Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c7.s7: § 9. Imperial authority overthrown in Rohilkhand
Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c7.s7
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§ 9. Imperial authority overthrown in Rohilkhand
v1.c7.s7.1
Muhammad Khān Bangash, lord of Farrukhābād, died in 1743 and was succeeded by his eldest son Qāim Khan, who was a fine soldier and sportsman, but too much obsessed by religiosity to pursue a career of ambition. Moreover, the Bangash chieftains, unlike the Ruhela leader Ali Muhammad, were fairly loyal servants of the imperial Government and lawful jāgirdārs in their barony. Their authority was more recognised, their territories more settled, and their revenue collection more regular than was the case among the Ruhelas. Hence, Qāim Khan did not trouble the Delhi Court but often helped it loyally, and the Farrukhābād district remained quiet during his life time.
v1.c7.s7.2
In Rohilkhand proper, Ali Muhammad's usurped authority had been abolished by the terms of the Emperor's pardon to him in May 1745. The jāgirs seized by him were ordered to be put in the possession of their rightful owners. This, however, was more easily said than done. True, Ali Muhammad was now removed from the scene of his mischievous activity, detained at Delhi for some months, and finally sent off to Sarhind as its faujdār, while his two grown-up sons were held at Court as hostages for his good conduct. But it merely spread anarchy throughout Rohilkhand in the place of one strong usurper's rule. As the author of Siyar-ul-mutākhkharin, who was personally present in Barily at this time, noted, "Thousands of Afghāns were living there, and having struck their roots, had become owners of the land and made it impossible for anybody else to govern that tract." (iii. 20.)
v1.c7.s7.3
Barily and seventeen other mahals had been formerly assigned in jāgir to the Nizām, but they had long gone out of the grantee's control on account of the Afghān predominance. In 1746 the Nizām's eldest son and agent at Court, Ghāziuddin Firuz Jang, sent Hedāyet Ali Khān (the father of the author of Siyar) there as manager of this estate. But the new collector's task was extremely difficult in view of the smallness of his resources and the vast number and turbulent character of the Afghan population he was expected to control. His position was further complicated by the jealous opposition of an old grantee who was the natural enemy of the Ruhelas.
v1.c7.s7.4
Shaikh Azmatullah Khān, of the Shaikhzāda family of Lucknow, had acted as imperial faujdār of Rohilkhand (with his head-quarters at Murādābād) from Farrukh-siyar's reign till his own death in 1737, and his eldest son Muin-ud-din had acted as magistrate of Barily during part of the time. Ali Muhammad Ruhela, in his obscure youth, had served them as a petty jamadār in their personal force. On Azmatullah's death, the governorship of Rohilkhand had gone out of the family to another man, Mir Ahmad Khān, and later on to Ali Muhammad. In 1745, on the downfall of the latter, Azmatullah's second son, Farid-ud-din, had been appointed to this post. His nephew Shaikh Qutb-ud-din (evidently the son of Muin) was living in his mud-fort of Chajlait,[*]
v1.c7.s7.5
∗ Siyar, iii. 21, spells the name as Chachhat, which I take to be an error. Imād 35, places his family home at Amethi (in the Sultanpur district of Oudh.)
v1.c7.s7.6
13 miles north of Murādābād, in great poverty. His ambition was to recover his family possessions and power, now that the field was left clear by the Ruhela usurper. He, therefore, obstructed Hedāyet Ali on his arrival at Barily; but the latter acted with great tact and combination of force and diplomacy and after laying siege to his little fort won him over. Hedāyet Ali also enlisted the Ruhela headmen of the different villages in his service in order to ensure their help in controlling their clansmen. The chief of such auxiliaries was Pir Ahmad Ruhela (a Pir-zāda of the Afghāns); but he soon turned against his employer, partly because of his Sunni bigotry,—Hedāyet Ali being a Shia. Pir Ahmad's band of 1,700 men soon proved the nucleus of an Afghān army hostile to the new collector of Barily, though in their first encounter Ahmad was defeated.
v1.c7.s7.7
But the table was turned upon Hedāyet Ali early in 1748. At the first news of Abdāli's capture of Lāhor and intended march upon Delhi, Ali Muhammad Ruhela deserted his post at Sarhind* (middle of February) and with his entire contingent of Afghāns returned to Rohilkhand. At once his clansmen dropped their ploughs, took up their matchlocks, and joined him in their thousands. With this overwhelming force he swept the district clear of the lawful *jāgirdārs’* officers and re-established his own possession in a month’s time, set up his own magistrates again, and crossed the Ganges into the Bijnor and Murādābād districts.
v1.c7.s7.8
∗ G-i-R., p. 24, tries to explain away this desertion by saying that the Emperor himself sent Ali Muhammad to Katehr as governor in order to prevent his joining Abdali.
v1.c7.s7.9
Hedāyet Ali could not maintain himself against a nation in arms. His hired Afghān retainers turned against him and invested him in his house at Barily for their arrears of pay, while Ali Muhammad arrived within 20 miles of that town. He escaped from the difficulty by paying off his troops, abandoning most of his property, and falling back on Delhi (middle of April). By this time the Emperor Muhammad Shāh was dead; the interregnum (as always happened in Mughal India), had let loose the forces of disorder, and Hedāyet Ali had great difficulty in making his retreat in the midst of the lawlessness and highway robbery that were now raging through this tract “worse than ever before.” (*Siyar*, iii. 23) Thus the fruits of the Bangarh campaign of 1745 were undone in a month’s time in 1748.