Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c55.s6: § 6. Sindhia's friendly treaty with the Sikhs fails
Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c55.s6
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§ 6. Sindhia's friendly treaty with the Sikhs fails
v4.c55.s6.1
Mahādji Sindhiā after gaining the regency of the Delhi Empire, tried to come to an understanding with the Sikhs who had been dominating the Cis-Satlaj portion of the Delhi subah and raiding the upper Doab every year. (Ch. 35, § 8.) On 9th May 1785, a treaty of alliance with them was concluded, the mediators being Ambāji Inglé on the Marātha side and Mohan Singh and Dulchā Singh on behalf of the Sikh sardārs. Its terms were, (i) The Sikh sardārs were to join the imperial army with a contingent of 5,000 horse and receive in return a jāgir of ten lakhs of Rupees (in the Karnāl district), (ii) They undertook not to disturb the territory outside the limits of their jāgir, nor to levy rākhi (blackmail) in any possession of the imperial Government. But the Sikhs did not abide by the terms, and they could be hardly expected to do so, when we bear in mind their anarchical organisation under hundreds of petty captains, with no central authority to unite them or control their individual predatory activities. The boundary between the two powers was roughly a line west to east through Karnāl on the right bank of the Jamunā and another line through Shāmpur—Muzaffarnagar—Mirāt, on the left bank.
v4.c55.s6.2
Before the year 1785 was out, the Sikhs were already in open hostility to the Marātha administration of the north Delhi district. In December the Marātha governor had to fight and drive away the Sikh bands that had invaded Patiālā, the dominion of Sāhib Singh, an ally of the Marāthas. But Sikh raids into the upper Doāb and the north Delhi district, for collecting rākhi (two annas for every Rupee of the land revenue) continued during 1786 and 1787. Bāghel Singh of Chhalundi was the first Sikh chief to join Sindhiā's general for pay. But Mahādji's call on the Sikh jāgirdārs in the Cis-Satlaj country to pay the tribute due to the sovereign, antagonised them. Then came the Lālsot campaign in the middle of 1787 and the consequent downfall of Sindhiā's authority, which continued till December 1788.
v4.c55.s6.3
When Ambāji Inglé left Karnāl in June 1787 to join his master at Lālsot, his deputy Shyām Rao Bakhshi held charge of the north-Delhi district in name only, and could save himself from the swarming Sikh allies of Ghulām Qādir and the treacherous Bāghel Singh, only with the help of Begam Samru's troops. During Ghulām Qādir's ascendancy, the Sikhs professed to be his allies, but plundered his estates as ruthlessly as the imperial dominions.
v4.c55.s6.4
After the downfall of the Ruhelā usurper, early in 1789, strong Marātha forces gathered at Kunjpurā for restoring their authority in the Cis-Satlaj area and forming an alliance with the Raja of Patiālā and other local chiefs so as to keep the trans-Satlaj Sikhs out and ensure peace for the imperial territory there and in the upper Doāb by legalising the Sikh right to levy rākhi. But the plan failed: the needy Marātha governor pressed the Raja of Patiālā to pay his promised tribute, and the Raja met the demand by inviting the trans-Satlaj Sikhs, who came and enveloped the Marātha army. Peace was then made by Sindhiā granting a large jāgir to Bāghel Singh in return for his undertaking to keep his associate Sikh chiefs friendly to the Marātha Government. "Some of the Sikh chiefs accepted the role of peaceful feudatories (under the Marāthas). . . They undertook the fiscal management of certain parganas in the Doāb allotted to the maintenance of Sikh contingents. In other words, feudal tenures were bestowed upon them, in commutation of their claim to blackmail". Several Sikh chiefs now held estates in the Upper Doāb. They all agreed to protect the Doāb from their own retainers and the attacks of other Sikhs. About 1,000 Sikh collectors were allowed to be stationed in the Doāb to realise rākhi from the villages, and the Marātha officers helped them in this business. In fact, "by this course of policy the Government gave a varnish of legality to a system of exaction that could not be wholly suppressed." (Gupta, ii. 222, with quotations from Williams in Calcutta Review, 1875.)
v4.c55.s6.5
But even this surrender did not bring peace to that unhappy country. The Sikhs would not keep their word. A year had not passed after this agreement, when Sikh bands renewed their raids into the territories under Marātha rule. For many years afterwards a fluid state of anarchy and plunder continued in these regions. In short, Sikh raids were an annual occurrence in the Doāb every winter till the British conquest. The sickening details may be read in Atkinson's N.W.P. Gazetteer, vol. III. (Muzaffarnagar) or Dr. Hari Ram Gupta's History of the Sikhs, vol. II, Ch. 13 and 14. It will be enough to trace the course of events in outline here.