Later Mughals v2.c17.s3.6

v2.c17.s3.6

When Nadir Shah invaded India, the three highest ministers of State were Asaf Jah Nizam-ul-mulk (the *Wakil-i-mutlaq* or Regent Plenipotentiary), Itimad-ud-daulah Qamar-ud-din Khan (the *Wazir* or Chancellor) and Khwaja Asim entitled Samsam-ud-daulah Khan Dauran (the *Amir-ul-umara* and *Bakhshi-ul-mamalik* or Head of the Army). Among the provincial governors the highest (if we exclude the Nizam and the semi-independent subahdar of Bengal) was Saadat Khan Burhan-ul-mulk, the subahdar of Oudh and most prominently in the running for a ministership at Court. Of these, we may leave Khan Dauran out, as he was a carpet knight and Court flatterer, without any administrative capacity or experience. The Nizam had been born in Samarqand and had migrated to India in boyhood to seek his fortune under the Mughal banner. The same was the case with Qamar-ud-din Khan the Wazir, who was his cousin. Saadat Khan was a native of Khurasan and had entered India as an adventurer early in the 18th century. These men could feel no patriotism for India, because India was not their patria. They had nothing at stake in this country, no share in its past history traditions and culture, no hereditary loyalty to its throne. The Mughal Emperor was merely their paymaster, and if they could make better terms with his enemy, they were not such fools as to reject them out of a sentimental love for a land which merely gave them an excellent field for the display of their undoubted talents and promised them a rich reward. It was only in the succeeding generations that their families became rooted in the Indian soil.