Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c21.s5: § 6. Raghunath Rao in the Doab. His retreat from the North
Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c21.s5
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§ 6. Raghunath Rao in the Doab. His retreat from the North
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On 9 December Raghunath and Malhar moved from the shrine of Shah Mardān to Jitpur, on the west bank of the Jamuna, two miles east of Badarpur. Their troops forded the river, * plundering the houses and men at the ferry and even the Brahmans who had come to bathe in the sacred river. They robbed every traveller they met with on the way up to Patparganj (8 m. n. of Jitpur) and other villages on the east bank, fought the imperial collector of pargana Luni, and took away four elephants of the wazir which were out grazing near Ghaziabad. Raghunath himself crossed over at Chhalera (4 m. s. of Patparganj and due east of Okhla) and encamped there for a fortnight. "Destruction descended upon both the marts and the surrounding country ; the grain that used to come to Delhi from these places was cut off, and scarcity raged in the capital." Two of the Hingané brothers were sent by the wazir to pacify Raghunath. On 14 December the wazir's captain, Shahdil Khan Afghan, had a severe conflict with the Marathas in withdrawing his outpost from Khurja, the casualties on the two sides together mounting up to 2,500. |TALS. 36a.|
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On 25 December Malhar came back from the east bank to Hauz-i-khas, while Raghunath, who had moved up from Chhalera to Ghaziabad, started on the 27th by way of Dasna for Garh Mukteshwar, where he bathed in the Ganges (30 Dec.-13 Jan. 1755.) While halting here, he settled the contribution of the Ruhelas, whose chief manager Hafiz Rahmat Khan had arrived on the opposite bank for negotiating. Raghunath obtained a sum in cash and written undertakings for the balance, then turned south to Palwara, Basi (on the Ganges) and Ahar (on the Ganges, 23 miles east of Bulandshahar city), and finally struck due west through the Bulandshahar district, by way of Jahangirabad, Ladhané, Utsar (on the Kali Nadi) and Nagalé, to the Motipur ferry on the Jamuna, due east of Faridabad, arriving there on 2 February. "Everywhere his Deccanis plundered as they moved on. Wherever he went, if a man voluntarily paid something, his village was spared, otherwise it was looted. At his near approach, grain in Delhi became dearer still."
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∗ Raghunath " in the Doab and return :-TALS. 35b-41a ; DC. SPD. xxvii. 79, 106.
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At Motipur Raghunath crossed the Jamuna (8 Feb. 1755), and by way of Badarpur and the southern side of Gurgaon city (14 Feb.), marched rapidly through the Jhajjar district, Kanaud, Narnol, Singhana and Sambhar to the Pushkar lake, where he arrived on 3rd March. Meanwhile Malhar Holkar, who with other Deccani generals had received on 21 Dec. robes of farewell from the imperial Court—16 for the men and 6 for the ladies—had come back to Hauz-i-khas (25 Dec.) and thence moved *via* Naraina, s. w. of Delhi (7 January) to the Rewari and Pataudi districts, levying tribute from the Gujar and Baluch landlords throughout the month of January. Early next month, being reassured by Raghunath's safe return from the Doab and the reconciliation of Intizam (a Maratha protégé) with the wazir, Malhar set out for Rajputana, and quickly reached Lohagarh in Shekhawati, whence he began to dun Mādho Singh of Jaipur for the long overdue Maratha tribute. Thus at the end of the first week of February 1755, the Delhi region was freed from the Maratha army of occupation and grain again became cheap in the imperial city.
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§ 7. Money contribution levied from Delhi by Raghunath Rao, 1754.
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The first and most pressing problem of Alamgir II’s reign was how to keep the wazir’s word to his Maratha allies. They had been induced to come to Imad’s help, leaving the profitable Jat enterprise in which they were engaged, only by the promise of a large reward, in addition to the subsidy already due for their support during the late war against Safdar Jang. The Peshwa’s lack of money was daily growing more and more unbearable. The Jat campaign had yielded only two lakhs in cash after keeping the entire Maratha army of the north* locked up in that kingdom for over four months. In Malhar’s surprise of the imperial camp at Sikandrabad, the gain of the Marathas had been insignificant, a few elephants only, as all the other property had been quickly seized and carried away by plunderers, especially the Jats, whose homes were nearer and who were present there in vaster numbers than the small Maratha contingent detached on this raid under Malhar. Therefore, after that surprise, Malhar refused to release the captive ladies of the imperial harem, unless the outstanding dues of the Marathas were paid. Imad and Aqibat Mahmud stood security for this money, amounting to forty lakhs, as the only means of saving the honour of the imperial family. [SPD. xxi. 60, xxvii. 90.]
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∗ At that time the monthly pay of a Maratha trooper was Rs. 12 (i.e., Rs. 10-15.) Hence, 20,000 horsemen cost 12 lakhs in the five months of the Jat campaign. SPD. xxvii. 81.
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The Peshwa’s instructions to his brother were to squeeze as much money as possible out of the Delhi Government,—75 lakhs or at least 50 lakhs. Imad on being appointed wazir (2 June 1754), was agreeable to paying 25 lakhs as the customary *nazar* for this high office. But Raghunath’s insensate greed overreached itself. After long discussions, through Malhar Holkar he fixed the Maratha dues at the impossible figure of 82 1/2 lakhs, out of which forty lakhs were promised to be paid down and the balance after some time. Both parts of the undertaking were impossible of realization in the then condition of the Delhi empire. By methods which will be described later, about nine lakhs were actually collected and paid to the Marathas at the end of September and bankers’ bills were given for 17 1/2 lakhs more, but the remaining 13 1/2 lakhs of the first moiety remained absolutely unsecured and without the least hope of its being provided in the near future.
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The realization of the second moiety, 42½ lakhs, was out of the question. As the resident Maratha envoy at Delhi wrote to his master (Oct. 1754), “For these 13½ lakhs we are daily dunning the wazir. There is no money in the Emperor’s house, there is not a pice with the wazir, their soldiers are dying of starvation, daggers and knives are being plied every day. In such a state of things we are pressing for our money. No cash, no jewel is available. In the last resort the wazir is asking us to take assignments for 13½ lakhs on the revenue of the lands round Delhi which were set apart for feeding the Emperor and the wazir.”
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This second alternative had to be followed. On 25 October the Emperor issued written orders giving to the Marathas assignments totalling Rs. 42½ lakhs on the revenue of Bengal, Barily, Bairat, Sambhar, Kora and some other mahals. [DC.] But as these bills were not honoured, lands in the Gangetic Doab were ultimately alienated to the Marathas and the unwelcome presence of their predatory army removed from the environs of the capital, at the beginning of February 1755.*
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§ 8. Exaction of money in Delhi city, 1754.
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We shall now turn to the events within Delhi during the first year of this reign. The task that confronted Imad-ul-mulk immediately after his becoming wazir was to find money for paying the subsidy of 40 lakhs promised to his Maratha supporters and the salary of his own troops and the Emperor's artillery-guards and personal servants, which had fallen into arrears for three years. But the treasury and palace-stores had been exhausted during the last reign. The first victims of the new sovereign's rapacity were the brother and sister of the ex-Queen-mother Udham Bai and their children, who had been raised to princely wealth and rank during her son's rule. Their jagirs were confiscated, their ladies were squeezed out of their cash and jewels, pressed to reveal the hiding places of their treasure, and finally driven out of the palace to live in Khaw-aspura, where the widows of former sovereigns were lodged in poverty and neglect. The fallen wazir Intizam-ud-daulah was similarly deprived of his jagirs and of such other property as lay outside his fortified mansion. In this way three lakhs of Rupees was collected and sent from the palace, secretly at night, to the wazir and paid to the Marathas 10 June.
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∗ *SPD.* xxvii. 89, 90. *DC.* *TALS.* 5b-6b, 12a, 27.
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This was a mere drop in the ocean. The immediate dues of the Marathas and the imperial soldiery exceeded one kror. Plans were formed for collecting this huge amount by forced contributions * from the nobles and the public servants. The very proposal raised a tumult in the capital; the rich were too powerful to be fleeced, and nothing could be collected. Then Nāgar Mal (the diwan of Crownlands), in consultation with Bapu Rao Hingané, attempted to levy the money from the traders and the common people of all the markets. On this question, Nagar Mal and his head assistant Majlis Rai quarrelled and almost came to blows in the camp of the Marathas, but Malhar managed to pacify them. The wazir posted guards to control the exit from every rich man's house and ordered a levy on the traders and artisans. The bazars were closed in protest, thousands of citizens assembled under the palace balcony (*jharoka*), crying to the Emperor against the oppression. The Emperor was powerless; he sent word to the wazir to redress the wrong, but Imad would not listen to him. Two days passed in this way, and then the Emperor threatened to starve himself to death unless justice was done to the people. Then the wazir withdrew his demand for money, and the trouble ceased for the time (end of June.)
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∗ Contribution from the Delhi people: *TALS.* 9b-11b, 17a-19a, 25, 27a. Also *DC.*
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But how were the Maratha claims to be satisfied? By the end of August, the wazir's utmost effort had pro ced only 9 lakhs paid in cash to the Marathas and a promise of 17 lakhs payable from the revenue of Bengal and the *nazar* expected from the two new Bakhshis,—which actually yielded nothing. The Marathas lost patience, and "the wazir made a hot effort to raise money from the people of the city, the Emperor yielding his consent to the measure on condition of the poor not being touched." The exaction at last began on 7th September, under Samsām-ud-daulah (the Mir Bakhshi) and other officers, and the city was divided among the collectors and lists made of the houses to be taxed. This attempt also ended in failure, though the people suffered greatly.
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"Some fools had persuaded the wazir that if only Rs. 2 was realized from every person, a *kror* would be yielded. But though in the actual collection Rs. 5 or even Rs. 10 was taken from each man, not even one lakh was collected, because nothing was taken from any person who was in any way connected with the wazir, but only the shopkeepers and artisans were taxed! Then a new collection was ordered. From the rich thousands of Rupees were demanded, but the heirs of the rich founders were now beggars and could pay nothing. Many people were seized and beaten. A great tumult raged throughout Delhi. All the grain marts and bazar shops were closed. Thousands of common people and the head merchants of the city and of the marts in the suburbs assembled under the Emperor's window, clamouring for justice and saying that they had been forced to pay three times already and yet another demand for contribution was now being made...with intolerable beating.... At last on 20th October the wazir was induced to call off the levy and peace was restored to the citizens." [TALS. 25.] The forced contribution ceased, and the wazir had to satisfy the Marathas by alienating to them 22 villages in Saharanpur and some others from the Crownland and privy purse estates.
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§ 9. *Constant lawlessness and military rowdiness in Delhi.*
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This surrender of territory allayed only one evil. It did nothing to meet the just demands of the palace servants and the imperial soldiery whose salaries had remained unpaid for three years. Men with arms in their hands and trained to act in concerted bands cannot be expected to starve in silence in the midst of a wealthy and masterless city. Anarchy reigned in Delhi after Alamgir II's accession in a worse form than before. The Marathas had been paid lakhs and lakhs, but the Mughal army could not actually get even half a month's salary in three years, in spite of the solemn promises of the wazir, and this fact exasperated the imperial soldiery beyond endurance; they daily plundered houses in the city on their own account. The powerful nobles put their mansions in a posture of defence, and the middle class,—especially the Hindu officials and traders, —alone suffered. *|TALS. 20b.|*
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Only three weeks after the Emperor's accession, the wazir's artillerymen made a row for their pay in his mansion, stopping ingress and egress and dragging out his chief manager, Aqibat Mahmud Khan, whose dress they tore off. Only an order on a banker could pacify them (21 June, 1754). Imad blamed Aqibat for having brought this public humiliation on him, because that all-powerful servant used to control all his affairs and receive and dispose of all his revenue without his master's knowledge. So, he called Aqibat in the evening (of 24 June) for a consultation, severely censured him, and had him stabbed to death by his Afghan captains. The ex-favourite's corpse was thrown down on the sand-bank below the wazir's garden.* The same day the captive Ahmad Shah and his mother were blinded. With the approval of Imad, his rogue of a Kashmiri henchman Aqibat had forged a letter purporting to have been written by the ex-Emperor and sealed with his private seal, calling upon Intizam to rescue his former master from prison, take him to the Rajputs and with their help restore him to the Delhi throne, when the wazirship would be conferred on Intizam again. After repeated pressing, the reluctant consent of Alamgir II was secured and his rival was blinded soon after nightfall. But the moving spring of this atrocious deed had himself been killed two hours before! Divine justice sometimes acts with lightning speed. The next day, the other soldiers of the wazir assembled before his house, clamouring to be paid their arrears as the artillerymen had been. The streets were blocked and the city gates had to be closed on account of the crowd and tumult.
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∗ Murder of Aqibat Mahmud,—TALS. 6b, DC. Muz. 101. Blinding of Ahmad Shah : TALS. 8a ; Mux. 99, DC.
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There were many similar scenes of rowdiness by the starving soldiery* throughout this reign, *e.g.*, on 10 August 1754, when half a month's pay was promised, but even that pittance could not be actually paid; on 14 Aug., when the High Diwan Nāgar Mal was stoned by the Emperor's personal servants and had to be carried away to safety under cover of his followers' shields; on 5 September, when the musketeers of the fort garrison closed both of its gates, stopping all traffic; on 2 October, when the Badakhshi cavalry of the wazir made a violent demonstration, their officers claiming from the wazir's diwan lakhs of Rupees as their due, but refusing to bring their troops to the muster or to render accounts of the rents they had already realized from the jagirs assigned to them in lieu of pay, and the tumult was pacified only by putting their insolent commander Zāhid Beg in prison; on 23 October, when the Badakhshis again assembled, surrounded the wazir's mansion, mobbed their bakhshi and dragged him out of his *palki*, while the wazir sneaked into the fort by a back door; on 18 November, when these Mughlia troops again rose in lawless violence, occupying the Jāma Masjid and the Qudsia Masjid all the day and looting the bakers' and sweetmeat-sellers' shops, and could be dislodged only by opening fire upon them from the fort-walls with some slaughter. Their crowning act of outrage was mobbing the wazir and dragging him on foot through Panipat city on 3 May 1755, as will be described at the end of this chapter.
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∗ Rowdiness of unpaid soldiery,—*TALS.* 8*a*, 12*b*, 13*b*, 18*a*, 22*b*, 26, 32*a*, 29*b*-30*a*, 37*b*, 75*b*-79*a*. Also *DC*.
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The wazir's artillerymen, who had been promised payment in eleven days as the result of their clamour on 21 October 1754, again crowded before his mansion after the expiry of the term, entered it, fought a eunuch who barred their path and plundered his property. One day they stopped the visit of Sholapuri Begam, the wazir's grandmother, and insulted the wazir himself. "The trouble daily increased. Another day the mutineers entered the wazir's mansion and carried away the food lying cooked ready for him and his family. Many people's property was looted during these disorders." "On 28 December Rs. 5 per trooper and Re. 1 per foot-soldier, [i.e., only one week's pay] were granted to the fort artillery, this being the first payment ever made in the seven months since the Emperor's accession. No other regiment got anything." On 23 July 1756 we read of a similar tumult created by the troops of the deceased Mir Bakhshi Samsām-ud-daulah, whose burial they hindered till their dues were promised. At the same time the wazir's musketeers posted in the fort, took forcible control of it, stopped ingress and egress, and defied their master. Then taking some light pieces out of the ramparts, they planted them under strong pickets at many places in the city, such as the Jāma Masjid, and held the city gates in force.
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The Emperor was then at Luni; two of his wives, whom he had summoned from Delhi fort, could only evade the artilleryists holding the gates by walking on foot covered with common *burqas* (like servant maids) from their *harem* to outside the fort-gates; then they crossed part of the road mounted on bhishtis’ bullocks and disguised in bhishti-women’s robes, and from the city went to Luni in more worthy vehicles. The Persian chronicler adds, “The Emperor was greatly delighted to hear of this [trick]. The shame of it was not felt by him. In the end the affair could not be kept a secret and became known to the public.” *[TALS. 76b-78a.]*
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At last on 29 August 1756, the artillerymen, despairing of getting their dues by any other means, “absolutely closed all the entrances into the fort. So, the supply of grain, meat, vegetables and water to the inmates of the palace-harem was cut off from the morning.... After noon they opened the back gate, allowing some people to come in and stopping others at their caprice. At last the son of Jagjivandas (the Delhi agent of Jagatseth of Bengal) and Bālgovind Sāhukār personally undertook to satisfy their claims, by Najib-ud-daulah’s mediation.... Their accounts were produced and their dues admitted to be for ten months and a few days.” Taking an advance from Balgovind, the Mir Atish cleared the dues of the men employed *within* the fort and the gates were fully opened on 12 September. But the artilleryists *outside* Delhi fort, under their captains Rao Māu and Harjiu Singh, at not getting their own dues, mutinied and tried to block the fort-gates from outside. Then they were paid in part, and the tumult ceased. |TALS. 78-79.| The sickening tale need not be carried any further.
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§ 10. Sufferings of the people of Delhi from lawlessness and anarchy, 1754.
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Within the capital itself the Badakhshi soldiers of the wazir plundered the houses of the rich citizens without fear or check. In August 1754, Kishanchand Sud, a high accounts officer, was carried off by Bāqi Beg Khan, a captain of this Turki corps, to Mughalpura, put to torture by being suspended from a beam and asked to pay five lakhs. He underwent this treatment for fifteen days, but none sought to rescue him. He ultimately secured his release, we know not at what price; but on 7 June next year his house was plundered by the wazir's troops, though he contrived to escape by a back door.* On 14 Nov. 1754 Nāgar Mal, the High Diwan, abandoning his own house in the city, fled for refuge to Bāpu Hingané in Jaisinghpura. Imād sent a party to escheat the property of the fugitive, but the Marathas who had been sent to guard the house resisted the invaders. From Jaisinghpura Nāgar Mal sent a small Maratha force to bring his family away from their asylum in Samsām-ud-daulah’s house. But the wazir’s Badakhshis opposed these men, slaying twelve and wounding many of them and taking away their arms and mares. Then the victors went to Nāgar Mal’s house, expelled the Maratha guards from it, and finally cleared Pahārā Mal’s garden house, which was the residence of many Marathas, of every Deccani found there. Thus, not a Maratha was left within the walls of Delhi or in the marts around it. *TALS.* 30*b*-31*b*. *DC.* The wazir immediately took away Nāgar Mal’s two diwanships, but when he returned to Court a month later restored these offices to him.
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∗ TALS. 16b, 54b; DC. He appropriated all power as mustaufi of the Emperor and naib diwan of khalsa, after Abdali's departure in April 1757, and caused great discontent by transferring the jagirs of the smaller mansabdars to the Emperor's sons, for which he was murdered in the streets, 16 April 1757, by some of these officers. (116a-117a.)
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We read that in September 1754, the wazir’s soldiers were engaged in plundering the house of every man whom their informers represented as well dressed and well fed. They seized the householder and his women and would release them only after the payment of a ransom. No redress could be had even by appealing to the highest authority. “One day the wazir’s Afghan captain Subhān Khan with his company began to loot the house of Hakumat Rāi, the father-in-law of the daughter of Thākurdas (the head assistant of the Emperor’s harem superintendent). Thākurdas complained to the wazir, who sent Saif-ud-din Muhammad Khan to stop it; but this officer entered into a concert with Subhān Khan, severely beat Hakumat Rāi, and even threatened to dishonour Thākurdas himself, and the house was plundered of all its contents.” [*TALS.* 20.]
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A Muslim victim fared better. On 3 September, Imād caught some Badakhshis in the act of robbing the house of the brother-in-law of Muzaffar Khan. He cut off the nose of the leader of the gang, who happened to be a sergeant in the regiment of Bāqi Beg Khan. At this the other Badakhshis of the corps were displeased. Next day, as the wazir was entering the fort, a Badakhshi musketeer fired at him from his post before the gate. The wazir reprimanded all the captains of this force. [*TALS.* 17*b*-18*a*.]
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§ 11. *Delhi Government turns bankrupt.*
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The utter bankruptcy of the Government makes us only wonder that it did not collapse even earlier. All the provinces except Bengal had long ceased to send any revenue to the central Government, some having become independent under their subahdars and others having been usurped by Afghans Jats and Marathas. Thus, the territory still obeying the Emperor's authority was reduced to a belt round the capital, *viz.*, the upper Doab or the Mirat Division on the east and the Rohtak and Gurgaon districts on the west. Here, as nearest and most easy to control, the Emperor had originally reserved to himself the rent of a number of villages for meeting the salaries of his household servants and palace guards (especially the Delhi garrison artillery) and the cost of clothing and feeding himself, his family, and State pensioners like the captive offsprings and widows of former Emperors. These lands formed his Crownlands (khalsa) and privy purse estates (sarf-i-khas.) But, because they were nearest the capital and their revenue was least irregular and easiest to collect, they roused the greed of his wazir, whose cowardice and incompetence prevented him from subduing and administering his jagirs more distantly situated.
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The main prop of the empire’s centre was the newly recruited body of Central Asian mercenaries, called Badakhshis or popularly Sindagh. They were 12,000 strong, large-limbed, well-fed, well-accoutred men, mounted on powerful high-priced horses of Khurasan breed, and cost much more than double the salary of a similar number of Indian soldiers, their pay-bill amounting to eight lakhs of Rupees a month. When their pay fell into arrears they took to plundering houses and holding rich men to ransom in Delhi, with the wazir’s permission, as is asserted by the Court chronicler of Alamgir II. They constantly demanded their pay and refused to bring their troops to the muster or to render accounts of the revenue they had already collected from the landlords in Mewat and other parganahs where they had been sent for rent-collection. In the very presence of the wazir they abused his finance manager, while their commander Zāhid Beg Khan drew his dagger and wounded one of Imād’s generals. Zahid Beg was put in prison and the tumult ceased for the time, (2 Oct. 1754). The wazir, in order to stop this constant clamour, made some of the privy purse mahals over to the Badakhshis. [*TALS.* 41b, 22b, 29a.]
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“The parganahs in the province of Delhi and some other provinces, which had been made Crownland, and out of whose revenue the Emperor’s personal servants received their pay, had now gone out of his hands. Saharanpur, whose revenue had been assigned to jagirdars, was seized by Najib Khan Ruhela ; the Jat Rajah had seized the mahals near Agra ; Madho Singh of Jaipur had taken possession of Narnol and that side. Not a single mahal remained under the *khalsa* (Crownlands department.) In addition to this, the wazir used to give the mahals of the privy purse in lieu of payment now to the Badakhshis, now to the Marathas... So, there was no money for the Emperor’s own meals and those of the ladies of his harem, whose only source of maintenance was the rent of the privy purse estates. The Emperor repeatedly pressed [this point] on the wazir, who signed orders for the release of these lands, but at heart wished to devote their revenue to the payment of his own troops. So he released Mirat and Luni only. Wafā Beg Khan (a Mughalia captain) enjoyed parganah Bāghpat, and now Mirat and other privy purse mahals were given to the Marathas. The wazir ruined the whole realm.” [*TALS.* 22, 28-29.]
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The wazir brought the Emperor and his family to the point of starvation by alienating the privy purse estates to the Badakhshis and the Marathas. But there was nothing left for giving relief to the other sections of the army, such as the fort artillery, the musketeers of the guard (men from Oudh and Baksar), and the personal retinue and household officers of the Emperor, whose pay was equally overdue. These latter struck work and rioted in the city and the fort, creating scenes of the greatest humiliation and suffering to the Emperor and his wazir.
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§ 12. Humiliation and sufferings of the imperial family.
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The hopeless poverty of the Emperor subjected him to deepening distress and insult. Only a month and a half after his accession, he had no conveyance left for the State procession to the place of the Id prayer.* The contrast between his miserable plight and the magnificence of his ancestors became painfully manifest when he held his birthday Court in the Diwan-i-am. The Peacock Throne of Shah Jahan, resplendent with gold and gems, had been lost, and its place was taken by an imitation in wood, with the figures of gold chasing and gems represented by paint !
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“All the palace stores were empty. Three years’
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∗ 22 July 1754. [TALS. 15b.] Again, on 10 May 1758, on account of his having no mount, the Emperor had to walk on foot from the harem to the Stone Masjid of the fort. [DC.]
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salary carried forward from Ahmad Shah’s reign was due to every officer from the mansabdars to the menials. In the present reign, which was now six months old, they had not received a dām. The [starving] troopers had sold their horses, the infantry had no clothing on their backs...The animals [of the imperial equipage] could not be given fodder and hence they grew lean or died. The soldiers remained in their own houses, none attended in the Emperor’s retinue when he rode out. Sometimes even the royal band and standard did not accompany him.” [TALS. 15b, 23b, 52a, 28b, 41b.] Shakir Khan, the diwan of Prince Ali Gauhar, narrates how when he took a mug of broth from the pauper-charity-kitchen to the prince for official inspection, the prince asked him to give it to the palace ladies, as no fire had been kindled in the harem kitchens for three days! We read, in the Court chronicle of this reign, how one day the princesses could bear starvation no longer, and in frantic disregard of parda rushed out of the palace for the city; but the fort gates being closed they sat down in the men’s quarters for a day and a night, after which they were persuaded to go back to their rooms. [TALS. 190.]
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§ 13. Rebels and usurpers triumph over the imperial Government.
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While such was the condition of the city and the palace, the countryside fared no better. The new assignees on the districts north and east of the capital, namely the Badakhshis and later the Marathas, were resisted by the parties already in possession, such as Najib’s agents and former grantees with more legitimate titles than these Ruhela usurpers; and though the Marathas established themselves by main force after some fighting, their position in these regions fluctuated with each invasion or retreat of Ahmad Shah Abdali and the repercussion of such military movements on the Maratha power in Northern India. The Great Anarchy had already begun at the core of the empire.
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Even in the districts immediately bordering the capital, so weak and despised was the power of the central Government that smaller usurpers set up their ownership and administration in several places,—which aggravated the evil of Imad-ul-mulk’s alienation of Crownlands and privy-purse estates to the soldiery. The Jat and Gujar encroachments in the south and south-east of Delhi will be described in chapter 22. In the region north and west of the capital, i.e., the modern Karnal and Rohtak districts, the usurpers were Afghan and Baluch captains. Northwards, Kunjpura (80 miles north of Delhi and commanding a ford on the Jamuna) was held by Nejabat Khan Ruhela. Then, in the west, Kamgar Khan Baluch (r. 1747-1760), the official governor of Farrukhnagar (30 m. s.w. of Delhi), held a vast territory embracing the whole of the present districts of Hisar and Rohtak and parts of Gurgaon, Jhind and Patiala. His son and successor was Musa Khan. Another Baluch chief was Bahadur Khan, who had once been a servant of Kāmgār but had later entered the service of Imād-ul-mulk and risen to be colonel of one of his regiments and to be granted the barony of Bahādurgarh (20 m. due west of Delhi.) He was succeeded in 1760 by his brother Tāj Muhammad Khan, who ruled till 1775.* Other minor chiefs of this race were Hasan Ali Khan (of Jhajhar) the son of Kāmgār Khan’s brother, Asadullah Khan of Tauru (18 miles east of Rewari), Auliyā Khan Baluch of Nizāmgarh (in the Saharanpur district), and Qutb Shah, wrongly called Ruhela, who had formerly been a collector in Saharanpur but later usurped parts of the Pānipat and Sarhind districts west of the Jamunā.
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Above them all was Najib Khan Ruhela, who had been paid for his armed aid in 1753 by the grant of some jagirs in the upper Doab, but had illegally extended them by seizing many villages in the Saharanpur and Mirat districts. After 1760 Najib made himself the general protector of all the Afghan and Baluch landlords of these regions against their Jat and other enemies. Thus, the country north and west of Delhi was, for a semicircle 80 miles wide, dotted with a number of rebels’ dens like the castles of the robber barons of mediæval Italy.
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The Emperor being well-read in history, wanted to revive the good old practice of sending his sons out to the provinces for the purpose of subduing and administering them, and thus restoring the empire to strength and prosperity. But mere wishing was not enough for achieving this end. These princes had so long lived amidst the vice sloth ignorance and isolation of their palace-prisons, and lacked the education necessary for commanding men and administering countries. Nor was any capable and devoted old noble any longer available to act as their guardian and tutor (ataliq) during their apprenticeship as provincial governors. Finally, there was neither any reliable force nor adequate treasure for supporting them in the arduous task of recovering lost dominions from long-established usurpers or guarding them against attack. While the Emperor and his household were starving, it was impossible to fit out any expeditionary force for his sons. Alamgir II's plan could not be given a trial even, because of the opposition of his selfish wazir, who feared that his own dictatorship would be gone if any of his master's sons developed capacity and secured the control of an army. Thus, every path of reform and revival was closed to the empire of Delhi.
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∗ Rohtak Dist. Gazetteer, ed. 1883, pp. 18-19.
Linked texts (1)
- Selections from the Peshwa Daftar — Marathi