The undisciplined and dividing scenario of the Indian Army that was common in the ancient times was a bit improved in the Mughal period. Though, they were coming from outside, the Mughal rulers showed considerable amount of interest in organising the Indian Army in a proper way. They have done some good job in changing the formation, structure and strength of the Indian Army, during their reigns. The character of the Indian military system during the Mughal period had some similarity with that of the Sultanate of Delhi, which was ethnically Afghan. The Mughals were mainly coming from the Ferghana (present day Uzbekistan) and the Chaghtai-speaking Turks continued to modify the Indian military system, according to their own merit.

The Indian society was mainly divided by the local caste-system and also by religion during the Mughal period. The Mughal rulers of that time had organised a huge and vast Indian Army for protecting their empire from the attack of the outsiders. However, though the Army was large, the Mughal emperors did not make any significant efforts to separate them from the society or even professionalise them. The Indian Army during Mughal period actually reflected the social divisions of the Indian society and that is why, they failed to project power out of South Asia, though the Mughal emperors were ardently desired to do so. The unity among different sections of the Indian Army was somehow missing due to the social division that it reflected.

The earlier emperors of the Mughal emperor, like the founder, Zahir-ud-din Mohammad Babur and others became successful to keep the unity of the Indian Army intact and that helped them in expanding the territory of their emperor. They did so with the help of their intelligence. However, the later Mughal emperors like Jahangir and the others could not control the vast Indian Army properly and as a result, rebellion and revolution was common sights during their reigns. Though, Jahangir had an ardent desire to expand his territory out side South Asia and also capture his homeland, Ferghana, he could not do so because of this inability. Jahangir wrote in his memoirs that the weakness of his military did not let him to expand his territory outside South Asia. He was actually militarily unable to do anything more than keep his existing possessions more or less under control.

During Jahangir`s reign, the Mughal emperor faced a lot of revolts from different parts and the Indian Army also showed lack of progress against the rebellion in the area of central India south of the Narmada River known as the Deccan. The Indian Army failed to restrain the revolts of the Afghan population of Bengal, and failed to control the wars of the Hindu population of Rajasthan, as well. After Jahangir, the Indian Army became weaker and a large portion of the Mughal emperor was exhausted and destroyed during the reign of Aurangzeb. According to some of the scholars, the main reason behind the Mughal rulers` failure to increase the strength of the Indian Army was the internal social problems of India.

The inability of the Mughal emperors to develop a surplus of military power that was necessary for internal control of existing possessions eventually led to the demolition of the Mughal Empire in India. The scholars say that the Mughal emperors fail to utilise their revenues properly for purchasing good amount of artillery for the well being of the empire, just like the Ottomans did. As a result, they failed to expand the Indian Army as well. In fact, the Mughal emperors in India could not consolidate its internal control through its Army and also to expand in the way that the Ottoman Empire did. Some of the scholars say that the alien elite Mughal emperors actually could not establish effective control over a massive indigenous population with different languages and religions in India. This inability was clearly reflected in the organisation of the Indian Army during the Mughal period.