India, Early Modern

Northern India, under mainly Muslim rulers ion the early sixteenth century, falls again to the superior mobility and firepower of a new generation of Central Asian warriors.

The resulting Mughal Empire does not stamp out the local societies it comes to rule

Instead, it balances and pacifies them through new administrative practices and diverse and inclusive ruling elites, leading to more systematic, centralized, and uniform rule.

Eschewing tribal bonds and Islamic identity, especially under Akbar, the Mughals unite their far-flung realms through loyalty, expressed through a Persianized culture, to an emperor who has near-divine status.

The Mughal state's economic policies, deriving most revenues from agriculture and mandating that taxes be paid in the well-regulated silver currency, causes peasants and artisans to enter larger markets.

The relative peace maintained by the empire during much of the seventeenth century is a factor in India's economic expansion,  resulting in greater patronage of painting, literary forms, textiles, and architecture.

Newly coherent social groups in northern and western India, such as the Marathas, the Rajputs, and the Sikhs, gain military and governing ambitions during Mughal rule, which, through collaboration or adversity, give them both recognition and military experience.

Expanding commerce during Mughal rule gives rise to new Indian commercial and political elites along the coasts of southern and eastern India.

As the empire disintegrates, many among these elites are able to seek and control their own affairs.

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