1. Mughal Administration

2. Akbar introduced major changes in administration
Akbar’s theory of state

3. Features
Mughals imported certain foreign elements into their administrative system
Perso-Arabic system in the Indian setting.
Based on the military system: Mansabs
Centralized despotism
Blend of religion and politics existed
Paper administration: growth of official records
Aim: police duties and revenue collection
System of public corporations
Administration of justice largely left to local administration
Villages and small towns enjoyed ‘parochial’ self-government rather than local autonomy. They had no political freedom

4. Personnel Administration
All civil servants were enrolled in the army as mansabdars
Although no military obligation was always incumbant on the mansabdar
Principle of hierarchy and job classification can be seen
Recruitment: entirely in king’s hand
Transfer: king had the final say
Pay: Each grade had a pay out of which one had to also maintain a troop. Jagir system was also prevelant.
Despite job classification an officer could be at any time entrusted with a new duty; all offices were inter-changeable
Doctrine of escheat: jagir and mansab were not hereditary. The property escheated to the crown on the death of the mansabdar/jagirdar. <later made hereditary>

5. Personnel Administration
Worked on the maxim: ‘career open to talent’
Appointment: rested with the emperor
Qualification: no hard and fast rule
No rules of promotion

6. Provincial Administration
Provincial admin was a miniature of the central admin
Divided the empire into 15 subahs
Incharge: subedar
Number of Subahs increased later
Subedar concentrated in his hands the civil and military powers of the province
Subedar’s court was the highest court of appeal in the subah
He was transferred every 3-4 years
Subedar and Diwan had almost similar status in a subah.
This led to conflicts and violation of the principle of unity of command
Sadar, ulema, qazi, fauzdar etc
Provincial Bakshi was incharge of the military establishment
Kotwal was incharge of police in big towns
The central govt maintained a regulating chain of communication between itself and the provincial governments.

7. Local Administration
Subah divided into sarkars. Sarkars divided into Paraganas. Paraganas into villages.
District governed by a shiqdar or a faujdar
Amalguzar: head of revenue administration (aka Krori)
Revenue collectors were under orders not to oppress the cultivators while collecting the state demands
Other officers
Bitikchi: record keeper of land revenue
Khazandar: treasury officer
Sarkar divided into paraganas (tehsils)
Tehsils had a batch of subordinate officers
Shiqdar, amil, fotdar and qanungo
Each tehsil had about 12 villages
Villages were the lowest units of administration
Mughals gave legal sanction to the panchayats
Patwari and Chaukidar

8. Law and Order Administration
The king and PM primarily responsible for maintaining peace
Provincial level: Faujdar. Below him kotwal.
Villages neglected

9. Judicial Administration
Emperor was the fountainhead of justice and highest appeal lay to him
Sadr-i-Sudur decided important civil cases especially of a religious character
Chief Qazi (Qazi-ul-Quzat) was the highest judicial officer
Main judicial funcationaries
Mufti: expounded the law
Qzai: investigated the evidence
Miradi: delivered the judgement
Miradi acted as a counterpoise to the Qazi’s influence

10. No definite codes of law existed
Quran and Hadis were major sources of law
Officers were expected to know Hindu customs while dealing with cases concerning them
Qazi’s court had civil and criminal jurisdication
Criminal law is uniform irrespective of the religion

11. Revenue Administration
It adhered to the old practices, procedures and traditions of the country
Revenue Dept under Wazir/Diwan
Diwans also at the provincial level
Krori at local level to collect revenue
Mughal state was essentially a revenue collecting state.
Bitikchi
Land records and deeds
First time?

12. Mansabdari System
No division between civil and military functions of the state
The mansabdari system determined the rank, pay-scale and the position of the imperial officer in the royal court in respect of other government officers

13. Evaluation of the Mansabdari System
Merits
A systematic and progressive system to reorganise the army within the fold of despotic monarchy
First such system in India
Improvement over the system of tribal chieftainship and feudalism
Offices were not hereditary
Every mansabdar was held personally responsible to the monarch
This eliminated all chances of dis-affection and revolts by the military officers

14. Demerits This system did not give birth to a national army
About 2/3rd of the mansabdars were either foreigners or the immediate descendents of the foreign immigrants
Non-regimentation of the army
Hesitation on the part of the imperial govt to recruit all the soldiers of the mansabdars
No uniform rules were prescribed for systematic training of the soldiers
The nature and the quality of the war weapons borne by them differed from contingent to contingent

15. Provincial and Local Centre Subah - Subedar Sarkar - Fauzdar
Pargana - Shiqdar
Village

16. Communication and Intelligence
Waqaya Nafis
Posted newswriters and spies all over the province

17. Aspects of Secularism Hindus were given high mansabs
Hindu customs were followed in cases related to them

18. Welfare
Revenue collectors were under orders not to oppress the cultivators while collecting the state demands
Panchayats had some powers for local taxation
Responsibility for social development

19. Centralised Despotism
For
The state was based on a military system with the mansabdars responsible to the emperor
No division between civil and military power gave immense power to the officials
Against
Some elements of decentralisation
Mughals had given a legal sanction to the panchayati raj

20. Legacy of MA for Indian Admin
Provincial administration
Akbar was the first to develop an elaborate system of Provincial Administration
Provinces had an administrative structure that was miniature of the imperial administration
Similar to modern day states?
Kotwals
The system of Kotwals was inherited by the British in modified form and helped in the development of the modern police system
Kotwal was primarily a police chief who combined in his office the functions of a municipal commissioner as well
Municipal Commissioner
Revenue administration
Todar mal’s bandobast
Revenue officers continue to this day in some modified form: eg patwari
Division of provinces/districts.

21. Conclusions
The monarchy, though benevolent, was backward in its outlook.
Elements of democracy were conspicuous by their absence.
It contained no element of self-criticism and endogenous reforms
Through their administration they installed an element of homogeneity in the governance of the country
A useful element introduced by them was of compiling and codifying all the records.
Although it was a muslim state, no discrimination was made in the selection of personnel