Editing Openai/691ef1a1-976c-800d-bd1d-06358880de2a (section)

==== The Mughal Empire also conducted many brutal military campaigns.  Two high-casualty episodes stand out: ====
* Aurangzeb’s Deccan Wars (1681–1707): Aurangzeb spent much of his reign fighting the Marathas and Deccan Sultanates.  Historian Stanley Wolpert estimates these final 26 years cost “an estimated 100,000 lives a year”historymarg.com<ref>{{cite web|title=historymarg.com|url=https://www.historymarg.com/2023/10/military-strategy-of-mughals-under.html#:~:text=The%20conquest%20of%20the%20Deccan%2C,any%20and%20all%20of%20its|publisher=historymarg.com|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref> (mostly soldiers, camp followers and afflicted civilians).  Over a decade that is roughly 1 million deaths.  The Twentieth-Century Atlas war-list likewise attributes 4.6–5.0 million total deaths to the 1680–1707 Mughal–Maratha warsen.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll#:~:text=Deccan%20wars%20%20%204,56%20%5D%201554%E2%80%931721|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref> (including battle, famine and plague casualties).  Even Aurangzeb lamented late in life that the war was futile.  These conflicts devastated large swathes of peninsular India.
* Earlier conquests: In the mid-16th century, Mughal emperor Akbar fought costly wars in northern India.  Estimates put the Akbar’s Conquest of North India (1556–1605) at around 1–2 million deathsen.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll#:~:text=Kingdom%20of%20France%20%20,Indian%20States%20%20Indian%20subcontinent|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>.  (These include warfare against Rajput states, rebels, etc.)  Other Mughal emperors also used force against revolts; for example, they executed Sikh Gurus and rebel nobles and sometimes destroyed temples if they were deemed politically seditious.  However, scholars note Mughal policy was not uniformly genocidal.  Audrey Truschke observes that Aurangzeb “protected Hindu temples more often than he demolished them,” actually razing “at most a few dozen” temples despite ruling over thousandsqz.com<ref>{{cite web|title=qz.com|url=https://qz.com/india/918425/mughal-emperor-aurangzeb-protected-hindu-temples-more-often-than-he-demolished-them#:~:text=Most%20glaringly%2C%20Aurangzeb%20counted%20thousands,often%20than%20he%20demolished%20them|publisher=qz.com|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>.  He often reimposed taxes (like the jizyah) on non-Muslims and did suppress rebellions harshly, but outright mass-slaughter campaigns (on the order of millions killed explicitly for religion) are not documented beyond war-famine deaths and rebel suppressions.

In summary, Mughal-era military activity did entail very large-scale death, often across entire regions (whole Mughal armies camped in the Deccan, for instance).  Both Muslim and Hindu populations suffered, but the Mughals ruled longer and engaged in sustained multi-front wars.  Their regime recorded multi-million-body wars (e.g. the Deccan campaignen.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll#:~:text=Deccan%20wars%20%20%204,56%20%5D%201554%E2%80%931721|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>, Akbar’s conquestsen.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll#:~:text=Kingdom%20of%20France%20%20,Indian%20States%20%20Indian%20subcontinent|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>).  This contrasts with Maratha violence, which tended to be intense but more geographically limited raiding expeditions.