Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c55.s7: § 7. Maratha dealings with Patiālā and other Sikhs
Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c55.s7
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§ 7. Maratha dealings with Patiālā and other Sikhs
v4.c55.s7.1
It was in the best interest of the Marāthas to make some great local chief like the Raja of Patiālā their firm friend and use him as a buffer against the swarming Sikh hordes further west. But this wise policy, which the English instinctively adopted in the 19th century, could not be followed. Whenever Patiālā was threatened by Sikh confederacies from beyond the Satlaj, or disturbed by domestic quarrels, the Raja used to invite the Marāthas; and as certainly, when the invaders retired, he evaded paying the promised price of the aid. A chronic source of friction was Sindhiā's demand for the annual tribute which Patiālā like every other feudatory State owed to the Emperor and which Sindhiā, as regent had to collect. Whenever the Marāthas used threats, the Patiālā diwān or queen immediately called in the trans-Satlaj Sikhs and expelled the weak Marātha forces. No lasting solution of this problem could be reached. Rather, this public dispute was made worse by the private greed of the Marātha generals in the north Delhi district.
v4.c55.s7.2
When Mahādji Sindhiā left North India for the Deccan (early in 1792), his governor of Hindustan, Gopāl Bhāu, strengthened his posts in the Upper Doāb; he himself marched up from his base at Mathurā to Delhi (7th March), and appointed two senior officers, Ravloji Sindhiā and Mādho Rao Phālké, to the Doāb to guard it against the Sikhs. This Marātha viceroy had a new and powerful engine of war in De Boigne's disciplined brigades, and after he had taken post at Sonpat (c. 17th April 1792), the Sikhs were kept in awe for some time.
v4.c55.s7.3
In October 1793, a Sikh predatory band was driven away from the neighbourhood of Sāharanpur by Devji Gaulé and Bāpu Malhār. Khāndé Rao Hari expelled another band of raiders from the north of Delhi. But the Marātha generals had constantly to wage small wars in order to collect revenue from the walled villages and petty Nawābs of the whole country north and west of Delhi.
v4.c55.s7.4
Mahādji's policy was "to win the Sikhs over by goodwill and a policy of conciliation, and thus establish peace and order in North India by the active co-operation of the Sikhs." But in the anarchical condition of the Sikh bands, such a policy could not work, as "they understood only the argument of physical force."
v4.c55.s7.5
After Mahādji Sindhiā's death (in February 1794), his northern viceroy Gopāl Bhāu posted Bhairon Pant Tātyā at Sāharanpur, Devji Gaulé and Bāpu Malhār at Pānipat, Jivāji Ballāl and Ambāji Inglé at Sambhal, and Āpā Khāndé Rao (in charge of the Delhi district) at Jhajhar. The mutual jealousies of these officers and the mutiny of their troops from the chronic arrears of their pay, prevented Marātha rule from taking root and the country from returning to peace and prosperity. Begam Samru's disciplined brigade and solvent finances, however, awed the Sikh raiders into sparing her estates in the Upper Doāb for some years.
v4.c55.s7.6
In November 1794, Daulat Rao Sindhiā made Lakhwā Dādā his viceroy of the north in the place of Gopāl Bhāu, and at the end of the next year De Boigne left Sindhia's service to return to Europe. Lakhwā ordered his deputy Nānā Rao who was posted at Karnāl, to collect revenue from the Cis-Satlaj country. Fighting immediately broke out; the Patiālā queen and Bhangā Singh of Thāneshwar defeated Nānā Rao and drove him back to Delhi (October 1795). Immediately after this Marātha reverse, a body of five thousand Sikhs burst into the Upper Doāb: "The local militia made no stand against them. The Marātha garrisons in Sāharanpur were scattered like chaff before the wind." The garrison of the town of Sāharanpur retreated precipitately and took shelter in the fort of Jalālābād. But George Thomas, detached by Āpā Khāndé Rao, appeared with a portion of his Mewāt force and the Sikhs fled away at his approach. Lakhwā Dādā then (November 1795) appointed Thomas as Warden of the Marches to guard the Jamunā frontier of the Upper Doāb, with a contingent of 2,000 infantry, 200 horse and sixteen pieces of artillery; he was assigned the parganas of Pānipat, Sonpat, and Karnāl for their pay.
v4.c55.s7.7
Thomas found his task no easy one. Throughout the winter of 1796-97, Bāpu Malhār, the governor of Sāharanpur, exerted himself to restore some appearance of order, but the Sikh sardārs associated with him as allies, were found to be intriguing with their brethren in the Panjab and stirring up rebellion against the Marātha Government.* The Sikh commandant of the flourishing market-town of Shāmli, though a servant of Gurdat Singh of Ladwā (a vassal of Sindhiā), was detected in this treasonable correspondence: his fort was attacked by Thomas, and the entire garrison including the commandant and his family, were put to the sword, (c. Dec. 1796). Immediately after this victory, Thomas proceeded northwards to Lakhnāuti and helped Bāpu Malhār in subduing Bahrāmand Ali Khan, the rebel Turkoman jāgirdār of that place. He then recrossed the Jamunā and defeated the Sikh confederates in four successive actions near Karnāl (c. March 1797.)