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Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c13.s6: § 11. History of Balaram Jat

Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c13.s6

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§ 11. History of Balaram Jat

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Balarām Jāt (popularly called Balu) was the son of a petty revenue-collector (chaudhuri) of Faridabad, 18 miles south of Delhi. Supported by his family connection with Badan Singh, the Jat Rajah of Bharatpur, he extended his power by seizing the neighbouring villages and ousting their lawful owners and the local magistrates. Such a thorn could not be tolerated in the road between Delhi and Agra. So, when Balu Jat’s men expelled the imperial outpost at Shamspur, the wazir sent another force there. But it was boldly resisted by the Jat, and Safdar Jang himself marched against him. The wazir had only reached Khizirābād (probably on 30 June 1750) when Balarām in terror came and made a humble submission through the Maratha envoy, and was sent back to his home after a few days, on his promising to be the wazir’s follower. He built a mud fort and named it Ballamgarh, (five miles south of Faridabad) and by leasing the revenue-collection of Palwal and Faridābād (which lay in the Nizām’s jāgir) soon made himself a district governor and noble (rāi.) [TAh. 22b-23a; D.C. But Chah. Gulz. 402a differs.]

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On 2nd July 1752 when Safdar Jang was removing from his camp across the Jamunā to his mansion in Delhi city, Jāvid Khan issued from the fort and sat down in the Anguri-bagh garden, expecting Safdar Jang to visit him there on the way and pay his respects, for was he not the Emperor’s deputy? But the wazir declined to honour the eunuch in this way and rode straight on to his house. Jāvid, to save his face, called Balu Jat, who happened to be in Delhi at the time, held a Court with him, gave him a robe of honour, and then returned to his quarters in the fort. He had seduced the Jāt from Safdar Jang’s side in the meantime. What mischievous instructions the infuriated eunuch now gave to Balu we can only guess from the subsequent acts of the latter. From Delhi Balu went to his home, collected his troops and crossing over to Sikandrabad attacked and expelled the local faujdar, and plundered the city, digging up the floors of the houses. Seizing the local tradesmen, he hung them up and flogged them to extort money. Now, Sikandrabad is only 32 miles from Delhi and belonged to the Emperor's privy purse estate. The aggrieved people sent messengers to Delhi who complained to the Emperor in that night's Court. Safdar who was present asked Jāvid Khan, "If Balu has been appointed by you as the new faujdar of the place, why is he plundering and slaying the people there? If he is acting against your wishes, let me go there and punish him." Jāvid replied that he would himself undertake the chastisement of Balu. He sent his captain, Narsingh Rāi with a small force to Sikandrabad, but this man, instead of attacking Balu, only parleyed with him and let him go away scotfree with his booty and take refuge in the fort of Dankaur (15 miles due east of Ballamgarh) in Jāvid Khan's jāgir. When Safdar Jang's troops arrived there, they found this situation. After some fighting with them, Balu secured boats in that fort and effected his escape to Ballamgarh in safety. Thus no punishment could be inflicted on the plunderer of the Emperor’s personal estate and a place so near the capital. The people of Sikandrabad cried for justice, but in vain. At this futile end of the campaign, Safdar Jang, in open Court, taxed Jāvid Khan with backing Balu in these evil deeds, and the eunuch hung his head down in silence. [TAh. 38a-40a; Shākir, 71.]

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This made the cup of Safdar Jang’s indignation boil over. Some historians of the time even assert that the Emperor himself was moved by the misery of his direct tenants to send word to Safdar Jang to get rid of the mischievous eunuch. But if he really did so, it must have been in a temporary outburst of anger. [Bayān, 274; Imād. 60, Kh-am. 85.]

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§ 12. Murder of Javid Khan, 27 Aug. 1752.

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Safdar Jang called Suraj Mal to Delhi for counsel and assistance. The Jat prince arrived and encamped near Kākāpahāri, some 14 miles from the city. With him came an agent of the Jaipur Rajah and Balu Jat, each at the head of a force. Jāvid Khan wished that these men should interview him first and negotiate with the Government through him, because in the past they used to solicit his patronage and court his favour. But as the wazir was now present at the capital, they did not take the eunuch as their mediator. It was then settled that Jāvid Khan should go to the wazir’s house and there the two together should grant interviews to Sural Mal and the others and settle their business with the Emperor. The 27th of August was fixed for the meeting. Jāvid Khan went to Safdar Jang’s house early in the day and the two breakfasted together. Suraj Mal came in the afternoon and the discussion was prolonged. After a while Safdar Jang led Javid Khan away by the hand to an alcove or bastion of the house and talked about Suraj Mal in privacy. Then Muhammad Ali Jārji and some other Turkish soldiers entered the alcove; the wazir rose up; Muhammad Ali stabbed Jāvid Khan in the liver from behind, crying out, “Take the fruit of your disloyalty,” the other men came up and finished the deed of blood. Then they severed his head and flung it amidst the eunuch’s retainers sitting down on the ground outside the wazir’s mansion, and his trunk on the sandy bank of the river. These men fled away in terror. The deed stifled all hostile movements by its very audacity. All the stores and treasuries of the murdered man within and outside the fort were sealed up and his various offices were at once taken charge of by the aged superintendent of the harem, Roz-āfzun Khan, and no tumult disturbed Delhi at the time.*

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The murder of Jāvid Khan was worse than a crime; it was a political blunder. It antagonised the Emperor and his mother and all the imperial household against Safdar Jang beyond hope of reconciliation. Worst of all it transferred the leadership of the Court party and the control of the puppet Emperor from the hands of a foolish and timid eunuch to those of a noble of the highest birth and the ablest, most energetic, most far-sighted and most ruthlessly ambitious man in the empire, as we shall see in Chapter XI.

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∗ TAh. 40a-41b; Siyar, iii. 45; Shākir 71; Bayān 273; Muz. 60-62. But Chahār Gul. 408a says that there was a terrible tumult and noise in Delhi that evening for six hours after the deed. Muz. 62 admits that such of Javid Khan's belongings as had accompanied his cortege to Safdar Jang's house were plundered by Mughalia troops and the ruffians of the city, (very probable.) This last author praises Jāvid Khan for his buildings, namely, a mansion on the bank of the Jamuna, the Matin-i-mazhab mosque with gilt domes in front of the fort, a strong wall around the marketplace of Haidarganj, a deep and spacious well (bāoli) and a bridge near Haidarganj, and adds: He is not dead, who leaves behind him on earth Bridge and church, well and travellers' rest-house.

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