Study Guide TEST 2 ASH 3100 01 Spring 2012 1 Mughal Empire 1526 1707 A D a Sources of the Mughal Empire o Barbar Nama Founder of Mughal Empire o Abul Fazl s Akbar b How did Akbar bind the diverse ethno religious elements within Mughal Empire Growth of a Persianized elite political culture Use of Persian together o Language Persian o Akbar s Theory of Kingship Divine Birth o Akbar s Religious Policy Din i Ilahi or Divine Faith Influenced by Hindu Sufi Jain Christian beliefs Akbar s Paternalism Accommodating non Muslims o Abolition of Jizyah Pilgrim tax o Appointment of Hindus o Worship of sun fire o Banning animal slaughter o Rajput wives o Indo Persian court etiquettes Sijda Jharoka Darshan Paibos Kurnish c Mughal architecture o Features Indo Islamic architecture Geometric of floral designs Quranic verses Hindu Motifs Lotus bell Hindu craftsmen Red sandstone marble Taj Mahal Red Fort Jama Masjid 1 2 Mughal Harem a Sources European travelers accounts Francois Bernier Niccolao Manucci spent 17 years with Mughals Mughal court historians works Abul Fazl s Akbar Nama b Challenging the stereotypes concerning the harem o The harem in reality Site of household politics and tension Complex set of relationships Power and wealth Women were Powerful Not aloof from wider world Political affairs conducted in the harem Production of royal heirs give birth to males b Who had access to the harem o King s primary secondary wives o Senior women mothers o Dancing and singing girls o Eunuchs c Roles of the harem inmates o Wives o Mothers o Eunuchs o Servants Supreme authority Surrogates of the master Ran errands o Female guards Security of the Harem d Political role of the harem o The politics of Motherhood marks the promise of a new life o Politics in the wider world o Being the King s favorite Attention and affection e Akbar s harem The most inaccessible of the inaccessible o Distinctive features Honoring by Seclusion Fatehpur Sikri The Absent Mothers No favorites Powerful Foster community Servants Bairam Khan 2 Eclectic Harem Rajputs f Harem slavery g British misunderstanding of harem slavery o What was the outcome Mughal harem erotic East The Contagious Diseases Act 1868 Slave monitors prostitues Lock Hospitals 3 India encounters Europe Road to Colonialism a India between empires A weak Mughal Empire o Financial crisis o Rise of regional powers like Bengal o Factionalism among Mughal nobility poisoning each other o Lesser Mughal o Aurangzeb last of the Great Mughals 18th century Delhi In Ruins o Chronicler of this turbulent period o Powerful Mughal Legitimacy Indian Ocean Trade o 1500 1750 Indian merchants and British traders collaborate o After 1750 British traders dominate o Trade items tea silk spices textiles Rise of the British East India Company o India focal point of East India s Co Trade o Bengal o A successful kingmaker could become rich b From Trade to Colonization o Battle of Plassey 1757 Siraj ud Daula Bengal Nawab vs Robert Clive o Battle of Buxar 1767 Bengal Nawab vs Robert Clive o Diwani 1865 The right to collect revenue c East India Company Rule o Army Military despotism sepoys from Urdu word Sipahi soldiers the Inidans who fought the balk of the army majority Largest European style standing army in the world British held highest positions Lower ranks occupied by Indians 3 o Bureaucracy Court of directors London Governor Generals Calcutta Capital of British East India Co Directly administered territories Bengal Princely states o Economy Trade Land Revenue Opium Drain of Wealth o Society Evangelical Christianity English as the medium of instruction Introduction of Western education in India d Introduction of English education in India o Motive To expose young Indian females and males to western values and o Institutions Hindu College education Important because First English educational institution founded in India in1818 English as medium language o Young Bengal movement Led by Henry Derozio Discovering the Injustices of English rule Exposed to language and morals of the west and opens their eyes o Baboos The men and women who would try to imitate the British Dressing up Speaking like the British Borrowing British culture Largely from Middle Class 4 Sex and the Family in Colonial India a 18th century Indomania Fascination with Indian past Racism not strong Love of ancient Indian culture Translation of ancient Indian Sanskrit texts b Interracial families o Challenges faced by historians studying native Indian mistresses 4 Namelessness of Indian Women only have English last name not Indian name written down o Sources Paintings Autobiographies Personal memoirs diaries o Examples The Palmer family William Palmer and Faiz Baksh Rare portrait Coexistence of 2 cultures in a same household The Kirkpatrick Family Worked for the English Indian East Company Married Khair Un Nissa Became a Muslim Sir David Ochterlony s Family Nautch Girls dancing girls another way the British would mingle with Indian women c 19th century Indophobia Repulsion of India o Strong racism o Indians barbarians incapable of ruling themselves o British enlightened fit to rule India o Results Class hierarchy Physical space of Calcutta White town Black town Strict zones of demarcation within Calcutta Indians employed as servants d The dilemma of the white men Fear of losing national respectability State scandal Affairs private Fear of going native miscegenation Fate of the Indian Women Never brought out into public Anonymous Interracial liaison Act of social transgression Never an age of racial harmony o Disappearance of the native mistress o Reasons for their disappearance British officials to live in Indian Style Undermined the white status untainted by Oriental contact 5 Arrival of respectable European Women middle class women to India Critique of British sexual morality by educated Indians The Anglo Indian or Eurasian children of the interracial families Racism fear of degeneration race pollution o White European women and Indian men White men to protecting English female chastity Brown men Lustful Indian men Wrongly accused of raping white women e Hindu men and Hindu women o Sati widow immolation Sanskrit word good wife Hindu women would burn along with their husbands death at their grave Increased family s prestige To go to heaven with their husbands A goddess Upper class practice not lower class o The debate on sati British dilemma To intervene or not Educated Indians Anti sati lobby Pro sati lobby Missionaries