Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c22.s2: § 2. Rebellions against Mughlāni Begam in the Panjab
Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c22.s2
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§ 2. Rebellions against Mughlāni Begam in the Panjab
v2.c22.s2.1
The earliest to rebel against her authority was Bihkāri Khan (Raushan-ud-daulah, Rustam Jang) who had been “the centre of all affairs of the province in Muin-ul-mulk’s time” and his dearest friend, and who had secured a rescript for the deputy governorship of the province from the imperial wazir, which the Begam refused to recognize. But she succeeded in seducing his followers and putting him in confinement in her palace in charge of Khwājah Mirzā Said Khan Qipchaq, about January 1754.*
v2.c22.s2.2
The next officer to raise his head in ambition was Qāsim Khān, an immigrant Turk, who had risen high by devoted personal attendance on Muin and had been the first to side with the Begam against Bihkāri Khan. For this service, Mughlāni had conferred upon him the faujdari of Pati in the Manjha country and lovingly called him her son. He recruited 300 foot-soldiers from the Badakhshānis newly arrived to seek their bread in the Panjab, and 100 Turki cavalry, besides a force of a few thousand foot and horse and some pieces of cannon placed under him by the Government. In his advance towards Pati, he encountered the Sikhs, gave up all his 300 Badakhshānis and many other followers to slaughter, and fell back towards Lahor in shameful retreat. But this disaster did not damp the foolish man's ambition. He planned to win over 8,000 Sikh fighters by friendly negotiation and pay, seize Lahor with their help, and then after enlisting more troops take Delhi and make himself Padishah! He was profuse in offering in anticipation high posts in his future empire to his friends, such as the chancellorship to a fugitive penniless ex-faujdar of Sarhind and the imperial Pay-master-Generalship to the page Miskin, a lad in his 15th year. Qāsim Khan distributed thousands of Rupees worth of matchlocks and other arms and material to his Sikh allies. This exhausted his treasury and his soldiers began to dun him for their arrears of pay. At last in utter despair they cut his tent ropes, seized and dragged him to the Begam, who kept him under strict guard within her palace enclosure.
v2.c22.s2.3
∗ Bihkari Khan : Miskin 89-92, 107 (murdered). TALS. 59b, 66a. Murder, Ghulam Ali 26, Siyar, iii. 61. Husain Shahi 34. Qāsim Khan : Miskin 65 (enters service), 93-96. Khwājah Mirzā : Miskin, 91. 99, 102-106. TALS. 60a.
v2.c22.s2.4
Soon afterwards, her infant son Md. Amin Khan died (early in May 1754) and she threw caution and shame to the winds in the pursuit of pleasure. It now became eunuchs' rule at Lahor. "The diwan, bakhshi and other sardars of the Government used to go in the morning to the subahdar to offer their *salams* and then proceed to the office (*deorhi*) of the Begam’s palace and receive her orders through the eunuchs. Three eunuchs took the lead in these discussions and became her chief confidants in all affairs great and small. But the three never agreed among themselves and constantly quarrelled, so that the affairs of the State daily declined. . .The public blamed these eunuchs for everything that happened.” [Miskin, 98.]
v2.c22.s2.5
In the midst of this confusion and decay, the captive Bihkāri Khan took counsel with Khwājah Md. Said Khan. “As a fissure had appeared in the family honour of the late Nawab,” the only remedy that these two favourites and confidants of Muin and guardians of his memory could think of was to invite Khwājah Mirzā to come instantly, take the administration over in person, and better the state of things at Lahor before the evil and shame became irremediable.
v2.c22.s2.6
This Khwājah Mirzā Khan, an Uzbak captain, had been the most trusted and successful lieutenant of Muin in his campaigns and had often been sent out by him in independent command against the Sikhs. With him were 300 of his closely related clansmen. After Muin’s death he had at first sided with Bihkāri Khan but had been won over by the Begam with the faujdari of Yaminabad and had helped her to undermine Bihkāri’s power and to arrest him. At Yaminabad he had succeeded in asserting his authority, inflicted some defeats on the Sikhs, and annexed the lands near it. Now, on receiving Muhammad Said’s appeal, he came to Lahor by one night’s forced march, rode straight up to the Begam’s palace at dawn, cut down the two porters who disputed his entrance, and went inside. His Mughalia troops, in concert with the resident Turki guards (previously corrupted by Md. Said), looted the palace all day long and carried away lakhs of Rupees in cash and things. The very servants and officials of Mughlāni Begam did not escape this general spoliation. She betook herself to another house in utter helplessness (about December 1754.)
v2.c22.s2.7
Bihkāri Khan now pacified Khwājah Mirzā and formed a pact with him, by which Mumin Khan was to remain the nominal subahdar of the Panjab as before, but the deputy governorship of the province would be held and the entire administration conducted by Bihkāri Khan. Khwājah Mirzā called off his Mughalia soldiers from the plunder, but “not a piece of furniture or any other article was left in the palace by this time.” The Begam was brought back to her official residence and a guard of Khwājah Mirzā’s men posted at its gate. Next morning the Purbia (Oudh) artillerymen of the State, in a body seven thousand strong, marched out of their barracks to attack Khwājah Mirzā. But the Turki guards promptly shut the gates of the palace and kept the assailants back, thus gaining time for the other Mughalia troops in the city to assemble and beat the Purbias back. Mughlāni Begam was now removed to her sister's house on the city wall and confined there under guard.
v2.c22.s2.8
Khwājah Mirzā declared himself subahdar of Lahor, put on regal robes, gave titles of Khan (lord to his chief followers, and called upon all the leading men of the city to come and pay court to him. But he could not effectively control the administration, nor secure the necessary revenue. In a short time the other Turki generals, who regarded themselves as his equals, defied his authority, and anarchy reigned in the capital of the Panjab, while the districts were resigned to the local magistrates or rebel leaders.