Aurangzeb and the Mughal Empire's Slow Unraveling

The Mughal Empire at its peak controlled nearly the entire Indian subcontinent — roughly 150 million people, perhaps a quarter of the world's GDP in the early 17th century. By 1858, the last Mughal emperor was exiled to Rangoon by the British, tried for treason, and died there in 1862. The collapse took about 150 years, and the question of what caused it is still argued by historians.

Aurangzeb is usually cast as the villain. This is partly accurate and partly too convenient.

## What Aurangzeb Changed

Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707) reversed several policies of his predecessors — particularly Akbar's (r. 1556–1605) deliberate policy of Hindu-Muslim integration, the *sulh-i-kul* (absolute peace with all). Aurangzeb reimposed the *jizya*, a tax on non-Muslims, which had been abolished by Akbar in 1564. He demolished temples in Varanasi and Mathura, replacing some with mosques. He persecuted the Sikhs — the Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur was executed in 1675 under his orders.

Whether this religious consolidation was ideological conviction, political pragmatism, or both depends on which historian you read. What's clear is that it alienated Rajput nobles who had been crucial military allies of the empire since Akbar's time, and it galvanized resistance among communities that had previously coexisted within the Mughal system.

## The Maratha Problem

The most consequential military challenge to Aurangzeb was the Marathas, led initially by Shivaji Bhonsale (1630–1680). The Marathas developed a guerrilla warfare doctrine that exploited the Deccan plateau's geography against the heavier Mughal cavalry and artillery. Shivaji's forces would strike fast, disperse before a full Mughal response, and control mountain forts that were nearly impossible to take.

Aurangzeb spent his last 27 years — almost the entire second half of his reign — personally campaigning in the Deccan against the Marathas. He captured the Maratha kings Shivaji's son Sambhaji in 1689 and had him executed. The Maratha confederacy fragmented, then reconstituted. He took Bijapur and Golconda (1686–1687). He never decisively broke Maratha power.

The prolonged Deccan campaign was economically catastrophic. Aurangzeb's court and army relocated to the Deccan and never came back. The imperial treasury strained to fund decades of inconclusive warfare. The emperor himself was nearly 90 when he died in 1707, exhausted and, by his own account in letters, uncertain whether his campaigns had achieved anything lasting.

He wrote shortly before his death: *"I know not who I am, where I shall go, or what will happen to this sinner full of sins."*

## After Aurangzeb: Twelve Emperors in 50 Years

Aurangzeb died without a clear succession. Three of his sons fought a war of succession immediately after his death. This was not unusual — succession wars had plagued the Mughals before, including Aurangzeb's own rise to power, in which he imprisoned his father Shah Jahan and executed his brothers.

What was unusual was what came next. Between 1707 and 1757, twelve emperors occupied the Mughal throne. Most were puppets of competing noble factions. The *amirs* (nobles) and *nawabs* (provincial governors) became effectively independent, paying nominal tribute to Delhi while conducting their own foreign and military policies.

The Marathas were not passive during this period. After Aurangzeb, they expanded rapidly, extracting tribute from Bengal, Rajputana, and eventually sacking Delhi itself in 1737. The Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah had to recognize Maratha suzerainty over much of central India.

Then came another blow: Nadir Shah of Persia invaded in 1739, sacked Delhi, and carried off the Peacock Throne and the Koh-i-Noor diamond. Estimated 20,000–30,000 people died in Delhi during the three weeks of Persian occupation. The imperial treasury was stripped.

## The British Enter

British presence in India began commercially, with the East India Company (founded 1600) establishing trading posts in Surat (1608), Madras (1639), Bombay (1668), and Calcutta (1690). For most of the 17th century, the Company operated with Mughal permission, paying customs duties and appealing to Mughal courts when disputes arose.

The Battle of Plassey (1757) changed everything. Robert Clive's East India Company forces defeated the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, with the crucial help of Mir Jafar, who had secretly agreed to defect in exchange for becoming the new nawab. Bengal — the richest province in the subcontinent — passed under effective British control. The Company started governing territory, not just trading.

British control expanded through a combination of military conquest, alliance, and the deliberately destabilizing "Subsidiary Alliance" system — local rulers signed treaties requiring them to host British troops, which they had to pay for, while outsourcing their defense to the Company. This made them militarily dependent without British annexation costs.

The Mughal emperors became British clients. In 1803, British forces under Lord Lake defeated the Maratha forces near Delhi and occupied the city. The nominal Mughal emperor, Shah Alam II, who had been blinded by Afghan invaders in 1788, was now under British "protection."

The last emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was primarily a poet. He was dragged into the 1857 Uprising (also called the Indian Mutiny, or the First War of Independence, depending on your politics) by rebel soldiers who needed a symbolic figurehead. After the British suppressed the uprising, Bahadur Shah was tried by a British military commission and exiled to Rangoon. He died there in 1862, buried in an unmarked grave.

The Mughal Empire, which had once been one of the largest political entities in human history, ended not with a dramatic battle but with an old man dying far from Delhi.

Aurangzeb and the Mughal Empire's Slow Unraveling

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