A more complex social reality

Bernier’s description of Mughal India is not entirely one-sided. While he is clearly determined to paint the state as tyrannical, his own observations sometimes reveal a far more complex social and economic reality than his simple theory allows.

For example, Bernier argues that artisans had no incentive to improve the quality of their goods because the state took away all the profits. He claims that manufactures were therefore in decline everywhere. Yet in the same breath, he admits that vast quantities of the world’s precious metals flowed into India, because Indian manufactures were exported in exchange for gold and silver. He also notices a prosperous merchant community engaged in long-distance trade.

Source 13 — an excerpt from Bernier’s own writing — paints a different picture. He describes Bengal as surpassing Egypt in the production of rice, corn, and other necessities, and also in commercial crops like silks, cotton, and indigo. He notes that the land is well tilled and the population abundant. He even says that the artisan, though “naturally indolent” (a prejudiced remark), is compelled by necessity to manufacture carpets, brocades, embroideries, gold and silver cloths, and various silk and cotton goods — both for domestic use and for export. He concludes that gold and silver, after circulating everywhere else, end up being “swallowed up” in Hindustan.

Urbanisation and the myth of the “camp town”

During the seventeenth century, about 15 per cent of India’s population lived in towns. This was actually higher, on average, than the proportion of urban population in Western Europe at the same time.

Despite this, Bernier described Mughal cities as “camp towns” — towns that owed their existence entirely to the imperial court. He believed they sprang up when the court arrived and decayed when it left, having no independent social or economic foundations. They were, in his view, entirely dependent on imperial patronage.

This was an oversimplification. In reality, there were many kinds of towns:

• Manufacturing towns
• Trading towns
• Port towns
• Sacred centres and pilgrimage towns

The very existence of such a variety of towns is proof of the prosperity of merchant communities and professional classes.

Merchant and professional communities

Merchants often had strong community or kin ties and were organised into their own caste-cum-occupational bodies. In western India, these groups were called mahajans, and their chief was the sheth. In cities like Ahmedabad, the mahajans were collectively represented by the nagarsheth.

Other urban professional groups included:

• Physicians (hakim or vaid)
• Teachers (pundit or mulla)
• Lawyers (wakil)
• Painters, architects, musicians, calligraphers

Some of these depended on imperial patronage, but many made their living by serving other patrons, or by serving ordinary people in crowded markets and bazaars.

The imperial karkhanas

Bernier is perhaps the only historian who gives a detailed account of the imperial karkhanas (workshops). He describes large halls where artisans worked under a master. In one hall, embroiderers were busy; in another, goldsmiths; in a third, painters; in a fourth, varnishers in lacquer-work; in a fifth, joiners, turners, tailors, and shoemakers; in a sixth, manufacturers of silk, brocade, and fine muslins. …