Wednesday 21 December 2011

Weakened Kings of Delhi during British Empire.....

In 1526 the 1st battle of panipat was fought between Babur ( who hailed from Ferghana the modern Uzbekistan) and Ibrahim Shah Lodhi.The Mughal Empire superseded the Delhi Sultanate as rulers of northern India. In time, the state thus founded by Babur far exceeded the bounds of the Delhi Sultanate, eventually encompassing a major portion of India and earning the appellation of Empire.Founded in 1526,it officially survived untill 1858,when supplanted by the Btitish Empire. The greatest portions of Mughal expansion was accomplished during the reign of Akbar (Babur's grand son who succeeded Humayun at the age of 13 after Humayun's death). The empire was maintained as the dominant force of the present-day Indian subcontinent for a hundred years further by his successors Jahangir, Shah Jahan, and Aurangzeb. The first six emperors, who enjoyed power both de jure and de facto, are usually referred to by just one name, a title adopted upon his accession by each emperor.


, the empire fell into succession crisis after the death of Aurangzeb. Except Muhammad Shah, none of the Mughal emperors could hold on to power for a decade.  the Empire suffered the depredations of invaders like Nadir Shah of Persia and Ahmed Shah Abdali of Afghanistan, who repeatedly attacked  Delhi, the Mughal capital. Most of the empire's territories in India passed to the Marathas, Nawabs, and Nizams by c. 1750. After the Battle of Buxur in  1764 the Mughal Emperors lost effective power in favor of the British. In 1804, the blind and powerless Shah Alam II formally accepted the protection of the British East India Company.The Emperors Of India now were being reffered as Kings of Delhi by Britishers. The once glorious and mighty Mughal army was disbanded in 1805 by the British; only the guards of the Red Fort were spared to serve with the King Of Delhi, which avoided the uncomfortable implication that British sovereignty was outranked by the Indian monarch. Nonetheless, for a few decades afterward the BEIC continued to rule the areas under its control as the nominal servants of the emperor and in his name. In 1857, even these courtesies were disposed. The British rule abolished the institution altogether after some rebels in the Sepoy Rebellion declared their allegiance to Shah Alam's descendant, Bahadur Shah II, the British Raj decided to abolish the institution altogether. They deposed the last Mughal emperor in 1857 and exiled him to Burma, where he died in 1862.

4 comments:

  1. No offense, but did you mean "weakened kings of delhi"? Otherwise, an interesting piece of history.

    "The first six emperors, who enjoyed power both de jure and de facto, are usually referred to by just one name, a title adopted upon his accession by each emperor." - Is this title Shahanshah?

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  2. thank u kirklops,it was a spelling error on my part,i have corrected it now..thank u for pointing it out..

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