Rohilakhand and Farukhabad

The states of Rohilakhand and the kingdom of the Bangash Pathans were a fall out of the Afghan migration into India. Large scale immigration of Afghans into India took place in mid-18th century because of political and economic turmoil in Afghanistan. Ali Muhammad Khan took advantage of the collapse of authority in north India following Nadir Shah’s invasion, to set up a petty kingdom, Rohilakhand. This was the area of the Himalayan foothills between Kumaon in the north and the Ganga in the south. The Rohillas, as the inhabitants of Rohilakhand were known, suffered heavily at the hands of the other powers in the area, the Jats and the Awadh rulers and, later, the Marathas and the British. Mohammad Khan Bangash, an Afghan, set up an independent kingdom to the east of Delhi in the area around Farrukhabad, during the reigns of Farrukhsiyar and Muhammad Shah.

Nature and Limitations of Regional States The independent political systems that emerged in the provinces continued to maintain ties with the Mughal imperial authority and acknowledged the emperor’s importance as an umbrella. Even rebel chieftains of the Marathas and Sikhs recognised the Mughal emperor as the supreme authority.

The polity that emerged in these states was regional in character, and functional with the collaborative support of the different local groups like the zamindars, merchants, local nobles and chieftains. The provincial rulers had to take care of these various local interests in order to maintain themselves. Of course, there were exceptions; for instance, in Mysore, rulers did not recognise the local chieftains.

The regional states had certain limitations. The provincial rulers failed to develop a system based on sound financial, administrative and military organisation. Though some of them tried to modernise, notably Mysore, on the whole, they were backward in science and technology. Another drawback

was the constant warfare these states had with the neighbouring regional powers—wars in which none could ultimately dominate. In fact, these states were strong enough to challenge Mughal power, but none was able to replace it with a stable polity at an all-India level.

The jagirdari crisis intensified as income from agriculture declined, and the number of contenders for a share of the surplus multiplied. Though trade, internal and foreign, continued without disruption and even prospered, the rest of the economy stagnated.