Nawabi Karnatak: Muhammad Ali Khan in the Making of a Mughal Successor State in Pre-colonial South India, 1749-1795

Abstract

This study offers a new

interpretation of Karnatak in the second half of the eighteenth century, when

the polity rapidly transformed from a Mughal province to an independent Nawabi

state to a territory under the domination of the British East India Company (EIC). Overall, the dissertation has shown that various forces from three different worlds—Mughal, European, and local South Indian, impacted the development of the region and that its Nawab, Muhammad Ali Khan Walajah, attempted to adjust to the challenges he faced by innovatively combining useful elements from all the three spheres. It argues that the Nawab took the Mughal Empire as his model of state-formation. However, while the Mughal paradigm worked well in many aspects, his incorporation of the EIC caused some unexpected consequences. A major challenge of the Nawab throughout his reign was how to prevent further dominance of the EIC over his actions, while at the same time still reaping a wide range of benefits—politically, economically, and socio-culturally—of this powerful ally to support his power locally. The study eventually proposes how fresh perspectives and approaches suggested in this new interpretation of Karnatak history can contribute to recent historiographies on the eighteenth-century and pre-colonial South Asia.