Aurangzeb’s Deccan Policy: An Approach of his Misguided Mind or Just Badly Timed?

Oftentimes the last great Mughal emperor is portrayed as a vicious character and a number of his policies are surveyed with a cynical outlook. They are usually stamped as ill-founded and redundant. To most of us, Deccan policy is no exception. It is, for the most part, held that the policy was completely irrelevant in the contemporary socio-political contexts and it indeed, in due time, turned out to be an ineffectual and fragile personal proclivity of Aurangzeb's abrupt vision and deceptive mind. Besides, He was/is characterized as a religious fanatic whose narrow sectarian outlook steered him into Deccan politics and this, in turn, intensified the crisis and fuelled his ultimate downfall. But was the policy truly groundless in the truest sense of the term or a well planned and necessary measure with all its concomitant faults that eventually failed to meet its ultimate objective due to the poor timing and other contemporary woes? This seeks analysis and the paper tries to present an answer.