Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c9.s5: § 18. How Orissa became a Maratha province
Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c9.s5
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§ 18. How Orissa became a Maratha province
v1.c9.s5.1
Mir Habib was succeeded by Musālih-ud-din Muhammad Khān, a courtier of Raghuji, as *nāib nāzim* of Orissā. But though legally a representative of Alivardi Khān, he acted in all matters as a servant of the Marātha Rājah, and had no real control over the administration such as Habib had exercised. (Siyar, ii. 190). Thus, in a few years Orissā passed entirely out of the hands of the subahdār of Bengal and Bihār, and became a Marātha province. This was the one permanent result of the Bargi invasions. Another was that the Marāthas showed the way for the organised looting of Bengal and Bihār to the up-country robber bands calling themselves sannyāsis and faqirs, whom it required the genius of a Warren Hastings to suppress.
v1.c9.s5.2
∗ We get this exact date (4 Sept., New style) in a French factory letter, Chandarnagar to Masulipatam, dated 11 Oct. 1752 (N S.), *Correspondance du Conseil de Chandernagor avec divers*, ii. 435. *Siyar*, ii. 189-190. Therefore, *Siyar*, ii. 188, is wrong in saying that the treaty was signed at the beginning of 1165 A. H. (which commenced on 9th Nov. 1751), because on the next page it is stated that Habib was murdered one year and a few months after the conclusion of this peace.
v1.c9.s5.3
It is a mistake to say that Alivardi ceded Orissā to the Marāthas. The terms of the treaty of 1751 clearly show that the province was divided into two parts; of the northern and more civilised corner, which included the important cities of Medinipur and Jalesar, he retained full possession and government; the southern and more sparsely populated portion, including the great trade centre of Balesar, the capital Katak, and the holy city of Puri, was to be governed by his own officers, but its revenue was assigned to the Marāthas, or in other words it became one vast jāgir for them without any change in its territorial sovereignty. This was the theory; but in practice, the weakness of Alivardi's successors, the revolutions at the Court of Murshidābād, and the confusion attending the transfer of real power from the titular Nawāb to the English Company, all enabled the Marāthas to turn their fiscal right over Orissā into full political sovereignty and to annex it to their kingdom of Berār.
v1.c9.s5.4
First, after the death of Mir Habib (1752), the new deputy of Alivardi in the province was selected from among the officers of the Court of Nāgpur. This man, Musālih-ud-din Muhammad Khān, by his previous associations and weakness of position, yielded to the Marāthas in all matters, so that the latter had their way in everything even under the nominal suzerainty of Alivardi over the province. The change that took place in the political status of Orissā is thus clearly set forth by the Select Committee of Calcutta on 11 December 1761:
v1.c9.s5.5
“It is about twelve years since the Nawāb of Bengal gave the Marāthas an assignment upon the Katak province for receiving an annual stipulated sum on account of the *chauth*. The Marāthas, under pretence of collecting their share, usurped by degrees the entire possession of the province, and not contented with that, still continued to harass the neighbouring parts of Bengal, and more particularly the provinces (*i.e.* districts) of Medinipur and Bardwan, which now belong to the Company.” (Long, *Selections*, i. No. 572.) Mir
v1.c9.s5.6
Qāsim, the only strong Nawāb after Alivardi, clung to his theoretical sovereignty over Orissā. As he wrote to the English in a letter received on 10th March 1761, "It is unjust that the Marāthas should receive the whole revenues of Katak". (*Calendar of Persian Correspondence*, i. No. 1006.) The Nawābs of Bengal, for ten years after the treaty, continued to appoint *faujdārs* at Balesar, though these officers were frequently harassed by the Marāthas.