Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c47.s3: § 10. Miserable condition of Mewār under Rana Bhim Singh; baronial anarchy
Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c47.s3
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§ 10. Miserable condition of Mewār under Rana Bhim Singh; baronial anarchy
v4.c47.s3.1
We have seen (Ch. 24 § 15) that in July 1769, the Marathas had made a settlement with the Mahārānā of Udaipur by which he agreed to pay them 63½ lakhs of Rupees as contribution, only one-half of which could be then paid in cash and kind, and for the balance (30½ lakhs) the parganas of Jāwad, Jiran, Nimach and Morwān were mortgaged, but they were to be jointly administered by the officers of the Mahārānā and the Peshwā. The Marātha forces then left Mewār. A few years later, Ahalya Bāi, the widowed queen of Indore, took advantage of the utter weakness and confusion of the Mewār Government to annex its pargana of Nimbāhedā, in order to be equal with Sindhia. (Ojha, ii. 655, 670.)
v4.c47.s3.2
Bhim Singh, who succeeded as Mahārānā (7th January 1778), at the age of eight, was weak in spirit and dull of intellect. His unhappy reign extended over half a century till 30th March, 1828, and the agony of his country during this long period can be best described in the words of a sympathetic eye-witness, Col. James Tod. He writes:—
v4.c47.s3.3
“The Rānā continued to be swayed by faction and intrigue. . . . Every triumph (of the ruling party) was attended with ruin to the country. The agriculturist abandoned his fields, and at length his country; mechanical industry found no recompense, and commerce was at the mercy of unlicensed spoliation. In a very few years Mewār lost half her population; her lands lay waste, her mines were unworked, and her looms forsaken. The prince instead of protecting required protection; each individual or community provided for itself that defence which he could not give. Hence arose a train of evils: every cultivator sought out a patron, and entered into engagements as the price of protection. Hence every Rajput who had a horse and lance, had his clients; and not a camel-load of merchandise could pass the abode of one of these cavaliers without paying fees. . . . Here were displayed the effects of a feudal association, where the powers of government were enfeebled. These feuds alone were sufficient to ruin the country; but when to such internal ills shoals of Maratha plunderers were added, no art is required to describe the consequences.” (*Rajasthan*, i. Mewar. Ch. XVII. Ojha, ii. 702.)
v4.c47.s3.4
In 1786, the patriotic minister Somchand Gandhi tried to organise a coalition of the Rajput kingdoms for expelling the Marathas from Rajasthan. Next year came Mahādji Sindhia’s retreat from Lalsot (Aug. 1787), and then the combined Mewār and Kotā forces attacked and recovered Nimbāhedā, Nakump, Jiran, and Jāwad, while other bands drove out the Maratha garrisons from Singoli and Rāmpurā. But the tide turned when Ahalyā Bāi sent a strong army which defeated the Mewār troops with heavy slaughter at Had-Kyā-Khāl (in February 1788), and the Marathas next recovered all their recently lost parganas and forts in that State.
v4.c47.s3.5
Fresh misfortunes now descended upon the unhappy land of Pratāp and Rāj Singh. The Chundā-ot and Shaktā-ot branches of the parent Sisodiā clan, of which the Mahārānā was the patriarchal head, fought against each other to seize the regency of the State, and when they got power, they alienated more and more of the Crownlands to their own members. The Chundā-ot Rāwat Arjun Singh of Kurāwad murdered the upright and able minister Somchand Gandhi (24th Oct. 1789) in the palace; but he had to flee the capital in shame and took refuge in Chitor fort with the head of his sub-clan, Rāwat Bhim Singh of Sālumbar. [Ojha, 676-679.]
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§ 11. Mahādji Sindhia invited to save Mewār, 1791.
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The murdered minister’s brother Satidās was given his post. He formed a concert with the Shaktā-ots who were out of power, and their allied forces marched to Chitor to expel the Chundā-ots. The battles that took place in this fratricidal war had no other result than to desolate the country and ruin the peasants and artisans. The Mahārānā at last appealed to Mahādji Sindhia to become his protector as he had already become the saviour of the Delhi Emperor. Zālim Singh Jhālā was made his chief envoy, and he by his statesmanly tact and reasoning persuaded Sindhia to undertake the protection of Mewār. The terms were settled at Pushkar where Mahādji was passing the month of March 1791, one of the conditions being that a fine of 64 lakhs was to be imposed on the Chundā-ot sardārs, out of which three-fourths would go to Sindhia and one quarter to the Mahārānā.
v4.c47.s3.8
One army of Sindhia under Ambāji Inglé, accompanied by Zālim Singh, was sent against Chitor. They captured Hāmirgarh* from a Chundā-ot partisan, on their way, and advancing further south reached the environs of Chitor, where they took post, threatening the fort, as a siege of that vast hill with their present strength was impossible.
v4.c47.s3.9
The task that Mahādji Sindhia undertook when he agreed at Pushkar to be the Mahārānā’s protector was one of uncommon difficulty. It was nothing less than that of administering the vast kingdom of Mewār as the guardian of a perpetually minor owner. The country was torn by baronial factions that had destroyed the regular government. The Mahārānā was a harmless imbecile, and yet if either faction could get hold of him it could use his name to legalise its tyranny and usurpations. Hence, some outside authority superior to the national administration had to be imposed on the country to ensure internal peace, the enforcement of law, and the collection of revenue. In short, Mahādji Sindhia found that he was called upon to play the part of a modern British Resident governing a protected Native State during the long minority or incompetence of its ruler. But unlike the British in the days of their paramountcy, Sindhia had neither the civil service nor the “subsidiary force”, nor even a capable agent from outside at his disposal for getting this work done.
v4.c47.s3.10
It was only after Mahādji had arrived in Mewār and met various grades of the local people that he realised the full gravity of his task. He therefore wavered as he tried to find out what local party would be best able to administer Mewār in his absence. The choice lay between Zālim Singh Jhālā (the ally of the Shaktā-ot clan) and the Chundā-ot chief of Sālumbar who held Chitor.
v4.c47.s3.11
∗ Hamirgarh, 21 miles due north of Chitor and 11 miles south of Bhilwāra. “Sindhia has taken Hāmirgarh by siege. Rāwat Bhim’s illegitimate son (Kumbar) was there, he has been placed in fetters. Much booty in grain, 400 horses, powder and shot and other goods, have been taken.” (MD. ii. 206).
v4.c47.s3.12
The most pressing need was to ensure the collection of land-revenue and baronial tribute in a land ravaged by civil war, and thus provide the cost of the administration and the contribution promised to the Marātha Government. At first a division of Sindhia’s army under Ambāji Inglé was sent against Chitor, but this general wrote to say that unless Mahādji went there nothing would be collected. So, at the end of June 1791, Mahādji entered Mewār and halted near Devgarh, 35 miles north of Nāthdwārā, the friendly chieftain of which place (Gokuldās) had gone with Zālim Singh to Pushkar to invite him. To the demand for tribute the Chundā-ot chief then holding Chitor replied, “I have only powder and shot. What money could be had in this district you have already collected. Be good enough now to go back by the way you came. How can I pay when I have no money left?” (MD. ii. 221.)
v4.c47.s3.13
Mahādji was, therefore, compelled to give up his original plan of leaving Rajputana on 4th August and going to Punā as asked by the Peshwā. He next moved to the neighbourhood of Nāthdwārā, and in that holy city and its environs he passed the month of August.*