Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c38.s1: § 1. Emperor's helplessness after Najaf Khan's death
Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c38.s1
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§ 1. Emperor's helplessness after Najaf Khan's death
v3.c38.s1.1
The death of Mirzā Najaf Khan plunged the Court army and people of Delhi into utter bewilderment. Their future appeared impenetrably dark, without a single streak of hope in any corner. There was none to take his place and guard the Empire as he, and Najib-ud-daulah before him, had done. The hereditary Wazir of the empire was a nerveless voluptuary whose mental vacuity could be hardly concealed by his ineffable but superficial polish of manners. The leading Hindu vassal of the State, the heir to the legacy of Mān Singh and Mirzā Rājah Jai Singh, was an imbecile youth engaged day and night in unmanly diversions within his harem. The Ruhela race had been crushed beyond the possibility of producing another leader of men. The Jat royal house was in an even worse state of decay.
v3.c38.s1.2
Men, therefore, naturally turned to the late commander-in-chief's lieutenants in their quest for his successor. These were four, his chosen instruments in many an action and his recognised deputies in four different provinces: Afrāsiyāb Khan and Najaf Quli Khan (his two slaves), Mirzā Shafi Khan (his grand-nephew) and Muhammad Beg Hamadāni (the Mughalia leader.) The struggle for power among these four makes up the blood-red history of Delhi during the two years and a half that separate Mirzā Najaf's death from the Emperor's willing surrender to Māhādji Sindhiā as his Regent and commander-in-chief, (April 1782—November 1784.)
v3.c38.s1.3
Not one of these captains was of such outstanding eminence and prestige as to exact the unquestioning obedience of the other three. To avert a return to feudal anarchy, the Gosāin Himmat Bahadur very wisely urged Shah Alam to become his own commander-in-chief, go forth at the head of the assembled troops, and win back his lost provinces. The master's own leadership would suppress the mutual jealousies of the subordinate generals and cow the rebels and revenue defaulters into obedience without any need of fighting. But Shah Alam II was not cast in the heroic mould of his ancestors; he fell in with the timid counsels of his sycophants and refused to leave the security and pleasures of his palace for the hardships and dangers of a life of campaigning. [Ibrat. ii. 31-32.] A successor to Najaf Khan as army chief and regent of the empire had, therefore, to be sought out.