Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c25.s2.1

v2.c25.s2.1

Najib had been the right-hand man of Abdali during the late invasion and had been left by the conqueror as his supreme agent in Delhi, thus replacing the official wazir as the Emperor’s keeper. "The Emperor, after Abdali’s departure, had placed all the districts round the capital under Najib, authorizing him to appoint any collector he liked, provided that the rents came to the imperial exchequer. But Najib appropriated everything, even the yield of the princes' estates and gave their owners one-fourth or one-fifth of what he collected.” For instance, for the *sāir* (transit) duties of this rich and important region he paid only Rs. 25,000 per annum into the public treasury. [*TALS.* 120*b*, *DC.* under 11 May.] The Emperor found that he was no better off under Najib’s dictatorship than under Imad’s, while the Ruhela upstart treated him with a roughness unknown to the nobly-born wazir. He sighed for his old bondage. Imad, too, after the collapse of his recent anti-Maratha coalition under the Abdali’s blessings, humbly made peace with the Marathas and turned them against Najib. The plan of the newly reconciled allies was to expel Najib from Delhi and restore Imād to power there as a creature of the Marathas, so that the imperial Government would again be subservient to every Deccani plan of expansion in North India. Moreover, half the indemnity promised by the imperial Government in June 1754 still remained unpaid, while the annual cost of 13 lakhs for Antaji’s subsidiary troops had fallen into arrears. Therefore, Raghunath himself turned his face towards Delhi. On 7th June, Bapu Mahadev Hingané, the Peshwa’s resident wakil at Delhi, at last came back from his hiding place in Kumbher; he was presented to the Emperor and given the superlative title of *Mahārājā-dhirāj* (15th June.) The Delhi Court thus openly abandoned the recent anti-Maratha policy, and made ready to welcome Raghunath for expelling Najib. [*DC. SPD.* xxi. 120.]