Thread by @neverpooldead

Reality of #Tajmahal.
An episode from Shah Jahan’s life shows the contempt the Mughal court had for the people they ruled over and whose toil ensured their luxurious lifestyles.

https://twitter.com/TheSyedHaq/status/1663183717085396992

In March 1628 a grand feast was held on the occasion of Nauroz, the Persian new year. All the grandees of the Empire were invited to participate. The members of the royal family were granted gifts and titles.

Mumtaz Mahal, the imperial consort, was the recipient of the richest reward: she was granted Rs 50 lakh from the public treasury. His daughter Jahan Ara received Rs 20 lakh and her sister Raushan Ara, Rs 5 lakh.

During the period February-March alone, Shah Jahan expended altogether Rs 1 crore and 60 lakh from the public treasury in granting rewards and pensions.

Two years later a terrible famine hit the kingdoms of Golconda, Ahmednagar, Gujarat and parts of Malwa, claiming the lives of more than 7.4 million citizens of the Mughal Empire.

This makes it even greater than the British engineered famine of 1943 that killed between three and seven million Indians. The scale of the disaster was recorded by a lawyer of the Dutch East India Company who left an eyewitness account.

The Mughal induced famine was a direct result of Shah Jahan’s scorched earth policies in his wars against the southern, western and central Indian kingdoms.

To illustrate, when Mughal forces marched into Bijapur, they were ordered to “ravage the country from end to end” and “not to leave one trace of cultivation in that country”

Corpses piled up along the highways of the empire as millions of hungry people were on the march looking for food. Proud father offered their sons free as slaves so the young may live but found no takers. Mothers drowned themselves in rivers along with their daughters.

In the backdrop of this disaster, the amount Shah Jahan distributed for famine relief was a paltry Rs 100,000. It was 10 per cent of what he gave his favourite wife Mumtaz Mahal as her fixed annual maintenance.

His imperial treasury had Rs 6 crore in cash. The Taj Mahal cost more than Rs 4 crore to build. The famous Peacock Throne, covered with pearls and diamonds including the legendary Koh-i-Noor, was valued at Rs 3 crore.

If the reign of Rama, Ashoka (in his later years) and Harshavardhana could be considered the acme of generosity, the Mughal government was the exact opposite. Mughal rule was purely for the pleasure of the royal court, the emperor’s family and the vast harems.

The total expense of the Mughal state plus autonomous princelings and chiefs was about 15-18 per cent of national income, writes the economist Angus Maddison.

By one estimate, as many as 21 million people (out of a total population of approximately 150 million) constituted the predatory Mughal ecosystem – the court, family, army, harems, servants, slaves and eunuchs who produced nothing and only consumed.

As far as the economy was concerned, the Moghul state apparatus was parasitic,” writes Maddison. It was a regime of warlord predators which was less efficient than European feudalism.

The Moghul state and aristocracy put their income were largely unproductive. Their investments were made in two main forms: hoarding precious metals and jewels.

Sources:
K.S. Lal, Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India, Chapter 5/

S.M. Jaffar, The Mughal Empire From Babar To Aurangzeb, Page 228/

A Famine in Surat in 1631 and Dodos on Mauritius: A Long Lost Manuscript Rediscovered/

Muhammad Amin Kazwini Padshah-nama.