NIHCR Webinar on Discourse of History on Indo-Pak History from Antiquity to Modernity IX: Muslim Rule in India
ISLAMABAD
The Mughal Empire at its zenith commanded resources unprecedented in Indian history and covered almost the entire subcontinent, said Prof Emeritus Aslam Syed on Monday.
From 1556 to 1707, during the heyday of its fabulous wealth and glory, the Mughal Empire was a fairly efficient and centralized organization, with a vast complex of personnel, money, and information dedicated to the service of the emperor and his nobility, said the guest speaker while addressing a Webinar on Discourse of History on Indo-Pak History from Antiquity to Modernity IX: Muslim Rule in India here.
Prof. Emeritus Aslam Syed has been serving the Centre for Religious Studies, Ruhr Universität, Bochum, Germany. He remained Chairman, Department of History, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad and also served the NIHCR as its Director.
Responding to a question, Prof Syed said that much of the empire’s expansion during that period was attributable to India’s growing commercial and cultural contact with the outside world. The 16th and 17th centuries brought the establishment and expansion of European and non-European trading organisations in the subcontinent, principally for the procurement of Indian goods in demand abroad, he said.
The Webinar was arranged online by the National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research (NIHCR), Centre of Excellence, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, was attended by over 800 participants ranging from students, teachers and researchers to have greater insights into the valuable views of the guest speaker.
Replying to a question, Prof Syed said that Indian regions drew close to each other by means of an enhanced overland and coastal trading network, significantly augmenting the internal surplus of precious metals. With expanded connections to the wider world came also new ideologies and technologies to challenge and enrich the imperial edifice, he said.
It was the 28th consecutive session on the Discourse of History, a brainchild of the NIHCR Director Dr Sajid Mahmood Awan. This activity inculcates interest to learn more and more about history not only among students, scholars and historians as well as among ordinary people belonging to any field of life to know about nations’ ways of running their States in a journey from antiquity to modernity.
Dr Sajid Mahmood Awan was of the view that the empire itself, however, was a purely Indian historical experience. Mughal culture blended Perso-Islamic and regional Indian elements into a distinctive but variegated whole.
Supplementing Dr Awan’s perspective, Prof Syed said although, by the early 18th century, the regions had begun to reassert their independent positions, Mughal manners and ideals outlasted imperial central authority. The imperial centre, in fact, came to be controlled by the regions. The trajectory of the Mughal Empire over roughly its first two centuries (1526–1748) thus provides a fascinating illustration of pre-modern state building in the Indian subcontinent, he opined.
Responding to a question, Prof Syed said that the South Asian subcontinent is part of the Eurasian landmass. Like Europe, it has a long history of big empires and small states. In 1750, it was mostly governed through a loose confederation of powerful princely states and rich port cities, he said.
Replying to yet another question, Prof Syed said that in the eighteenth century, the control held by the Mughals had begun to change for two reasons. First, growing internal divisions led to rival groups challenging the central government of the declining empire. Second, European merchants and governments started looking for ways to get some of the empire’s wealth. Technically, the empire would survive until 1858. In reality, these two changes amplified each other and had already created a major crisis for the Mughal rulers in 1750.
The NIHCR Director Dr Awan conducted the Webinar by triggering a dialogue with Dr Syed for substantiating this discourse. This inclusive activity has been taken up every week for the benefit of students in general and capacity-building of the teachers and researchers in particular, he said.
