History

test

Gupta coins are among the most remarkably detailed coins from ancient India featuring exquisite artistic details. They stand out from coins crafted during the reign of other dynasties on following counts:

• Achievement of remarkable craftsmanship was evident by the finesse of the variety of images carved on both faces of the coin and its smooth and even wedges.
• Detailed carvings ranged from Chandragupta riding a horse to Samudragupta playing a Veena and the Goddess Lakshmi to a sacrificial horse for Ashvamedha ceremony and so on.
• Apart from these detailed images, there were inscriptions as well, often adding details of the image inscribed on the coin.
• Also, most of the important kings of Gupta dynasty are now believed to have had multiple coin-types during the course of their reign, in which older designs were dropped and newer motifs were adopted.
• Scholars have pointed out that such designs were made possible by use of clay-molds by skilled mint-masters.

In the post-Gupta period, not only the quality of gold coins fell, but also the numbers of gold coins being issued dropped drastically. Due to systemic economic distresses, town-based artisans producing good quality coins were forced to migrate to the countryside causing a decline of craft production and a decay of townships. Without urban centres and foreign trade, and with increasing decentralisation of political power which had resulted from the urban to rural migration of artisans, the excellence of Gupta numismatic art could not be sustained or recreated in the times that followed.

The first half of the eighteenth century witnessed decline and disintegration of the mighty Mughal Empire and rise of virtually independent regional powers. Lack of strong central authority and emergence of regional power weakened the political structure that led to rise of foreign power.

Factors that could be considered to play potent role in fragmented polity were–

• The Mughal court saw a host of weak emperors in succession, emperors who were incapable to command the glorious empire and would rather indulge in wasteful extravagance of pomp and show. Courtrooms became kingmaker’s ground for treachery and war of succession became recurrent.
• A number of powerful kingdoms such as Bengal, Avadh, Hyderabad and Mysore arose and became virtually independent from the Mughal Empire. 
• The weakened Mughal Empire was challenged by Marathas time and again. Marathas captured vast swathes of territory in northern and central India.
• The remaining illusion of continued domination of Mughal power was shattered by Nadir Shah’s (Shah of Persia) invasion of India in 1739.
• Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Abdali also made frequent inroads into Punjab and finally took over Delhi in 1756-57. Marathas, who were considered as only contender to fill the power vacuum in Delhi, were defeated by Abdali's forces in the Third Battle of Panipat (1761). The war didn’t decide who will rule India but who would not.

After these series of events, the Mughal Empire ceased to exist as an all-India empire in practice. The British took advantage of the entire situation. They defeated the forces of Bengal in Battle of Plassey and finally combined forces of Bengal, Awadh and Mughal were crushed in Battle of Buxar.

The moderates were not against the British rule per se and had strong belief in sense of justice and goodness of the British rule. They pursued the policy of gradualism and constitutionalism. Constitutional reforms, administrative re-organisation and protection of civil rights were high on agenda and methods of prayers, petition and protest were followed.

Moderates met limited success in later stages due to various reasons–

• The political jargons used by the moderates were alien to uneducated masses. There was also lack of political faith in the masses. Thus people largely remained aloof.
• It was gradually realised that the British didn’t concede to any of the major demands of the moderates.
• Indian Council Act 1892 was criticised. Moves such as further amplification of repressive laws under IPC and reduction in number of members in Calcutta Corporation didn’t go down well with progressive elements in INC.  
• Political ideologies of the moderates were blamed to be inefficient. Methods followed by moderates were described as political mendicancy. The result was emergence of a more militant school of thought.

However, the role of moderates can also not be negated. They were first to create national awakening among Indians and prepared a solid ground for mass oriented national movement at later stages that followed.

When the Britishers took over, traditional Indian artisans ruled the world and supplied about a quarter of all manufactured goods produced in the world as famously quoted by Peter, the Great that ‘commerce of India was the commerce of world!’

Nationalist economists proposed that with the beginning of British rule in mid-eighteenth century, the process of deindustrialization started for the traditional artisanal industry. The various reasons for that were:

• The traditional artisanal industry lost its many patrons, like rulers, zamindars etc. after the coming of colonial rule.
• The colonial rule flooded Indian market with cheaper manufactured goods against which Indian handicrafts lost the competition.
• The colonial rule also opened Indian markets with zero import tax which went in favour of British manufactured goods. Moreover, Indian goods were severely restricted in foreign markets due to various regulations and taxes leading to loss of market.
• The artisans also suffered at the hands of colonial power by having to agree to exploitative terms. The English carried on the put-out system of manufacture where the artisan was supplied with the materials and the finished product was brought at a low price. The English also procured raw cotton from peasants, at a low price and sold it at exorbitant rates to the artisans. Thus, the artisan suffered both as a buyer and a seller.
• With the advent of railways in mid-nineteenth century onwards the process of deindustrialization was further fastened by colonial economic and commercial penetration into the hinterlands of India.

This not only eroded the prosperous income base for millions of Indian artisans but eroded the labour productivity of Indian agriculture due to crowding and the twin pillars of traditional Indian rural economy were completely crumbled.

Thus, in a short span of just 200 years (1757-1947) the entire rural economy which was self-sustained and prosperous for ages was completely crippled.

The ‘twenties of the last century’ was the watershed moment for the Indian national movement. With emergence of new scenarios and actors the movement became a true mass movement.

This decade started on the backdrop of Russian Revolution and emergence of communism as an alternative to Imperialism which presented a new ray of hope for the colonies undergoing struggle for independence. With the rise of socialists and communists in India, the issues of peasants and workers became an important objective of Indian independence.

Mahatma Gandhi returned to India in 1915 and with some initial experiments on limited scale in Champaran, Kheda and Ahmedabad, finally in the early twenties he was all set to take the leadership of Indian National Movement and this changed the vision of Indian independence.

• Starting with Non Cooperation Movement in the early twenties, he led Civil Disobedience Movement in early thirties and finally Quit India in early forties. In these years, Indian national movement transformed from the movement of few middle class elites, to a mass movement.
• The objectives of Independence became Swaraj and Sarvodaya where the fruit of independence was to be tasted by the last man standing in the row and not mere the transfer of power from one set of white elites to another Indian elites.
• After twenties the goal of political independence was gradually broadened by the constructive programmes where the issues of untouchability and Hindu- Muslim unity were also considered as important goals.
• Fundamental Rights and Economic Policy was shaped during Karachi resolution of 1931.

Hence the vision of Indian independence was broadened in scale and scope after the twenties of last century.

In the 19^th century, the problems of women in India invited the attention of Western humanitarian thinkers, Christian missionaries and Indian socio-religious philosophers. Many issues related to women prevalent during 19^th century were discussed thoroughly.

• The socio-religious philosophers protested evil practices such as Sati, child marriage, prohibition of widow remarriage, polygamy, dowry and the Devadasi system.
• Their views were strengthened when Christian missionaries exposed the evils of such social customs.
• Further, some of the enlightened British officials in India and England also initiated measures to remove these social evils.
• Pandita Rama Bai, Savitribai Phule, Tarabai Shinde, Anandibai Joshi and Sarojini Naidu and many other enlightened women came forward to liberate the rest of women.
• The practice of Sati was prohibited officially in 1829 in Bengal with the active participation of Raja Ram Mohan Roy and then in Madras in 1830.
• Reformers reinterpreted the Sashtras in favor of widow remarriage. In 1855 Ishwar Chandra Vidhyasagar started a vigorous campaign in favor of widow remarriage.

To summarize, the issues of women in the 19^th century are mainly related to the social upliftment of women in Indian society. Efforts were on to empower women that included social reforms and economic self-reliance.