Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c21.s5.22

v2.c21.s5.22

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.