Murshid Quli Khan transferred the capital of Awadh from Dhaka to Murshidabad. 

1. Mughal Empire during First Half of $18\mathrm{th}$ Century:

(i) The Mughal Empire was reshaped with the emergence of a number of independent kingdoms.

(ii) By $1765$ the British had taken over large parts of eastern India. Thus, the political conditions of the Indian subcontinent changed dramatically within a short span of time.

2. Crisis of Empire and Later Mughals:

(i) One of the important factors of the crisis of the empire was that Emperor Aurangzeb fought a long war in Deccan and had depleted the military and financial resources.

(ii) The later emperors were finding it difficult to keep a check on the powerful mansabdars.

(iii) Nobles (Subedar) controlled the revenue and military administration of their provinces which made them powerful. They often refused to pay the revenue to the emperor.

(iv) In many parts of northern and western India peasants and zamindars rebelled due to the pressures of paying taxes.

(v) The powerful chieftains tried to consolidate their positions and seized the economic powers.

(vi) The emperors after Aurangzeb were unable to stop the gradual shifting of the political and economic authority into the hands of the provisional governors, local chieftains and other groups.

(vii) The competition between the different groups of nobles further weakened the empire.

(viii) The later Mughal emperors were puppets in the hands of either the Iranis faction nobles or Turanis, Turkish descent faction nobles.

(ix) Farrukh Siyar $(1713-1719)$ and Alamgir II $(1754-1759)$ were assassinated, two others Ahmad Shah $(1748-1754)$ and Shah Alam II $(1759-1816)$ were blinded by their nobles.

3. Invasion by Nadir Shah:

(i) In the year $1739$, Nadir Shah, the ruler of Iran plundered Delhi and took away a lot of wealth.

(ii) The Afghan ruler, Ahmad Shah Abdali, invaded five times between $1748$ and $1761$.

4. Emergence of New States:

(i) The Mughal Empire gradually fragmented into a number of independent regional states in the eighteenth century with three overlapping groups: 

(a) Old Mughal provincial states were extremely powerful and independent.

(b) States of several Rajput.

(c) States under the control of Marathas, Sikhs and others like Jats.

5. Old Mughal Provinces:

(i) Three states were founded by members of high Mughal nobility who had been governors of large provinces – Sa’adat Khan (Awadh), Murshid Quli Khan (Bengal) and Asaf Jah (Hyderabad) carved out these provinces in the eighteenth century after having been mansabdars and enjoying the confidence of the emperors:

(a) Hyderabad:

• Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah, the founder of Hyderabad state $(1724-1748)$.
• He gained the financial and political administration of the Deccan provinces during $1720-22$.
• He brought in skilled soldiers and administrators from northern India.
• He appointed mansabdars and jagirs independently.

(b) Awadh:

• In $1722$, Burhan-ul-Mulk Sa’adat Khan was appointed subadar of Awadh.
• He also held the combined offices of subadari, diwani and faujdari which meant that he was responsible for the political, financial and military affairs of the province.
• Burhan-ul-Mulk reduced the influence of Mughals in the Awadh region.
• He appointed his own loyal servants to vacant positions when he reduced the size of jagirs.
• The revenues of all jagirdars were reassessed by officials of the Nawab’s court to prevent cheating.

(c) Bengal:

• Murshid Quli Khan who was appointed as deputy to the governor founded Bengal.
• He commanded the revenue administration of the state.
• He transferred all the jagirdars to Orissa and ordered a major reassessment of the revenues of Bengal.
• Revenue was collected in cash and strictly enforced to pay by lending or by selling their lands.

6. Watan Jagirs of Rajputs:

(i) The Rajput kings of Amber and Jodhpur served the Mughals with distinction and in turn, they enjoyed considerable autonomy in their watan jagirs.

(ii) They claimed subadari of the rich provinces of Gujarat and Malwa.

(iii) They also tried to extend their watans by seizing portions of imperial territories.

7. Seizing Independence:

(i) The Sikhs:

(a) The regional state building in Punjab as a political community began in the seventeenth century.

(b) The Khalsa revolted against the Mughals under Bahadur’s leadership after the death in $1708$, Banda Bahadur was captured in $1715$ and executed in $1716$.

(c) The Sikhs again organised themselves into a number of bands called Jathas.

(d) The Khalsa was inspired by Guru Gobind Singh with a belief that their destiny was to rule (raj karega khalsa).

(e) They successfully succeeded to resist the Mughal governors first and then to Ahmed Shah Abdali because of their well-knit organisation.

(f) The Sikh territories were divided under different rulers.

(g) In $1799$, Maharaja Ranjit Singh reunited these groups and made Lahore his capital.

(ii) The Marathas:

(a) The Maratha kingdom was carved out by Shivaji $(1627-1680)$ with the help of warrior families (Deshmukhs).

(b) The backbone of the Maratha army was peasant-pastoralists (kunbis) and were highly mobile.

(c) After Shivaji the Maratha power was under the control of Peshwa (or prime minister) with Poona as the capital.

(d) The Peshwas built a successful and powerful military organisation.

(e) The Maratha Empire expanded between $1720$ and $1761$ and curtailed the authority of the Mughals.

(f) In the 1720s, Malwa and Gujarat were seized and by 1730 the Maratha king was accepted as the overlord of the entire Deccan and he levied the chauth and sardeshmukhi.

(g) Marathas also had an effective administrative system.

(h) Agriculture was encouraged and trade was boosted.

(i) The powerful armies were raised by Maratha chiefs (sardars) such as Sindhia of Gwalior, Gaekward of Baroda and Bhonsle of Nagpur.

(iii) The Jats:

(a) The Jats consolidated their position during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

(b) Being prosperous agriculturalists, their towns Panipat and Ballabgarh emerged as important trading centres.

(c) Bharatpur was a strong state under Suraj Mal.

(d) The Bharatpur fort was built in traditional style, whereas at Dig they built an elaborate garden palace combining the style found in Amber and Agra.