Mughal Empire treated like the Qing

[Nicole]

In OTL, the Mughal Empire eventually ended up all in the control of the East India Company, and was eventually abolished. How could it have ended up more like Qing China: That is, while spheres of influence and ports (like Goa and Calcutta, perhaps) are taken by the imperialist powers, the country still retains at least a theoretical independent existance? What would be the effects on those areas of India not taken by the Mughals?

 

[Flocculencio]

Possibly like a larger version of the princely states- a puppet Padishah and governors with a British "resident" pulling the strings in each and every province.

Of course that would mean that the British Crown would never adopt the title of Emperor of India.

If, in TTL, tensions between Hindus and Muslins lead to a religious based national split upon independence we might end up with a Mughal Empire in OTL Pakistan. That would be quite interesting- it would be the last of the great Islamic monarchies to survive.

Perhaps we might see a Moghul Caliphate established in the mid-20th C?

 

[Wendell]

Possibly like a larger version of the princely states- a puppet Padishah and governors with a British "resident" pulling the strings in each and every province.

Of course that would mean that the British Crown would never adopt the title of Emperor of India.

If, in TTL, tensions between Hindus and Muslins lead to a religious based national split upon independence we might end up with a Mughal Empire in OTL Pakistan. That would be quite interesting- it would be the last of the great Islamic monarchies to survive.

Perhaps we might see a Moghul Caliphate established in the mid-20th C?

More of India than just Pakistan would be in this new Mughal Empire. Maybe even parts of Afghanistan? Would Hindu India end up under more direct British rule for a time?

 

[NFR]

I understood that the main reason why the Mughal was not given the treatment the Qing received was that it simply wasn't as well-placed. It had a much longer coastline; it was less centralised (the Qing was very decentralised - compared to its predecessor, that is, compared to the Mughal it was I think a model of top-down organisation); it had less national consciousness; it simply controlled less land (most of the small states, Deccans, etc). So there had to be a good reason why the EIC consider it profitable to kowtow to te Mughal up to the early nineteenth century.