The start of the end of Mughal India

Indian History Sourcebook: England, India, and The East Indies, 1617 A.D. Annotated

The Great Moghul Jahangir: Letter to James I, King of England, 1617 A.D.

When your Majesty shall open this letter let your royal heart be as fresh as a sweet garden. Let all people make reverence at your gate; let your throne be advanced higher; amongst the greatness of the kings of the prophet Jesus, let your Majesty be the greatest, and all monarchies derive their counsel and wisdom from your breast as from a fountain, that the law of the majesty of Jesus may revive and flourish under your protection.

The letter of love and friendship which you sent and the presents, tokens of your good affections toward me, I have received by the hands of your ambassador, Sir Thomas Roe (who well deserves to be your trusted servant), delivered to me in an acceptable and happy hour; upon which mine eyes were so fixed that I could not easily remove them to any other object, and have accepted them with great joy and delight.

Upon which assurance of your royal love I have given my general command to all the kingdoms and ports of my dominions to receive all the merchants of the English nation as the subjects of my friend; that in what place soever they choose to live, they may have free liberty without any restraint; and at what port soever they shall arrive, that neither Portugal nor any other shall dare to molest their quiet; and in what city soever they shall have residence, I have commanded all my governors and captains to give them freedom answerable to their own desires; to sell, buy, and to transport into their country at their pleasure.

For confirmation of our love and friendship, I desire your Majesty to command your merchants to bring in their ships of all sorts of rarities and rich goods fit for my palace; and that you be pleased to send me your royal letters by every opportunity, that I may rejoice in your health and prosperous affairs; that our friendship may be interchanged and eternal.

Your Majesty is learned and quick-sighted as a prophet, and can conceive so much by few words that I need write no more.

The God of heaven give you and us increase of honor.

This was a letter written by the Mughal Shahanshah, Nuruddin Mohammed Jahangir, to the monarch of Great Britain We see that he gave the English exclusive and untaxed import and export rights for India, in exchange for a promise that he would receive gifts fit for his palace. Doesn't leave much to chance no? Such astounding foreign policy would have surely fixed our future fate.

Would, however, be interesting to think about what sort of conditions would have caused a nation of people that were intelligent enough to reach a level of civilisation that allows for the opulence of Mughal India to degenerate into one that has leaders who possess such utter disregard for anything other than art, music, and wine.

I've spent some emotional energy feeling angry at the Brits for the condition in which they left our country, but after actually reading this evidence of the state of total unconsciousness of our leaders, who had become more like leaches on the society by that time, I painfully admit that we may have deserved, and maybe even needed, a wake-up call around that time.