(a) The Marathas posed a significant threat to the integrity of the Mughal Empire. Discuss. (20 marks) (b) "Haidar Ali was born…

Marathas and Mughal integrity The Marathas challenged Mughal sovereignty from the seventeenth century. Their raids, independent administration and claim to swarajya made the Mughal claim to universal sovereignty untenable in the Deccan. Shivaji’s execution of Afzal Khan in 1659, the plunder of Surat in 1664 and 1670, and the establishment of swarajya in 1674 demonstrated a rival political order. The Treaty of Purandar in 1665 temporarily subdued him, but his escape and subsequent conflicts showed a persistent challenge to Mughal sovereignty. Under the Peshwas, the threat became structural. The emperor’s authority became nominal in the Deccan and contested in the north. Baji Rao I’s raid on Delhi in 1737 and the defeat of Mughal forces at Bhopal in the same year exposed the emperor’s impotence. The Battle of Panipat in 1761, though a Maratha defeat, proved that their reach extended into the Gangetic Doab and north India. The Marathas also weakened the Mughal state by extracting chauth across the Deccan and beyond, while sardeshmukhi remained mainly a Deccan levy; their penetration into Malwa, Gujarat, Bundelkhand and the Doab turned Mughal provinces into tributary zones. This fiscal and military pressure coincided with Mughal nobiliary fragmentation and financial crisis after Aurangzeb, making the empire unable to defend its territorial integrity. Thus the Marathas did not merely raid Mughal territory; they reorganized its political space.

Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan Haidar Ali, as de facto ruler of the Wodeyar kingdom of Mysore, transformed it from a subordinate Deccan kingdom into an independent and centralized state. His centralization strengthened the state and created a more disciplined command. He modernized the army with French-trained infantry and rocket artillery, strengthened administration, and expanded against the Marathas, the Nizam and the British, as in the First Anglo-Mysore War of 1767-69. Tipu Sultan continued these reforms and pursued diplomacy with Ottoman Turkey and France, initially under Louis XVI and later with Revolutionary France. His embassies sought external support against British expansion. The quotation that Haidar was born to build an empire and Tipu to lose one captures the military vulnerability of Mysore after the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War of 1799. The defeat was therefore a colonial victory, not simply personal failure. Yet it is too narrow. Tipu’s Treaty of Mangalore in 1784, his economic development and his resistance to colonial expansion show that he was not merely a loser; he defended Mysore’s independence and projected its power in the Deccan.

Rise of Ranjit Singh Ranjit Singh’s rise was based on the unification of the Sikh misls from 1799 and the capture of Lahore in the same year. Lahore became the capital, and his court combined Sikh, Hindu and Muslim officials. He established Khalsa rule while giving non-Sikhs a place in administration and the army. The Fauj-i-Khas and Fauj-i-Ain were modernized, and his secular government incorporated Hindu and Muslim nobles. The Fauj-i-Khas served as the standing core, while the Fauj-i-Ain provided regional levies. The treaty with the British in 1809 secured a stable boundary, while expansion to Peshawar in 1834 extended Sikh power into the northwest. His success lay in combining military organization, administrative pragmatism and a multi-ethnic elite. This made the state durable beyond Ranjit Singh’s personal leadership.

Conclusion All three powers exploited the decline of Mughal authority. The Marathas challenged it from within the Deccan and north India, Mysore built a modernized state on the margins, and the Sikhs created a consolidated Punjab. Their rise shows that the Mughal Empire’s disintegration was not only internal decay but also the emergence of strong regional states that redefined Indian political order. Together they show the Mughal decline as a process of regional reconstitution.