The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.28

v4.c21.28

With the death of Āsaf Jāh a change came over the scene. The striking inferiority of his successors to him in ability and character was aggravated by the domination of Indian warfare by the European system which requires far larger and far more punctual expenditure on troops and munitions than was necessary in the middle ages. Now more than ever before the life of the state depended on the regular collection and wise expenditure of the revenue. But Āsaf Jāh's sons had not half his skill in war and diplomacy, nor even the wisdom to choose able instruments and confide in them. After his death we find frequent change of ministers and of the *fainéant* ruler's guiding genius, the *Vakīl-i-mutlaq* (corresponding to the Peshwā in the Marāthā kingdom), and consequent mismanagement of the finances and shrinkage of revenue.¹ The state, faced with constant deficit, could not pay its troops; hence arose mutinies, and finally the pernicious system of mortgaging the revenue and government of districts to the creditors of the state, which inflicted untold misery on the subject population and which in the nineteenth century required all the genius of Sālār Jang and the strong support of wise British Residents to root out. Under Āsaf Jāh’s successors we have a repetition of the scene of the declining ‘Abbāsid Caliphate: “A brilliant and extravagant Court, where the arts flourished and hospitality and charity were practised on an immense scale, was supported by a rapacious hierarchy of peculative officials, who were always striving to extort a fortune from their functions before the Court should pounce upon their corruption.”