IIThe Zamindars, the Madad-i Ma‘ash Holders and Mughal Administration in Awadh

c. 1707–1722

also plundered and usurped the revenue of Sumanpur, another village in the zamindari and milkiyat of the Mirs.95

The conflict between the zamindars, ‘the local despots’ and the madad-i ma‘ash grantees, the symbols and virtually the agents of the central government, originated in their divergent economic and political interests which must have also generated tension in the villages. But the latter’s newly acquired position accentuated it and often led to the eruption of violence. The madad-i ma‘ash holders were held in contempt even by the loyalists among the local magnates.96

It is not possible to say whether these developments affected, to the same extent, the towns where, as it has been suggested, the madad-i ma‘ash holders population was concentrated. However, the opinion that the majority of the madad-i ma‘ash holders in Mughal India lived in towns97 needs reconsideration. A fairly large number of these, as our sources conclusively show, were village based. They had their madrasas, libraries and (p.124) mosques in the villages. They also seem to have had close links with the zamindars of the neighbourhood. It may also be noted here that none of these instances of conflict indicated any process of basic change in the existing pattern of social relations. Their divergent interests, notwithstanding, the zamindars and the madad-i ma‘ash holders formed two sections of the same class that thrived and flourished on the expropriation of agrarian surplus. There appears also to be little difference in the character of the property of a jagirdar and a madad-i ma‘ash holder.98

We can, however, verify certain changes in the caste composition of the zamindars. According to the Ain, Rajputs and Kunbis were the dominant zamindar castes in Sahali and Fatehpur respectively. By the late-seventeenth century, however, Muslims also seem to have acquired some dominance among the zamindars of these parganas. How money contributed in corroding the caste bastions of old zamindars and introduced new elements in Mughal times is evident from the rise of the zamindaris by purchase in Haveli Bahraich, Husampur and Mallanwan. In the late-sixteenth century, Rajputs, Raikwars and Bisens and Bais had respectively been the dominant zamindar castes in Haveli Bahraich, Husampur and Mallanwan.99 However, there is also a possibility that these purchases of zamindaris were a result of a well-intended Mughal policy of installing and strengthening reliable zamindars.

II

The imperial government did not fail to make a bid to maintain and restore stability in the province. It adopted, and also encouraged and promoted some of the earlier administrative measures with a view to containing the turbulence. The policy related to the strengthening of loyalists and the creation of new zamindars in the midst of hostile (p.125) zamindaris, and also effecting some changes in jagir administration. But the measures had little success.

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