Discuss the picture of urban centres that emerges from Bernier's account.
Bernier described Mughal cities as "camp towns", by which he meant towns that owed their existence and survival to the imperial camp. He believed that these towns came into being when the imperial court moved in and rapidly declined when it moved out. He suggested that they lacked viable social and economic foundations and were dependent on imperial patronage.
However, Bernier was drawing an oversimplified picture. In reality, there were various kinds of towns: manufacturing towns, trading towns, port-towns, sacred centres, and pilgrimage towns. Their existence was an index of the prosperity of merchant communities and professional classes. Merchants had strong community ties and were organised into caste-cum-occupational bodies called mahajans in western India, represented by the nagarsheth in cities like Ahmedabad.
Explanation
This answer addresses both Bernier's perspective and the textbook's critique of his viewpoint. The first paragraph covers Bernier's concept of 'camp towns' and his argument about their dependence on imperial patronage. The second paragraph provides the counter-evidence from the textbook about diverse urban centres and the merchant class, showing that Bernier's account was oversimplified. Key terms are bolded as per the marking scheme requirements.