The Mughal Empire
followed military laws, with each officer of the Mughal state a part of the
army. The emperor was a despot and had limitless liberty in making laws.
Although he could discuss with the minister council of ministers but in the end
his words was the Law. The great Mughal emperors were those, who ruled reasonably
and rightly who involved their ministers in making judgments.
Akbar was the most important Mughal Emperor of
the Mughal Empire who mostly focused on the administrative system to a greater
extent, for the early two Mughal kings - Babur and Humayun did not in fact get
the opportunity to implement much of a system. Akbar's duty was basic as he
inherited some measure of Sher Shah's structure of organization. During Akbar's
time the structure worked very well, but it began to worsen during the time of
his successors. As mentioned before, all officers were part of the army. Each
officer was given a specific responsibility, and was paid a monthly wage.
During Akbar's time, the structure worked very well because of Akbar's incredible
skill to select the right man for the right work, though such good organization
slowly declined during the sovereignty of his successors. The officers were moreover
paid their wages in cash or were given land for short periods of time, on which
they could get income.
The revenue system is
a key part of every government and the Mughals had a reasonably well structured
system of revenue collection. Land revenue continued to have an important
source of income for the state. Other resources were trade, industry, transport
were the other resource around the time Akbar became the emperor the land
revenue system was reasonably incompetent with a mix up of nobles, landlords
etc. involved in land possession and revenue collection. Akbar when he understood
the importance of an well-organized land revenue policy for an growing empire.
He attempted a new arrangement, in which he first eliminated all current land
holdings. The empire was then divided into a series of land assets, each
yielding a fixed sum of revenue every year. These areas were then given to an
officer called a Krori, whose job was the gathering the revenue
and support cultivation. However the Krori's were corrupt despots at whose
hands the farmers went through tremendous suffering. The system was quickly eliminated
and the earlier system re-established. In 1852 AD an important new improvement
took place in the re-organizational attempt of land revenue. Todar Mall was
appointed to the position of Dian-I-Ashraf.
A new arrangement was established which had three divisions.
The system was basically
fair, as the land would be only charged for the portion where cultivation was
done. Tax was one third of the production, and the landholders could pay the
tax in either cash or kind. The financial cost of the crops varied depending on
the kind of crop and the prevailing market conditions.
To assist in the functions
of administration and revenue collection, the Mughal Empire was separated into
a hierarchical system of areas. The empire was first separated into a number of subahs. Which in turn into paraganas which
was a combination of several villages. At each stage there were some
officers who administered operations like revenue estimation and collection
etc. Their instructions were to collect revenue in a just and well-organized
manner and not put undue stress on villagers, particularly if they had experienced
a natural disaster. The entire arrangement worked reasonably well, the landowners
now had a sense of safety with a developed structure and were given a reasonable
amount of flexibility in paying their outstanding amount.
During the era of the
Mughal Empire there was no official written law, but there was a keen awareness
among the Mughal emperors to convey immediate justice to its citizens. The
justice structure placed even higher officers content to the law, and possibly
the only person actually above the law was the emperor himself. As they were extremely
eager on justice, but for the majority of the Mughal period, appealing to the
emperor was a difficult procedure. Two extraordinary exceptions were Akbar and Jahangir,
who permitted subjects to directly appeal them. In addition to the emperor present
were other officers in charge of justice. The chief justice was called as the Quazi-ul-Quazat. He was in charge of taking care of the
judicial system throughout the empire. For this reason he was answerable for
the appointment and administration of Quazi's all over the empire. Under them
there were no subordinate courts. Most villagers though determined their cases
in the village courts itself. The punishments were quite brutal, ranging from prison
sentence to amputation, mutation and thrashing. The authorization of the
emperor was though compulsory for capital punishment. In the Mughal judicial structure,
the emperor was the ultimate court of appeal.
At the same time as
the Mughal Empire was capable to once again offer a structured government to
India, it failed to evoke the effectiveness and competence of those governments
from the era of the Mauryas and Guptas. Hence they were able to bring together
India only under a kingdom, not under a government. This confirmed to be a
serious fatal flaw, because after the down-fall of the greater Mughals, the
already independent regions of the empire affirmed themselves independent.
Vignesh Nathan
FSLE-3
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