Aurangzeb’s deccan policy
 

[SIZE="3"][FONT="Palatino Linotype"][B][I][U][CENTER]AURANGZEB’S DECCAN POLICY[/CENTER][/U][/I][/B]


The Deccan policy of the Mughals was not determined by any single factor. The strategic importance of the Deccan states and the administrative and economic necessity of the Mughal empire largely guided the attitude of the Mughal rulers towards the Deccan states.


Aurangzeb was an advocate of direct conquest of the Deccan states. Immediately after his accession, he faced a very complicated situation in the Deccan. The growing power of the Marathas and the suspicious attitude of the Deccan states towards the Mughals made Aurangzeb much more careful to adopt aggressive policy in the Deccan. Aurangzeb's initial concern was to compel Bijapur and Golkonda to abide by the treaty of 1657 and to surrender those territories, which they agreed to cede to the Mughals in 1657.

[B][I][U]Treaty of Purandar[/U][/I][/B]

Jai Singh, the Mughal noble, wanted to pursue the forward policy in the Deccan and to get support of the Marathas. In this mission, he made the Treaty of Purandar (1664) with Shivaji. Then Jai Singh made two abortive attempts to conquer Bijapour. The death of Ali Adil Shah, the accession of Sikander Adil, a minor, in 1672 and the court intrigues in Bijapur provided a favourable ground for Aurangzeb's intervention in Bijapur.

[B][I][U]ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES[/U][/I][/B]

Aurangzeb appointed a very energetic general Bahadur Khan as the governor of the Deccan. Bahadur started by winning over the Bijapur nobles. Khawas Khan was one of such nobles who suggested a Mughal-Bijapur alliance against Shivaji. But before it could materialise, he was overthrown. Having failed in this attempt, the Mughals opened hostilities in 1676 by championing the cause of Bijapur's Dakhni party against Bahlol Khan-the leader of the Afghan nobles in Bijapur. But after Bahlol Khan had repeatedly defeated Bahadur Khan, the latter made a demonstration of high military preparedness which unnerved Bahlol Khan. Bahlol Khan allied with Bahadur Khan and connived at the Mughal conquest of Naldurg and Gulbarga in 1677. After that, he joined hands with the Mughal commander Diler Khan and they wrote to Aurangzeb against Bahadur Khan accusing him of hindering Mughal interests in the Deccan. Aurangzeb recalled Bahadur Khan and appointed Diler Khan to officiate as the subdar of the Deccan.

[B][I][U]PACT BETWEEN SIDDI MASUD AND MUGHALS[/U][/I][/B]

At Gulbarga, the Regent of Bijapur Siddi Masud made a pact with the Mughals with the provisions that

[B](1) [/B]Siddi Masud was to be the wazir of Bijapur but he must obey the orders of Aurangzeb.

[B](2)[/B] He should not make any alliance with Shivaji and should help the Mughals against him.

[B](3)[/B] Adil Shah's sister was to be married to one of Aufangzeb's sons.

However, on his return to Bijapur, Siddi Masud did not fulfill any of the terms of the pact. He tried to ally with Shivaji. Diler Khan made unsuccessful attempts to persuade Siddi Masud to fulfil the terms of the pact. Aurangzeb ordered an attack on Bijapur because Bahlol Khan had died, the Afghan soldiers had dispersed and the faction fighting at Bijapur court had intensified. Diler Khan bribed troopers to serve under the Mughals. .But Masud played dual diplomacy by allying with Shivaji against the Mughals and allying with Diler Khan against Shivaji.

[B][I][U]BIJAPUR[/U][/I][/B]

A Mughal contingent was invited to Bijapur, royally welcomed and then sent with the Bijapuri auxiliaries against the Marathas. Meanwhile, Diler Khan destroyed and occupied a number of Shivaji's possessions. Siddi Masud's position became very weak because a large number of his troopers joined Diler Khan's camp. Therefore, in 1679, Adil Shah's sister was sent to the Mughal Court to be married to Prince Azam in 1679. The enmity between the Mughal governor of the Deccan, Shah Alam and Diler Khan led the former to make peace with Bijapur in the beginning of 1680. In Bijapur, the khutba was read and coins struck in Aurangzeb's name.

This was the greatest achievement of Shah Alam as the Viceroy of the Deccan. He succeeded in establishing Mughal suzerainty over Bijapur by peaceful diplornacy which Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb had failed to achieve even through military strategy. Adil Shah accepted Mughal suzerainty because he was weak, his administration was slack due to factionalism at his court and his nobles had deserted to the Mughal camp.

[B][I][U]ANNEXATION OF BIJAPOUR[/U][/I][/B]

This good relationship between the Mughals and Bijapur got ruptured because the Mughals sought help from Bijapur against Sambhaji, but instead of helping the Mughals, Bijapur secretly assisted the Marathas. During 1682-83, the Mughals ravaged Bijapur territory and tried to capture Bijapur itself but failed. In 1684, Aurangzeb put the following demands before Adil Shah:
[B]
(i)[/B] to supply provisions to the Mughal Army;

[B](ii)[/B] to keep open the roads for the Mughal army to march against Sambhaji;

[B](iii) [/B] To send five or' six thousand cavalry to help the Mughals against the
Marathas;

[B](iv)[/B] Not to conspire with Sambhaji and

[B](v) [/B] To expel the nobel Sharza Khan from Bijapur.

But Adil Shah, instead of complying with the demands, made the following counter demands;

[B](i)[/B] to remit the amount taken by Diler Khan;

[B](ii)[/B] to restore the jagir of Sharza Khan occupied by the Mughals and

[B](iii)[/B] to restore Bijapur territory so far occupied by the Mughals.


He refused to expel Sharza Khan with the plea that if he did so, the latter would join the Marathas.

Such a situation further widened the gap between the Mughals and Bijapur. On the Emperor's orders, the Mughals opened the campaign in 1685 and Sikandar Adil Shah surrendered to them in 1686. He was made a captive and the Bijapur state became a part of the Mughal Empire.

[B][I][U]GOLKONDA[/U][/I][/B]

Aurangzeb was not happy over the developments in Golkonda, particularly with the role of Madanna and Akama who were believed to have joined hands with the Marathas against the Mughals. He learnt that Abdullah Qutb Shah had been financially helping Shivaji's son Sambhaji. Abdullah's promise of large military help to Sikandar Adil Shah during the Mughal invasion of 1685 also came to the Emperor's knowledge. He ordered Prince Muazzam to invade the Qutb Shahi territory. In the second battle of Malkher in 1686, Qutb Shahi forces were routed. It led to the defection of the Qutb Shahi nobles to the Mughals which forced Abdullah to leave Hyderabad, and shut himself in Golkonda fort. The Emperor reached very close to Golkonda fort in 1687 and besieged it. After eight months siege, Abdullah surrendered to the Mughals. He was imprisoned in Daulatabad fort and Golkonda became a part of the Mughal empire.

[B][I][U][CENTER]CONCLUSION[/CENTER][/U][/I][/B]

Personal whims or religious considerations of the Mughals did not dictate their policy towards the Deccan states. There is a trend among some historians to criticize the Auranzeb’s policy in the Deccan as wrongly devised and the Mughal Empire ultimately had to pay for it. Passing such judgment would be historically incorrect. In view of the prevailing situation in the Deccan, specifically the rise of the Marathas on the one hand and the existing enmity and-distrust among the Deccan states on the other, made the Mughal intervention in the Deccan inevitable. If we look closely at different phases of the Mughal policy in Deccan, it seems clear that the Mughal rulers certainly considered the contemporary situation before taking any step towards the Deccan states. Different factors guided their attitude towards the Deccan states. Their occasional failure in the Deccan was not only because of their lack of understanding the Deccan problem but the factional fightings of the Mughal nobles as well as their questionable loyalty was equally responsible for the debacle in the Deccan affairs. So one should look at the Deccan policy of the Aurangzeb from a broader perspective, instead of narrowing down on any single factor.

Initially Aurangzeb did not want to annex Bijapur and Golkonda, but ultimately both the states were annexed to the Mughal empire. This annexation did not bring the Deccan problem to an end, rather by the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century the crisis again cropped up in the Deccan and the major threat to the empire came from the Marathas.
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