Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c22.s1: § 1. Mughlani Begam as regent of the Panjab
Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c22.s1
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§ 1. Mughlani Begam as regent of the Panjab
v2.c22.s1.1
With the death of Muin-ul-mulk, the last imperial governor of the province, in November 1753, dissolution began in the orderly administration of the Panjab. True, even in his lifetime the peace of that frontier province had not been as extensive and unbroken as under Zakariya Khan; but Muin had succeeded in keeping his capital and a large belt of land around it intact, there had been no open defiance of the subahdar's authority by his subordinates, and he had persistently fought the Sikh brigands and pruned their growth with the edge of his sword. By his attention to the equipment and comfort of his soldiery, his liberal rewards to his captains, and above all by his personal sharing of campaigns and comraderie with the Turki soldiers (his own tribesmen) he had preserved his power and the respect of his people. His final defeat by the Abdali king and acceptance of Afghan vassalage had been, no doubt, a blow to his prestige; but this humiliation he had halved by sharing it with his master the Padishah, and the Abdali suzerainty meant in effect only the sending of the provincial tribute to Qandahar instead of to Delhi.
v2.c22.s1.2
During the four months' viceroyalty of his infant son Muhammad Amin Khan (January—April 1754), matters passed from bad to worse. The deputy governor, Mir Mumin Khan, though an experienced civil administrator and universally respected noble, could do nothing as all real power lay in the hands of the regent mother Mughlāni Begam. All evidence agrees that the widow lost her character along with her husband and was led by her eunuchs, the instruments of her pleasure.* Her wilfulness and caprice discredited the administration, while her profligacy roused deep resentment and shame among her military officers who came from the same Central Asian stock as her husband and her father. Rebellion against such a degraded authority became a point of honour, no less than an object of personal ambition, with her Turkish captains.
v2.c22.s1.3
The visible break up of the Delhi empire and its utter impotence against the Afghan invaders had stripped it of the last shred of respect or claim to loyalty. Each general of Muin now thought of carving out a principality for himself and maintaining it by calling up new recruits from the homeland of Bukhārā or hiring the swords of the Sikh myriads near at hand.
v2.c22.s1.4
∗ Ghulam Ali, i. 26, Miskin 98-99, 120. On 28 March 1756 her name was connected with that of the youthful page Miskin under the same circumstances as those of Aisha and Safwan ibn Muattal during the return from the Banu Mustalik expedition in year 6 of the hijera. [Miskin 122.]
v2.c22.s1.5
They felt that their own rule would be worthier and more conducive to the safety and happiness of their retainers and subjects than the anarchy which prevailed in Lahor from Mughlāni Begam’s follies and vices.