DEFYING THE EMPIRE: AHOM RESISTANCE TO MUGHAL IMPERIALISM

This paper seeks to understand Mughal imperialism in North-east India through a case study of the Ahom kingdom, whose borders are substantially represented by the present borders of Assam. The paper explores the centrality of the Ahom kingdom in Mughal expansion in the North-eastern part of India by underlining the dynamics of trade and the strategic and military importance of the Ahom kingdom for the Mughal empire. The paper will delve into the myriad forms of imperialistic controls, ranging from outright military intervention to cultural and symbolic forms of authority, which the Mughal exerted, or attempted, on the Ahoms in the 17th century, particularly during and after the imperial campaigns of 1662-63 led by the Mughal commander Mir Jumla into the Brahmaputra valley. These forms of imperial controls entailed military warfare, gift of Khilat to Ahom court, extraction of tribute, desecration and looting of temples and royal tombs. By analysing the role of military, topography, and cultural practises of the Ahoms, the paper outlines the various ways in which Ahoms resisted Mughal imperialism. The cultural practices, such as issue of new types of coinage, and a shift to worship of older Ahom gods, is discussed to foreground Ahom symbolic forms of resistance and as means employed to re-assert Ahom authority in times of turmoil. Success of Ahom resistance was to a great degree contingent on the local environment, and it was their knowledge of it that enabled them to halt Mughal expansion in the Brahmaputra valley. While physical attributes of Ahom kingdom acted as natural vanguard against Mughal imperialism, the paper also explores military, administrative and cultural responses to Mughal power.