Fall of the Mughal Empire v1.c9.s6.8

v1.c9.s6.8

But at this time the friction between the English Company and Nawāb Mir Qāsim began to assume a serious form, and it culminated in war in June 1763. The English, therefore, found it necessary to secure the neutrality of Jānoji by all means. The Calcutta Council wrote to him "asking him to consider them as security for the *chauth* of Bengal and not to assist Mir Qāsim or to distress Mir Jafar. On account of these letters Jānoji refused the bills and money sent by Mir Qāsim, nor did he grant him an asylum in the *subah* of Katak, which the ex-Nawāb desired." (*C. Pers. Corr.* ii. 77.) Evidently some *chauth* was paid at this time, and then withheld, for Jānoji in his letter (received at Calcutta on 17th Feb. 1767) complains that "more than two years have passed without any money being sent to me." This refusal of the English to make a definite settlement of the *chauth* of Bengal and their trick in spinning out for eight years their negotiations for a treaty of friendship with him (as he complained to his envoy Gopālpuri, Gosāin, whose report was received at Calcutta on 16th Oct. 1767, *Calend.* ii. 1154), exasperated Jānoji. But he was weakened by internal dissensions in the Marātha State and too afraid of the all-conquering English army to risk a war in assertion of his treaty rights.