An Empire of the Indian Subcontinent

At a time when there is a vigorous political campaign to vilify the Mughals and obliterate the history of their rule—a period of over two centuries—the publication of a volume on the dynasty is to be welcomed. The word ‘Mughal’ itself is being rendered unacceptable in order to erase their presence, as may be seen in the renaming of a major railway junction that incorporated the name (Mughalsarai), as well as the removal of the appellation from the name for the spectacular gardens of the Rashtrapati Bhawan (even though the gardens had no direct connection with the Mughals). The ‘greater Mughals’ ruled from 1526 to 1707. Although the Empire of the Mughals began facing serious problems towards the end of the seventeenth century, the Badshah’s claim to be regarded as the legitimate sovereign of the subcontinent continued to be widely accepted for another century. The East India Company maintained, till as late as 1857, that it was governing on behalf of the Mughals thereby acknowledging the de jure status of the emperor. GS Cheema’s Greater Mughals is the history of the first six Emperors of the dynasty, covering the period from the early sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century. The author has written a book on the ‘lesser’ or later Mughals, entitled The Forgotten Mughals (2002), an account of the dynasty from the death of Aurangzeb to the end of the reign of Bahadur Shah Zafar. Together the two books provide us with a history of the Mughals from the establishment of their rule in 1526 to the death of Bahadur Shah in 1862.