Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c42.s1: § 4. Mahadji Sindhia's policy and action during Ghulam Qadir's usurpation vindicated
Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c42.s1
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§ 4. Mahadji Sindhia's policy and action during Ghulam Qadir's usurpation vindicated
v3.c42.s1.1
What was Mahadji doing during these days of agony? Can he be blamed for having been too slow in going to the rescue of a master who had publicly cashiered him? A study of his movements and position at the time will furnish the answer to this question.
v3.c42.s1.2
After the great victory at Agra on 17th June, Rānā Khan could not promptly follow up his success and make an end of his enemies by a relentless pursuit, because when Ghulām Qādir broke up camp next day, he sank all the boats of that ferry and dragged away their crew with himself. Rānā Khan, therefore, had to move up to Mathura and there collect fresh boats and boatmen to ferry his army over into the Doab.
v3.c42.s1.3
In the meantime the river level was daily rising. Thus a fortnight was lost, during which the two defeated Khans reached Delhi. On 4th July, Mahadji Sindhia himself arrived at Mathura, and here Ranjit Singh Jat joined him four days later. From this place a small force was detached to Delhi on the 8th, but neither Mahadji nor his main army under Rānā Khan moved to the capital.
v3.c42.s1.4
It should not be forgotten that Sindhia's position even now was far from secure. His recent victory had been almost accidental and reflected the errors and misfortunes of his enemies rather than the undisputed superiority of his own arms. The sepoy battalions and Mughalia horse that had deserted him before and had come over to his side during that battle, might turn traitors a third time. The Emperor himself had warned Sindhia about the character of these faithless mercenaries. [*DY.* i. 229.] Sindhia knew that he had not a single real friend north of the Chambal except the Jat Rajah, and he was not going to repeat Sadāshiv Bhāu's mistake by leaving his secure base in Jat-land, advancing a hundred miles northwards among a hostile population and there living "in the air" with a long and precarious line of supply and communication. With an inveterate enemy like nāzir Manzur Ali constantly at the Emperor's ears and that Emperor a wax doll in the hands of any strong-willed courtier by his side, it was unsafe for Mahadji to go to Delhi, except in overwhelming force [HP. 530.]
v3.c42.s1.5
But his Deccani troops refused to march to Delhi unless they were paid their dues, and their arrears ran back for nine years to the time when he had led them into Gujarat for fighting General Goddard. It took long to "persuade" them through Jivā Dādā Bakhshi to be satisfied for the time being with fractional payments and more liberal promises. [HP. 537.]*
v3.c42.s1.6
In addition to this, he had at last been disillusioned about the value of the reinforcements promised to him by his master at Puna, or rather that master's master, Nānā Fadnis. During the long months of agony and suspense, when his future hung in the balance, persistent reports came from the Deccan that the Peshwa's Government had decided to break their unsuccessful general in the north and supersede Sindhia by Ali Bahadur or Tukoji Holkar in conducting the Maratha interests at the Delhi Court and collecting the tributes of Rajputana. The British Resident reports such a plan again and again in his despatches to the Governor-General. This was the unkindest cut of all from the Chitpavan Machiavel whom Mahadji fondly called his brother. [PRC. i. 226.]
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∗ Why Sindhia delayed.—PRC. i. 225-227. HP.
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⁵³⁷ His new policy of conciliation.—PRC. i.
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²²⁴ Sat. i.
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¹⁶⁵ DY. i. 330 (Raghogarh.)
v3.c42.s1.11
Therefore, Sindhia must first know clearly where he stood, and he must build up a reliable foundation of alliances. For this he reversed his former policy as Regent; he would no longer assert the full rights of the Crown against powerful military chiefs by resuming their usurped imperial territory or calling them to a strict muster of the contingents that they were paid to keep. No, he would now revert to the facile and mischievous policy of Mirzā Najaf Khan by parcelling out the Empire as fiefs to the military leaders and thus entrench himself amidst a coalition of selfish interest. For this he had abased himself before an inveterate enemy like Umrāogir Gosain when brought a prisoner in arms against him (7th April) Sindhia gave him every honour and comfort and facility for escape (on 18th May.) He conciliated the Rāghogarh Rānā by restoring him to liberty and his estate. And he now offered to every Muslim captain and professional commandant of mercenary battalions,—even to Ghulām Qādir and Ismail Beg—an agreement to confirm them in their landed possessions, if only they would be friends with him. These negotiations, conducted by the sly old fox Shāh Nizām-ud-din,—took time to mature, and during the necessary interval before Mahadji felt himself strong enough to march to Delhi, Ghulām Qādir struck at the Emperor. Shah Alam's cowardice and his imbecile dependence upon the faithless nāzir robbed him of the least chance of defence, or of holding out for a month or two only, during which the starving Ruhela hordes would have dispersed of themselves and Sindhia’s relief army could have reached the walls of the beleaguered capital.