Do you think that Akbar's Rajput policy was conscious attempt to incorporate the Indian ruling elite with Mughal Imperial System?

Answer:

Akbar's Rajput policy was a deliberate and far-sighted political design. By combining matrimonial alliance, high mansabs and religious concession he converted the most formidable Indian ruling class from adversaries into partners in the imperial system.

The instruments of the policy

• Matrimonial alliances began with the marriage to the Amber princess in 1562.
• Rajput chiefs received high mansabs and important military and provincial commands.
• They retained their ancestral kingdoms as watan jagirs, held in hereditary right.
• The jizya was abolished in 1564 and the pilgrim tax earlier.
• Freedom of worship and temple building were permitted.

Evidence of conscious design

• Man Singh commanded imperial armies in Kabul, Bihar and Bengal.
• Bhagwant Das and Todar Mal held the highest offices of state.
• The policy extended beyond Rajputs to other Indian elites within a composite nobility.
• Sulh-i-kul supplied an ideological framework for such incorporation.
• Abul Fazl presents the policy as a considered principle of universal sovereignty.

Results and limits

• It gave the empire an unmatched reserve of loyal military manpower.
• It removed the chronic hostility that had troubled earlier Muslim rulers.
• Mewar under Rana Pratap resisted, showing the policy was not universally accepted.
• Its later reversal under Aurangzeb contributed materially to imperial decline.

The wider design

• Rajputs were integrated into the mansabdari system on the same terms as others.
• Their women were not required to convert on marriage into the imperial family.
• Akbar's policy formed part of a composite nobility of Turanis, Iranis and Indians.
• Jahangir and Shah Jahan broadly continued the same approach.

The policy was therefore a conscious and successful attempt at incorporation. As Satish Chandra argued, Akbar recognised that a durable empire required the participation of the Indian ruling classes, and the Rajput alliance became the political foundation of Mughal strength, as its abandonment later demonstrated by contrast.