Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c13.s1: § 1. Emperor Ahmad Shah; his character
Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c13.s1
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§ 1. Emperor Ahmad Shah; his character
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Ahmad Shah, the only son of Muhammad Shah, did no doubt come to the throne of Delhi at the age of 22 (solar) years; but his education had been totally neglected. His suspicious and miserly father had kept him confined in one corner of the Delhi palace and stinted him shamefully. Young Ahmad did not receive any training in war or government; he had never been placed in charge of a contingent of his own as royal heirs before him used to be; he had not even been given a sufficient allowance to live in ordinary comfort nor permitted to enjoy the usual games and amusements of princes, such as polo, animal combats and hunting. The result was that his natural dulness of intellect was not cured by education, and he grew to manhood as a good-natured imbecile, without a personality of his own and entirely dominated by others. Not only had he been denied any schooling in his early life, but he had received the worst possible training for a ruler of men. "From his infancy to the age of 21 (the time of his accession), he had been brought up among the women of the harem, in neglect and poverty and often subjected to his father's browbeating." Totally ignorant of administration and war alike, when he succeeded to the throne unbridled power had its natural effect on such a raw youth. He was immediately surrounded by base instruments of pleasure, who placed every temptation before him, to which he only too readily yielded, neglecting his duty to his realm and to society. Thus responsibility could not call forth any capacity latent in him, but only revealed to the public his defects of character in the ugliest light. He practically resigned his royal function to Jāvid Khan, and openly referred all questions and suitors to that eunuch for decision, while he himself plunged into sensual pleasure without check or distraction. Jāvid Khan, on his part, encouraged the unhappy youth to drink wine and filled his harem with women. With these debased women came equally debased men whose only business was to humour his passions and fancies. "Gradually the Emperor's mind inclined to the society of vulgar persons (only), and he practised evil deeds which made him a shame to the country."
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The decline went on with increasing speed till at the end of the second year of his reign we find that "the administration had grown very weak and degraded; the pillars of the State were daily shaken; the Emperor never inquired about the realm, the soldiery, or the treasury,—the three foundations of an empire. . . . Jāvid Khan, who had usurped the entire control of the State, governed according to his (poor) natural capacity, assuring the Emperor that everything was being done according to the regulations; so that the Emperor withdrew his hand even from what (little) he formerly used to look after. He became so absorbed in pleasure that a whole kos (an area of four square miles) was turned into a women's preserve by excluding all males from it, and there the Emperor used to disport himself in female company for a week or a month in bower and park." [*TAh.*, 13b-14a, 21a, 25a; *Siyar*, iii. 27.]
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In the midst of the ennui caused by sensual excess, he used to seek diversion in childish acts of sovereignty. For instance, we read that one day in February 1753, he took his infant son Mahmud Shah with himself to a bed of narcissus flowers in bloom in the plain below the window of morning salute, and summoning all the little sons of the nobles and other courtiers who had the entree made them present *nazars* to the prince and follow in his train! Then he took the child with himself to the balconies of the Queen-mother and Malika-i-Zamani and made him formally salām them from outside, as the Emperors used to do. Next, he seated the infant on a royal cushion in a diminutive tent newly made for him, sent the nobles' sons to stand round him, and himself went to visit this juvenile Court. The royal infant's eunuchs welcomed the Emperor on the way and offered him presents in the name of their master! After this, we need not wonder that in November 1753 he thought fit to appoint this son (a boy in his third year) as governor of the Panjab, and in perfect keeping with this spirit nominated a baby one year old as the deputy under him, and that the prince toddled up to the Diwān-i-khās and made his bow of thanksoffering in full Court, while baby-clothes made of cloth of gold were sent to his juvenile deputy at Lāhor; or that the equally important charge of Kashmir, then threatened with invasion by Abdali's general Jahān Khan, was conferred on a still smaller prince Tāla‘ Sa‘id Shah (one year old) as absentee subahdār, with a lad of fifteen (another Court favourite) as the nāib nāzim. Even his Court annalist is constrained to say that these acts only showed the Emperor's lack of sense. [TAh. 46b, 85b, 86a.]
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Occasionally a flash of anger would lend life and colour to his speech, as during the rebellion of Safdar Jang, but it ended only in words.
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Ahmad totally lacked the martial spirit, the capacity to lead armies, and even personal courage. He could not be persuaded to come out of the safety and seclusion of his palace-fort and show himself at the head of his troops, even when his very life and throne demanded that he should thus hearten his supporters and confound the rebels. The imperial army clamoured under his window inviting him to lead them forth in a campaign for wresting the provinces from usurpers, so that revenue might again come to the Delhi Exchequer and the starving soldiery and servants of the royal household might get their long arrears of salary. But he would not agree to it. [*TAh.* 66*b*, 117*a*.] His panic flight from Sikandrabad abandoning all the women of his family to captivity and possible dishonour, at a mere demonstration by the Marāthas, has branded his name with infamy in Indian history for all time.
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In the last two or three years of his reign, he devoted himself to personally transacting business of State for full six hours every morning, without a respite for eating or drinking. He read the news-reports received from all four quarters, wrote replies on the despatches of the *subahdārs*, heard petitions of complaint, inspected the muster-rolls of the troops, and wrote full orders on the revenue or administrative cases, clearly summarising the contents of these papers and the details of his decision. But his energy bore no fruit from his lack of practical knowledge, driving power and persistency of effort. The self-willed youth of 25 would listen to nobody’s counsel, but gave his orders with the unreasoning obstinacy of an autocrat, and these were never translated into action. The actual administration did not show the least improvement for all this activity in the closet. The fixed period of business being over, he withdrew himself from the sight of men for the next 18 hours; the women in his harem and secluded parks monopolised him, and he would refuse a hearing even to his highest minister during this daily eclipse of monarchy, saying with irritation, "I personally devote myself to the administration every day up to noon, besides holding darbār on fixed occasions. I am now engaged in refreshing my spirits and you have come to trouble me. No noble should visit me except during the prescribed six hours in the forenoon and the darbār days, unless I summon him for some special purpose."*
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∗ TAh. 101 b, 115 a. I cannot understand this author's remark that "though the Emperor on account of his youth had a pleasure-loving temperament, he possessed perfect intelligence and readiness of reply" or that "no man was more learned than the Emperor" (illustrated by the case of his writing in his own hand a letter in Turki.) TAh. 103a, 104b. If he really possessed such brain power it was completely neutralised by his utter incapacity for action and for judging character and choosing proper agents.
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§ 2. Queen-mother Udham Bai.
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The Queen-mother Udham Bai, formerly a public dancing girl, had been introduced to Muhammad Shah’s notice by Khadija Khanam, the daughter of Amir Khan, and had so fascinated that Emperor as to be raised to the dignity of a queen. Neither her humble birth and ignoble profession nor her later life in the royal harem had fitted her to play worthily the part of the veiled power behind the throne, in which so many queens of Muslim India have distinguished themselves. She remained the same vulgar woman of loose character to the end, using her son’s elevation as a lever for asserting her own greatness at Court and for grasping at money. She had fallen under royal disfavour and even persecution for her conduct during the latter days of her wedded life, and she now took her revenge by heaping scorn, humiliation and poverty upon her former rivals, the nobly born widows of Muhammad Shah,—Malika-i-Zamani and Sahiba Mahal, who were universally honoured in Delhi society. There were two redeeming traits in her character, namely her blind animal affection for her son and her extensive unselfish charity, by which the nephews and grandsons of former Emperors, pining in neglect and abject poverty in the Delhi palace, as well as many poor people living outside were enabled to enjoy comfort and decency. [TAh. 16.]
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She had not the sense to choose capable instruments and govern through them, but thought of rivalling Nur Jahan by transacting State business in person. "Daily the high officers used to go and sit down at her porch (deorhi) and she used to hold discussions with them from behind a screen (through the medium of eunuchs); all petitions (mutālib) of the realm and closed envelopes that were sent into the harem were read out to her and she passed orders on them, which were final." The result can be inferred from the Court historian's pious lament, "O God! that the affairs of Hindustan should be conducted by a woman so foolish as this!" [TAh. 45b.] But what outraged public sentiment and lowered the imperial prestige most was her intimacy with the eunuch Jāvid Khān, who even went so far as to pass his nights in the imperial harem, in defiance of the long-standing palace rules. The scandal became so notorious that the royal guards who were starving from their salaries remaining unpaid for more than a year and could get no relief from the Emperor or the Emperor's controllers, at last staged a scene. They tied up a young ass and a bitch at the palace gate and when the nobles and other courtiers came to attend the darbār, they audaciously urged them, saying, "First make your bow to these. This one (pointing to the ass) is the Nawab Bahadur, and that (the bitch) is Hazrat Qudsia, the Queen-mother."!*
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At a time when the soldiers were daily mutinying for their long overdue pay and the Government could not raise even two lakhs by selling the palace plate, Udham Bai committed the criminal folly of spending two *krores* in celebrating her birthday, 21st January 1754. [*TAh.* 108.]
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After her son's accession, Udham Bāi was successively given the titles of *Bāi-jiu Sāhiba*, *Nawāb Qudsia*, *Sāhiba-uz-zamāni*, *Sāhibjiu Sāhiba*, *Hazrat*, and *Qibla-i-Alam*. A mansab of 50,000 horse (nominal rank) was conferred upon her, and her birthday used to be celebrated with greater pomp and lavishness of expenditure than that of the Emperor himself. Her brother, Mān Khan, hitherto a vagabond haunting the lanes and occasionally following the despicable profession of a male dancer behind singing girls, was created a 6-*hazāri* peer with the title of Mutaqad-ud-daulah Bahādur. [*TAh.* 16*a*, 17*a*; *Ch. Gul.* 400*a*.]
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∗ *Shākir*, 34-35. Well might this generous and loyal hereditary servant of the Crown cry out in the agony of his heart after narrating this incident, "Great God! the people have utterly lost all fear of their sovereign and regard for decency."