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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Changes in the composition of nobility from Akbar to Aurangzeb. Comment.

  • UPSC 1995
  • Mughal Empire in the Seventeenth Century

The Mughal nobility was never a fixed body but a shifting coalition of ethnic and religious groups — Turani, Irani, Afghan, Shaikhzada/Khanzada and Rajput — whose relative weight each emperor recalibrated to suit his own political needs.

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What the full answer covers

  • The Baseline Under Babur and Humayun
  • Akbar: Deliberate Broadening
  • Jahangir: The Irani Ascendancy
  • Shah Jahan: Consolidation with a Setback for Afghans
  • Aurangzeb: Orthodoxy at Court, Diversification in the Ranks

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