Centre and Periphery in the Mughal State: The Case of Seventeenth-Century Panjab

Abstract

If a scholar were to search for water-marks in the development of historical writing on medieval India, the contribution of the ‘Aligarh school’ could very justifiably lay claim to such a distinction. While the work of the Aligarh scholars covers a wide spectrum of historical processes of the Mughal period, it is bound quite closely by their basic understanding that has acquired the status of an almost undisputed assumption among a large number of historians today. The Mughal state, in brief, is perceived as a systematically centralized one, both theoretically and in reality. It is seen as one that had acquired the power to enforce uniformity of government in all parts of the empire and was sustained by its ability to appropriate a large portion of the economic surplus generated within its frontiers. The administrative machinery (both official and quasi-official) involved in the maintenance of this ‘Mughal system’ presents a picture of truly gigantic proportions, yet one that is portrayed as almost uniformly conforming to elaborately formulated methods of functioning. The works of Irfan Habib, S. Nurul Hasan, M. Athar Ali and N. A. Siddiqi apart from a host of others, are among the more impressive contributions in this context.