Clarify how mid-eighteenth century India was beset with the spectre of a fragmented polity. (150 words, 10 marks)

The mid-eighteenth century followed the weakening of Mughal central authority. India did not become politically empty; sovereignty was redistributed among competing regional powers, military elites and European companies.

• After Aurangzeb, succession disputes, court factionalism and weak finances eroded imperial control.
• Governors in Bengal, Awadh and Hyderabad became virtually autonomous, while the Marathas, Sikhs, Jats and Rajputs asserted power.
• Repeated invasions by Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali exposed strategic weakness.

Revenue assignments became contested, armies were maintained through local extraction, and shifting alliances produced instability. The Carnatic Wars and rivalries among Mysore, the Marathas and Hyderabad created openings for the English and French East India Companies. Merchants faced insecurity and agrarian regions suffered from military exactions.

Regional states developed administration, commerce and culture, so fragmentation was not uniform anarchy. Nevertheless, the absence of a broadly accepted paramount power prevented coordinated resistance to Company expansion.

Keywords: eighteenth-century India, regional states, political fragmentation