Abstract
In recent times, historians are inclining towards the field of cultural history, which has pushed the political history to a back seat. At this juncture, a comeback to the of political history of late medieval and early modern India, focusing on the transition during the eighteenth century through an eye on native chieftains of Bihar, is delightful. The book encompasses ten well-researched and beautifully carved chapters with an introduction and a conclusion.
The introduction gives a detailed account of the existing literature on the zamindars in Mughal India; however, the author argues that there is a dearth of study on zamindars of the Mughal subas, including Bihar (p. 16). Thereby, his work fills the gap for understanding the changing complexities in the mutual relationship of zamindars and with the Mughal emperor against the backdrop of major political happenings like the war of successions and the emergence of new political actors like the Afghans and the British at the centre.
The introduction is followed by eight chapters comprising a detailed political history of the eight subas: the Kharagpur Raj, the Ujjainias of Bhojpur, the Cheros of Palamu, the Khokhra Chieftancy, the Gidhaur Chieftancy, the Darbhanga Raj, the Betia Raj and the Hathwa Raj. The chapter on Hathwa Raj also comprises brief notes on few other small chieftaincies: the Panchet, Seor, Garhi, Ratanpur, Ramnagar, Bhagwanpur, Deoraj, Kahalgaon, Chai and Ramgarh. The eight chapters on the subas throw light on the biographical accounts of the chieftains to understand the changing nature of submission of these chieftains under different Mughal emperors.
Although few books and articles discuss these chieftaincies briefly and in isolation from each other, this book presents a collective study of all the important chieftaincies and highlights the difference in the relationship of the Mughal emperors with the Rajput chiefs and the chiefs in these subas of Bihar. The highlights of the book are the chapters on the Cheros of Palamu, the Khokhra Chieftancy and the Gidhaur Chieftancy. These chapters, along with political history, are also an anthropological study of these tribes. Due to a dearth of sources, these chapters are comparatively small but still provide a comprehensive idea of the establishment and their history. The author uses historically transmitted myths and folklore about the origins and establishment of the tribes as chieftains, adding to the less explored anthropological study of the Cheros, Khokhra and Gidhaur.
Another highlight of the book is the diversity sources, which has helped the author to carve out a detailed history of the Mughal administration in Bihar. He relied on creating a detailed biographical account of each of the well-known chieftaincies, including biographies of their chieftains, on the basis of information collected from all possible sources: contemporary, near-contemporary and later Persian sources, European travel accounts, local sources, family records, survey reports and district gazetteers (p. 16). He applies the methods of inter-textuality and corroboration to fill in the gaps created by the dearth of sources. The book is an amalgamation of traditional methods and sources with new emerging methods of using oral traditions, bards and folklore to construct the biography of the chieftaincies.
The book should also be applauded for bringing out the individual achievements of the chiefs in terms of architecture, literature and so on, thereby giving a picture of the cultural richness of the subas and pointing towards the role of the chiefs in protecting and promoting the indigenous culture and knowledge in resistance to the British.
The conclusion has solved and answered the complexities in the relationship between the chiefs and the Imperial Mughal highlighted in the introduction. The author beautifully traces the changing yet similar response of all the Mughal emperors towards the Bihar chiefs. The change is caused depending on the needs of the chiefs by the Mughal emperor in different political scenarios, and the similarity in the response indicates to insignificance of the Bihar chiefs in comparison to the Rajput chiefs.
Although the title of the book is ‘Mughal Administration and Zamindars in Bihar’, the book encompasses the transition from medieval to modern times and concludes with briefly discussing the land revenue settlements and the overthrow of the zamindars. The chapter discussing the Ujjainias of Bhojpur shows a transition from the rebellions against the Mughal Imperial authority to the revolt and resistance of 1857 against British rule. Thereby, although the book is a collective history of the subas in Bihar, the inclusion of the transition to British rule makes it worthy of being read for understanding the transition from the regional perspective of small subas under colonial rule. Thereby, the book, in its own way, adds to existing literature on the exploration and understanding of the nature of the eighteenth century.
However, little drawback of the work emerges as it tries to deal with too many events, ranging from the foundation of Mughal rule to the revolts of 1857. But the way author threads all the events together, confirms that the individual chieftain’s history provides a collective history of Bihar against the backdrop of the transition from medieval to modern times.
The author has enlisted an exhaustive bibliography and glossary. The book is a welcome addition for students and researchers of history.