New History of the Marathas v3.c37.s2.58

v3.c37.s2.58

This is perhaps according to one view the real motive of Sindia’s visit. He had certainly formed a plan of his own for future action and come to the south at the command of the Emperor, the sole master of India, to put that plan into action, viz., to keep the British from further encroachment. The snubbing he had received from Cornwallis rankled sorely in his heart. The Emperor had received every insult and every rebuff from the British ever since Clive's days. He lost territory, he lost tribute, he lost even the stipulated allowances for his maintenance in exchange of the Diwani. Shah Alam had witnessed the vain struggles of Siraj-ud-daula, of Mir Qasim and Mir Jafar, of Shuja-ud-daula, of Najib Khan, of Chetsinh and the Rohillas and of the poor Begams of Oudh, against British aggression. Clive, Anderson, Brown, Malet, Kirkpatrick, to these in succession and in rising degree, the Emperor became a dupe, finding to his cost his power slipping fast out of his hands. Mahadji alone had saved him and rescued him from intolerable indignities. He alone understood how Indian potentates now suffered at the hands of the British, like the Nawab Wazir of Oudh, the Bhosles of Nagpur, Nizam Ali of Haidarabad and even their creature Nawab Muhammad Ali of Arcot, now undergoing the agonies of misrule and interminable debts.