1. Mughal Administration

2. • Akbar introduced major changes in
administration
• Akbar’s theory of state

3. Features
• Mughals imported certain foreign elements into their
administrative system
– Perso-Arabic system in the Indian setting.
• Based on the military system: Mansabs
• Centralized despotism
• Blend of religion and politics existed
• Paper administration: growth of official records
• Aim: police duties and revenue collection
• System of public corporations
• Administration of justice largely left to local administration
• Villages and small towns enjoyed ‘parochial’ self-government rather
than local autonomy. They had no political freedom

4. Personnel Administration
• All civil servants were enrolled in the army as mansabdars
– Although no military obligation was always incumbant on the
mansabdar
• Principle of hierarchy and job classification can be seen
• Recruitment: entirely in king’s hand
• Transfer: king had the final say
• Pay: Each grade had a pay out of which one had to also maintain a
troop. Jagir system was also prevelant.
• Despite job classification an officer could be at any time entrusted
with a new duty; all offices were inter-changeable
• Doctrine of escheat: jagir and mansab were not hereditary. The
property escheated to the crown on the death of the
mansabdar/jagirdar. <later made hereditary>

5. Personnel Administration
• Worked on the maxim: ‘career open to talent’
• Appointment: rested with the emperor
• Qualification: no hard and fast rule
• No rules of promotion

6. Provincial Administration
• Provincial admin was a miniature of the central admin
• Divided the empire into 15 subahs
– Incharge: subedar
– Number of Subahs increased later
– Subedar concentrated in his hands the civil and military powers of the
province
– Subedar’s court was the highest court of appeal in the subah
– He was transferred every 3-4 years
• Subedar and Diwan had almost similar status in a subah.
– This led to conflicts and violation of the principle of unity of command
• Sadar, ulema, qazi, fauzdar etc
• Provincial Bakshi was incharge of the military establishment
• Kotwal was incharge of police in big towns
• The central govt maintained a regulating chain of communication between
itself and the provincial governments.

7. Local Administration
• Subah divided into sarkars. Sarkars divided into Paraganas. Paraganas into
villages.
• District governed by a shiqdar or a faujdar
• Amalguzar: head of revenue administration (aka Krori)
– Revenue collectors were under orders not to oppress the cultivators while
collecting the state demands
• Other officers
– Bitikchi: record keeper of land revenue
– Khazandar: treasury officer
• Sarkar divided into paraganas (tehsils)
– Tehsils had a batch of subordinate officers
– Shiqdar, amil, fotdar and qanungo
• Each tehsil had about 12 villages
• Villages were the lowest units of administration
– Mughals gave legal sanction to the panchayats
– Patwari and Chaukidar

8. Law and Order Administration
• The king and PM primarily responsible for
maintaining peace
• Provincial level: Faujdar. Below him kotwal.
• Villages neglected

9. Judicial Administration
• Emperor was the fountainhead of justice and highest
appeal lay to him
• Sadr-i-Sudur decided important civil cases especially of
a religious character
• Chief Qazi (Qazi-ul-Quzat) was the highest judicial
officer
• Main judicial funcationaries
– Mufti: expounded the law
– Qzai: investigated the evidence
– Miradi: delivered the judgement
• Miradi acted as a counterpoise to the Qazi’s influence

10. • No definite codes of law existed
• Quran and Hadis were major sources of law
• Officers were expected to know Hindu
customs while dealing with cases concerning
them
• Qazi’s court had civil and criminal jurisdication
• Criminal law is uniform irrespective of the
religion

11. Revenue Administration
• It adhered to the old practices, procedures and
traditions of the country
• Revenue Dept under Wazir/Diwan
• Diwans also at the provincial level
• Krori at local level to collect revenue
• Mughal state was essentially a revenue collecting
state.
• Bitikchi
– Land records and deeds
– First time?

12. Mansabdari System
• No division between civil and military
functions of the state
• The mansabdari system determined the rank,
pay-scale and the position of the imperial
officer in the royal court in respect of other
government officers

13. Evaluation of the Mansabdari System
• Merits
– A systematic and progressive system to reorganise the
army within the fold of despotic monarchy
– First such system in India
– Improvement over the system of tribal chieftainship
and feudalism
– Offices were not hereditary
– Every mansabdar was held personally responsible to
the monarch
• This eliminated all chances of dis-affection and revolts by the
military officers

14. • Demerits
– This system did not give birth to a national army
• About 2/3rd of the mansabdars were either foreigners or the
immediate descendents of the foreign immigrants
– Non-regimentation of the army
– Hesitation on the part of the imperial govt to recruit
all the soldiers of the mansabdars
– No uniform rules were prescribed for systematic
training of the soldiers
– The nature and the quality of the war weapons borne
by them differed from contingent to contingent

15. Provincial and Local
• Centre
• Subah - Subedar
• Sarkar - Fauzdar
• Pargana - Shiqdar
• Village

16. Communication and Intelligence
• Waqaya Nafis
– Posted newswriters and spies all over the province

17. Aspects of Secularism
• Hindus were given high mansabs
• Hindu customs were followed in cases related
to them

18. Welfare
• Revenue collectors were under orders not to oppress
the cultivators while collecting the state demands
• Panchayats had some powers for local taxation
• Responsibility for social development

19. Centralised Despotism
• For
– The state was based on a military system with the
mansabdars responsible to the emperor
– No division between civil and military power gave
immense power to the officials
• Against
– Some elements of decentralisation
– Mughals had given a legal sanction to the
panchayati raj

20. Legacy of MA for Indian Admin
• Provincial administration
– Akbar was the first to develop an elaborate system of Provincial
Administration
– Provinces had an administrative structure that was miniature of the imperial
administration
– Similar to modern day states?
• Kotwals
– The system of Kotwals was inherited by the British in modified form and
helped in the development of the modern police system
– Kotwal was primarily a police chief who combined in his office the functions of
a municipal commissioner as well
– Municipal Commissioner
• Revenue administration
– Todar mal’s bandobast
– Revenue officers continue to this day in some modified form: eg patwari
– Division of provinces/districts.

21. Conclusions
• The monarchy, though benevolent, was backward in its
outlook.
• Elements of democracy were conspicuous by their
absence.
• It contained no element of self-criticism and
endogenous reforms
• Through their administration they installed an element
of homogeneity in the governance of the country
• A useful element introduced by them was of compiling
and codifying all the records.
• Although it was a muslim state, no discrimination was
made in the selection of personnel