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Violence and Defiance of Authority in Mughal India: A Study of the Shoe Sellers’ Riot of Shahjahanabad

In March 1729 ad, the city of Shahjahanabad (Mughal Delhi) was brought to a standstill following a conflict between shoe sellers and state officials. The conflict led to a violent showdown during the Friday congregational prayer in the central mosque of the city (Jami Masjid). The shoe sellers’ riot exposed fissures based on religion, class and politics and posed a challenge to the authority of the Mughal state during the twilight of the Empire. The article is a study of the riot and the riot narratives preserved in three unpublished contemporary works. Together with a discussion of the Ahmedabad riot of 1714 ad, the article examines the nature of conflicts involving civilian population in the cities of Mughal India in the early eighteenth century and the response of political and religious authorities. An important aspect of the incidents studied in the article is the role of religion in organizing group violence even when the cause of the conflict was not necessarily religious. Conversely, cross-community support arising from patronage, class and notions of pride and honour demonstrated that religion was one among many possible forms of identity in Mughal India.