Tabish Hashmi,
Research
Scholar, Dept. of History, Patna University
IRJMSH Vol 9 Issue 11 [Year 2018] ISSN 2277 – 9809 (0nline) 2348–9359 (Print)
In
the present writing“ Middle class and its attitude in Mughal India: A history
from the below in reference to Bihar” a
sincere endeavour has been taken to explore and unfold those pages of history which contain the myriad fact and
facets of social history of the time. For a long time not only in India but also in the world, it was a
fashion to view and study history as a subject of wars and the battles. Monarchs, Nobles, Warlords,
Feudal lords, Conquerors, religions etc were the only character sand the subjects of history in
those days. Gradually, in the 18thcentury, we find changes in the trend of history writings and many new
elements found their entrance. It was a period of the beginning of the professional writings and
the writers of this period were more concerned on topics like mercantilism, urbanism and
industrialisation. The new approaches opened new vistas of the life and the society. The new trend also
revealed the new facts, which are somewhat more
significant.
The study of the period of 16th and the 17thcenturies, in the context of India and specifically is more important than any other subject. While for Europe it was a period of utter political and social disturbance where the feudal lord and states, not nation states were at war with each other. The early towns of Europe likeVenice, Milan, Genoa and Padua were in their embryonic stage. They had hardlyanything to trade from their country and their economy was largely feudal economy. For a long time, they resorted to purchase commodities of day-to-day consumptionfrom countries of Asia and Arabia through bullion. At the same time, the scene inIndia was different. Here in the period of 16thand the 17thcenturies, the Mughals ruled over the most part of the sub continent. Their political stability ensured rapid urbanization and transformation of the social and economic condition of the country. The large influx of foreigners in the form of travellers, missionaries, scholars, traders and artisans vindicate the stand that during 16thand 17thcenturies, Indian cities were full of life. An important characteristic of urban life is the presence of middle classirrespective of time and age. But the presence of this class during the 16thand 17th centuries in India has been denied by many scholars and travellers. The genesis of this denigration comes from the statement of Francois Bernier, a French traveller of the 17th century. His denigration got acceptance by many foreign and Indian writers without going into the undercurrent of the changing socio-political and economic milieu of the time. But, as the time passed, new approaches were inculcated to analyse and articulate various aspects of history without any prejudice. Here in this writing, not only a sincere effort has been made to explore and establish the presenceof the middle class during 16th and 17th centuries in the light of modern research but also to depict the attitude of the middle class in the regional perspective of Bihar. In the said period, Bihar was on the focal point of country’s polity. In the second half of 17thcentury, the Mughals were busy in dealing with the Marathas and the Deccani states of Bijapur and Golcunda and the Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb himself moved to south in hot pursuit of Marathas and the Deccani states. The absence of Emperor for a longer period from Delhi has virtually created an atmosphere of political chaos. On the other hand, it was a formative period for many eastern regions like Subah-i-Bihar, which had become a subah of the Mughal Empire in 1580. People from different shades of life in pursuance of better prospect came and settled here. Urbanization, which begun here with Sher Shah and Islam Shah in an organized way, the Afghan rulers of Bihar was touching new heights under the Mughals. Patna, Munger, Sasaram, Bihar Sharif, Rajgir, Maner, Bakhtiyapur and Hazipur were some important towns and cities in the said period.. Patna in the time of Azimushan (1703) came to be known a Shiraz-i-Mashrique (Shiraz of Eastern )1. Merchants, traders, artisans, literary people, musicians etc., all came and settled here in various streams. Sufis ofvarious orders also came, settled, and left deep imprint on the changing socio economic milieu of the time. Foreigners also came in larger number and settled here. Diwan mohalla, Afghan mohalla, Mughal Pura, Mir Shikar mohalla in Patna city area are testimonials of their presence.
The socio-cultural atmosphere of Bihar in 16th
and 17th centuries was culturally and
intellectually highly charged and vibrant. The city dwellers though
remained in peace and maintained good
relationswith the ruling classes throughout the empire, but on various
occasions broughtforth their voices of
dissent. Such voices were the outcome of the clash of interests between the ruling class and neo middle class. The rapid
urbanization andinteractions among the regions
within the nation and with the foreign lands lead toincreased activities
and in this way, number of professional
groups in the qasbas, towns and cities of Bihar increased. The interests of
those who lived in such urban centres
were diagonally different and ultimately on occasions these varied interests brought them face to face. The
concept of the middle class originated in the fourteenth century in England with the rise of a trading
community, which monopolized certain spheres of
trade and gradually organized itself into associations and groups. This
urban-based class represented the
antithesis of the old regime, depended upon fief and personal service. The
new class comprised not only merchants,
but also professionals like doctors, teachers, priestly class, painters, master artisans, who as individuals
appeared to be independent of the feudal nobility. The rising middle class were steadily filling
thesocial and political vacuum that was, created by feudal decline. Monarchy, which was the initial
support behind its development.2 One of the peculiar features of the middle classes in Europe, was
that as a class it was independent of the State control, though as individuals, its members were quite
often in the pay of either a noble or the state itself. The basic element, which distinguished these
members of the middle class, was their
professionalism. In India, the existence of the middle class has been
denied in 16thand 17thcenturies in India
by a number of modem scholars based on a comment of Francois Bernier, a
French traveller who came to India
during 17th century. Bernier in his famous comment, claimed that, “there is no middle state in India”, A man
must be either of high rank or live miserably“.3 The difficulty with Bernier is that coming from France, he
tried to look at everything in Mughal India with European bias.
He
went so far as to consider the king as the proprietor of the land apparently
because the large size of revenue looked
to him as the proprietor’s rent. Having being, conditioned by emerging modern Europe, Bernier could never
imagine that the peasant could ever own the
land or the professional groups could have an independent status. By
witnessing the frequent transfers of the
Jagirdars, he knew the land could not belong to him. It is, therefore, not certain if Bernier was
accurately reporting when he spoke about the non existence of the middle class.
Secondly we should be further cautious as
Bernier is referring to middle state or
stratum and not talking of the middle class. W.H Moreland has accepted
the view of Bernier and also denied the
presence of this class in the Mughal Empire. The only exception he made was regarding the mercantile class,
whose existence he accepted; he also admitted
the existence ofsomething like a middle class in Bengal.4 B B Mishra in
his book Indian Middle Classes also believes that though this intermediate
group existed in some respect but didn’t
enjoy an independent position in this period. Karl Marx and later on Max
Weber had also held the view of a static
Indian society, without any real proto-capitalist or middle class.5 Recent studies have not only challenged
these views but also established firmly the
facts of the presence of a vibrant middle class. Wilfred Cantwell Smith
was the scholar of eminence who raised
the issue of the presence of middle class in the 16thand 17thcenturies during the Mughal rule. Middle classes, he
said, were intractable to the Mughal Empire.6 He hypothesized that the rise of the Mughal
Empire as a political, economic power and the
vibrant cultural process contributed from the early 16th century in the
rise of a prosperous merchant middle
class. He argues that the widespread prevalence of money economy greatly helped
in the growth of a class which based itself on a non-feudal income.7 Smith and
other scholars like of the present period S.A Rezavi reasoned that the large
sizeof the Empire greatly helped in the
growth of this class, as it facilitated unhindered long distance trade by the merchants. Secondly,
they argued that the mansabdari system
virtually meant an abolition of a purely landed upper class and its
transformation into a class of salaried government officials. Thirdly, he
pointed out that with the politico administrative unification, there was a
spurt in the construction of roads and sarais. It must have been, the merchants who would have
applauded the most when the roads were
constructed. Fourthly, Smith drew the attention to the second regulation
of the Twelve Ordinances proclaimed in
1605 by Jeehangir, when he ascended the throne, which is a pointer to the importance of the mercantile
and middle classes in the Mughal Empire. For
in the ordinance, Jahangir had tried to conciliate the merchants by
announcing the abolition of practices
harmful to their vocation. Lastly, Smith held that the systematization of the currency all over the Empire was an
indicator to the growth of this middle class. All this and much more points onwards a growing
money-economy and the conversion of land
revenue into cash,which in turn would lead to a cash nexus benefiting
and promoting the middle classes as
such. The prosperity and importance of the middle class in the Mughal Empire was no mere speculation. Moreland,
Chicherov, Pavlov and Satish Chandra have
supported the general thesis of Smith.
All of them discerned a widespread prevalence
of money-economy resulting from a
growing trend of production for the market in agricultural as well as non agricultural
sectors. They also say that the introduction of global commerce by various European companies and the subsequent
creation of merchant capital, which was further
helped by the putting out system or dadni testify to the prosperity
of merchants ,bankers and people belonging to
other professions.8
Irfan Habib also suggests a rural
monetization; which created surplus agricultural produce which aided urban growth.9 Iqtidar
Alam Khan took upthe issue in 1975 and
enumerated the various components of the middle class which he defined
with E.M.S. Namboodiripad as a class
consisting of all those who do not belong to either of the two main antagonistic classes.10 He has tried to
make a functional as well as structural study of the various components of this middle class
like the commercial and financial sections, the
lesser official functionaries and the professional classes , e.g.
physicians, scholars, artists, architects
etc. Thus from the beginning of the 14th century to the end of the pre-modern era, the middle strata or the middle class,
emerged and engaged itself at national and regional levels, in the spate of
rapid urbanization. During this period, the various constituents of themiddle class, viz.
merchants, traders, artisans, bankers, brokers,
teachers, officials, poets and the chroniclers ventured out of their
homeland to different parts of the
country for better prospects and settled themselves in important cities,
ports and trade marts but also in remote
production centre, far away from their own country. It was also a period, when a large number of
foreigners came to India. Among them the
chroniclers, the merchant and traders were the most prominent. These
foreigners came to India independently
in search of better avenues and for understanding the on-going socio economic
and political transformation. Thus, they created the infrastructure for an
efficient and successful long-distance
power network with strong link with their main centre. These travellers noticed the wide ranging changes
in the socio-cultural milieu of the time. The
history of India in general and the history of medieval period
specifically of the sixteenth and the
seventeenth centuries have been presented until now by scholars whose
attention has been primarily restricted
to the life of the upper strata of social milieu. Even within those narrow limits, their choice of subject
matter has been still further restricted in many cases to two aspects of that meaning, as full
as life itself, has been narrowed to describe
that segment of specialized study, which we ought to label merely
‘political history.
Another important aspect related to the middle
class characteristic, which is discussed
in details here, is the voice of dissent. It can also be reasonably argued that
in India from the very beginning of its
civilization enterprise nothing has remained singular for long. This plural tradition of urbanism
is the notion that there are many ways of
looking. Plurality accommodates difference and differences in their turn
embody and enact dissent.11 During the
16th and the 17thcenturies, the Mughals ushered in rapid transformation in the whole of the country.
The enormous changes in theeconomy and
polity led to rapid urbanization and with that, a stratified and hierarchical
society came into existence. Volume of
vast wealth of big merchants and traders is worth to be mentioned here. Virji Vohra, Haji Said Beg,
Manohar Das, Shanti Das, Khwaja Zafar are
famous among them. These are examples of trading community prosperity
prevailing in this period.12
John Marshall writing in second half of 17th
century gives a detailed accounts of the
prosperity of some of the cities of Subah i Bihar. He writes “a straight road
probably built by Sher Shah was running
from west to east city onthe bank of the river Ganga, on the sides of the road there were houses of
wealthy people, who used all sort of jewelleries from gold to ivory. Their women and children wore
all sort of jewelleries from head to toes on
occasions of festivals like Eid, shab-i-barat,Deewai and Dussehra and
also on occasions of urs and religious
gatherings”. 13 Peter Mundy has also described the festive behaviour of people living in Patna. He writes about the
festive behaviour of people living in Patna. He
narrated how on Eids, Shab-i- Barat, Holi and Diwali and in fairs and
Urs- the men, women and children wore
jewellery from neck to legs. Most of the jewellery were made locally by the local artisans in karkhanas of the city.
The local artisans locally made these jewelleries. But, some were imported from outside regions,
like the regions of south-east Asia.1 4The
description is indicative of the prosperity of town dwellers.The Hindu
men and women did not exhibit much
because of certain sort of fear as they
considered themselves less secure in the Muslim rule of the period. In
this period, we find the influx of foreign traders who were responsible for
triggering the pace of urbanization and
rise of different professional groups
The
population, which stayed in towns though lived in a peaceful manner and in
amicable relationship but on occasions
exhibited their dissent towards the ruling class and other dominating section. They on occasions
resisted the actions contradictory to their interest. In medieval India, rulers, nobles and
high-class people could never think of degrading them selves by belonging to any class other than
the highest. In that age, levelling would have
been revolting to the rich and probably embarrassing to the poor. In
medieval society, the ruling class and
the subject people were two well-recognized strata. However the Hindu middle strata were different in many ways.
They lived under the Muslim theocratic regime
and deliberately avoided the ostentatious life style. The contemporary
writers like Banarsidas in his famous
writing Ardhkathanak, Mohammad Sadique in Subhi-i Sadique, various ulemas and mashaikh , various bhakti
saints etc have well depicted the attitude of
the class which emerged out of the changing socio-cultural set up. The
artisans, merchants, painters, singers,
poets, tibbs and members of theocracy on occasion protested against the
highhandedness of Mughal officials. Like their fellows in other parts of the
Empire, here too, the same pattern of
protests applied. The most common was the closure of shops, observance of strikes and in extreme cases
migration to distant areas. Such were the
universal tactics of passive resistance in the middle ages as the state
was all powerful and were considered as
benevolent.
Reference:
1.
S Hasan Askari, Medieval India, KBL Patna, 1976 p.34
2.
Lewis and Maude, The history of World, London ,1979,pp.40-47
3.
Francois Bernier, in revised History of India V.A. Smith, New Delhi, 1983, p.
252
4.
W.H. Moreland, Inda at the death of Akbar, London, 1925 pp .26, 27
5.
For Karl Marx, see New York Herald Tribune, June 25, 1853, reprinted in
Articles on India, Bombay, 1943.
6.
W.C. Smith, London, 1949, pp.44-45
7.
ibid,p.132
8.
Moreland; A.l.Chicherov, Indian Economic Development in Sixteenth-
Eighteenth Centuries, Moscow, 1971p.453
9.
Irfan Habib, Potentialities of Capitalistic Development in the Economy of
Mughal India Enquiry, New Series, vol.
Ill, no.3, 1971, p.55.
10.
Iqtidar Alam Khan,;The Middle Classes in the Mughal Empire, A Historical
Study, English ed., Delhi, 1964,P.89
11.
Satish Candra, Presidential Address, Medieval India Section, Proceedings of
the
Indian History Congress, 1968
12.
Plaesert, Jehangir’s India, Cambridge, 1924.
13.
Marshall, Q. Ahmed, CHOB II , KPJS, Patna, 1976, pp.98-101
14.
Peter Mundy, CHOB II , pp.202-203