Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c34.s2: § 2. The ministers of the Delhi Government
Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c34.s2
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§ 2. The ministers of the Delhi Government
v3.c34.s2.1
For this task what instruments did the young Emperor see around himself? The former wazir Ghāzi-ud-din Imād-ul-mulk was impossible; the new wazir Shuja-ud-daulah was a perpetual absentee bent solely on raising his fief into a kingdom. No other minister of a sufficient age or experience was within sight. The highest of the courtiers that had gathered round him during his last twelve years' wanderings and exile were Munir-ud-daulah, Saifuddin Muhammad Khan, and Hisām-ud-daulah,—mere diplomats, but neither soldiers nor administrators. They were polished ambassadors for making good terms with the English or the Marathas, but not statesmen of the calibre needed for restoring a fallen monarchy. Hence they naturally came to be eliminated after the return of the Court to Delhi.
v3.c34.s2.2
But in the Court of the restored monarch there were two persons of a humbler station than these, who were destined to be the supreme leaders of the State in the coming years and whose long-smouldering rivalry was the greatest misfortune of the Empire and the severest condemnation of Shah Alam's capacity as a ruler of men. These were Mirzā Najaf Khan and Abdul Ahad Khan. During the eleven years that followed Shah Alam's return of Delhi, one person gradually but unmistakably established himself by sheer merit as the supreme guide of the State and the sole dominating figure on the political stage. He was the last notable statesman-warrior that managed the affairs of the Delhi Government before the Emperor became a shadowy puppet and the Empire a mere name. He was the last of the great gifts of Persia to mediæval India. It would have been happier for the country and happier far for the Emperor himself if Najaf Khan's ability had been more promptly recognised instead of his having to wrestle with unworthy rivals for eight years out of these eleven, and if his life had run to the normal span of a man's days on earth instead of being cut off at the age of forty-five.