Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c55.s6.4

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.)