Administration of Babur
Mughal Emperor, Babur was successful as a soldier and conqueror. But the administration of Babur was less structured. Babur had created a system of administration that could function very well in the time of war only.
The old administrative machinery of the Sultanate of Delhi had crumbled as the result of the Mughal attack, but Babur could not give a good system of administration to the land. He divided the territory among his chiefs Military and officials and entrusted to them the work of administration. Military governorship were thus set up.
Babur’s empire was rather a stack of little states under one price than one uniformly governed kingdom. Many of the hill and frontier districts yielded a little more than nominal submission. Each local governor had his own system of administration and enjoyed power of life and death over the people with his contingent of troops whenever he was summoned to do so, and to remit annual revenues to the central treasury. Otherwise he was independent.
Babur did not take steps to establish a common revenue system for the empire. No attempt was made to survey the land and fix a uniform demand on the basis of the actual produce of the soil. Judicial administration was also haphazard. Thus, there was little uniformity in the political situation of the different parts of this vast empire.
Financial Administration of Babur was also weak. He did not realize that the success of administration depended upon sound finance, and squandered away the immense wealth that he had the good luck to acquire in the treasuries of Delhi and Agra.
Later on,when Babur realized that the day-to-day administration could not be carried on without money, he was obliged to impose additional taxes in order to obtain necessary equipment for the army and to pay the salaries of the troops and the civil establishment. Next, he was compelled to have the recourse to imposing a heavy fee on all office-holders. Every official was required to pay a certain fixed sum to the royal treasury. This produced disastrous results. Offices began to be purchased by money and merit ceased to be the criterion for government appointments. Notwithstanding these measure, financial stringency continued and his son and successor, Humayun had to suffer from the effects of financial breakdown.
He bequeathed to his son a monarchy which could be held together only by the continuance of war conditions, which in times of peace was weak and structure less.
