Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c25.s5: § 12. Raghunath Rao's acts and policy critically examined
Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c25.s5
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§ 12. Raghunath Rao's acts and policy critically examined
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This long expedition of Raghunath Rao caused the wildest exultation among the ignorant sycophants of the Maratha Court, and their baseless praise has been echoed by equally ignorant historians of that people in our own days, as "carrying the Hindu paramountcy (Hindu-pad-Padshahi) up to Attock." On a calm examination Raghunath's vaunted achievement is found to be politically a hollow show and financially barren. The full force of the Maratha State, with the exception of the Peshwa's personal retainers and the Sindhia family contingent,—had been concentrated in Northern India for two years under him, and Raghunath came back from this enterprise without having secured a pice for the Punā treasury but saddled with a debt of 80 lakhs to bankers, besides the arrears due to his troops. Politically, his failure was even more fatal. His reckless annexation of the Panjab made a war *à l'outrance* with Abdali inevitable. At the same time he estranged Najib Khan beyond hope of reconciliation, and for the sake of whom? The impotent and faithless Imād-ul-mulk and the invalid poltroon Ahmad Khan Bangash! This was the most ruinous diplomatic alignment of forces possible, and it was due mainly to Raghunath's folly. He scornfully rejected Malhar's advice to keep Najib in hand by following a policy of "live and let live" in the Doab; and he paid no heed to Najib's offer to act as a friendly mediator and make a permanent settlement by amicably marking out the Maratha and Abdali spheres of influence in Northern India. The blame must be shared by the Peshwā in an even greater degree, as the supreme authority. The provocatively advanced frontier which he sanctioned, required a large well-equipped force to be kept constantly on the spot to defend it; and yet the Peshwa did not realize that suzerainty involves such a responsibility. No Maratha soldier could stand the winter of Lahor, and no first-rate Maratha chieftain (like the Peshwa's brother or cousin) was regularly posted as Warden of the North-western marches ; no, not even a secondary general like Holkar or Sindhia. This policy bore its natural fruit on 14th January 1761.
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∗ *SPD.* xxi. 148. The Peshwa had fixed Rs. 12 as the monthly salary of a trooper. But Antaji Manakeshwar, who commanded the contingent, rightly pointed out that, considering the high prices in Delhi, a cavalryman could not feed himself and his charger there on less than Rs. 25 a month. If therefore the full strength was maintained, the 5000 men would have consumed 15 lakhs, leaving no surplus to be sent to the Puna treasury.
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§ 13. Prince Ali Gauhar's campaign in the Rewari-Rohtak districts, May 1757—March 1758.
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Prince Ali Gauhar (entitled Shah Alam II)* was the eldest and ablest of the Emperor's sons, and the fortunes of the Delhi royalty would probably have been restored if he could have had a free hand in reforming the administration and collecting an army and treasury of his own. But the disloyal selfishness of the wazir Imād-ul-mulk would not let him do so, and indeed pursued him with such deadly hostility for over a year that at last the heir to the throne was driven out of the neighbourhood of Delhi and had to "set his face towards the wilderness." Abdali had at first (19 Feb. 1757) appointed this prince Chancellor of the Empire, but the latter "had been given no territory for his maintenance and hence he had no money and no troops. He got no control over the administration and could effect no improvement in the collection of revenue or the transaction of public business." So, after a few days Abdali set him aside for Imād.
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∗ TALS. 108b, 119b, 126, 143a-145b. DC. Ghulam Ali, i. 30, 37-42. Siyar, iii. 59.
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In May 1757 the prince went to the Baluch settlements south-west of Delhi to get something out of his jagirs in that region. At Jhajhar its zamindar Hasan Ali Khan (a nephew of Kāmgār) evaded payment of tribute to him. The prince sent a force against Kaliānā, the seat of the late Sitārām Khazānchi's widow Satbhāni and sons (Devidat and Shambhunath.) They submitted and signed undertakings to pay tribute for their estate. Hasan Ali now followed their example. The prince next advanced northwards to the Hisār district; but the villagers evacuated their homes and took refuge in the hills in order to escape from his soldiery who lived solely on plunder. As the result of it, utter want of provisions forced his troops to disperse. The prince turned aside to Kanaud (16 m. n. of Nārnol), put a small garrison there, and came to Nārnol which was vacated by the Jaipur Rajah's officers. But his plunder of this unresisting town excited indignation and the Jaipur troops cut off the prince's outpost at Kanaud. Reinforcements, 4,000 strong, now came from Jaipur to the local officers, and they hemmed Shah Alam in in a fortalice in the neighbourhood. The prince fled to Rewari and Farrukhnagar abandoning his artillery because the draught-oxen were seized by the Rajputs, and his own followers deserted him to return to Delhi. Musa Khan Baluch (the heir of Kāmgār) who had paid to the Marathas and taken a lease from them, was forced to promise revenue to the prince also !
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Shah Alam next attacked Auliya Khan Baluch of Dādri (in the Rohtak district) and secured a promise of 50 lakhs as tribute (6 March 1758); he then came to Jhajhar to restore his outpost which the local Baluch zamindars had driven out in his absence. Meantime, the wazir had made the puppet Emperor issue orders for recalling the prince and counteracting his measures in that district. The news of this official antagonism emboldened the Baluches still further, and they robbed the prince's baggage outside Jhajhar, while his soldiers plundered the villages around. A sort of compromise was then made and on 16th March Shah Alam started on his return to Delhi with all his hopes ruined, his only gain being the doubtful one of the town of Jhajhar, while its fort still held out against him. [TALS. 152b-154a.]
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§ 14. Imad's plots against Ali Gauhar.
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Near the jhil of Masaudabad (Najafgarh) the despairing heir to the throne was visited by Vital Shivdev, a lieutenant of Raghunath, whom he bribed to support his cause with his contingent (26 March.) The two proceeded to Khizirabad and thence to Patparganj. The news alarmed Imād, who sent a force under Bālābāsh Khan Badakhshi to bring the prince away in any way he could. A battle followed, in which many of the Badakhshis were slain and Bālābāsh fled away to the garden of Jugalkishor. This reverse utterly bewildered the wazir; in impotent rage he abused the Emperor as the secret instigator of Shah Alam’s disobedience. He put all the other princes in confinement within the fort and strictly forbade every communication between the palace and outside. “The Emperor remained a helpless and silent spectator of it.” In fear of an attempt to wrest Delhi fort from his hands with Maratha aid, the wazir brought Intizām-ud-daulah away from his mansion (30 March) and kept him under surveillance in the fort. Many other nobles were watched with similar jealousy, so that even Ahmad Bangash, the head of the imperial army, had to enlist new troops for defending himself against any coup intended by his friend and patron the wazir! He paid his official visits to the Court only under full escort. [TALS. 154b-158b.]
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At the same time, Imād kept negotiating with Vital Shivdev, through Rajah Dilel Singh, to tempt him to abandon Shah Alam’s cause. Vital was promised six lakhs and solemnly assured that the prince would be left unmolested in his jagirs of Jhajhar and Kaliānā. So, the two returned from Sikandrabad, after plundering Bulandshahar, to Khizirabad (21 April.) The treacherous Imād continued to write to the prince through the passive Emperor, bidding him visit the fort. But the bird refused to enter the snare; Shah Alam marched round the capital to Wazirabad in the north (8 May.) At last, deluded by the oaths and assurances of the wazir's envoys, the prince came inside the city and took up his residence in Ali Mardan Khan's mansion (14 May), but he kept all his followers, 2000 in number, with him, while Vital encamped in Qudsiabagh, north of the Kashmir Gate. "The Emperor (in fear of the wazir) durst not send any servant to inquire after his son's health and comfort, though he had taken up his residence in the capital." [Ibid., 162-166.]
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§ 15. Imad attacks Ali Gauhar in Delhi, 1758.
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After neutralizing Vital Rao with a large bribe, the wazir at last on 19th May, 1758, got all his troops under arms on the pretext of escorting him during a pilgrimage to Qutb-ud-din Auliya's shrine, but sent the force under Bālābāsh Khan to invest Ali Mardan's house and arrest the prince. * The battle raged from 3 P. M. throughout the night, Shah Alam making a spirited defence under his own command and checking the assaults with the fire of long flint-locks from the roof. The big guns of Salimgarh cannonaded the besieged house. One division of the wazir's army, led by Sayyid Jamil-ud-din, was routed. But numbers at last told on the small body of exhausted defenders ; several captains of the prince were slain, and next morning (20th May) the wazir's troops forced their way in. But Shah Alam with only a hundred devoted followers charged them sword in hand, slashed right and left, cut his way out through the mansion of Jafar Khan, Qudsiabad and Jaswantpurā, and found safety in Vital's camp. A charge of the Marathas drove his pursuers back, but all his property and war material left in Ali Mardan's house were plundered by the wazir's men and he was reduced to absolute penury. Next day, the wazir, yielding to Vital's threat, restored the small portion of the plunder which had reached his hands, or could be traced by the police in the city, and also paid Vital the six lakhs promised. Then the wazir, through his helpless tool the Emperor, proclaimed Shah Alam a rebel in arms against the lawful Government!
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∗ Imad's attack upon Ali Gauhar in Delhi,—TALS. 167-170. DC. Ghulam Ali, i. 43-49. Shakir 93-94. Miskin 199. SPD. xxvii. 220, 224. Siyar, iii. 60.
Linked texts (1)
- Selections from the Peshwa Daftar — Marathi