What impact did the Mughal empire have on India?

Answer 1

Pre-Colonial India

A) Government: In the early sixteenth century, India was invaded by Zahir-ud-Din Babur, leader of the Mughals. These descendants of the Mongals, led by Babur then steered a short empire which was based in the city of Samarkand. His son Humayun then took control of Delhi in 1555. Later on, Humayun's son Jalal-ud-Din Akbar then took over his position. (IndianChildTeam, 1995) This Mughal dynasty controlled India from the 16 hundreds to early 17 hundreds.

B) Economic development: The Mughal economy functioned on an elaborate system of coined currency, land revenue and trade. (Wikipedia, 2010) Trade was an extensive part of India economy during it Mughal era, over time, traders organized themselves into associations which received state patronage. (Wikipedia, 2010). The political system resulted from an administration developed by the Mughals, also sculpted by a well-developed. This assured the India was unified economically, despite having a traditional agrarian economy and a lack of technology.

C) Social development: This Pre colonization period was a mark for a vast period of social change in India. The majority of the Hindu population was continuously repressed by their Mughal emperors. (Wikipedia, 2010)These emperors showed religious lenience as they liberally patronized Hindu beliefs. Some Mughal emperors tried to create good ties with the Hindu population but these ties were feeble. The later emperor Aurangazeb tried to make India a country of Muslim dominance. Temples were destroyed and non-Muslims were overly taxed. (Wikipedia, 2010)

D) Cultural patterns: the Mughals were often known to use brutal tactics to conquer their new found empires, but with India they had a rather different approach, they had policy's to integrate their culture with that of the Indians, this approach succeeded in some areas which had failed before, like with the short-lived sultans of Delhi. Some of the more "India friendly" emperors such as Akbar the great were very fond of this idea, and it was put into immediate action. (Wikipedia, History of India, 2011) He brought back the Hindu text, the jizya, in which had been banned during the area of Hindu repression. Many emperors married local Indian royalty and allied themselves with Indian maharajas in an attempt to bring together their Turko-Persian cultures with that of ancient Indian culture. The reminiscence of this fuse can be seen today with Indo-saracenic architecture (Wikipedia, History of India, 2011).