Those nobles who served the Mughal dynasty were known as khanazad or household nobles and were held in high regard by the emperor, so much so that Mughal princes often married into household nobility.
Aziz Khan Kuka was one such noble; one of his daughters was married to Prince Murad, another to Prince Khusru. Akbar was very fond of Mirza Aziz Kuka and had once said that “between me and Mirza flows the river of milk”. Another family which achieved a distinguished place at the court was that of Mirza Ghiyath who came into prominence during Jahangir’s reign; members of his family were appointed on high ranks. The Kachwah family of Rajputs was also honoured by the Mughal emperors as were the children of Shaikh Salim Chishti.
Sons of influential nobles used to accompany the Mughal princes in their daily activities and developed close bonds of friendship with them. Jahangir, in his Tuzuk, mentions his childhood friends fondly, especially Muhahammad Sharif, Amir al-Umara, who was his favourite. If a loyal nobleman passed away, the emperor looked after their children. When Bairam Khan died, his son Abd al Rahim Khankhanan was taken care of by Akbar. It was also customary to appoint sons of loyal nobles at important posts after the death of their guardians. Those appointed to serve the emperor were called khawas and only khanazad nobles were appointed at such sensitive posts. Their in-charge was known as sardar-i-khasa.
The emperor generally maintained an indulgent attitude towards these nobles and often pardoned their mistakes and crimes.Thus these families gained both wealth and power; families such as that of Nurjahan’s, Abd al Abd al Rahim Khankhanan, and others who were on high ranks were granted fertile estates and became so influential that nobody dared to complain against their behaviour or corruption.
The result of this policy was that inefficient and corrupt members of these families monopolised high ranks and posts which gradually led to the decline of the Mughal dynasty.
During the early period, Mughal emperors supervised the conduct of the nobility towards the public; if their behaviour was not kind they were reprimanded. However, by the time Jahangir succeeded to the throne, this supervision had all but faded away and the nobility was able to freely exploit the people.
One European traveller observed that the governors of the provinces used to plunder and pillage the people to such an extent that they were reduced to penury. According to him, the reason for such a harsh attitude was that ordinary people had no access to the king. The result was that in the city of Agra people were starving and a sense of helplessness prevailed among the poor.
When several complaints were lodged against Mirza Rustam Safavi, governor of Thatta, Jahangir simply dismissed him from the post for a while then appointed him governor of Bihar. As these people were not punished for the crimes they committed, they did not change their habits and continued to treat their subjects harshly.
Even their family members were involved in corruption and no action was taken against them because of their influential status, as in the case of Murtaza Khan, governor of Gujarat and his brothers; though they were ordered to appear at the court to answer for their crimes no action was taken against them.
Mirza Qalich Beg, governor of Lahore during Jahangir’s reign, had a son who was known for his cruelty and debauchery. He would have his servants flogged just for the fun of it; sometimes he buried them alive, asking them to bring news of Munkar Nakir, the two angels believed to visit a dead person in his grave. On at least one occasion he abducted a Hindu girl on her wedding night, brought her to his palace and raped her.
Muqarrab Khan, the governor of Khambayat, kidnapped the daughter of a widow and kept her in his palace. The widow, after great difficulty, obtained an audience with Jahangir but when the emperor ordered Muqarrab Khan to produce the girl, his response was that the girl had died. The poor widow was given some money in compensation while Muqarrab Khan suffered a slight decrease in his rank as punishment.
People of the distant provinces had no access to the emperor and therefore had to endure all types of cruelty and brutality of government officials. If the emperor came to know, he either suspended the perpetrators for a short time or transferred them to other places. People were hesitant to complain against the officials because they would be vulnerable to revenge.
For example, Baqar Khan, the governor of Orissa during Shahjehan’s reign, was famous for his cruelty towards the people of his area. Finally several people got together and lodged formal complaints against him; before the emperor could act on the complaints Baqar Khan invited these people to his palace and slaughtered all 700 of them.
Just one eyewitness escaped from the mayhem but before he could reach the court, he too was killed by Baqar Khan’s son-in-law and the entire incident was forgotten.