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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