Directions: Read the following six passages and answer the questions that follow. Your answers to these questions should be based on the passage only.
History proved beyond doubt that every Empire that evolved and flourished across centuries created itsown grave-diggers. On the same lines, historians have debated the causes of the decline of MughalEmpire. The causes of the decline of the Mughal Empire were deterioration of land relations, emergenceof regional powers as successor states, selfish struggle of nobles at the court, lack of initiative in modernweapons, lack of control over the bankers of the state and above all, Aurangzeb's Deccan campaign.Unlike Emperor Akbar who paid his officials’ salaries directly from the state treasury, Shahjahan andAurangzeb opted for Jagirs. There was a constant clash of interest between the nobles at the Emperor’scourt and zamindars. Consequently the main danger to law and order came from zamindars as theyrefused to pay the revenue and had to be cowed down.
The politics that emerged upon the collapse of the Mughal Empire was of two kinds. In one class the‘succession states’ like Hyderabad, Bengal and Awadh, which were really fragments of the Empire. In thesecond category were the Maratha Confederacy, the Jats, the Sikhs and the Afghans. Their origins aspolities were independent of Mughal Empire. Mysore under Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan stood outsidethese two categories. At the same time, it was the first state in India to make a beginning towardsmodernisation. In Mughal Empire, the nobles found that their careers were not linked to talent and thatloyal and useful service was ‘no security against capricious dismissal and degradation’. Their selfishstruggle led to factionalism. In order to sustain their power in court, these nobles had surreptitiousrelations with regional governors, zamindars and other chieftains.
There was an increasing involvement of banking firms in revenue collections at regional and local levelsthat brought bankers into positions of political power all over India. The Deccan Campaign becameAurangzeb’s Waterloo as the Mughals failed to defeat the Marathas. Unlike Emperor Akbar, whoassimilated Rajputs within his kingdom, Aurangzeb was unable to effectively assimilate the regionalwarrior chiefs. Failure to sustain imperial officers in the province resulted in intensified disorder anddefiance of imperial authority.
Identify the cause that was not responsible for fall of Mughal Empire.
1. Lack of modern weapons.
2. Infighting and factionalism of nobles.
3. Peasant and tribal revolts.
4. Wars with English East India Company.
5. Jagirs awarded by Shahjahan.
Select the answer using the codes given below