A Glimpse of Indian Society in the Memoirs of Mughal Emperors Babur and Jahangir

Abstract

This paper analyses socio-cultural and economic notes spotted by Mughal kings Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur into memoirs called Baburnama and by Nuruddin Muhammad Jahangir in Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri. These rulers who were also great warriors and empire makers but also scholars endowed with literary sensibilities offer good dose of understanding on India’s social, economical and cultural realities of their respective times. The first type of memoir Bâbur wrote in Chagatai Turkish which was later translated into Persian during Akbar’s reign; Jahangir, Babur’s great-grandson, wrote his memoir in Persian, the language of the Royal Court. The paper aims to compare and contrast their views about agriculture, trade, and industries in India by analysing their works. About the conditions of the country it is possible to say that Babur’s observations, mostly concerning the agricultural and irrigation systems, plants and animals, give a rather rich picture of the land’s potentiality in terms of natural resources though the data about the trade and industrial activities are left out. On the other hand, Jahangir gave detailed records about key cities of the empire such as Ahmedabad, Cambay, Burhanpur, Agra, and about the business growth of the regions, and being a native of Kashmir, the shawl industry of the Valley. The paper is also focused on the matter of the fact that Osborn and Harris narrate their stories in different ways. On the one hand, rather arranged by the territorial framework, Babur offers quantitative year correlations with regions emphasizing their violent conditions On the other hand, rather placing more concern on the interaction of main political events with social and economic structures, Jahangir’s descriptions intertwine his narrative. Reflecting the research imperative of this work, the reader is helped to expand the rather simplistic view of the Mughals as unadulterated plunderers and foreign invaders and instead view them as being attentive to the socio-economic realities of the country they occupied.