RAS question
Aurangzeb's conflict with the Marathas, Sikhs, and Rajputs is considered a major reason for:
Correct answer: (D) Decline of the Mughal Empire.
Aurangzeb's prolonged conflicts with the Marathas, Sikhs and Rajputs are considered a major reason for the decline of the Mughal Empire.
Explanation
Aurangzeb's wars did not strengthen Mughal power; they strained it. His 25-year Deccan campaign against the Marathas, conflict with the Sikhs, including the execution of Guru Tegh Bahadur, and alienation of the Rajputs were pressures that weakened the treasury and army. NCERT supports the central point by saying Aurangzeb depleted the empire's military and financial resources through a long Deccan war, and that after him later Mughal emperors could not stop political and economic authority from shifting to provincial governors, local chieftains and other groups. The rise of Maratha, Sikh and Rajput power therefore fits the wider pattern of Mughal decline after Aurangzeb's death in 1707.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) The rise of British power was a later development, while NCERT focuses on Mughal exhaustion and the eighteenth-century shift of authority to regional powers after Aurangzeb.
- (B) The conflicts did not strengthen the Mughal Empire because they drained military and financial resources and created powerful enemies instead of consolidating imperial control.
- (C) These conflicts did not unify India; they contributed to fragmentation as authority moved away from the Mughal centre towards regional rulers and groups.
Concept
This tests the causes of Mughal decline and the emergence of eighteenth-century regional powers. It recurs in RAS because medieval Indian history often links imperial overextension, resource drain and regional assertion.