Successor States: Bengal, Awadh and Hyderabad

As the Mughal centre weakened, Bengal, Awadh and Hyderabad became almost independent states ruled by Mughal governors, while Marathas, Sikhs and Jats rose by rebellion.

Three kinds of states

1. Old Mughal provinces that became independent: Bengal, Awadh, Hyderabad.
2. States founded by rebellion: Marathas, Sikhs, Jats, Rohillas and Bangash Afghans.
3. Independent states: Mysore, Kerala (Travancore) and the Rajput states.

Bengal

• Murshid Quli Khan (Diwan from 1700, Governor from 1717; ruled to 1727) moved the capital from Dhaka to Murshidabad. He turned many jagirs into khalisa land, used ijara (revenue farming) and gave taccavi loans to peasants.
• Shuja-ud-din (1727 to 1739) and Sarfaraz Khan (1739 to 1740) followed.
• Alivardi Khan (1740 to 1756) seized power by killing Sarfaraz Khan at Giria (1740). He fought Maratha raids and gave Orissa's revenues to them in 1751.
• Siraj-ud-Daula (1756 to 1757) was defeated at Plassey. See Battle of Plassey.

Awadh

• Saadat Khan Burhan-ul-Mulk (1722 to 1739) was the founder. He died after the Nadir Shah invasion.
• Safdarjung (1739 to 1754) was also a wazir of the empire.
• Shuja-ud-Daula (1754 to 1775) fought at Buxar (1764).
• Asaf-ud-Daula moved the capital to Lucknow (1775 to 1776). Awadh became rich in culture, with poetry, music and the Imambara.
• In 1819 Ghazi-ud-din Haider took the title of "King". The British annexed Awadh in 1856 on the ground of maladministration (Dalhousie), and Wajid Ali Shah was sent to Calcutta.

Hyderabad

• Chin Qilich Khan, Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah I, founded the state in 1724 after defeating Mubariz Khan at Shakar Kheda.
• Disputes over succession after his death (1748) drew in the French and English in the Carnatic Wars.
• Nizam Ali Khan joined the Subsidiary Alliance in 1798, the first Indian state to do so.
• Salar Jung (Prime Minister, 1853 to 1883) modernised the administration. Mir Osman Ali Khan was the last Nizam (1911 to 1948).

Other states

• Rohilkhand (Ali Muhammad Khan, Najib-ud-Daula) and Farrukhabad (Muhammad Khan Bangash) were Afghan states.
• Jats: Churaman, Badan Singh and Suraj Mal (1756 to 1763, "the Jat Plato") ruled Bharatpur.
• Rajputs: Sawai Jai Singh of Amber (Jaipur) founded Jaipur (1727), built the Jantar Mantar observatories (Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain, Varanasi, Mathura) and prepared the astronomical tables Zij-i-Muhammad Shahi.