Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c27.s1.1

v2.c27.s1.1

We have seen in Chapter 18 how Dattāji, with his young ward Jankoji Sindhia, had left Rajputana and reached Najafgarh, south-west of Delhi on 26th December, 1758. His arrival at the capital effected a complete reversal of Maratha policy in Hindustan. The smooth-spoken conciliatory practical politician Malhar Rao Holkar, who had so long guided Maratha diplomacy in the North, was replaced by the rough impatient hustling soldier Dattāji Sindhia. In addition, while Malhar had publicly befriended Najib Khan as his adopted son, Dattāji was under orders to crush Najib altogether as the sole remaining thorn in the path of Maratha predominance in the northern empire,—after which the Marathas would be free to send their main forces into the Panjab and Bihar and realize untold amounts of tribute from these provinces, in order to remove the Peshwā's crushing burden of debt which had been only increased by Raghunāth's barren expedition of 1757-1758. Dattāji was not the man to tolerate the delay or evasion of payment, which had now become a habit with the Delhi officials. Besides, every friend of Malhar was a suspect and every arrangement made by Malhar was a mistake in his eyes. *