about the nature and man’s place in it, could be
Published online 23rd April, 2014 understood in terms of general laws that were applicable to everything that existed. This makes
Enlightenment an international and trans-regional reality. Although, its texts were translated and
Key words: circulated not only in Europe but in other regions like South Asia but when shared conceptions
18th cenury, refracted through the prism of individual socio-cultural settings, it was bound to create the
Later Mughals, different patterns though essentially keeping the same scheme.
Enlightenment,
Ashobname

Copyright © 2014 Dr. Tahmeena Javed. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

INTRODUCTION and thus paved the way for the laws of Newton. Throughout
the 18th century, Sir Isaac Newton was seen as the symbol of a
Many of the people who lived in the Western Europe in the new conception of the universe, as a rational system whose
first quarter of the 18th century felt that the things were laws were accessible to humanity through science rather than
changing for the better in all kind of ways as life was through religious revelation. Most of the people believed that
becoming more secure, well provided and predictable. The the world is governed by universal laws but is still the divine
period of continuous warfare came to an end by 1715 and was creation. Human intelligence by deduction and observation
followed by relative peace. The population increased and with could understand the nature of the plan that divine wisdom and
discovery of the new world, the horizon of the Europeans benevolence had created for human happinessi.
extended to enlarge the entire globe. This operated at all kind
of levels. The educated began to understand that different
cultures had validity of their own. The less intellectual started RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
to drink tea and coffee and the emergence of coffee houses
became new centers of sociability or social sites. With these In purely practical terms the Enlightenment had lasting
changes came the change in the mental climate. The dark and victories to its credit. People stopped burning of witches,
enclosed world was now challenged by a new vision that persecution of heretics, serfdom was abolished and the
opened everything out in space and time. Scientists had shown movement for the abolition of slave trade had been launched.
the universe to be far wider than anyone had previously Judicial torture had been abolished in France, Austria and
expected. The scientific progress of the 17th century was been Prussia and the death penalty was coming under attack. One
probably self generating and often inaccessible to common cannot divorce the Enlightenment and its attitude from the take
people but its result was to transform educated men’s of industrialization which with all its tragedies and destruction
perception of the world in general. Usually the new vision is was eventually to provide the ordinary people with the means
ascribed to Newton but the rationalism of Rene Descartes and to live comfortable lives. In the realms of idea too
empiricism of Francis Bacon had created the mental attitude Enlightenment was the gateway to the modern world. It
marked the transition from a world in which one took what
was given, in terms of religion, politics and way of life to a
*Corresponding author: Dr. Tahmeena Javed world where man was seen as the architect of his own destiny.
Department of History, Center of Advance Studies Aligarh Muslim With the American declaration of independence and the
University, India declaration of the rights of Man, the concept of the universal
829 Dr. Tahmeena Javed, The decline of the Mughal empire and the emergence of political awareness: Global perspectives

rights replaced the divine right, social hierarchy and criticize. In the new atmosphere both the governments and
aristocratic honor. The Enlightenment is much more than the their critics appealed to what they were beginning to call
historical period. It helps us to understand the distant ‘public opinion’, in order to disarm the opposition. By the end
conclusions towards which the certain assumptions lead and to of the ancien regime in France, ministers and their opponents
decide whether or not that is where we want to go. were hiring writers to acclaim or denounce each others
Enlightenment shaped out past and present and the story of policies and to influence business confidence, as reflected on
man’s first attempt to come to grips with the contemporary the stock exchange. The impact of enlightenment, Industrial
world and all its unsolved problems. The Enlightenment revolution and the emergence of bourgeoisie public sphere in
originated in the “natural order” of the scientists was reflected Europe was not possible without the presence of social sites as
and broadened by speculation of contemporary philosophers described by Jurgen Habermas like coffee houses in England,
like Descartes, Hobbs, Spinoza, Locke and Hume. In the early Salons in France and tischgeshellechaften in Germany. With
17th century, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke set forth ideas the emergence of Public sphere in 18th century Europe, the
that became key to Enlightenment. Hobbes argued that people sphere of state authority was monitored, public sphere
were selfish, cruel and greedy. They should be controlled by a interacted with private sphere and met with the bourgeoisie at
powerful government and absolute monarchy can provide social sites where the issues were discussed, negotiated and
orderly society. Lock had more optimistic views and believed opinion was formed and communicated to the state. However
that people were basically reasonable and moral. They have in the pre colonial India, a form of publicity is assigned that is
certain “natural rights”, like right to life, liberty and property. compatible with Middle Ages in Europe.
All governments are formed to protect these natural rights and
can be overthrown if they fail in purpose. He rejected absolute It is compared with representative publicness, as Habermas
monarchy. Lock’s empirical study of the human mind and the clarifies that in representative publicness the public sphere was
use of newly available anthropological evidence, showed that nonexistent, and the public domain was appropriated by the
values were not universal. ruling powers for the display of their status, dignity and
authorityii. But there seems to be some exaggeration on the
This led him to deny the existence of innate ideas and he part of Habermas when he contrasted between ‘the publicity of
propounded that human mind is “tabula rasa” the blank slate. representation’ and ‘public sphere’. It would be more
All ideas, he thought were the product of sensation and appropriate to characterize the publicity in pre colonial period
reflection, which implied that man in different environments as the public sphere rather than as the ‘representative
will come to different conclusions. What they called “good” or publicness’.iii In 18th century India there was emergence of a
bad” was merely their way of referring to pleasure and pain. middle class or ‘corporate group’iv that had some of the
Kant writes, “Enlightenment is humanity’s departure from self qualities of European Bourgeois. The public sphere is an area
imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s in social life where individuals can come together to freely
intellect without the guidance of the other. This immaturity is discuss and identify societal problems, and through that
self imposed, when its cause is not lack of intelligence but a discussion influence political action. It is discursive space in
failure of determination and courage to think without the which individuals and groups congregate to discuss matters of
guidance of someone else. Dare to Know…this then is the mutual interest and where possible to reach a common
slogan of Enlightenment”. The perennial concern of judgment, this public sphere can be seen as a theatre in
enlightenment was to apply reason or philosophy to public modern societies in which political participation is enacted
life, in politics, economics and sociology. In each of these through the medium of talk and a realm of social life in which
fields it developed in different ways , it also meant different public opinion can be formed. The public sphere mediates
things to people in different situation .To reforming rulers and between the ‘private sphere’ and the ‘sphere of public
their ministers, it signified practical efficiency , to educated authority’ the public sphere crossed over both these realms and
people it implied a more secular attitude to life. , it meant a through the vehicle of public opinion it put the state in touch
more purified religion to some, to others it was almost an with the needs of the society.
intellectual game.
Although, the courtly rituals and ostentatious displays at
The common people though might still believe in the witches public places was part of Mughal sovereigntyv, but the public
but were not allowed to burn them anymore. The men of the space was not exclusively controlled by the ruling powers. The
enlightenment approached the problem of politics with same common people also used the same space to constrain power.
tendency to react against past and against each other. Farhat Hasan has used the Friday prayers and recitation of
Enlightenment consigned much of the past philosophies of Khutba as a ritualistic communication, through which the state
Bossuet and others to dustbin. It began by affirming the conveyed its authority in civil society through Khutba, civil
autonomy of politics. Religious belief was essentially private society communicated its condition of acceptance of that by
matter, respected by the state and perhaps useful in appropriate preventing its recitation when these conditions failedvi. There
habits among the unenlightened, but the church as a corporate were other places also that are compatible with social sites like
body had no right to intrude in the political affairs of a secular the khanqahs of the Sufi saints, streets and market place and
commonwealth. Politics, of course was a science. The laws for 18th century we get the evidence that in the market place
that must regulate civil society if properly understood by the there was a place that was reserved for speeches. The social
people, who were beginning to regard themselves as citizens sites like Friday prayers and khanqahs (hospices) were bound
of a commonwealth rather than as subjects in a realm, would to have religious overtones about various public concern
enable them to operate the system with maximum efficiency. issues. This was one of the reasons that public sphere in India
Traditionally the state policy had always been a confidential could never achieve the secular nature of the European Public
business that was not for the ordinary people to applaud or sphere and democracy was still a very farfetched idea. A
830 International Journal of Development Research, Vol. 4, Issue, 4, pp. 828-830, April, 2014

literary genre in Urdu in the 18th century that is known as Mukhammus dar hajv-i-ahliya-i- Zahik, gives an account of
Shahr Ashob or Ashobname is another social site from where the wife of Mir Zahik and the effects of evil spirit of Sheikh
emerged ‘public sphere’. The scholars and poets moved from Saddu, which took her in its grip and the rituals performed to
the discussion of art and literature to touch upon the political exercize it. In mukhammus dar hajv-i- Maulana Nudrat
domain. In Ashobname the poet made a critique of the Kashmiri, Sauda gives an account of the maulvi and criticizes
prevailing political and social situation. They raised the issues the morality of his daughter according to 18th century
of inefficiency and advised for better governance. The use of standardsx. In Mukhummus dar-i- halat-i- gharaib, Sauda
Urdu widened the scope of Ashobname. The emergence of describes the prevailing poverty in the military camp and
ashobname demonstrates the extent to which the ‘public shows the soldiers discussing whether or not the eating of the
sphere’ in the world of letters was enmeshed with the ‘political crow was permissible. From a critical study of some other
public sphere’. These ashobname had shared subject and the mukhammus, it appears that a radical change was taking place
common attitude of lament towards the socio economic and in the social structure of the Muslim community with the
political crisis but in a literary form that relied on decline of the Mughal Empire. The feudal set up of the society
contemporary standards of literary aesthetics. Scholars like, was such that it was not possible for one class of people to
Mir Taqi Mir, Sauda, Qaim Chandpuri and ShahWaliullah, cross over to other. But things changed with the decline of the
were offering detailed analysis if the prevailing social and Mughal Empire. Shah Hatim who was an eyewitness of those
political conditions and were making pointed criticism of the changes says that the greatest tragedy of the age was that the
Mughal state policies. Mir Taqi Mir wrote a poem ‘Masnavi- kings have become like beggars and the beggars have become
i- Kibz’, condemning the Mughal officials for being dishonest crown wearers. Sauda also says that the nobles who used to
and inefficient. Mir also wrote Mukhammus dar hal-i-lashkar employ soldiers have suffered economic ruin because they did
and Mukhammus dar shahr-i- gufta. Sauda wrote not realize any money from their jagirs as it is occupied by the
Mukhammus-i-shahr-i- ashob, Qasida-i- Shahr-i- ashob and enemies of the state. The peasants do not pay land revenue and
Qasida-i- tazhik-i-rozgaviir. Another famous Ashobname is nobles cannot control them. Old nobles have retired from
Qaim Chandpuri’s Mukhammus dar ahwal-i- Delhi. Ali Hasrat public life and if anyone talked to them about the political
of Lucknow and Nazir Akbarabadi are other important poets affairs of the country they turned their faces away and ask him
who wrote Ashobname. to talk of something elsexi.

The poets have given eye witness accounts of the prevailing Conclusions
condition of general unemployment and poverty of the masses,
covering all the sections of society. After examining the plight Their writings show the development of same attitude of mind
of mu’azzam (the pronouncer of azaan), the khatib (the reader in the 18th century India though without the touch of European
of the khutba), wai’z (sermon deliverer) musahib (companions philosophy. However there is no evidence to show that these
of the nobles) the tabib (medical practitioner) the tajir writers of Ashobname were influenced or even familiar with
(merchant), the kisan (peasants), the wakil. Shair (poet), and the contemporary stream of thought in Europe. However, from
the sheikh (mystic) and the wretched condition of the the later half of the 18th century with the establishment of the
mansabdar, Sauda concluded that, “I have no more patience Asiatic Society of Bengal by Warren Hastings the translation
to listen to you any further; there is no heart which has not of Indian Persian, Arabic and Urdu sources started but there is
been affected by grief; none is here whose eyes are not filled no substantial evidence to prove that English, French or
with tears, Except this , there is no other answer to what you German works were also translated in Urdu or Persian. Hence
have said. Do not say too much, this is a period of its own the Ashobname emerged as independent genre without any
kind.”viii substantial contemporary influences.

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