RAS question
Who was the Mughal Emperor when the East India Company obtained the Farman of 1717?
Correct answer: (D) Farrukhsiyar.
Farrukhsiyar was the Mughal emperor who issued the 1717 farman granting the English East India Company duty-free trade concessions in Bengal.
Explanation
The 1717 farman is tied to Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar, not to the earlier or later Mughal rulers listed in the options. It granted the English East India Company duty-free trade rights in Bengal and became known as the Company’s "Magna Carta" because it strengthened British commercial interests in India. IGNOU gives the core point more precisely: the imperial grant given by Mughal emperor Farukshiyar in 1717 gave duty-free concession to the Company’s imports and exports, but not to the private trade of Company servants. That distinction matters because misuse of the privilege later became a major source of conflict with Bengal’s Nawabs.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Jahandar Shah cannot fit the 1717 farman because his reign was brief and ended in 1713, before the grant in question.
- (B) Bahadur Shah I is ruled out because he died in 1712, five years before the 1717 farman.
- (C) Muhammad Shah came later, so he was not the emperor associated with the 1717 farman.
Concept
This tests the RAS history theme of early Company privileges under the later Mughals. It recurs because those commercial concessions help explain the later conflict between the East India Company and Bengal’s Nawabs.