‘Pargana’ was which subdivision of a Mughal province?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Administrative
A pargana was an administrative subdivision of a Mughal province. It was a unit of the revenue administration, and the Mughal records often speak of the people of a pargana. Babur, for example, wrote of forests behind which “the people of the pargana become stubbornly rebellious and pay no taxes”.
NCERT (2025-26): “4.1 Beyond settled villages … Such a sequence presumed and perpetuated mobility, which was a distinctive feature of tribes inhabiting these forests. For the state, the forest was a subversive place – a place of refuge (mawas) for troublemakers. Once again, we turn to Babur who says that jungles provided a good defence ‘behind which the people of the pargana become stubbornly rebellious and pay no taxes’.… …Pargana was an administrative subdivision of a Mughal province.” |