10 Unheard ways which ended the Mughal Empire

The Mughal Empire was founded in 1526 by Zaheer-ud-din Muhammad Babar which came to an end in 1856. The vast empire has a golden era from the time of Babur till Aurangzeb as the later rulers were proved weak and incompetent to control the majestic land.

The emperor who is known to be the reason for the decline of the great Mughals is Auragzeb who ruled for 48 years. He cost the empire a lot by raging enough wars to empty the Mughal treasures as he fought the Hindu Rajputs and Marathas for 25 years but could not overcome them. Then his liking to expand his empire also became a reason for high taxation to pay for the military campaigns. The wars for the expansion of the empire took Aurangzeb's focus from the administration which resulted in many problems within the empire. He belonged to the religion Islam and was known as a strict Muslim, he banned many un-Islamic activities within his land such as banning singing and dancing at the court, prohibiting alcohol, banning suttee, and imposing jizya tax which is a tax for the non-muslims who live in his kingdom but Muslims, children, women, and the Mughal army were exempted to pay this tax. This caused hate for the ruler among the Hindu majority community which resulted in him losing the support as well as popularity among the Hindus.

Although Aurangzeb is seen as the one who was the cause for the end of the huge empire another reason which also played a great role in the decline is the succession dispute. At that time Mughals did not have a proper rule for succession so after Shah Jahan, the father of Aurangzeb, there was a war for succession, first among Aurangzeb and his brothers which cost the lives of the army as well as money. Aurangzeb indeed divided his empire among his sons before his death but they also fought for the throne and interestingly as well as shockingly 7 wars for succession were conducted in the 10 years after the death of Aurangzeb. His later successors became weak and incompetent and later turned into puppet rulers which followed the command of the nobles at the court. The wars within the empire resulted in chaos and unrest as well as disunity among the people in the empire.

During the rule of Aurangzeb, the empire had stretched to its maximum size as it had stretched from Gazni to Chittagong and Kashmir to Karnataka. As the empire was huge the communication network was not that good which also caused difficulty for the king to stop the rebels which were frequent in the empire. These rebels resulted in economic weakness and disturbance in the empire.

Marathas who were in the Deccan also became a great hurdle for the Mughal rule as they were very much motivated to overthrow the Muslim rule and establish the Hindu Raj. They were also known for their devotion to Hinduism and guerilla fighting techniques. During Aurangzeb's rule, he spend 25 years fighting them, and in 1665 Shiva ji, leader of the Marathas, was defeated and captured but he escaped. They became more powerful and important when the group of nobles from the Mughal court used them to dispose of the Mughal emperor Furukhsiyar. The new king signed the treaty with the Marathas which said that they would return all of the forts of shiva ji and 1/4 of land revenue and 1/10 from each province of Deccan was granted to them. It restored their pride and prestige and they thought that now they could defeat the Mughals but in 1761 Ahmed Shah Abdali came and defeated the Marathas in the third battle of Panipat.

The Mughals were now showing their weakness and still having some valuables which attracted other powerful rulers to invade the Mughal empire such as Nadir Shah who invaded the empire in 1739 and imprisoned the king at that time, Muhammad Shah. He also ordered a massacre when the Mughal army killed some of his soldiers which resulted in many deaths who were killed brutally. He didn't want to establish his rule in the subcontinent so he decided to take valuables back with him which consisted including the peacock throne and the famous diamond Kohinoor. The second invader Ahmed Shah Abdali also caused a lot of damage to the Mughal empire by invading the land several times. The invasions shook the foundations of the Mughal Empire and left them confused and helpless. This brought great humiliation to the empire as they could not protect its people and their wealth making them weak and ruining their prestige.

Taking the advantage of the weakness at Delhi, the Sikhs formed small robber bands and captured the trade routes of Punjab. Ranjit Singh collected these robber bands and invaded Lahore after Ahmed Shah had left. He captured many areas of Punjab, KPK, and Kashmir, establishing his rule on those areas which worries the British and the Mughals. He appointed European officers to train his soldiers which brought up his troop to 80,00 men. This was the first Sikh empire in Punjab which also increased troubles for the Mughals.

The later Mughals had forgotten the basic principles of simplicity, modesty, and honesty as well as betrayed the principles of Islam. They indulged in worldly pleasures of wine, poetry, singing, and dancing which were normalized in the court, collecting the finest clothes and jewelry. They also started to spend money on useless art and building instead of constructing universities or something beneficial for the industries as the useless art and buildings were considered the symbol of power and prestige. This caused them to become ease-loving and cowardly as well as weak to pursue the empire.

The emperors slowly became dependent on the nobles in the court who controlled the empire instead of the king himself. The Nobels in the court became corrupt and selfish after having such power. The King didn't even improve their weapons and military as well as didn't build any universities or industries for the betterment of the people and advantage of the empire.

The weakness of the rulers made the mansabdars, who were those people in the empire who managed a certain amount of army as well as collected tax from assigned areas, corrupted and became selfish as they started to push their independence on their given areas and also stopped giving collected tax which was originally for the Mughals. They squeezed as much money as possible from the farmers which weakened the economy destroying the agriculture sector. These nobles also supported those rulers who were weak and worthless to control the empire and take benefit from them.

Lastly, the arrival of the British EIC in the subcontinent which held great support from the British collected a huge army with the help of their profit and started to establish their rule. Their army was well organized and handsomely equipped with modern weapons which helped them to win the battles such as the battle of Buxar and Plessey which got them control of Ouhd, Mysore, Bengal, and Bihar. They also entered Delhi in 1803 where they captured the Mughal king Shah Alam the Second and forced him to accept British rule. The later rulers were under British protection. In 1857 the Indians made a desperate struggle to get independence from the British but badly failed this also caused the arrest of Bahadur Shah Zafar the last emperor of the Mughal empire and was deported to Rangoon where he died and the British empire started their reign.