Churaman and the making of the Jat state in the late 17th and early eighteenth century

Abstract

During the latter half of the seventeenth and the early eighteenth centuries, the widespread practice of assigning ijāra or farming out of revenue-collection rights over territories within the jāgīrs of imperial Mughal manṣabdārs to various political entities in North India, notably the Kachhwaha Rajput chiefs of Amber, led to heavy fiscal exactions that were deeply resented by the peasants and provoked them to revolt. These revolts gave rise to a number of ambitious zamīndārs, who emerged as ‘saviours’ of peasants against the excesses of the state or were perceived as such by the peasants. Notable among such local zamīndārs was Churaman, a Jat zamīndār in the Braj region who capitalised on his popularity among the peasants and their support to mount a formidable challenge to the Mughal court and the Amber state and carve out a significant sphere of authority in North India (parts of present-day eastern Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh) through a combination of military successes against the Amber state, tactics of intimidation and persuasion in relation to the imperial manṣabdārs, and deft manoeuvres to exploit the intense factional politics of the late Mughal court. Drawing chiefly upon Rajasthani archival sources, this essay seeks to bring out the various dimensions of Churaman’s leadership, while tracing his rise and role as a popular Jat peasant leader, the socio-economic bases of his power, the Mughal and Rajput perceptions about him, and the crucial linkages between his role in establishing the Jats as a formidable force in North Indian politics and in the formation of a Jat state.