The eighteenth century

1. India in the Era of Transition

2. Mughal Empire (1526-1707)
Early thesis of the 18
th
century
as an era of Darkness
Increasing Tax burden
Hindu Resistance / Wars of
Peasant Resistance/ Regional
Elites rising their heads
Complex struggle for supremacy
for empire
Changes in the pattern of class
formation

3. Independent Provinces
Warrior States of Sikhs,
Jats and Marathas
Local Kingdoms and
Warrior Adventurers
Mughal Legitimacy
Conquests, Intrigues and
Fractional Squabbles

4. Increased Agricultural
Productivity
Favorable Land Labor Ratio
Peasant and Artisan Mobility
Rise of Hereditary Land Holders
Thriving Internal Trade in Grain,
Textiles and Cattle
Rise of New Urban Centers
Decline of Ancient Indian Port
Cities and Indian Maritime
Traders

5. Popular Devotional Cults
Darga of Muinuddin Chisti and
complex religious rituals
Vaishnava Cult of Nadia
Varanasi as the center of Hindu
learning in South Asia
Idea of Hindu Padpadsahi in
Maharashtra
Sikh Muslim clashes
Emergence of the notion of Islamic
Revival (Shah Waliullah, 1703-
1762 and Shah Abdul Aziz1746-
1824)
Complex interaction between
religious heterodoxy and orthodoxy