NCERT Solutions for Class 7 History Chapter 4 - The Mughal Empire

 ‘Zamindar’ was a term used by the Mughals to describe all intermediaries, whether the local headmen of a village or any powerful chieftain. The role of the zamindar in the Mughal administration was to collect revenues and taxes from the peasants, which were a source of income for the Mughals. They acted as an intermediate between the Mughals and the peasants, and in some areas, the zamindars exercised a great deal of power.

(a) The capital of Mirza Hakim, Akbar’s half-brother, was Kabul.

(b) The five Deccan Sultanates were Berar, Khandesh, Ahmadnagar, Bijapur and Golconda.

(c) If zat determined a mansabdar’s rank and salary, sawar indicated his number of cavalrymen.

(d) Abul Fazl, Akbar’s friend and counsellor, helped him frame the idea of sulh-i-kul so that he could govern a society composed of many religions, cultures and castes.

 The central provinces under the control of the Mughals were Delhi, Kabul, Mewar, Sindh, Marwar, Gujarat, Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Chittor and Deccan.

Mansabdars received their salaries as revenue assignments called jagirs, which were somewhat like iqtas. The Mansabdars did not actually reside in or administer their jagirs, rather, they only had the rights to the revenue of their assignments, which was collected for them by their servants, while the mansabdars themselves served in some other part of the country.

During the 1570s, Akbar had a discussion on religion with the Ulama, Brahmanas, and Jesuit priests who were Roman Catholics and Zoroastrians. These discussions took place during his stay at Fatehpur Sikri in the ibadat khana. Akbar was interested in the religion, and social customs of different people and his interaction with people of different faiths made him realise that their teachings created divisions and disharmony among his subjects. Thus, Akbar came up with an idea known as ‘sulh-i kul’, which focused on a system of ethics – honesty, justice and peace. Abul Fazl helped Akbar in framing a vision of governance around this idea of sulh-i kul, which was also followed by Jahangir and Shah Jahan as well.

From their mother’s side, the Mughals were descendants of Genghis Khan (died 1227), the Mongol ruler who ruled over parts of China and Central Asia. From their father’s side, they were the successors of Timur (died 1404), the ruler of Iran, Iraq and modern-day Turkey. However, the Mughals did not like to be called Mughal or Mongol. This was because Genghis Khan’s memory was associated with the massacre of innumerable people. But the Mughals were proud of their Timurid ancestry.

The income from land revenue played an important role in establishing stability in the Mughal Empire. It strengthened the economic system of the empire. The money collected was invested in building forts and for the welfare of subjects. Its importance can be easily assessed from the fact that Todar Mal, Akbar’s revenue minister, took a 10-year period to carry out the proper calculation of land revenue.

It was important for the Mughals to recruit mansabdars from diverse backgrounds and not just Turanis and Iranis because

a. The empire had expanded to encompass different regions and provinces; thus, it was needed to provide stability to the empire.

b. The problems of common folks would be understood better by the people living with them.

c. Mughal also didn’t want people to rebel against them on the issue of privileges to Turanis and Iranis.

d. They came here to rule, so they needed to respect the diversity of the country in order to have control over it.