Mughal Administration

7/28/2019 Mughal Administration

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Mughal Administration


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Akbar introduced major changes in

administration

Akbars theory of state


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Features

Mughals imported certain foreign elements into theiradministrative system

Perso-Arabic system in the Indian setting.

Based on the military system: Mansabs

Centralized despotism

Blend of religion and politics existed

Paper administration: growth of official records

Aim: police duties and revenue collection

System of public corporations

Administration of justice largely left to local administration

Villages and small towns enjoyed parochial self-government ratherthan local autonomy. They had no political freedom


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Personnel Administration

All civil servants were enrolled in the army as mansabdars Although no military obligation was always incumbant on the

mansabdar

Principle of hierarchy and job classification can be seen

Recruitment: entirely in kings hand

Transfer: king had the final say

Pay: Each grade had a pay out of which one had to also maintain atroop. Jagir system was also prevelant.

Despite job classification an officer could be at any time entrustedwith a new duty; all offices were inter-changeable

Doctrine of escheat: jagir and mansab were not hereditary. Theproperty escheated to the crown on the death of themansabdar/jagirdar.


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Personnel Administration

Worked on the maxim: career open to talent

Appointment: rested with the emperor

Qualification: no hard and fast rule No rules of promotion


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Provincial Administration

Provincial admin was a miniature of the central admin

Divided the empire into 15 subahs Incharge: subedar

Number of Subahs increased later

Subedar concentrated in his hands the civil and military powers of the

province Subedars court was the highest court of appeal in the subah

He was transferred every 3-4 years

Subedar and Diwan had almost similar status in a subah. This led to conflicts and violation of the principle of unity of command

Sadar, ulema, qazi, fauzdar etc

Provincial Bakshi was incharge of the military establishment Kotwal was incharge of police in big towns

The central govt maintained a regulating chain of communication betweenitself and the provincial governments.


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Local Administration

Subah divided into sarkars. Sarkars divided into Paraganas. Paraganas intovillages.

District governed by a shiqdar or a faujdar

Amalguzar: head of revenue administration (aka Krori) Revenue collectors were under orders not to oppress the cultivators while

collecting the state demands Other officers

Bitikchi: record keeper of land revenue

Khazandar: treasury officer

Sarkar divided into paraganas (tehsils) Tehsils had a batch of subordinate officers

Shiqdar, amil, fotdar and qanungo Each tehsil had about 12 villages

Villages were the lowest units of administration Mughals gave legal sanction to the panchayats

Patwari and Chaukidar


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Law and Order Administration

The king and PM primarily responsible for

maintaining peace

Provincial level: Faujdar. Below him kotwal.

Villages neglected


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Judicial Administration

Emperor was the fountainhead of justice and highestappeal lay to him

Sadr-i-Sudur decided important civil cases especially ofa religious character

Chief Qazi (Qazi-ul-Quzat) was the highest judicialofficer

Main judicial funcationaries Mufti: expounded the law

Qzai: investigated the evidence Miradi: delivered the judgement

Miradi acted as a counterpoise to the Qazis influence


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No definite codes of law existed

Quran and Hadis were major sources of law

Officers were expected to know Hinducustoms while dealing with cases concerning

them

Qazis court had civil and criminal jurisdication

Criminal law is uniform irrespective of the

religion


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Revenue Administration

It adhered to the old practices, procedures andtraditions of the country

Revenue Dept under Wazir/Diwan

Diwans also at the provincial level Krori at local level to collect revenue

Mughal state was essentially a revenue collectingstate.

Bitikchi Land records and deeds

First time?


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Mansabdari System

No division between civil and military

functions of the state

The mansabdari system determined the rank,

pay-scale and the position of the imperial

officer in the royal court in respect of other

government officers


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Evaluation of the Mansabdari System

Merits

A systematic and progressive system to reorganise thearmy within the fold of despotic monarchy

First such system in India Improvement over the system of tribal chieftainship

and feudalism

Offices were not hereditary

Every mansabdar was held personally responsible tothe monarch

This eliminated all chances of dis-affection and revolts by themilitary officers


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Demerits

This system did not give birth to a national army

About 2/3rd of the mansabdars were either foreigners or theimmediate descendents of the foreign immigrants

Non-regimentation of the army

Hesitation on the part of the imperial govt to recruitall the soldiers of the mansabdars

No uniform rules were prescribed for systematictraining of the soldiers

The nature and the quality of the war weapons borneby them differed from contingent to contingent


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Provincial and Local

Centre

Subah - Subedar

Sarkar - Fauzdar Pargana - Shiqdar

Village


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Communication and Intelligence

Waqaya Nafis

Posted newswriters and spies all over the province


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Aspects of Secularism

Hindus were given high mansabs

Hindu customs were followed in cases related

to them


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Welfare

Revenue collectors were under orders not to oppress

the cultivators while collecting the state demands

Panchayats had some powers for local taxation

Responsibility for social development


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Centralised Despotism

For

The state was based on a military system with the

mansabdars responsible to the emperor

No division between civil and military power gave

immense power to the officials

Against

Some elements of decentralisation

Mughals had given a legal sanction to the

panchayati raj


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Legacy of MA for Indian Admin

Provincial administration Akbar was the first to develop an elaborate system of Provincial

Administration

Provinces had an administrative structure that was miniature of the imperialadministration

Similar to modern day states?

Kotwals The system of Kotwals was inherited by the British in modified form and

helped in the development of the modern police system

Kotwal was primarily a police chief who combined in his office the functions ofa municipal commissioner as well

Municipal Commissioner

Revenue administration Todar mals bandobast

Revenue officers continue to this day in some modified form: eg patwari

Division of provinces/districts.


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Conclusions

The monarchy, though benevolent, was backward in itsoutlook.

Elements of democracy were conspicuous by theirabsence.

It contained no element of self-criticism andendogenous reforms

Through their administration they installed an elementof homogeneity in the governance of the country

A useful element introduced by them was of compilingand codifying all the records.

Although it was a muslim state, no discrimination wasmade in the selection of personnel

Documents

Mughal Administration