READ: South Asia 1450–1750

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In 1450, the Indian subcontinent was divided into a number of mid-sized kingdoms. Its favorable climate and rich soils produced agricultural bounty, and it sat at the heart of busy Indian Ocean trading networks. From one buzzing, cosmopolitan port city to another, these routes carried valuable Indian products like textiles, metals, diamonds, grains, seeds, hardwoods, and even horses and elephants. Just like today, the Indian subcontinent in the fifteenth century was one of the most religiously diverse societies in the world—home to Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, and Jews.

Today, South Asia’s two largest communities—Hindu and Muslim—are often perceived as rival religions. This isn’t some timeless conflict, but rather a legacy of India’s more recent nineteenth century colonial past. Modern historians have begun to recognize that in precolonial South Asia, relationships between religious communities were far more layered and complex than previously assumed. In fact, what it meant to be Hindu or Muslim would have been understood quite differently in the fifteenth century. The very term Hindu might have been unfamiliar to many. Instead, people would have described themselves as followers of the god Vishnu (Vaishnavites) or Shiva (Shaivites), or perhaps as worshippers of one of the many goddesses (Shakti). Although a fifteenth-century Muslim would have certainly considered themselves Muslim, their affiliation as a Sunni or a Shi‘a, and whether they followed the teachings of a particular Sufi order, was also important. Most crucially, for both Muslims and Hindus, elements of an individual’s identity other than religion were often far more significant. Were they of noble family or of non-elite background? Which of India’s hundreds of regional languages and dialects did they speak? What region were they from?

This rich web of identities existed at the level of the state as well. Various Hindu and Muslim royal courts of fifteenth-century India encouraged people of every faith to come and serve in their courts. Rulers supported a range of artistic, architectural, and institutional traditions no matter their own religious beliefs. For example, the South Indian Hindu ruler Devaraja II (r. 1432–1446) of Vijayanagara brought hundreds of Muslim military experts into his service.${}^1$‍ He even built a special neighborhood in his capital city so Muslim migrants might live comfortably. In Muslim-ruled Bengal, Hindu temples and Muslim mosques were both constructed using familiar architectural features, making them comprehensible to both audiences. True, Hindu and Muslim-ruled states sometimes warred against each other, but wars between states of the same religion were just as common.

To sum it up, pre-colonial India was a religiously diverse and cosmopolitan society. Although split into many states, its capital cities were global destination points, and its goods were in high demand by foreign merchants. In fact, more gold and silver flowed into India than out, making the region, alongside China, one of the world’s largest precious metal “sinks.” Supported by easy access to cash, the subcontinent’s many kingdoms boasted rich regional cultures where artists and consumers experimented eagerly with new trends and built on well-known traditions.

In 1526, a Central Asian ruler named Babur who had struggled in his early years to find a foothold in Central Asia, invaded northern India. Babur was well-supplied with strong horses and skilled cavalrymen from the Central Asian steppes, which allowed his armies to run circles around the much slower Afghan and Rajput forces of northern India, which relied on large infantry-based armies and war elephants. Babur established a new state, which would soon grow to become the Mughal Empire. However it was Babur’s grandson Akbar (r. 1556–1605) who would preside over the Mughal state’s expansion from its precarious beginnings to an expansive empire stretching from what is now Afghanistan, to Bengal in eastern India, and southwards to the central Indian Deccan.

The Mughals had an innovative system of governance, but much of their success can also be attributed to having arrived on the scene just in time to benefit from a new resource in the global economy: silver. It was mined in South America, then transported back on merchant ships to Europe and onwards to Asia. Emperor Akbar’s use of the silver rupee coin is prominent in his legacy since the coin, with its high degree of metallic purity, was so widely trusted. Under Mughal rule, distant marketplaces became more closely connected thanks to increased security and to a shared currency. Mughal India was an economically and socially dynamic place, as old hierarchies were challenged by newly successful groups, and people from distant parts of the subcontinent came into contact with one another for the first time.

Akbar also reformed military and tax administration, as well as cultural policy. He put in place new and more efficient ways of paying for the Mughal state’s military expenses, and for organizing the growing ranks of nobility who pledged loyalty to the Mughal throne. Together, these policies ensured that noblemen received regular pay and employment, but also were restrained from becoming powerful enough to challenge the emperor.

The Mughals quickly built durable alliances, notably amongst the Hindu Rajputs. By taking as brides the daughters of powerful Rajput households, Akbar—and later his sons and grandsons—gave them a stake in the empire and reason to support it. The Mughals wooed defeated enemies and vulnerable neighbors alike by negotiating treaties and extending offers of protection. By the end of Akbar’s reign, Mughal nobility included Turks and Iranis, Indian Muslims, Afghans, Rajputs, Kayasths, Bundelas. Under later emperors, they also included Marathas and South Indians. Akbar also formalized sulh-i kul or “universal toleration”. Though it had often been practiced unofficially, this policy now mandated that non-Muslim subjects be accorded the same rights as Muslims under the Mughal system.

Akbar’s son Jahangir (r. 1605–1627) and grandson Shahjahan (r. 1627–1657) carried on largely in the same way. Across South Asia, not only at the imperial court but also in smaller regional centers, wealthy courtiers looking for new ways to spend their money supported the arts and religion. Libraries swelled with new books, and tailors scrambled to keep up with new orders. Perhaps the most dazzling illustration of this wealth came in the construction, under the reign of Shahjahan, of a grand new imperial capital in Delhi, called Shahjahanabad.

In the latter half of the seventeenth century, Shahjahan’s son Aurangzeb (r. 1657–1707) presided over the largest expansion of the empire since Akbar. Compared to his forefathers Jahangir and Shahjahan, Aurangzeb had more ambitious military goals—for he set his sights on conquering all of southern India. He sought to present his personal authority in unprecedented ways. Whereas earlier emperors had represented themselves to their subjects as quasi-divine—“the Shadow of God on Earth”—Aurangzeb presented himself as a pious, even saintly, Muslim and Sufi.

Today, Aurangzeb is often blamed for replacing Akbar’s legacy of religious tolerance with a bigoted, anti-Hindu stance. Proponents of this position argue that Aurangzeb ordered Hindu temples be destroyed. They also point to his long-running military conflict with the Hindu Maratha leader Shivaji. Finally, they claim that Aurangzeb was so religious that he banned music at court.

Other historians disagree. They point out that under Aurangzeb, the number of Hindu nobility at court actually grew to its highest level, and that his destruction of some temples seems to have been a political move to punish enemies and rebels, not an act of religious intolerance. In places controlled by his supporters, Aurangzeb paid for the construction and upkeep of Hindu temples. Also, although Aurangzeb himself may have stopped listening to music, his Mughal family members and nobles remained patrons and listeners of music. Indeed, during Aurangzeb’s reign, there was a major uptick in books written about music—so it stands to reason that melodies could be played, heard and enjoyed throughout Mughal India. Aurangzeb holds a central place in South Asians’ understanding of their past, evidenced by today’s continued arguments among Indians and Pakistanis when discussing his legacy.

However, after Aurangzeb’s death in 1707, it only took a few years for the empire to fragment into many smaller states. While many of these emerging “successor states” continued to claim allegiance to the Mughal court, most were pretty independent by the middle of the eighteenth century. Why did the empire disintegrate so quickly? As we have seen, the Mughals’ success went hand-in-hand with growing economic strength. Yet some of the biggest winners had been local elites in the provinces—groups like the Jats in northwestern India, whose new-found prosperity allowed them to flex their muscles. As these local groups and regional rulers appointed by the Mughals struggled against each other, the power of the imperial center weakened. It was, arguably, the Mughal state’s own success that brought about its eventual downfall.

Hannah Archambault is a scholar of early modern South Asia with a particular interest in borderlands, migration, military cultures, and gender. She completed her dissertation, titled “Geographies of Influence: Two Afghan Military Households in 17th & 18th Century South India,” and received her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 2018.