The late seventeenth century Mughal India is considered to be a period of Jagirdari crisis. Discuss.

Answer:

The "jagirdari crisis" refers to the systemic strain in the Mughal jagir system in the late seventeenth century, seen by many historians (Satish Chandra, Athar Ali) as a key cause of Mughal decline.

The Jagir System

• Nobles (mansabdars) were paid mainly through jagirs — assignments of revenue — instead of cash.
• The system depended on a balance between available revenue-yielding land (paibaqi) and the number of claimants.

Nature of the Crisis

Shortage of jagirs (be-jagiri):

• Rapid growth in the number of mansabdars, especially after the Deccan conquests, outstripped the supply of productive jagirs.
• Nobles waited long for assignments and competed for fertile ones.

Gap between jama and hasil:

• Assessed revenue (jama) often exceeded actual collection (hasil), so jagirs yielded far less than on paper.

Consequences

Oppression and agrarian strain:

• Jagirdars, holding transferable jagirs briefly, extracted as much as possible, harming peasants (Irfan Habib's "agrarian crisis").
• Zamindar and peasant revolts (Jats, Satnamis, Marathas) multiplied.

Factionalism:

• Competition for jagirs deepened noble factionalism and weakened the state.

Debate

• Satish Chandra linked the crisis to Aurangzeb's Deccan policy; others emphasise administrative and regional factors.

Therefore, the late-seventeenth-century jagirdari crisis — a mismatch between claimants and revenue-yielding jagirs — undermined the nobility, aggravated agrarian distress and contributed significantly to the weakening of the Mughal Empire.