Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c10.s1: § 1. Rise of independent dynasties in the provinces
Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c10.s1
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§ 1. Rise of independent dynasties in the provinces
v1.c10.s1.1
The dismemberment of the Mughal Empire was immediately preceded in each of its lost provinces by the exceptionally long rule of some exceptionally capable viceroy, who completed his work by founding a dynasty and transmitting his power to his own family though securing outward legal sanction to this hereditary succession by means of gifts to the shadowy Emperor at Delhi. These men formed a striking contrast to the early short term *subahdārs* who were never permitted to govern a province for more than four years in the times when the Pādishāh was a real power in the land.
v1.c10.s1.2
In Bengal it was Murshid Quli Khān, (surnamed Jafar Khān Nasiri, Nāsir Jang, Mutaman-ul-mulk), who ruled the province without a break from 1707 to his death in 1727 and left a throne to his son-in-law Shujā Khān. In the Deccan it was Nizām-ul-mulk Asaf Jāh, first appointed to the viceroyalty in 1713, then removed, and finally reinstated in 1725 to hold that realm till his death in 1748 and to bequeathe it to his progeny. In Oudh it was Sādat Khan, appointed in 1723 and succeeded on his death (1739) by his son-in-law Safdar Jang and his line. In the Panjāb it was Saif-ud-daulah I Dilir Jang, who got the *subahdārship* in 1713 and was succeeded in 1726 by his son Zakariyā Khān (entitled Saifuddaulah II); and the latter dying in 1745 left his provinces, Lāhor and Multān, to his sons Yahiyā Khān (surnamed Zakariyā Khān II and Az-ud-daulah II) and Hayātullah Khān (surnamed Shāh-nawāz Khān and Hizbar Jang.) Saifuddaulah I thus founded a dynasty which was extinguished only when his unworthy grandsons quarrelled and failed to save their heritage from Afghān encroachment (1748.) The *subahs* of Gujrāt and Mālwa were lost to the dying Empire by foreign annexation, without the intervention of a long rule by any *subahdār*.
v1.c10.s1.3
§ 2. *The good work of founders of dynasties.*
v1.c10.s1.4
These founder-viceroys did immense benefit to the people whose happy lot it was to be governed by them. Being strong and capable men, they successfully enforced law and order and fostered the growth of wealth and population in their charge. They saved their subjects not only from robbers and foreign raiders, but also from the illegal exactions of office underlings,—which the lesser *subahdārs* could not do. Thus, of Murshid Quli Khan we read, "Two days in the week he administered justice in person; and was so impartial in his decisions and rigid in their execution that no one dared to commit oppression. . . . The regulations and orders of Murshid Quli Khan were so absolute that the most refractory trembled in his presence and his commands were implicitly obeyed." [Salimullah.]
v1.c10.s1.5
Such, too, was the case with Asaf Jāh. His *diwān* Muhammad Hāshim Khāfi Khān [ii. 748] reports from personal knowledge: "The former *subahdār* Dāud Khān (Pani) had laid the foundation of the illegal innovation (*bidat*) of exacting *ziladāri*, amounting to nearly eighty *lakhs* of Rupees, from the *zamindārs* and *ryots* of the *parganahs* of *subahs* Khāndesh, Bālāghāt and others, for himself with the assistance and concert of the Marātha troops,—with whom he was as thick as milk and sugar. Afterwards, (on the Nizam's first coming to the Deccan) when the collectors told him about it and asked his permission to levy this cess, he altogether abolished it. Nay more, he used constantly to urge his revenue officers to write to the *āmils* of the parganahs and mahals of his jāgir that they must remember that no ābwāb or cess forbidden by the Emperor should be collected even to the extent of a farthing (dām.) Such was this great man's compassion on the condition of the common people''.
v1.c10.s1.6
Long connection with one province also allowed the growth of personal ties between such a viceroy and his subjects and gave him the same interest in their welfare that a hereditary landlord takes in the prosperity of his tenants and which no temporary farmer of the revenue can feel. With the growth of such a family-connection with the province in their charge, these founder-viceroys came to look upon the governed as their own children. Zakariyā Khān I, when pressed by the departing Nādir Shāh to ask for a personal boon, nobly begged for the liberation of the Indians whom the ruthless conqueror was dragging away with himself to servile labour in far-off Irān. And his house rigorously enforced law and order ever since its coming to power in the Land of the Five Rivers.