Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c15.s4: § 9. The governors of the Panjab after Muin
Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c15.s4
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§ 9. The governors of the Panjab after Muin
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The news of Muin’s death reached Delhi on 12th November. Next day the Emperor nominated his three year old son Mahmud Khan subahdār of the Panjāb,—"that very important frontier province and one so constantly threatened by Abdālī", as the author of *Tārikh-i-Ahmad Shāhi* points out in justifiable indignation. The baby warden of the north-western marches made his bow for his exalted office in the *Diwān-i-khās*, and was quite fittingly supplied with a deputy (*nāib-subahdār*) in the person of Muin's son Muhammad Amin Khan, then in the second year of his life, for whom a robe of investiture was sent from Court with due gravity. This puppet play lasted for five days, and then on 17th November, Intizām-ud-daulah, the wazir, was appointed absentee governor of the Panjab. The actual administration was entrusted to Mumin Khan as his deputy, with whom Bihkāri Khan was joined. [*TAh.* 85*b*, 87*b*, 88*b*.]
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∗ Miskin, 17, 20-21; *TAh.* 85b (death), 93b (burial.) "Muin was buried near Shāhid-ganj (north-east of the city), where the remains of his tomb may still be seen. In the reign of Sher Singh, the Sikhs dismantled the building, dug out the remains of Mir Mannu, and scattered them to the winds." (*Lahore Gaz.* 28n.)
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But the reality of power lay elsewhere than at the imbecile Court of Delhi. The two deputies at Lahor wisely sent their agent to Jahān Khan, the Afghan viceroy of the Peshawar province, in order to learn his master's pleasure in the matter. At the end of January 1754 a *farmān* and a robe of office were received from the Abdālī, by which Muhammad Amin Khan was appointed *his* subahdār of the Panjāb with his father's title of Muin-ul-mulk, while Mumin Khan was nominated as his deputy. This letter was welcomed with regal honours and the State band played in rejoicing.*
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The actual administration was to be conducted by Mir Mumin Khan, the highest noble of the city and the most trusted lieutenant of the former governor Zakariya Khan, as deputy subahdar. The other officers were reinstated in their respective posts. The Turki general Bihkāri Khān (surnamed Raushan-ud-daulah, Rustam Jang), who had been "the dearest friend and most trusted factotum of Muin" and the virtual ruler and "centre of all affairs in the province in his time", and had naturally aspired to the deputy governorship, was bitterly disappointed.
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Stung to fury by baffled ambition, Bihkāri Khān wanted to seize the government of Lahor by force. He gave up attending the Court of the new subahdār, kept to his own mansion, began to collect troops, mostly the turbulent Afghans of Qasur, mounted guns on the terrace of his house, and displayed open hostility to the Begam's authority. But Mughlāni Begam cleverly bought the support of the Mughlia captains with titles and increase of salary, and even seduced from Bihkari Khan’s party Khawājah Mirza Khan (who had been Muin’s right hand man in his campaigns), by giving him the pargana of Yaminābād. With this general’s help, Bihkāri Khan was arrested and kept confined in the Begam’s palace. His property was given up to plunder by order, and three days after his fall his troops made their submission to the Begam and were taken into her service. (Miskin, 22.)
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∗ *TAh.* 93*b*, 113*a*. After narrating this event, the author of *Tārikh-i-Ahmad Shāhi* remarks, "O the marvel! Such weakness on the part of a sovereign who wore the crown of the realm of Hindustan and whose coins were current throughout the land! All this was the outcome of the wickedness of the Irāni and Turāni nobles."
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§ 10. Misgovernment of Mughlani Begam.
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Thus the threat of civil war in Lahor was ended and unity of command was seemingly restored to the government of the province. But the Panjab is not a country to be ruled by a woman acting for an infant in arms. If we can believe the evidence of the son of the man whom she murdered, the widow lost her character and indulged in foolish pranks. (Ghulām Ali’s *Shah Alam-namah*, 26.) “Owing to the widow regent’s simplicity each officer represented affairs to her in a different way. Eunuchs and slaves ruled the State. The peasants were ruined worse than before. The administration fell into disorder and decay. And the number of the Sikhs increased in consequence.” (*Siyar*, iii. 51.) The infant *subahdar* died in May 1754, displaying the same symptoms of poisoning as his father. And then nothing could prevent utter confusion from bursting upon the Panjab administration and ruin from overwhelming the life and property of the people.
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The Court and chief men of Lahor called Muin-ul-mulk's son-in-law, Khwājah Musa Khan Ahrari,[*] to the vacant subahdarship, but all power lay in the hands of Mughlani Begam and was exercised by her eunuchs. Mir Mumin, the deputy governor, could do nothing. The government of the Panjab now visibly broke up; every one set up for himself, law and order disappeared from the realm, even the viceregal palace was looted. This brought first the Maratha and then the Afghan on the scene as the actual ruler, as we shall see later. [Miskin, 23; Siyar, iii. 51, Muz. 81.]
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∗ Muin's son-in-law is thus called in Siyār and Muz. (which, however, wrongly call Muin's son Mir Mumin.) Miskin calls the son-in-law Mumin Khan, the son of Khwājah Musa Kh. of Bukhārā, but distinguishes him from Mir Mumin, the old first noble of Lahor and long deputy governor of the province.
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CHAPTER XI.
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REBELLION OF SAFDAR JANG, 1753.