Page:Aurangzíb and the Decay of the Mughal Empire.djvu/120

114 the remoter parts of the Empire the cruelty and rapacity of the landholders went on almost unchecked. The peasantry and working classes, and even the better sort of merchants, used every precaution to hide such small prosperity as they might enjoy; they dressed and lived meanly, and suppressed all inclinations to raise themselves socially in the scale of civilization. Very often they were driven to seek refuge in neighbouring lands, or took service under a native Rája who had a little more mercy to people of his own faith than could be expected from a Muhammadan adventurer.

Such was the administrative system of the Mughal Empire in the time of Aurangzíb. In principle it was the same as in the days of Akbar; the difference lay only in the choice of an inferior, ill-educated class of Muslim officials, to the general exclusion of the more capable Hindús, and in the inadequate measures taken for local inspection and supervision. Aurangzíb himself strove to be a righteous ruler, but he was either afraid of arousing the discontent of his vassals by stringent supervision, or he was unable to secure the probity of a faithful body of inspectors. In either case the fact remains that while the central government was rigidly just and righteous, in the Muhammadan acceptation of law, the provincial administration was generally venal and oppressive. Whether we look at the military or the civil aspect of the system, it is clear that the Mughal domination in India was even more in the nature of an army of occupation than the