Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c21.s3.1

v2.c21.s3.1

Meantime, like the abortive expedition of the two Shahzadas into the Doab in the east, two other attempts to restore imperial authority and collect revenue in the Rohtak-Mewat region in the west, under princes Shah Alam (June 1757—June 1758) and Ali Jah (July—August 1757), had ended in total failure. Indeed, Imād’s selfish ambition would not allow any prince the chance of recovering a province and thus acquiring wealth, armed strength, and public prestige; he coerced the tame Emperor into starving and thwarting their enterprises. And his hostility to the eldest and ablest of the Emperor’s sons, Ali Gauhar (Emperor Shah Alam II of the next reign) broke out in an attack on that prince in his Delhi mansion on 19 May 1758. But the latter boldly cut his way out, took shelter with a Maratha general Vithal Shivdev for some time, and when Vithal left him to join Raghunath, Ali Gauhar went into the wilderness in utter destitution and helplessness. By way of the trans-Ganges Ruhela homes he reached Lucknow on 2 January 1759 and with Shujā's help tried to conquer the province of Bihar. But the English defence of the master of Patna and the Emperor's official disavowal of Ali Gauhar's acts (dictated by the wazir) doomed the prince's attempts to utter failure.