The Crisis of Empire in Mughal North India

Author: Muzaffar AlamPublisher: Oxford University PressYear: 2001Language: EnglishPages: 365ISBN/UPC (if available): 0-19-563000-9 DescriptionThis pioneering book examines two contrasting regions of north India and shows how the period 1707-48 saw the emergence of a new order with local and regional idioms, and in doing so it changes our understanding of eighteenth-century India. The period following the death of Aurangzeb has been viewed as the beginning of the decline and decay of the Mughal empire. The historiography of the period is replete with images of systemic failure, political fragmentation, social unrest , and economic decay. This pioneering book examines two contrasting regions of north India and shows how the period 1707-48 saw the emergence of a new order with local and regional idioms, even though echoes from the imperial period continued to be heard. In doing so it changes our understanding of eighteenth-century India. Drawing extensively on eighteenth-century Persi