Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c16.s1.1

v1.c16.s1.1

The Emperor Ahmad Shah reigned for six months only after the end of Safdar Jang's rebellion, and these were months of unceasing disorder in and outside the capital and increasing misery and degradation of the Crown. The retreat of the vanquished ex-wazir from the contest with his sovereign did not bring peace and prosperity back to the Delhi Government, nor could this single cause effect such a miracle. This hectic struggle had exhausted the wealth of the Emperor, dried up the sources of revenue, and left his Government overwhelmed with debt. In the course of it, he and his advisers had to concentrate all their thought and resources on the one task of defeating the enemy at the gate and had to neglect everything else. When this danger had at last rolled away, it was found that the work before them was nothing less than the building up of a new empire out of chaos. For such a task neither Ahmad Shah nor his Chancellor or army Chief was gifted. To the utter bankruptcy of the Treasury was added the deadly jealousy between the two highest ministers of State which was unmasked in all its shamelessness by the exit of their common foe. As early as a month before Safdar Jang's breach with the Emperor, the shrewd Marātha agent at Delhi had noted that the Turāni party was internally divided and formed four factions none of which would obey or work with any other. [S. P. D. xxi. 55.] During the war with Safdar Jang, Imād had openly taunted the new wazir with cowardice for preferring to remain with the Emperor within shelter of Delhi's walls while throwing the brunt of the actual fighting upon him and his personal contingent. He had later suffered from the wazir's duplicity and mischief-making in secretly negotiating a peace with Safdar Jang, while the Emperor's publicly declared policy was that of war to the death with that rebel. The timid powerless sovereign, placed between these two strong rivals, tried to save himself by lying to Imād, while he secretly followed Intizam's counsel. After Safdar Jang's departure, an open clash between the wazir and the Bakhshi was inevitable, and when Ahmad Shah chose to side with Intizām he was bound to be involved in his wazir's fate.