There are two major debates in the eighteenth century: one is virtually

resolved.

First Debate
Dark Age: It has to do with whether the eighteenth century was a dark age
or not.
While colonial writers like James Mill and the early Indian historians like
Jadunath Sarkar and Iswari Prasad and even Tara Chand saw this century as a
twilight period, characterized by decline in all areas of life, from the economic
to the political to the cultural.
According to them, the Mughal empire collapsed, regional powers failed to
establish empires and stability returned only with the spread of British
supremacy in the late 18th Century. It suited the British writers of the
Cambridge History of India, and their Indian followers, to paint the 18th
Century as black so that British rule would show up as a blessing in
comparison.
Manifestation:

institutional financial crisis referred variously as jagirdari crisis or

agrarian

collapse of central institution which were giving stability to he empire-

power struggle between different groups of nobles leading to collapse

because of the decline of fiscal structure and unable to raise resources

by themselves short term measures by the ruling class to raise the
resources ike ijardari

opposition movements against this -jat, maratha, sikh, satnami break

down trade and stability of agriculture

On the otherhand the new kingdoms opened up new trade routes

political decline-> economic decline->decline in society

More recently there has been a revision of this view. In the writings of K.N.
Panikkar, C.A.Bayly, Muzaffar Alam, Chetan Singh and others, this century
comes across as being an extremely vibrant one with new trends in culture,
the development of regional commercial centres, the re-routing of trade etc.
Decline of the Mughal state did not indicate an overall economic decline.
Political and social forms also survived in areas where the Mughal reach had
been limited.

Second Debate
The second debate revolves around whether the eighteenth century can be
seen as one

continuum or whether there is a structural break in the 1750s. This debate is

still an active one with the battle lines being drawn between Irfan Habib,
Athar Ali, Sushil Chaudhuri, Om Prakash on one side and C.A.Bayly, Rajat
Datta etc. on the other.
Did the acquiring of political control by the British, beginning with Bengal in
the mid-eighteenth century have far reaching consequences which changed
the entire character of the Indian economy? Irfan Habib and others subscribe
to this view
These historians argue that with the collapse of the centralized Mughal state
structure the important political, economic and social institutions tied with
the state also crumbled, bringing unrest and havoc through the century .
Break
(a) Politics
1. Previous two centuries were age of political unity, centralized control.
2. Indian powers had superior military.
(b) Economy
1. Prosperity in previous two centuries.
(c) Socio-Cultural
1. Remarkable progress in cultural pursuits in past 2 centuries.
While Bayly believes that there were no structural changes and that there
was a continuity from the first half of the eighteenth century into the second.
This line of argument is referred to as the continuity thesis.
Continuity
(a) Politics
1. Marathas filled up the void with an empire almost as large as the Mughal
empire.
(b) Economy
1. Highly developed economy continued. Economic activities largely similar to
previous centuries.
2. Indian products, specially textiles, were still in high demand in whole world.
The European governments had to impose trade barriers. India continued to
be the
sink of bullion of the world. India had a great share in the world trade.
3. Urban centers were still flourishing. There was no decline in ports, craft
centers and trade centers.
(c) Socio-Cultural
1. Culture also flourished. Examples of Jai Singh, Imam-bada of Lucknow.
Literature also flourished specially Urdu and regional language. A number of
regional
schools of painting flourished like the Kishangarh school, the Bundi school,
the Bikaner school.
2. The social evils prevalent were not a product of this century.