The decline of the Mughal empire and the emergence of political awareness: Global perspectives

The Enlightenment is much more than the historical period. It helps us to understand the distant conclusions towards which certain assumptions lead; and to decide whether or not, that is where we want to go. Enlightenment shaped out past and present. It is the story of man’s first attempt to come to grips with the contemporary world and all its unsolved problems. Enlightenment was not about beliefs or opinion but an attitude of mind; about the nature and man’s place in it, could be understood in terms of general laws that were applicable to everything that existed. This makes Enlightenment an international and trans-regional reality. Although, its texts were translated and circulated not only in Europe but in other regions like South Asia but when shared conceptions refracted through the prism of individual socio-cultural settings, it was bound to create the different patterns though essentially keeping the same scheme.