Crime, Policing and Safety in Mughal South Asia

In Mughal towns, a kotwal, the chief town police officer, supervised night watches and market security. On roads, faujdars, district military officers, and zamindars, local landholders with armed retainers, could be called on to pursue robbers. Akbar’s regulations describe town duties, while a seventeenth-century Malwa case records a local force recruited to reopen a threatened highway.

The kotwal and the night watch

Abul Fazl’s Ain-i-Akbari, compiled in the 1590s under Akbar, sets out duties for a town kotwal. Guards were placed at markets and public gatherings to catch pickpockets and people snatching goods. At night, patrols checked wayfarers and inspected streets where informants had reported thieves. At the imperial camp, watchmen stood at the ropes and barriers around audience spaces, and guarded zones restricted entry to people with permission.

A caravan robbery in Malwa

Mohan Das’s campaign took place during Jahangir’s reign (1605–1627), as recounted in a family document sealed in 1661–1662. A caravan carrying gold-woven clothes and unstitched cloth from Agra to Burhanpur was robbed at Jahangirabad, now Orchha. The robber, Bira, was a Rajput chief whose attacks had also made nearby districts and the royal road difficult to use.

Merchants and relatives of men killed in the attacks petitioned Emperor Jahangir. His order required the provincial jagirdar, the holder of an assigned revenue estate, to recover the stolen cloth and expel Bira. The district faujdar could not subdue him. A religious scholar then advised the provincial officer to entrust the pursuit to local zamindars. Mohan Das received fifty cavalrymen, hired Bharmal, a Rajput retainer with local knowledge, and established a guarded post at Sultanpur. Bira was driven out. The government rewarded Bharmal with an imperial rank and land grants, and placed him in charge of the royal road.

A camel search recorded in 1660

A separate order from 1660 records a camel stolen in Dhar. Nawazish Khan ordered a search for the animal. The brief order records an official response to a local property loss, alongside the armed pursuit of Bira described in the retrospective family account.