Question

Long answer type question:

Why did the peasantry suffer a lot during the last years of Aurangzeb's reign?

Answer 1

Mansabdars, recruited by the Mughals to discharge Mughal services, received their salaries as revenue assignments known as jagirs. But most mansabdars did pot actually reside in or administer their jagirs. They only had rights to the revenue of their assignments which was collected for them by their servants while they served in some other part of the country.

Akbar managed to carefully assess these jagirs so that their revenues were roughly equal to the salary of the mansabdar. But Aurangzeb failed to do this. During his reign, the actual revenue collected was often less than the granted sum. There was also a huge increase in the number of mansabdars, which meant a long wait before they received a jagir.

These created a shortage in the number of jagirs. As a result, many jagirdars tried to extract as much revenue as possible while they had a jagir. As Aurangzeb could not control these developments, the peasantry suffered a lot. Thee.