Trade, State Policy and Regional Change: Aspects of Mughal-Uzbek Commercial Relations, C.
1550-1750
Author(s): Muzaffar Alam
Source: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 37, No. 3 (1994), pp.
202-227
Published by: BRILL
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JESHO, Vol. XXXVII,
? E.J. Brill, Leiden
TRADE, STATE POLICY AND REGIONAL CHANGE:
ASPECTS OF MUGHAL-UZBEK
COMMERCIAL RELATIONS, C. 1550-1750"*
BY
MUZAFFARALAM
(Centre for Historcal Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)
The coming of the Mughals to India in the sixteenth century deepened
the pre-existing links between India and Central Asia. The two regions
drew closer in terms of trade, population and culture. Material life in both
regions was deeply affected by the accelerated movement of goods and
people, while institutions of learning, religion and politics in each area bore
the imprint of the other. Not much work has been published in English,
until recently, even on general aspects of India's relationship with Central
Asia. Indeed, the significance of the trade of these regions has often been
overlooked in modern writings on the Mughal-Indian economy. A major
reason for this has been the nature of - or perhaps the way in which we
have used - the available sources. In recent years, however, there have
been some notable publications in English which enable us to ask some new
questions relevant to this trade'). The present paper is intended to be an
attempt in this direction, drawing principally on some materials from the
sixteenth to early eighteenth centuries. The paper opens with an account of
the movement of goods, followed by an examination, in the second and
third sections, of the evidence on merchants and their relations with the
* An earlier draft of the
paper, presented at a conference on the Political Economies of
the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Empires, Istanbul, June, 1992, elicited useful comments
from Stephen Dale, Suraiya Faroqhi, Ashraf Ghani, Edmund Herzig, Halil Inalcik, David
Ludden and Andre Wink. Seema Alavi, Daniel Balland, Neeladn Bhattacharyaand Sanjay
Subrahmanyam helped in revising the paper. I owe a particular debt of gratitude to the late
Professor S. Nurul Hasan for facilitating access to the valuable archival holdings in
Tashkent, Dushambe and St. Petersburg. The maps are based on HistoricalAtlas of Iran
(Tehran, 1971) and Irfan Habib's An Atlas of theMughalEmpire(Delhi, 1982).
1) S. Gopal, Indiansin Russia in the 17th and 18th centuries,English translation with introduction and notes of a selection of Russian Document (Calcutta, 1988); idem, Indiansin CentralAsia, 16th and 17th centuries,Presidential Address, Medieval India Section of the Indian
History Congress, 52nd Session, (New Delhi, 1992); Stephen F Dale, 'Indo-Russian Trade
in the Eighteenth Century' in Sugata Bose (ed.), SouthAsia and WorldCapitalismrn
(Delhi, 1990),
pp. 140-156; idem, 'Indian Merchants in Iran', paper presented at the Conference on
Political Economies of the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Empires, Istanbul, June, 1992;
Jos Gommans 'Mughal India and Central Asia in the Eighteenth Century- An Introduction
to a Wider Perspective', Itinerarno,15, 1, (1991) pp. 51-70.
TRADE,
STATE POLICY
AND
REGIONAL
CHANGE
203
state. The relevant materials on this particular question are limited. But
they allow us to raise doubts about the oft-repeated view that the Mughal
or the Uzbek rulers were hostile or, at least, indifferent to trade and traders
and that before the dawn of modern era the merchants of these two regions
had no significant role in politics. In the fourth section I have considered
the impact of this trade on the northern Indian economy and politics.
I
The vast expanse of Central Asia was connected with India both through
land and sea-routes. Seafarers first reached the Persian shores and hence
took the land routes to the north of the Amu Darya across Khurasan. The
principal routes on the mainland went through the Khyber and Bolan
passes. Lahore, Multan, Kabul and Qandahar were the major entrepats of
these roads. In addition, there were the Kashmir routes which led through
the Kara Koram to Yarqand, where the routes from Ladakh, Tibet, China,
and India were joined by those leading to Kashgar. From Kashgar the
caravans proceeded to Samarqand and Bukhara. Samarqand, the first
major city of Transoxiana, was the junction of the main routes from India
(via Kabul and Kashmir), Persia (via Merv) and the Turkish territories2).
The city of Samarqand, together with Bukhara, was thus the centre of the
Indian merchants for their trade in Central Asia. In a late sixteenth century
manuscript collection of papers relating to the office of the chief qddf(qadf-alquddt) of Samarqand, titled MajyimCa-t-Wathhfiq,numerous Multanis are
reported to have been involved in commercial and monetary transactions in
the city3). As early as 1326, Indians, next to Turks and Tajiks, were
reported in a waqf-namato be among the notable visitors (d'inda-o-rawtnda),
while in the fifteenth century lands (ar•di), villages (dih, qarya, mawda) and
rest-houses (ribat) of the Hindus are mentioned in the sale and purchase
deeds from the Samarqand region. Interestingly, according to the author of
Downto theMongolInvasion,English translationby H.A.R. Gibb
2) W Barthold, Turkistan
(London, 1928), p. 83; Irfan Habib, An Atlas of theMughalEmpire.(Delhi, 1982), Sheets 4B
and 5B and Notes, pp. 11-12 and 15-16; Mohan Lal, Travelsin thePunjab,Afghanistanand
Turkistanto Balkh, Bokhara,and Herat(Patiala, 1971), Chapter VII, pp. 373-462.
Wathd'iq(a collection of papers from court of the Qadi of Samarqand, mostly
3) MajmiCa-zrelated to the late sixteenth century), Abu Rayhan al-Biruni Institute of Oriental Studies,
Tashkent Ms. No. 1386, ff. 182a-184a and 188b-189a. In addition, documents on the sale
and purchase of Indian slaves also refer to several Multinis and Ldihoris.Some of these
documents have been reproduced with Russian translations in H.G. Mukminova, SotszalnayaDefferentstatsta
NaseleniyaGordovUzbekistana(Tashkent, 1985). But Mukminova's
decipherment and translation are not always accurate.
204
MUZAFFAR
50
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D
ALAM
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60
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Map I. India, Central Asia and Iran.
TRADE, STATE POLICY AND REGIONAL CHANGE
205
Rashhdtft Cayn
al-haydt, the place where Khwaja Bahd al-Din Naqsband, the
founder of the Naqshandi order, was born and which by the time of the
author had come to be identified as mawlid(birthplace) of the saint and also
as qasr-zcdanfdn
(palace of the saints) was earlier known as Kushk-i Hindudn4).
mentions the business of the Indian merchants in the
The Sharaf-ndma-z-shdhT
information is corroboratedby other sources. In
This
Shaybani territory5).
of
1558, Anthony Jenkinson the English Muscovy Company, for instance,
met in Bukhara a number of merchants from North India and Bengal6).
The fabulous wealth and unmatched trading skill of the Indians often seem
to have excited enough jealousy on the part of the local people to land them
into trouble7).
On the basis of the Persian material it is difficult to identify all the commodities which the Indian traders brought into Central Asia. Textiles of
varied range appear, however, to have been important items of export. In
the Majmina-t-Wathd'iqthe Multdnis figure as trading in chint of different
hues, plain coarse calico (fota) and fine cloth of Thanesar, silk brocade
(jdmawdr), and fine calico (solagazi), as well as napkins and handkerchiefs
Varthema saw Indian goods in Central Asia from as
of
(mzndil) Lahore8).
far as Bengal and Gujarat, and according to him many of these Indian
goods manufactured in Bengal and Khambayat also reached 'Tartary', Persia and Turkeyg). Varthema's observations are confirmed by a Persian sale
Document,XIV Veka(Persian documents with Russian
4) O.D. Chekhovich, Bukhavrskye
translations and note, Tashkent, 1965), pp. 40 and 51, and also pp. 91 and 109 for tujladr-zHind and Hindif; dem, Samarkandskye
Document,XV-XVI Veka(Moscow, 1974) pp. 67, 72,
ed.
125, 244 and 247; Fakhr al-Din CAlibin Husayn WaCizKishiff, RashhdtCayn-al-Haydt,
by Ali Asghar Muiniyan (Tehran) pp. 743 see also Mir Muhammad Yfisuf bin Khwaja
Baqa, TadhktraMuqfmKhnf, Firdausi Library, Dushambe, Ms. No. 521, f. 34a.
Institute of Oriental
5) Hdfiz Tanish bm Mir Muhammad Bukhiri, Sharaf-nama-t-shdhf,
Studies, St. Petersburg Ms. No. D88, ff. 451, Fasc. edited and translated into Russian in
2 parts by Munira Salakhetdinova (Moscow, 1983 and 1989).
and Travelsto Russtaand Persia,edited by E. Delmar
6) Anthony Jenkinson, Early Voyages
Morgan and C.H. Coote, 2 vols. (London, 1886) 2, pp. 87-88.
7) In Bukhara It was generally believed that a successful way that a lover could meet the
exorbitant demands of his beloved was to locate and plunder the fabulous wealth of a rich
Hindu merchant. TadhkiraMuqimKhantff. 33a-35a; Muhammad Hakim Khdn, Muntakhabal-tawarkh,ed. Ahrar Mukhtarov, 2 vols (Dushambe, 1982 and 1985) 2, pp. 195-198 for
such an incident in Imdm Qull Khlin's time.
f. 184a.
8) MiajmCa-t-WathgPiq
9) Ludovico di Varthema, Itinerary,English translation by John Winter Jones and a
discourse by R.C. Temple (London, 1928), p. 79. See also K.M. Ashraf, Life andconditions
of thepeopleof Hindustan(Delhi, 1970), p. 145, and W H. Moreland, Indiaat theDeathofAkbar
(Delhi, 1962), p. 209. Moreland questioned the veracity of Varthema's evidence, principally
because, as he concluded in the 1920s, Varthema has no support from any other account.
See also Jean Aubin, 'Deux Chr6tiens au Yemen Tdhiride',Journalof theRoyalAsiaticSocrety,
Third Series, 3,1, April, 1993, pp. 36-52 for an evaluation of Varthema.
206
MUZAFFAR
ALAM
deed of 1589, which gives details of a transaction in Samarqand. Napkins,
and
handkerchiefs, coarse and fine calico from Bengal (mmdflsondrgadm
khdssasondrgdmi),multi-colour chintz from Khairabad, and silk brocade
from Gujarat (katdnGujardti)were among the different items which passed
between a Multani merchant and a local noble'0). Anthony Jenkinson further identified the kinds of cloth imported from India in Samarqand and
Bukhara. He writes: "The Indians doe bring fine whites, which the Tartars
doe all roll their heads, and all other kinds of whites which serve for apparell
made of cotton wool and Crasca..." ") Kashmiri shawls, of course, were
prized possessions of the Central Asian elites in medieval times12).
Later in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, textiles continued to
be the chief exports from India. An important duty of some of the special
envoys of the Uzbek rulers to the court of the Mughal Emperor AwrangzZib
(1658-1707) was to procure varieties of cloth suitable for the royal
establishment13) Some of the Indian merchants had brought Indian master
weavers and encouraged them to settle in Samarqand. IHusayn, Ustid
Rajab, UstddKajar, all from Multan, and Jitkar, from Lahore, were among
such weavers14). Generally these weavers worked only for the Indian merchants; in cases of defiance, they had to appear at the court of the qeidito
reaffirm their loyalty and commitment'5).
Spices, sugar, indigo, together with some drugs, precious stones, as well
as animals were some important additional trade items. According to a
Spanish visitor to Timur's court during 1404-1406, "the best varieties of
f. 183.
10) MajmtCa-z-Watlhd)iq,
11) Jenkinson, Early Voyages,p. 87
12) Muhammad Hakim KhAn, Muntakhab-al-tawdrfkh,
2, 504; see also for the eighteenth
century, Maktibdt-o-Asndd
(a collection of letters and documents of the late eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries), Institute of Oriental Studies, St. Petersburg, Ms. 680, f. 77a.
13) "Ibztiyda-zanwdcaqmzshawa amtiCald'iq sarkdrfalak-asas" cf. Mirak Shih Munshi,
Makhibit,Munsha'dt,Manshiirdt(a collection of letters and royal orders of the Uzbek rulers,
compiled in the eighteenth century), Abu Rayhan al-Biruni Institute of Oriental Studies
Library, Tashkent Ms. No. 289, Subhlin Quli Khin's letter (nama)to Awrangzib, ff. 3b-5a;
see also his letter (Cindyat-ndma)
to an Iranian noble, f. 72a.
f. 188b. The phrase 'Hindf-al-Asl',which figures in a document
14) Majmiica-t-Wathdriq,
here to describe a slave, has been translated by Mukmmova as 'Hindu' (op. cit. p. 61, as
cited by Gopal, Indiansin CentralAsia). The phrase simply means 'of Indian origin' Many
Indian (Hindf-al-Asl)slaves in Samarqand were also Muslims.
15) Jitkar L•hori has to do so by taking an oath before the qddi, "If I deviate from the
orders of Dary Kh•n I divorce my wife three times" (Ibid, f. 182a). Here again,
Mukminova mistranslates a conditional clause, "agarman...., zan barmansih taldqbashad,as
"he divorced his wife by uttenng the word taldqthree times." Op. cit. p. 60 as cited by
Gopal, Indiansin CentralAsia, p. 12.
TRADE, STATE POLICYAND REGIONALCHANGE
207
nutmegs, cloves, mace, ginger, etc." in Samarqand came from India16).
Babur mentions sugar and medicinal herbs among the special export items
from India17)
Slaves, both Hindus and Muslims, also figured prominently among the
most favoured Indian commodities in the bazaars of Central Asia. But it
may be noted that Indian slaves reached there in a number of ways. Some
of them were secured in exchange for Central Asian goods, horses in particular; some were taken as prisoners during wars, while many others were
captured during raids on trading caravans 18). Slaves with specialized skills
were much sought after Timfir, after his invasion of Delhi, handed over a
large number of skilled craftsmen to princes, nobles and other members of
his entourage, in order to have them taken to Samarqand. Many Indian
stonemasons were employed in the construction of his mosque in Samarqand. There was a colony of slaves on the bank of the river Baran, who had
been brought by a Timfirid prince from the suburbs of Multan to catch fish
and birds 19). In the course of the Mughal reverses during Shahjahan's Central Asian campaigns in the 1640s, many Indians were taken prisoner and
sold for petty sums in Balkh, Samarqand and Tashkent20).
On occasion, some unfortunate Indian merchants also found themselves
sold as slaves in the bazaars. One such story of a turn of fortune comes from
the experience of one CAla-al-Din Khan. Around 1645, CAla-al-Din was in
Balkh as a trader. After two years, having sold his goods, while returning
home, he was enslaved and taken to Bukhara, to be sold to the Khivans
three years later. He found himself eventually owned by a Tatar woman,
but he managed to escape after stealing a horse. He was arrested at Chernoyar and was then sent in 1661 to Astrakhan, where he is reported to have
applied to the Russian Tsar to become a Christian21). However, the fate of
CAli-al-Din was a very rare feature of the Indo-Central Asian trade.
It is not without significance that while we have references to numerous
instances of the sale, purchase and manumission of Indian slaves in the rele16) Gopal, Indians in Central Asia, p. 12.
17) Zahir al-Din Muhammad Babur, Bdbur-naima,
English tr. A.S. Beveridge (London,
1969), p. 202; Gopal, Indiansin Russia, Document No. 71, p. 68.
refer to both Hindu and Muslim Indian
18) Several documents in MajmiCa-z-Wathd)iq
slaves (ghuldmadn-okanfzdn-i-Hindi) with Islamic and Hindu names, like Ibrahim and Manik,
or with Persian secular names which also indicated their qualities, like Khwush-gulu,
Mushk-ndz, Gul-bahar, Triti, Zirak and Dawlat-qadam (ff 36a, 42b, 43b, 46b, 49b, 73a,
203b and 209a).
19) Gopal, Indians in CentralAsia, p. 4.
20) Ibid, p. 17 This was however an unusual situation.
21) Ibid, p. 18.
208
MUZAFFAR
ALAM
vant Persian records of the earlier centuries22), the seventeenth to early
eighteenth century sources do not talk much about the markets for these
either in India or Central Asia. However, we do know that in the eighteenth
centurywhen the slave trade entered a new phase of expansion, at the
marketsof Bukhara,Khiva and Kashgar,India was no longer the main
source of supply. Most slaves came from Africa or from the mountain
and desert fringesof Iran and Afghanistan23).We know little about the
status of the slave trade under the Mughals, let alone about the import of
slaves into Central Asia. If a significant decline occurred it could be
explainedboth in economicand social terms. By the seventeenthcentury
Indiahad begunto manufactureenoughtextilesto clothenearlythe whole
of CentralAsia as well as Iran and thus therewas no longer the need for
exchangingCentralAsian horsesand othergoodsfar Indianslaves24).We
cannot establish the precise volume of India's trade. Our sources have little
concernfor statistics.Butit is notablethatby his time, as we shallsee below,
Indian merchantshad brought the trade of almost the entire Eurasian
region under their control.
Horses,dry andfreshfruitsandmusk,furs,falcons,coralswerethe principal imports from Central Asia, while later, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when Indian traders reached, through Astrakhan, as far
as Moscow and St. Petersburg, sables, bird feathers, white fur coats, red
yuft, mirrors,copperand iron becamethose Russianitems in demandin
Indian markets25).
Horseswereimportedto Indiain verylargenumbersrightfromthe early
middleages. The GurjaraPratiharas,the Pilas, and the Rdshtrakfitas
kept
large standingarmies which includedcavalry.The importanceof horses
22) Diya al-Din Barani, Tdrfkh-z-Ffr~iz
Shdhf,ed. Salyld Ahmad Khan (Calcutta, 1862),
pp. 310-315, for instances of slave figures in the routine price list of the bazaar. In the
Mughal chronicles one rarely finds the prices of the slaves. This may have been a result of
Mughal ideology To the Mughal Emperor Akbar (1556-1605), according to Abul Fadl, the
institution of slavery was "abominable", Cf. Abul Fadl, A~fn-z-Akbarf,
tr. H. Blockmann
(Calcutta, 1927) I, p. 263.
23) Gommans, 'Mughal India and Central Asia', p. 60.
24) K.N. Chaudhan, The TradingWorldof Asia and theEnglishEast India Company,16601760 (Cambridge, 1978), pp. 237-305 for the general state of textile production dunng this
period. The Punjab specialized in the manufacture of cotton goods for export and was,
together with Bengal, Gujarat and the Coromandel, one of the four major industnal regions
in India. Om Prakash, The DutchEast India Companyand the Economyof Bengal, 1630-1720
(Princeton, 1985), pp. 73, 176-181 points at the enormous rise in the export of textiles dunng
the second half of the seventeenth century and the Dutch factors' efforts to capture the
markets in Persia.
25) Gopal, Indiansin Russia, pp. 29-31, 77, and 199-200.
TRADE,
STATE POLICY
AND REGIONAL
CHANGE
209
during the period is indicated by numerous manuals on horses such as the
Asvayurvedaof Gana, the Aiva"-stra of Salihotra, of Nakula, and others26).
It was perhaps during this period also that the use of the iron stirrup and
heavy armour, both for the horses and horsemen, became more general and
had a significant impact on warfare and social organization.
As cavalry came to be the mainstay of the political and military system
under the Delhi Sult~ns and the Mughals, the trade in horses became a
major component in the relations between India and the territories beyond
the North-West frontier, known collectively in the Delhi Sultanate as mulk-zor mulk-: bdlddast('the high land' or 'the land on the higher side'). These
bdlad
bdlddastflands seem to have been the principal source of supply of warhorses under the Sultans, even though a large number of fine horses also
came to India through the sea-routes from the Gulf countries and Persia.
Early in the fourteenth century Mongol tribal groups, amongst others, used
to come down with their herds for the winter and sell them in the territories
of the Delhi Sultans2). According to Ibn Battfita28), the people of Asaq or
Azaf in the steppelands of southern Russia exported horses to India in
droves of 6,000 or thereabout. Various merchants had a share of about 200
horses each in these herbs. For each fifty horses, they engaged the services
of a keeper called qdshfwho looked after them and their feeding on the way.
These traders wholly travelled by a route north of the Caspian Sea, through
the Dasht-z-Qtzpidqand Transoxiana down to the Khyber Pass.
The trade in horses was voluminous as well as profitable. Throughout
medieval times, Central Asia remained the principal source of supply of
horses for all purposes. In the sixteenth century, according to Babur, seven
to ten thousand horses arrived in Kabul every year29). During the seventeenth century the demand rose enormously and the Indian traders, according to a report, sometimes purchased as many as a hundred thousand
Central Asian horses at Kabul30). As early as in the fourteenth century the
profit in this trade was estimated at 2500 per cent" ).
26) R.S. Sharma, 'Central Asia and Early Indian Cavalry, C. 20 B.C.-1200 A.D ', min
toModem(Delhi,
A. Guha (ed.) CentralAsia: Movement
of PeoplesandIdeasfrom TimesPrehistoric
1970), pp. 174-181.
27) Simon Digby, WarHorseand Elephantin theDelhi Sultanate,(Oxford 1971), pp. 35-36.
28) Ibn Baptfita, The Travelsof Ibn Battpta,English tr. H.A.R. Gibb (Cambridge, 1962),
2, pp. 477-479
p. 202.
29) Bdbur-ndma,
30) FranCoisBernier, Travelsin theMoghulEmpire,English tr. A. Constable (New Delhi,
1968), p. 203; N. Munucci, Stonado Mogor,English tr. W Irvine, 4 vols. (London), 2, p.
391.
31) Cf. Iftikhar Ahmad Khan, 'Commerce in Horses between Central Asia and Indian
during Medieval Times' (mimeographed).
210
MUZAFFAR
ALAM
Trade in horses often had a close connection with medieval Indian
politics. The services of horse traders and breeders were considered valuable
by medieval rulers. Many of the well-known Indo-Afghan rulers started
their own careers as horse dealers. This applies to the Lodis and Stirs of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as well as to northern Indian Afghan chiefs
of the eighteenth century, some of whom established their powers along the
trade routes to Central Asia. The political and military dimension of this
trade diminished only in the nineteenth century, when large Indian armies
of horsemen were substituted for small ones of infantry32). With this, the
nature of the relationship between India and the countries beyond its northwestern borders underwent an obvious change.
Some of the Central-Asian chroniclers also noted cotton as a precious
export item from Bukhara to India. Narshakhi mentions a village, Zandana, near Bukhara as a production centre of an expensive variety of cotton, which was named after the village as Zandajafand sold at the price of
silk (ba-qimat-i-abrisham)in Fars, Iraq, Kirman and Hindustan33).
In addition, India received a large supply of dry fruits from Central Asia.
Fruits from "Persia, Balkh, Bukhara and Samarqand" were available in
the markets of Delhi34). In the seventeenth century, when caravan routes
grew stable and began to the more frequently used, fresh fruits also began
to be received from Central Asia. The Mughal Emperor Jahaingir (16051626) received melons from Karis and grapes and apples from
Samarqand35). This became possible, as we will notice below, in an
atmosphere in which the rulers, notwithstanding their differences, gave due
regards to the safety of the roads passing through their respective domains
and recognized the importance of trade. Jahd.ngir appreciated the achievement of his time as he highlighted India's close trade links with the Uzbek
country. He boasts that Akbar loved Central Asian fruits, but that during
the latter's rule the fine and the celebrated varieties did not reach India36).
Things improved further in the later half of the seventeenth century. Bernier noted the sale of Central Asian fruits even in the Deccan37).
32) J. Gommans, 'The Horse Trade in Eighteenth Century South Asia', see JESHO 37,3
(1994), 228-247
33) Abfi Bakr Muhammad bin Jacfar al-Narshakhi, Tdrikh-t-Bukhdra
(Persian version by
Muhammad bin Zafar) ed. Mudarris Rizawi (Tehran, 1972), pp. 21-22.
34) Bermer, Travels,p. 249
ed. Saiyid Ahmad Khan (Aligarh, 1864), pp.
35) Nir al-Din Jahdngir, Tgzak-z-Jahdngfrf
173, 2098 and 212.
36) Ibid, p. 173.
37) Bernier, Travels,pp. 203-204.
TRADE,
STATE POLICY
AND REGIONAL
CHANGE
211
II
Tahjiks, Uzbeks, Khurasanis, Afghans, Hazaras, Barkis and Im-qis and
Multanis were the principal carriers of this trade38). The Armenians also
had a share in it and a good deal of this trade was transmitted through
pastoral nomads who traversed the pastures between the Indus and Oxus
rivers. These trading nomads were known as "Powindas". They were
chiefly made up of the Ghilza5i and Lodi tribes - of which the Lohanis,
Nasiris and Niyazis were the most marked subgroups39).
But it seems that Indians themselves, throughout the period, aspired to
be the chief carriers of even the Central-Asian articles in India. They seem
to have had a keen appreciation for precious metals and a dislike for passing
them on to the foreign merchants. Jenkinson noted that 'gold, silver,
precious stones . . they (Indians) bring none' 40). However, this did not
apply to certain merchants who were especially commissioned by CentralAsian rulers to sell or to buy goods in India for their masters and who were
exempted from customs duties everywhere41).
The extraordinary strong Khatri participation in this trade, it should be
noted, seems to have coincided with the rise and growth of Mughal power
in India. The fourteenth-century historian Diya-al-Din Barani already
noticed the presence of Hindu Multanis, precursors of the Khatris, as
traders and moneylenders42). We saw that in the sixteenth century many
Multanis, both Hindus and Muslims, figured in a variety of monetary and
commercial transactions in Samarqand. But, until about the end of the sixteenth century, traders from almost the entire subcontinent participated in
India's trade with its north-western neighbours. The Central Asian
documents in effect mention other Hindustanis and Hindus in general
together with the Multdnis43). Jenkinson met in Bukhara Hindu traders
from the farthest parts of India, including Bengal and the Gangetic plain 44).
The Sharaf-ndma-z-Shdhinoted Deccani merchants in Kabul and Peshawar,
on their way to Khurasan, Transoxiana and Turkistan45).
38) Mirak Shdh Munshi, Maktibadt,Subhan Qull Khan's letter (nzshdn)for the rdhdderf
(route-in-charge) of wilaydtKhinjan, ff. 152a-153b.
see Gommans, 'Mughal India and Central Asia'
39) For Powinda qdfilasand qdfilabdshz,
pp. 55-56.
40) Jenkinson, Early Voyages,p. 87, see also Ashraf, Life and Conditions,p. 147
41) Mirak ShTh Munshi, Maktzibdt,ff. 4a-5b and 72.
Barani, Tdrfkh-z-Firziz
42)
Shdhf,pp. 309-311.
Diyf,-al-Din
43) Majmuca-tWathdiiq,ff. 182a, 188b; see also Dale, 'Indo-Russia Trade', pp. 149-151.
44) Jenkmnson,Early Voyages,pp. 87-88.
az tuj`irazjamicbildd-a-Hind
wa Dakanwa Gujardt... " (Hdfiz Tanish, Sharaf45) "jamckathlr
f.
451b).
nama-t-Shadh,
212
MUZAFFAR
ALAM
We also cannot rule out the presence in Central Asia of a sizeable number
of merchants from Sind, Gujarat, and the Deccan, who also reached the
Persian shores through the sea-routes and then took the land-routes to the
areas south and north of the Oxus. The fact that CAbd-al-Razziq of Samarqand, the envoy of Shah Rukh (1409-1447), arrived in Vijayanagar vta the
sea-routes is well known*6). Many Iranians at the courts of the Deccan
sultanates were from Khurasan, the Iranian province which extended into
Central Asia 47). The ports of Thatta and Lahari Bandar, which linked Sind,
Multan and the Punjab to Hurmuz, Bushahr and Basra, also mediated the
trade of Western India to Persia. The bulk of the trade of Sind went to the
west, to the great Persian Gulf entrep6t state of Hurmuz centred on the land
ofJarun, but coastal navigation also linked the ports of the Indus delta with
Khambayat, in Gujarat, and the Konkan. It was perhaps because of
Thatta's central position that the Portuguese, after taking over Hurmuz,
made a bid to capture it. One of the most formidable ports in India, Thatta
was the meeting point of several routes, some terrestrial and some fluvial.
In 1622, when the Portuguese still held Hurmuz, about one seventh of all
shipping to that port originated from Sind"8).
Thus, until about the end of the sixteenth century, the participants in
India's trade with Central Asia and Persia, both along the overland and
maritime routes, came from almost the entire subcontinent. Some nodal
transit points like Multan and Lahore had emerged in the north-western
region, the merchants from this region profiting conspicuously from this
trade. But their share in it was still not overwhelming. The seventeenth and
early eighteenth centuries, however, belonged, almost exclusively to the
traders from the north-western provinces of the Mughal empire. A number
of developments around this time may explain this change. One of these was
the spurt of the caravan trade, which, in part, resulted from the tightening
European control over the sea-routes49). The India-Central Asia caravan
46)Khwindmir, Habfbal-Siyar,4 vols (Tehran, 1954), vol. 3, part 3, p. 335; see also 'Abdwa
al-Husayn's Introduction to his edition of CAbdal-Razziq Samarqandi's MatlacSaCdayn
MajmaCBahrayn(Tehran, 1974), pp. 9-10.
47) H.K. Sherwani and P.M. Joshi (eds), Historyof theMedievalDeccan,1295-1724, 2 vols.
(Hyderabad, 1974) 2, pp. 77-115, 218-220. It was in consideration of the Decanis'
familiarity with Khurasan that the fifteenth century Russian traveller, Athanasius Nikitin
chose to live in Bidar under the assumed name Khwaji Yfisuf Khur~isini (ibid. 1, p. 185);
see also H.K. Sherwani, The Bahmanzsof theDeccan(Hyderabad, 1953), p. 148.
48) Sanjay Subrahmanyam, 'The Portuguese, Thatta and the External Trade of Sind,
1515-1635', Revtstade Cultura(1991), pp. 48-58.
49) Ya. G. Gulyamov (ed.) IstorzyaUzbekzstan,(Tashkent, 1967) 1, p. 537, quoted in
Gopal, Indiansin CentralAsia, p. 6.
TRADE, STATE POLICY AND REGIONAL CHANGE
213
trade was, in a large measure, a latter-day continuation of the enterprise
which centuries earlier had led Indian Buddhists to move out along the same
routes50). There were, however, some obvious disadvantages in these
routes. As they passed through difficult terrain, possibilities for their
improvement were extremely limited. Conditions were particularly
unfavourable to wheeled heavy traffic. Pack animals, which were the principal means of transport could carry only limited loads. Further, the cost of
such transport was very high, all the more so because the animals had to
be unloaded for rest every day51). Again, because of the danger of theft and
violence, the merchants had to wait at the major sard)is until a sufficiently
large convoy had been formed.
W.H. Moreland cites the case of Manrique, who having missed a
caravan at Multan, found he would have to wait six months for the next.
In another case, Bento de G6es, a Portuguese missionary who travelled
from Lahore to China via Kabul, was to encounter difficulties from thieves
between Attock and Peshawar and then from marauders in the hilly passes,
who used to roll stones down on caravans, and wounded many of his fellow
travellers, even though his convoy had obtained a guard of 400 soldiers at
Peshawar. After reaching Kabul they halted because some of the merchants
would go no further, and others dared not, being so few52). The carriers of
the trade along such routes could not have afforded to be mere passive
onlookers to the politics around.
It was an indication of the importance of the sea-routes to Central Asia
and Persia that the Sind ports in Thatta and Lahari Bandar, yet again,
became significant towards the sixteenth century. As Henry Pottinger, a
member of the British mission to Sind in 1809, observed, "Thatta had been
an important trade centre between the Indian Ocean and Central Asia
before the Portuguese sack of the city in the sixteenth century. During the
period of Portuguese control of its trade, Thatta continued to be an active
commercial centre, boasting 40,000 weavers of calico and loongees ......
and artisans of every other class and description to the number of 20,000
more, exclusive of baners, money changers, shopkeepers and sellers of
Thatta also occupied a
grains, who were estimated at 60,000 more"53).
50) Andre Wink, Al-Hind: theMakingof theIndo-IslamicWorld,Vol.1, EarlyMedievalIndia
and the Expansionof Islam, 7th-llth Centuries(Leiden, 1991), pp. 45-64.
51) A.M. Peterov has briefly discussed the rationale and historical reasons of the shift
from land to sea routes in his 'Foreign Trade of Russia and Britain in the Seventeenth and
Eighteenth Centuries', ModernAsian Studies,21, 4, (1987), pp. 625-637
52) Moreland, India at theDeathof Akbar,p. 205-207
of theProvinceof Sind (Karachi, 1979), p. 116.
53) E.H. Aitken, Gazetteer
214
MUZAFFAR
ALAM
distinctplacein India'stradewiththe PersianGulfandAfricain the seventeenth century"54).
The emergent Europeandominationover the western Indian Ocean
seems to have reducedIndian controlover the seas. In Sind in the seventeenth centurythe Mughalsmade some effortsto regainascendancy,but
the Indianscouldnot re-establishthemselvesas the primenavigatorsthere.
Thatta,however,continuedto be of someimport,and Indiamaintainedits
sea tradewith Persiaand its neighbours,in particularthroughthe Armenians. The Armenians,as tradingpartnersof the Europeans,had acquired
a dominantpositionin the tradingworldof Persiaand India in the seventeenth centuries.Among the varioustrade treatiesthe Armenianssigned
withthe Europeans,theiragreementwiththe Englishin 1688was of special
significancein this connection.Since 1605, when Shi.hCAbbasset up their
colonyatJulfa, in the suburbsof Isfahan,theywerewell establishedin Persia. Theirstrengthand sharein India'stradegrewas they arrivedat a trade
agreementwiththe Englishbothin Persiaand Indiain the seventeenthcentury. The Englishutilized the Armenianfamiliaritywith local language,
customsand the politicalauthoritiesto promotetheir interests,while the
Armeniansthemselvesused the Europeanships for their own goods and
exploitedthe new connections,to emergeas the chiefcarriersof European
goods from India to Persia55).Accordingto the agreementof 1688 they
were to sharein all the tradingprivilegesenjoyedto the Englishin matters
of employmentto the Company's service. The Armenians, in return,
pledgedto give up exportingIndiangoodsby the land-routeand promised
to send these on Companyships.
III
All this, however,alsocreateda climatein whichthe rulersof bothKabul
and Qandaharrecognizedthe necessityof a policyof protectionof thelandtheirpoliticalrivalries.Thus, the land-routein the
route, notwithstanding
seventeenthand earlyeighteenthcenturiesnot only competedsuccessfully
with the maritimeroute,but it also seemsto have poseda kindof threatto
it. The Englishhadto persuadethe Armeniansto sendtheirgoodsm ships.
The caravanroutesprovedreasonablysecureand also quick,to the extent
54) Calvin H. Allen Jr., 'The Indian Merchant Community of Masqat', Bulletinof the
Schoolof OrientalandAfricanStudies,40,4,1 (1981) pp. 39-53.
in India (Calcutta, 1937), pp. 122-126, 282-283,
55) Mesrovb Jacobs Seth, TheArmenzans
and 604-606; Gopal, 'Armenian Traders in India in the Seventeenth Century', in Guha
(ed.) CentralAsia, pp. 200-213.
TRADE,
STATE POLICY
AND REGIONAL
CHANGE
215
that Jahangir, as we noticed earlier, could boast of getting even fresh fruits
from Central Asia56). Further, in Iran in the seventeenth century, "the
Multanis", with support from the Safavid Shah, had also acquired a
notable position in money transaction and trade57). The stability of the
route, in a measure, also encouraged an unprecedented movement during
this period of Central-Asian scholars and poets, many of whom were also
involved in trade58).
This was so in spite of the fact that the relations among the rulers along
the routes were always volatile. Rivalry between the Mughals and the
Safavids over Qandahar, and the outbreak of wars with the Uzbeks around
Kabul, Balkh and Badakhshan in Shahjahan's time (1626-1656) did not
affect the traffic. Relations between the Uzbeks and the Safavids were rarely
cordial. But they regularly informed each other of the details of their
caravans to ensure appropriate protection in each other's territory What is
more interesting is that for this purpose the ruler of one territory often had
direct contact with the provincial and local officials of the other, and only
in case of their failure or violation of norms was the ruler approached59).
Protection of trade and traders was integral to rulership. This was the case
even when the traders were just in transit, without concluding any formal
transactions. An illustration of this can be found in the letters of Imam Quli
Khan, the ruler of Bukhara (1612-1642), to the Safavid Shah and his
officials, written when agents or traders from his territory passed through
Persia on their way to Masqat60). Interestingly, in the early eighteenth century when Nadir Afshar came to power, the Uzbek ruler, Abul Fayd Khan
tried, though in vain, to arrive at an agreement with him. He postulated
that he give up the earlier Safavid policy and never invade Turan so that
the people and the traders of their respective territories could move in and
56) Seth, The Armenians, p. 231.
57) Mehdi Keyvani, Artisans and Guild life in the Later SafavzdPeriod, Contributtonto the Social
and Economic History of Persia (Berlin, 1982), p. 215.
58) Sanjay Subrahmanyam, 'Iranians Abroad: Intra-Asian Elite Migration and Early
Modern State Formation', Journalof Asian Studies,51,2, (1992), pp. 340-363.
59) Mirak Shah Munshi, Makthbdt,ff. 35a, 49b-50a for Imim Quli Khan's letters to the
Shah of Persia, ff. 82a-83b for his letter to an Iranian noble. In one of his letters (f. 36b)
the Uzbek ruler mentions, In particular, how a governor of Mashhad in collusion with
paydakardeh)the frontier tribes (of Turkmen) caused consternation to the traders
(ashdnadF
in the area (sabab-i-khawf turuq-z-tujjDr
wa biddbtagF-yeaqtir wa amsar mishud); see also CAbd-al-
Mucmin Khan's letter to Shah cAbbis in a valuable collection of letters exchanged between
the Mughal, the Ottoman, the Uzbek and the Safavid rulers of the late 16th and early 17th
centuries titled Maktiibdt,Institute of Onental Studies, St. Petersburg, Ms. No. B2501, ff. 36.
60) Ibid, f. 75.
216
MUZAFFAR
ALAM
out without any difficulty6'). Such letters were also exchanged between the
Mughal rulers, on the one hand, and the Persian Shdih and the Uzbek
Khans, on the other. Again, special letters from rulers to their counterparts
in other areas accompanied big merchants, which in turn also indicated a
close relationship between trade and politics62).
The traders thus often saw the rulers as their allies. Such was the case,
at least, in Mughal India. The vast overland trade of the Punjab and the
unprecedented share in it of the Khatris, the major local trading community, owed a good deal to the general climate of peace and stability under
the Mughals. In the early eighteenth century, when rural uprisings in the
Punjab shook the Mughal state, the Khatri traders aided the Mughals in
suppressing the peasants63).
This aid assumes special importance in view of the fact that, like the rebel
peasants, very many of these Khatris were also Sikhs64). The Khatris, like
the Kayasthas, had long been associated with Mughal administration. They
now started making attempts to acquire high positions in the various key
departments, in an apparent bid to reinforce the Mughal state which had
helped create conditions for their trade to flourish. In a different context I
could locate twenty-six Khatris in Mughal state service at different levels.
Four of them held very high ranks, one as high as 700 ddt. Two others are
referred to as 'nobles' (amfrs), which obviously meant high ranking. The
remaining twenty are all mentioned as notables (acydn), with some of them
close to high Mughal nobles both at court and in the provinces, others being
local officials in the Punjab and Delhi siibas and still others holding financial
and fiscal offices at the centre. In addition, there were a large number of
Khatris in the category of petty functionaries and minor officials (pfshkdrs,
mutasaddfs) in revenue and finance departments or in the establishments
(sarkdrs)of the big nobles65).
The increase in strength of the Khatris in state service could also be seen
in light of the fact that the fortunes of the merchants in Mughal India were
tied to those of the ruling elites. Trade, according to one view, was subserwa daydrjihat-i-tarfth
61) Ibid, ff. 51b-53a and 54a-55b "wa ba hamamuntasibdn-z-bilid
tujiar
wa fuqarddarimki bafardghatidmadwa shudnumiyand."
62) Mirzd Sadiq Munshi Risald, Institute of Oriental Studies, St. Petersburg MS. No.
A212, ff. 20b-22a for a letter of the Amir of Bukhara to the Amir of Kabul sent through
CUmdat-al-Tujjar,who was also the leader of the caravan (qdfilabfshi).
63) Muhammad Qdsim Lahori, Clbrat-ndna,British Museum, Or. 1934, f. 33A.
ed. K.D., Ahmad and Wolseley
64) Muhammad
Khdfif
Muntakhab-al-lubdb
H.shim
651.
1869) 2, p.Kh.n,
Haig, 2 vols (Calcutta,
65) M. Alam, The Crists of Empirein MughalNorthIndia, 1707-1748 (Delhi, 1986), pp.
169-175.
TRADE,
STATE
POLICY
AND REGIONAL
CHANGE
217
vient to the coercive state system, while the markets were generated through
the unproductive lifestyle of the ruling class, which thrived, in turn, on an
irrationally high claim over the social surplus66). The financial difficulties
of the nobles, it could well be argued, affected the prospects of trade as well.
But this model helps us appreciate the situation within a limit only. Further,
the trade in India in general was little affected because of the financial
distress of the Mughal nobles in the eighteenth century.
Much work is to be done before we can say anything in definitive terms
about the nature and extent of the Khatris' share in political power. But it
is interesting to note that the Khatris saw themselves as a people who combined tjyarator trade with amdrator dominion. Anand Ram Mukhlis, a noted
eighteenth century Khatri poet and author speaks boastfully of numerous
Khatris who excelled in both67).
What is of greater interest to us is that if, on the one hand, the Khatris
who were principally a business community had a share in administration
and politics, some of the members of the Mughal ruling elites, on the other,
also participated in trade. Shahjahan not only defended the Indian overseas
merchants, especially the Muslim shippers, he also had his ships in Surat,
kdrkhdnasin Burhanpur, like his son, Prince' Ddra Shukoh, and daughter
Princess Jahdn Ara68). Awrangzeb, as a prince, tried to build his own port
in Sind, and his grandson, Prince CAzim-al-Shan, as is well known, was
accused of saud-z-khas, monopolistic control over business, in Chittagong
and Dacca69). Among the nobles, Shdyasta Khhn and quite a few others in
Bengal, for instance have been noted in our sources as merchants or
descending from a family of merchants (tiajrat-plsha and tdjir-zddeh)70).
From the history of the trade with Central Asia we get a considerable
amount of evidence of a close link between trade and politics. The majmicaz-Wathd'iq refers to one Mirzd Salim, son of Mawlana Ibrdahim Sadr, an
important member of the ruling elite (natyjat-al-umdra,amadrat
mai'b) who was
66) Irfan Habib, 'Potentialities of Capitalistic Development in the Economy of Mugha
India',Journal of EconomicHistory, 29,1, (1969), pp. 32-78.
67) Anand Rim, 'Mukhlis', Safar-ndma,ed. S.M. Azhar Ali, Rampur, 1946, pp. 4, 8,
10, 12, and 17-18 and 25-6 for his relations in Mughal service, and editor's Introduction,
pp. 22 for Mukhlis's view of tyaratand amdrat.
ed. Abd-al-Ghafur Chaudhan, 2 vols
68) Shaykh Abul Fath Qabil
Adab-z-CAlamgfrF
Kh-in,
463, 640; 2, p. 819
(Lahore, 1971). 1, pp. 147, 200,
69) Subrahmanyam, 'The Portuguese, Thatta and the External Trade of Sind', p. 57
70) Compare Ghulirn Husayn Salim, Rzydd-al-Salltin, ed. Maulavi Abd-al-Haq
(Calcutta, 1890), pp. 225, 229, and 344; Mir Ghuldm CAlIAzdd Bilgrrmi',Ma dthzr-al-Kiram,
2 vols (Hyderabad, 1913), 2, pp. 222 and 224.
218
MUZAFFARALAM
engaged in commercial transactions 71). Further, a number of the letters of
Imam QulT Khan and Subhan Qul Khin record instructions to local
officials to encourage the merchants from different parts of the neighbouring countries to come to and trade in the Uzbek lands. Trade and traders
were seen as a source of bliss for society. These royal orders are Invariably
reinforced with such Quranic verses and traditions of the Prophet which
highlight the importance of trade in Islam72). By promoting trade and
traders, they believed, they also served their religion.
The rulers, then, would not merely encourage trade, but many of them
would be keen to participate in it, albeit indirectly or symbolically. Symbolic is the case which Mutribi recorded at the court of Jahingir, when the
Emperor sold some slaves to his courtiers, avowedly to earn a lawful
From
livelihood (wajh-z-haldl) according to the Quranic injunction73).
Uzbek Central Asia our sources record at least two instances of the ruler's
involvement in trade. Imam Quli Khan preferred to secure goods from
Masqat and
Quli Khin from India, both for consumption in the
for sale to the nobles and the members of the royal
and
establishment
Subh.n
royal
slaves. And since the Hajj offered an ideal
favourite
their
family, through
occasion for trade, they showed not merely special concern for the protection of the Uzbek HSijjis and traders, but also tried to promote good relations with the Sharif of Mecca 7 ).
Further, our sources also help us in getting some idea of how Indian merchants adjusted to different social and political situations to maintain their
credit-worthy status and to protect and promote their trade. Their participation in administration and politics apart, the fact that they operated
across frontiers imposed constraints on them. It had to appear that their
movements ensured good for all. They were thus allies, at home, of the
Mughals, earned favours from the Safavids and succeeded in maintaining
their own autonomous organization in Central Asia. In Astrakhan, as
Stephen Dale tells us, the Indian merchants lived in separate quarters and
followed their own customs and rituals. But, being unaccompanied by
f. 183a.
71) Majmica-z-Wathd)iq,
(a collection of letters, specimens of royal
72) Muhammad Rldi Balkhi, Rawdat-al-Inshd
orders, dedicated to CAbd-al-cAzizKhdn, ruler of Bakhara(1645-1681), in two volumes) Firdausi Library, Dushambe, Ms No. 351, ff. 22a-24a and 28. Another anonymous tnshi collection, titled Munshaldt,in Firdausi Library, Ms No. 1862, also contains three such letters.
See also A.K.S. Lambton, 'The Merchant in Medieval Islam', in Idem, TheoryandPractice
in MedievalPersianGovernment
(London, 1980), pp. 121-130.
73) Mutribi Samarqandi, KJittrdt-i-Mutribf,ed. A.G. Mirzoyef (Karachi, 1977), pp.
53-54.
74) Mirak Shih Maktibdt,f. 74a.
TRADE,
STATE POLICY
AND REGIONAL
CHANGE
219
women, they had mistresses and sometimes even married women from the
local Turkic groups75). In the Uzbek territory too, the Hindus had their
own leader (dqsaqdl,kaldntar)to take care of their needs and maintain community cohesion. The aqsaqdlappointed by a royal order (manshur), enjoyed
the ruler's support to deal autonomously with the affairs of his community
spread over the towns of the Uzbek Khanate 76). Not much is known about
their internal organization. We can only speculate that they were there with
their own priests and had their own places of worship, like in Baku in Azerbaijan. We can also speculate that the Hindu Khatris, like the other trading
communities in the region 77), settled their disputes, including commercial
and succession issues, according to their own caste and family rules 78).
The facilities for autonomous community organization, again, seem to be
a seventeenth-century phenomenon, a follow up of the Indians' Increasing
strength of number and of a newly developing general policy in the region
of tolerance and co-existence. The earlier pattern seems to have been a bit
different. While we notice Hindu quarters in fifteenth-century Bukhara and
Samarqand, we also see the Indian merchants and master craftsmen getting
almost completely absorbed into local society. They lived in mixed mohallas,
their houses and shops surrounded by those of the local Uzbeks or the
Ta-jiks. Many abandoned their ancestral religion, took Muslim names, married Uzbek women and were identified with their in-laws 79). And in commercial and money matters they all had to approach the courts of the local
qddis.
IV
That the trade with Central Asia had
of the region is stating the obvious. But
be identified. We now probably know
North India to be able to suggest a
an important impact on the history
the details of this impact are yet to
enough of the history of Mughal
link between this trade and the
75) Dale, 'Indo-Russian Trade', pp. 147-148.
76) Mentioned among others are Bukhara, Balkh, Badakhshan, Qunduz, Taleqan,
Aibak, Ghur, Baghlan, Shabarghan, Termez, Samarqand, Nasf, Kesh, Shahr Sabz. Mirak
Shih Munshi, Maktibdt, ff. 187a-188a.
77) For a useful discussion of the internal organization of the Armenians in Isfahan, see
Edmund Herzig, 'Family Firms, Formal Partnerships and the Community Structure of
Seventeenth and Eighteenth century Armenian Commercial Organisation', paper presented
at the conference on the Political Economies of the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Empires,
Istanbul, June 1992.
78) Herzig, 'Family Firms...'
79) Majmica-t-Watha'iq,f. 186a, where one Nanfi Multdni is identified with his local wife,
Sandal bint CAbd-Allah.
220
MUZAFFAR
ALAM
707'
657
60
oshkent
-
KwUZOE"
(Skjhre-Sobz
BA-AKHSHAN
/
Nosof
Mvry
Termer
Balkh
4
Shoborghot
isNshopur
SM shtodAibok
urduz
0
Bodkhson
Tokeqofl
(blBahhl
35'
Herot
Firuzkuh
a
Kobul
)Peshowor
THE
hn
AFAVIDS
Lahore
r)a
m
HUDIAN ..
25
*('
70'
Map II. * Towns with Hindu Settlements in Central Asia.
TRADE, STATE POLICY AND REGIONAL CHANGE
221
vicissitudes of the North-Indian economy. A major impact of the trade was
the emergence in the Punjab of an ideology which was expressed in a
language borrowed from the world of trade. This new ideology, in a
measure, represented the traders' worldview. I am referring here to the
initial phases of Sikhism. In some passages of the Sikh scriptures of the Guru
GranthSaheb, the value system appears to be strongly influenced by a consciousness intimately connected with trade and commerce80).
"The true guru is the merchant: The Devotees are his pedlars, The capital stock is the Lord's Name and to Enshrine the Truth is to keep its Accounts"
Further:
"Oye Traders, Trade in the True Merchandise
Buy ye the goods that last with ye
The Buyers is all-wise, let Him receive the goods with Pleasure"
And:
"Without capital, the Trader looks about in the four continents (in vain),
For he knows not the Reality that his capital lies buried within himself.
Without the merchandise, he grieves and grieves,
The False one is deceived by Falsehood.
He who has the knowledge of the Jewel (within himself) reaps
profit, over and over again,
And gathers his goods at home and fulfils
himself, (Mind),
Trade with the True Traders and dwell on the Lord,
through the Gurfi's words"
The visible growth by the sixteenth century of big and small towns in the
Punjab, Multan and Sind and the areas north of Delhi was another significant feature of North-Indian history All these towns were connected with
each other through roads and riverine routes. The entire area then came to
be linked, on the one hand, to India's eastern and western seashores, while
opening up, on the other, to Central Asia and Persia through Kabul and
Qandahar. The well-known road building activity of Shar Shah Stiri (15301545) here is worth noting: ".... and he [Sher Shih] built a road with
resthouses which commenced from the fort that he had constructed in the
Punjab and it ran up to the town of Sonargaon, which lay situated on the
edge of the Bay of Bengal. He built another road that ran from the city of
Agra to Burhanpur, on the borders of the Deccan. He made another road
80) Chetan Singh, Regzonand Empire:Punjabin the Seventeenth
Century(Delhi, 1991), pp.
173-203.
222
MUZAFFAR
ALAM
which ran from the city of Agra to jodhpur and Chittor. He then built still
another road with resthouses which ran from the city of Lahore to Multan.
In all he built 1700 resthouses on the roads which lay in various regions and
in every resthouse he built apartments for both Hindus and Muslims" 81).
Among other things, the attempt was clearly to improve the facilities for the
growing commercial connections between India and Central Asia.
The areas around the routes bustled with rich commercial and manufacturing centres, which in turn also encouraged growth in the neighbouring
countryside. Urban centres in the Punjab and in its neighbourhood began
to emerge and thrive in two lines running along the roads, Attock, Hasan
Abdal, Jhelum, Gujrat, Wazirabad, Sialkot, Emanabad, Bajwara,
Machiwara, Rahon, Phillaur, Nur Mahal, Govindwal, Sultanpur Nakodar,
Ludhiana, Sirhind and Ambala, Thanesar and Karnal all lay astride the
grand road to Kabul. These towns emerged in the late sixteenth and seventeenth century, following and accompanying the great building activities of
the Stirs and the Mughals. Lahore, chosen to be the provincial headquarters
in the sixteenth century, kept expanding underJahdngir, Shdihjahanand in
the early years of Awrangzeb's reign82). From these towns as their bases,
the Khatris became the principal carriers of India's trade with countries
beyond its north-western borders.
Many of the goods in demand in Central Asia then began to be produced
also in these towns themselves. Lahore, Bajwara, Machhiwara and Sialkot
were noted, among other things, for textiles. In Lahore were manufactured
shawls and in particular the mixture of silk and wool. The Punjab towns
were also stocked with indigo, both locally produced and from other parts
of the country. Lahore served together with Agra as "the chief market for
indigo.....because it was more convenient for the merchants who travelled
in caravans at fixed seasons by way of Kandahar and Ispahan to Aleppo;
and this is why the indigo which reached Europe from Aleppo or the Levent
was known as Lauri [or more properly Lahori]". Punjab also exported
sugar and rice to Central Asia83).
This development in almost the entire north-western region of Mughal
empire occurred in close connection with the markets for Indian goods in
Iran and Central Asia. An early eighteenth-century Mughal chronicler
notices Mult.ni and Lahori merchants in different parts of Iran including
81) 'Abbas Khan S~rwani, Tirfkh-i-ShirShdih, ed. Imamuddin (Dacca, 1964), pp.
216-217
82) Chetan Singh, Regtonand Empire,pp. 173-203.
83) Ibid, pp. 216-219
STATE POLICY
TRADE,
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CHANGE
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Map III. Towns and Production Centres in Punjab and Delhi Provinces in the 17th
Century
Tabriz 84). Our sources also mention the Afghan tribes of Qandahar in
markets of Sind"5). Towards the later decades of the seventeenth century,
Shikarpur began to emerge as a major entrep6t mnSind, where, later in the
eighteenth century, many trading families from the upper Indus country,
84) Muhammad Hddi Kimwar Khan, Tadhkirat-al-Salatin
Caghta,(Portions dealing with
the post-Awrangzeb period). ed. Muzaffar Alam (Bombay, 1980), pp. 53 and 335.
ed. K.B. Nasim (Lahore, 1970), p.
85) Khwajd CAbd-al-KarmKashmiri, Bayan-z-Wdqic,
57
224
MUZAFFAR
ALAM
including the Multinis and the Khatris, also settled down86). The Shikarpunis together with the Khatris and Multinis spread in almost all the
regions of Iran and Central Asia 87). We would not, perhaps, be wide off the
mark if we suggest a connection between these markets and the stability of
Mughal power in the region. But this requires a careful examination of the
sources to re-evaluate how the internal dynamics of Mughal society were
related to the markets and economic trends in the outside world. We obtain,
however, a somewhat clearer vision of this link as we move to the period
of the Mughal crisis.
While the Punjab registered unprecedented growth in the seventeenth
century, its economy suffered serious setbacks by the turn of the century.
The silting of the Indus, first, affected its trade through the ports of Sind.
But the great caravan trade more than made up for the losses accruing from
the silting Indus. At any rate, trade through the Sind ports by the middle
of the century was no longer of a very grand scale. The Punjab was still
among the richest provinces of the Mughal empire. Towards the mideighteenth century the economy of the Punjab and its neighbours plunged
into a crisis, which can very largely be explained in terms of the decline of
its trade with Central and West Asia88). The Ghilza'i risings under Mir
Ways in Qandahar in 1709 disturbed the route to Persia. The rapid decay
of the Safavid empire, leading to the capture of Isfahan by Malhmfid
Ghilza'i in 1722, Nadir Afshar's loot and plunder of Delhi and the Punjab,
all dislocated the existing pattern of this trade and the economy of the northwestern provinces of the Mughal empire. On the other hand, Central Asia
was in a state of deepening political crisis. The governments in the Uzbek
Khanates had ceased to be effective. Resurgence of tribal forces and increasing interference of the Kazakhs and Turkmen in Bukhara and Khiva
86) For Shikarpur, see Selectron
fromtheBombayRecords,N.S. No. 17, Memoirson Shikarpoor,
etc. Bombay 1855; J. Postans, PersonalObservations
on Sindh,(London, 1843). It is interesting
to note that certain Shikarpur families were known as Multanis even as late as the early
decades of this century (see Report of the BombayProvincialBankingEnquiryCommittee
1929-39,
Bombay, 1930, vol. 1, p. 195). I am grateful to Claude Markovits for bringing these
references to my notice.
87) Mohan Lal, Travels,(1971) pp. 398, 406, 412, 438 and 441, See also letters of an eighteenth century Naqshbandi sifif who used to receive hadiya(gifts) in cash from his Central
Asian disciples through
Maktibit. St. Petersburg Public Library,
"Hindu.n-i-Shikirpir",
83, ff. 167a-174b. Unfortunately the name of this particular sUfi
Chanykov Collection, No.
is not given; but the MS contains a number of letters written by the Indian Naqshbani sfiTs,
and Shaykh Ghulimn All to
including Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi, Mirz; Mazhar
Jin-i-Jiin.n
their associates and disciples in Central Asia.
88) Alam, Crisisof Empire,pp. 134-147, 180-185.
TRADE,
STATE POLICY
AND REGIONAL
CHANGE
225
resulted in the disruption of economic life89). The revenue of the Punjab
and Multan declined sharply. In these circumstances, the artisans, the petty
urban communities, the peasants, as well as the half-settled tillers and
pastoral communities who had profited from the sixteenth-seventeenth century boom suffered the worst. Both the Sikh risings and the other rural and
urban disturbances concentrated on and around the great route or its
branches. Appreciating the reasons for the malaise, the rich Khatri merchants initially supported the Mughals, but eventually, in the wake of a
series of Afghan raids, they also lost their strength.
The trade with Central Asia continued in the eighteenth century, but
effectively it was then mostly under the control of the Afghans, who benefitted most from the reversal of the bullion flow through plunder. Some Khatri
families migrated to the east, some others moved down to the south of
Multan, where in Shikarpur they maintained their trade, while still others
in the upper Indus country gradually regained their earlier position, as
allies, perhaps even subordinates, of the Afghansg9).
V
It is difficult to ascertain the volume of the India-Central Asia trade for
any phase of the period we have surveyed. It is, however, noteworthy that
in Mughal times traders and the production centres of almost the entire subcontinent were involved in this trade and that the merchants from Centralas far south as
Asia-Khurasan,
Maward al-Nahr and Turkistan-reached
Their trade was of no insignificant consequence for the
'Malibar'91).
societies they moved in. Again, we do not have enough data to be able to
arrive at a figure for the income this trade generated for the Mughals as
customs dues or as mint charges. But it is clear that this trade had a close
bearing on the economy, on state power and on the politics of the regions
in which it flowed. It seems also clear that the political authorities, on either
side of the frontier, appreciated the importance of the links between trade
as such and the overall stability of political power. The Mughals, the
Safavids and the Uzbeks were not oblivious of commercial affairs or
economic concerns in general. Several historians have recently put forward
89) L. Lockhart, Nadir Shah (London, 1938) pp. 35-45; Roger Savory, Iran underthe
Safavtds(Camaridge, 1980), pp. 226-54; Encyclopedia
Irantca,Vol. 5, pp. 193-195.
90) Commans, 'Mughal India and Central Asia'
f. 451a.
91) Hifiz Tanish Sharaf-ndma-z-shadhT,
226
MUZAFFAR ALAM
a positive interpretation of Mughal and Safavid policy towards trade92) In
the early eighteenth century Mughal context I have also adduced some
evidence in line with this position93). In our discussion here the evidence of
the Uzbek rulers' concern for trade is of special significance. The rulers
acted, reacted and intervened94). Further, the ability of Indian merchants
to adjust the diverse social and political conditions also deserves particular
attention. They appear to be rather thoroughly integrated in the local alien
society at one stage. Later, at another stage, they acted as allies of the
Mughals at home, earned favours from the Safavids in Iran, and had their
own autonomous organisation in the Uzbek lands. Still later, they found in
the Afghans a new ally to protect and promote their trade. In all their
actions, there is an anxiety to maintain and enhance their creditworthy
status as merchants95).
Finally the foregoing evidence also enables us to re-evaluate the thesis of
the crisis of the Mughal empire. When the crisis thesis was initially formulated, two themes were analysed: the inner contradictions of thejdgfrdidr
system, and the oppressive fiscal structure of the Mughal state which
disrupted the fabric of agrarian society and limited the possibilities of
growth96). In recent years historians began questioning these arguments,
and an alternative picture has started to emerge. Instead of a generalized
crisis, evidence of dynamism and growth was discovered in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries97). However, an unqualified thesis of
92) Compare H.W Van Santen "De Verenigde Oost-Indische Compangle in Gujara en
Hindustan, 1720-1660", Ph.D. thesis, Leiden University, 1982, cited in Ashin Dasgupta,
'Indian Merchants and the Western Indian Ocean: the Early Seventeenth Century', Modern
Asian Studies,19, 3 (1985), pp. 441-449; Subrahmanyam, 'Iranians Abroad'
93) Alam, Crisisof Empire,pp. 8-9, 203.
94) For a different interpretation of these rulers' approach to trade, see M.N. Pearson,
'Political Participation in Mughal India', TheIndianEconomicandSoczalHistoryReview, 11,2
(1972), pp. 113-131, idem, 'Merchants and States' in James D. Tracy, (ed.) The Political
Economyof MerchantEmpires(Cambridge, 1991), pp. 41-116. See also the review by Andre
Wink, The International
HistoryReview, XV.I, February 1993. pp. 106-112.
95) For a recent discussion on 'Hindu merchants adaptability and the mtnnsic stability
of their organisation', see C.A. Bayly, 'Pre-Colonal Indian Merchants and Rationality' in
Mushirul Hasan and Narayani Gupta (eds.), India's ColonialEncounter.Essaysin Memoryof
ErzcStrokes(Delhi, 1993), pp. 2-24.
crisis, see Satish Chandra, PartiesandPoliticsat theMughalCourt,
96) ForJdgfrddrfandjadgfr
1707-1740 (Aligarh, 1959) Introduction; review in idem, MedievalIndia: Society,theJagirdari
CrisisandtheVillage(Delhi, 1982) pp. 61-75; M. Athar Ali, TheMughalNobilityunderAurangzeb
(Bombay, 1966). For agrarian crisis, see Irfan Habib, TheAgrarianSystemof MughalIndia
(1556-1707) (Bombay, 1963) pp. 317-351.
97) Compare C.A. Bayly, Rulers, Townsmenand Bazaars:NorthIndianSocietyin theAge of
BritishExpansion,1770-1870 (Cambridge 1983); Andre Wink, Landand Sovereigntyin India:
AgrarianSocietyand Politics underthe EighteenthCenturyMarathaSwardjya(Cambridge 1986);
Alam, Cristsof Empire.
TRADE,
STATE POLICY
AND REGIONAL
CHANGE
227
dynamism is not always tenable. I would suggest the need for a cautious rethinking There is evidence of an agrarian crisis in regions like in Punjab.
But the explanation for this should not be traced back only to the internal
working of the Mughal system. To understand the crisis we also need to
look at the fluctuations of trade caused by the factors beyond the pale of the
Mughal jurisdiction as well as at the vicissitudes in the relationship of the
Mughal state with the outside world.