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Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c15.s10: § 12. How Safdar Jang began the war

Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c15.s10

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§ 12. How Safdar Jang began the war

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Safdar Jang had been roving aimlessly in the suburbs of Delhi, passing from the north by the west to the south of the city. Neither party at first deemed it wise to force a clash of arms, and hence they carried on negotiations for a settlement, while using the respite to raise fresh troops for the contest that they knew to be inevitable. One contemporary [*Bayān*, 277] says that Safdar Jang shrank from assaulting the city at the outset when his military superiority was at its height and his enemies unprepared, because he wished to spare the citizens all the horrors of a sack, and was confident that the mere terror of his arms would compel the Court party to sue for peace. But every day that passed in inaction only lessened the difference in strength between the two parties and exhausted his finances. The feeding of Safdar Jang’s vast army and horde of camp followers soon became a serious problem, which could end only in disorder and conflict. On 22nd April he ordered Rājendra-giri to go to the eastern side of the Jamuna and bring in provisions from the villages there (all of which belonged to the Crownlands or the estates of nobles), by any means he could, which meant plunder. This act of violence stopped the grain supply of Delhi and sharply raised food-prices in the capital. The Emperor wrote to protest, but the wazir refused to recall his men and replied, “My enemies are Intizām and Imād, and my business is with *them*. They have turned the Emperor against me. Tell them to come out and fight me.” He gave a similar message (29th April) to Imād’s chief officer, Aqibat Mahmud, abusing the Turāni leaders and challenging them to “come forth and fight if they were men.” To the Emperor he sent the reply, “I shall slay the Turānis in any way I can.” [*TAh. 51b.*]

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∗ Antaji Mankeshwar, the jealous rival of Hingané, had been made a 4-*hazāri* through Shujā-ud-daulah on 17 Jan, 1753 (D.C.), but he now went over to the Turanis, and was presented to the Emperor on 19th April, and promoted in rank. *TAh.* 50b; *Atti. Patr.* ii 86.

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The attempt was made the next day, 30th April. About two hours after dawn as Intizām and Imād were coming to the Court in *pālkis*, two horsemen fired their muskets at them in front of the fort-gate, but missed both, one bullet merely grazing the stomach of Aqibat Mahmud who was just behind his master. The miscreants dashed into the Jamuna and took the road to the wazir's camp, but one of them was captured and slain. Imād began to engage troops, saying, "There is open enmity between the wazir and me, and I ought to fight." [*TAh.* 52*a*.] That day Salābat Khan (Sādat Kh. Zulfiqār Jang), the late Mir Bakhshi, living in disgrace and confinement in his house since his dismissal in June 1751, was coaxed by two ex-queens to visit the Court and was restored to the Emperor's favour.

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§ 13. Salābat Khan joins Safdar Jang and incites him to rebellion.

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Events moved apace with the commencement of May. On the first of that month, Suraj Mal, now free from the bloody capture of Ghasera fort (belonging to Bahadur Singh Bar-gujar) on 23rd April, came to the wazir's camp at his pressing call with 15,000 horse and advised a vigorous offensive. Three days later, Salābat Khan, when out on a pretended pilgrimage to Shāh Mardān's shrine with his family, was collusively seized by a detachment from Safdar Jang's army and taken to the wazir's camp, where he was cordially welcomed and installed as the chief adviser and most honoured friend of Safdar Jang. Salābat, with a heart sore against his ungrateful young master and his new counsellors who despised the elder peers, taunted Safdar Jang with cowardice for having been turned out of power by "boys", when he had a splendid army that could have easily crushed the Court minions and re-established his own supremacy in Delhi. To Safdar's profession of loyalty and readiness to obey his master, Salābat replied, "What you say would be true if the Emperor were his own master and acted according to his own judgment. But he is constantly sunk in wine and pleasure, and has degraded the elder peers by giving authority to youthful upstarts. You ought to make an attempt to reform the administration, so that we may not be insulted by boys." [Ch. Gul. 409a; TAh. 52b; Muz. 71.]

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So next day (5th May) the wazir despatched Rājendra-giri towards Barapula and Ismail Khan towards the village of Nagli (near the Jamuna), for attacking the mansions of the Turānis situated there. This outbreak of hostility caused great alarm and stir in the city; the Emperor wrote to a very near relative of the wazir to induce him to desist, but Safdar Jang haughtily replied, “Peace can be made only if the Mir Bakhshi-ship, the second Bakhshi-giri, and the subahdari of Lahor and Multan are taken away from the Turānis and given to my nominees. Imād and Intizām are to be banished from the Emperor’s side. Or else, know for certain that to-morrow I shall attack their houses, and the imperial fort too is near and within my view.” [TAh. 53a.]

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An open rupture could no longer be averted. On 8th May the Emperor dismissed Shujā from the command of the imperial Artillery and gave that post to Samsāmuddaulah (son of that Khan-i-Daurān who had fallen in the battle with Nādir Shah), and ordered the defensive entrenchments on the river strand to be pushed to completion. These were now armed with guns of all calibres from the fort arsenal, under the Emperor’s own eyes. All the other offices held by Shujā, including the important ones of superintendence of the Private Audience and paymastership of the ahadis, were given to other men; and the qiladari of the palace was formally transferred from Safdar Jang’s agent (Abu Turāb Kh.) to Ahmad Anga.

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