Fall of the Moghul Empire of Hindustan Part 6
Much eloquent indignation has been vented by Macaulay and Mill on the subject of the accession to this campaign of the British Governor, Mr. Hastings. As I am not writing a history of British administration, I shall only observe that the Emperor, whose servants the British professed themselves, had conferred the authority usurped by Rahmat Khan upon the Vazir, with whom they had been for some years in alliance. As allies of both parties they were clearly at liberty to throw in their help against the common enemies of both, especially when these chanced to be their own enemies also. The Mahrattas were the foes of all rulers on that side of India; and the Rohillas were either in collusion with the Mahrattas or unable to oppose them. It was essential, if not to the safety of the possessions of the Vazir-Viceroy, at least to British interests in Bengal, that a band of faithless usurpers should not be allowed to hold a country which they could not, or would not, prevent from affording a high road for the Mahrattas at all seasons of the year. That view, perhaps, commended itself to the House of Lords when they finally acquitted Mr. Hastings, after a protracted trial, in which some of the ablest of the Whig orators had been engaged against the accused. It is easy for historians, writing long after the pa.s.sions, the temptations, the necessities of the moment have ceased to press, to criticize the acts of the past by the "dry light" of pure reason and abstract morality. But the claims of necessity should not be ignored in delivering what is intended to form a sort of judicial award.
It is perhaps a mark of the good sense and justice of the English nation that, when they had considered the matter calmly, they should have come to the conclusion that to condemn Hastings would be to condemn their own existence in India. Such a conclusion would logically require their retirement from the country _ a step they did not feel at all called upon to take. This appears the moral of the acquittal. Even Macaulay, who objects to the decision of the Peers acquitting Hastings as inadmissible at the bar of history nevertheless confesses that it was generally approved by the nation. At all events, this particular affair was dropped out of the charges even before the impeachment began.
But, however important to the existence of the British in India might be the possession of this frontier territory by the strongest ally they could secure, the conduct of the Emperor (or rather of Mirza Najaf, in whose hands he was not quite a free agent) remains the special subject of inquiry in this place. I think, however, that both the minister and his master were quite justified in wishing to transfer the province of Rohilkand from the hands of Rahmat to those of the Vazir. It has been already seen that the Pathan usurpers of that province had always been foes of the Moghul power, since the first rebellion of Ali Mohammad, with the solitary exception of the campaign of 1761, when they joined their Abdali kinsman at Panipat. It has also been seen that the fords by which the Ganges could be crossed in the cold weather were in their country, but that they could never hold them; and that, lastly, they were known to have been lately in treaty with the Mahrattas, without reference to the interests of the Empire. Eastern politicians are not usually or especially scrupulous; but, when it is remembered that the Rohillas were feudatories who had neither the will nor the power to be faithful, it must follow that here were substantial considerations of vital importance to the Dehli Government, sufficient to give them a fair inducement to sanction the enterprise of one who was their chief minister and most powerful supporter.
Of Shujaa's own motives there is not so much palliation to offer.
He had often received aid from the Rohillas, and was under personal obligations to them, which ought to have obliterated all earlier memories of a hostile character; and, whatever grounds the Emperor may have had for consenting to an attack upon the Pathans, or the British for aiding the same, none such are likely to have seriously actuated the Vazir in his individual character.
If he thought the Rohillas were inclined to negotiate with the Mahrattas, he must have seen how those negotiations had been broken off the instant he came to their a.s.sistance; and if he wished to command the movements of the Mahrattas, he might first have endeavoured to strengthen the hands of the Imperial Government, and to cordially carry out his share of the treaty of 1772.
It must, however, be added - although the Vazir's character was not such as to render him altogether ent.i.tled to such justifications - that the latter of those engagements had been better fulfilled by himself than by the Pathans. For while, on the one hand, he had driven the Mahrattas out of the country, the Protector Rahmat Khan, on his part, had neither collected the wage of that service from the other chiefs, nor paid it himself.
Moreover, the Vazir's proceedings were only directed against the usurping Protector and his actual adherents; and he was joined by Zabita and some Rohilla chiefs, while others, among whom were the sons of the late Dundi Khan, held aloof altogether, and Faizula Khan, the son of the first founder of the Rohilla power, Ali Mohammad, and in every way the most respectable of the clan, though he would not desert an old friend in his hour of need, yet strongly disapproved of his proceedings, and urged him to fulfil his compact and pay the Vazir's claim. The bribe by which Zabita had been detached from the confederacy, was an a.s.signment of the district in the neighbourhood of Meerut, which had cleared itself of Mahratta occupation under the late Vazir's rule.
1774. - In October, 1773, the fort of Etawa fell, and the last Mahratta forces were driven from the Doab. The next two or three months were occupied in vain negotiations on the part of the Vazir with the Rohillas; and in more serious combinations with the Imperial Government, and with the British. And in January, 1774, the allied armies moved forward. On the 12th of April the British entered Rohilkand; the Protector, when finally summoned to pay what he owed, having replied by a levee en ma.s.se of all who would obey his summons. At the same time, the Emperor ordered out a column which he accompanied for a few marches; and issued patents confirming the Vazir Shujaa-ud-daula in his Doab conquests, as also in the grant already made by the British of Korah and Allahabad. This latter circ.u.mstance removes all ground for calling in question the cession of those provinces by their temporary masters, and shows that the Emperor was conscious of his own inability to hold them, or to grant them to enemies of Audh and of England.
On the 23rd of the same month (April) the British army completely surprised the camp of the Protector, who was defeated and slain, after a brave but brief resistance at Kattra. Faizula was pardoned and maintained in his own patrimonial fief of Rampur (still held by his descendants), while the rest of the province was occupied, with but little further trouble, by the Vazir, in strict conformity to an Imperial firman to that effect.
The army of the Empire, under Mirza Najaf Khan, the Deputy Vazir, had not arrived in time to partic.i.p.ate actively in this brief campaign; but the Vazir acknowledged the importance of the moral support that he had received from the Empire by remitting to court a handsome fine, on his invest.i.ture with the administration of the conquered territory. He also gave the Mirza some reinforcement, to aid him in his pending operations against the Jats of Bhartpur. Zabita Khan was at the same time expelled from his lately acquired fief at Meerut, but was again put in charge next year; a proof, were proof required, of the weakness of the Home administration of Majad-ud-daulah, who (it need hardly be said) received a bribe on the occasion.
Antic.i.p.ating a little, we may notice that the Viceroy of Audh, at the very climax of his good fortune, met the only enemy whom neither force can subdue nor policy deceive. Shujaa-ud-daulah died in January, 1775; and as it was not possible for so conspicuous a public character to pa.s.s away without exciting popular notice, the following explanation of the affair was circulated at the time; which, whether a fact or a fiction, deserves to be mentioned as the sort of ending which was considered in his case probable and appropriate. It was believed that, the family of Rahmat Khan having fallen into his hands, Shujaa-ud-daulah sent for one of the fallen chief's daughters, and that the young lady, in the course of the interview, avenged the death of her father by stabbing his conqueror with a poisoned knife. "Although," says the author of the Siar-ul-Mutakharin, who is the authority for the story, "there may be no foundation of truth in this account, yet it was at the time as universally believed as that G.o.d is our Refuge."
The editor of the Calcutta translation of 1789 a.s.serts that he had satisfactory proof of the truth of this story. The Viceroy died of a cancer in the groin; and the women of his Zanana, who were let out on the occasion, and with one of whom he (the translator) was acquainted, had made a song upon the subject.
They gave full particulars of the affair, and stated that the young lady - she was only seventeen - had been put to death on the day the Viceroy received the wound. (S. U. M., III. 268.)
The death of the Viceroy-Vazir, however occasioned, was a serious blow to the reduced Empire of Dehli, which was just then beginning to enjoy a gleam of sunshine such as had not visited it since the day when Mir Mannu and the eldest son of Mohammad Shah defeated the Abdali, in 1743. Had the career of Shujaa-ud-daulah been prolonged a few years, it is possible that his ambitious energy, supported by British skill and valour, and kept within bounds by Mirza Najaf Khan's loyal and upright character, would have effectually strengthened the Empire against the Mahrattas, and altered the whole subsequent course of Indian history.
But Shujaa's son and successor was a weak voluptuary, who never left his own provinces; and although the Mirza, his deputy in the Vazirship and real loc.u.m tenens, received for his lifetime the reward of his merits, yet he was unable of himself to give a permanent consolidation to the tottering fabric.
It has been seen that he was meditating a campaign against the Jats, whom Zabita's recent fall had again thrown into discontent, when summoned to Rohilkand, in 1774. In fact, he had already wrested from them the fort of Agra, and occupied it with a garrison of his own, under a Moghul officer, Mohammad Beg, of Hamadan. Not daunted by this reverse, Ranjit Singh, the then ruler of that bold tribe the Jats, advanced upon the capital, and occupied Sikandrabad with 10,000 horse. The forces left in Dehli consisted of but 5,000 horse and two battalions of sepoys; but they sufficed to expel the intruder. He shortly afterwards, however, returned, reinforced by the regulars and guns under Sumroo; but by this time the Mirza was returned from Rohilkand, and after the rains of 1774, marched against them, aided by a chief from Hariana, named after himself Najaf Kuli Khan, who brought into the field some 10,000 troops. This man, who was a good soldier and a faithful follower of the minister, was a converted Hindu, of the Rathur tribe; a native of the Bikanir country bordering on Rajputana Proper to the south, and to the north on Hariana and other states immediately surrounding the metropolis. Having been in service at Allahabad, under the father of Mohammad Kuli, the connection and early patron of the Mirza, he became a Mohammadan under the sponsorship of the latter, and ever after continued a member of his household. At the time of which I write, he had been appointed to the charge of districts returning twenty lakhs a year, with the t.i.tle of Saif-ud-daulah.
The departure of the Mirza for this campaign was extremely agreeable to the Diwan, Majad-ud-daulah, for he never lost an opportunity of prejudicing the Emperor's mind against this powerful rival, in whose recent appointment to the office of Naib Vazir, moreover, he had found a special disappointment. Indeed, Shah Alam, between these two ministers, was like the hero of medival legend between his good and evil angels; only differing in this, that in his case the good influence was also, to a great extent, the most powerful. What the wily Kashmirian might have done in the way of supplanting the Mirza, if the latter had been signally worsted, and he himself had been otherwise fortunate, cannot now be certainly conjectured, for a fresh revolt of Zabita's summoned the Diwan to the northward, whilst his rival was successfully engaged with the Jats. In this expedition Majad-ud-daulah displayed a great want of spirit and of skill, so that Zabita became once more extremely formidable. Fortunately at this crisis Dehli was visited by an envoy, soliciting invest.i.ture for the new Viceroy of Audh, Asaf-ud-daulah. Accompanying the emba.s.sy was a force of 5,000 good troops, with a train of artillery, the whole under command of the deceased Shujaa's favourite general, Latafat Khan. This timely reinforcement saved the metropolis, and allowed of a settlement being made with the incorrigible Zabita, which preserved, to some extent at least, the dignity of the Government (Vide next chapter).
Meanwhile the Imperialists had found the Jats, under their chieftain, intrenched near Hodal, a town sixty miles from Dehli, on the Mathra road. Dislodged from this, they fell back a few miles, and again took up a position in a fortified village called Kotban, where the Mirza endeavoured to blockade them. After amusing him with skirmishes for about a fortnight, they again fell back on Dig, a stronghold, to become the scene of still more important events a few years later. Dig - the name is perhaps a corruption of some such word as Dirajgarh - is a strong fort, with a beautiful palace and pleasure-grounds adjoining, on the sh.o.r.es of an artificial lake, fed by the drainage of part of the Alwar Highlands. Observing that the sallies of the Jats had ceased, the Mirza left their camp at Dig in his rear, and marched to Barsana, where a pitched battle was fought.
1775. - The van of the Imperialists was commanded by Najaf Kuli.
In the centre of the main line was the Mirza himself, with battalions of sepoys and artillery, under officers trained by the English in Bengal, on the two wings. In the rear was the Moghul cavalry. The enemy's regular infantry - 5,000 strong, and led by Sumroo - advanced to the attack, covered by clouds of Jat skirmishers, and supported by a heavy cannonade, to which the Mirza's artillery briskly replied, but from which he lost several of his best officers and himself received a wound. A momentary confusion ensued; but the Mirza, fervently invoking the G.o.d of Islam, presently charged the Jats at the head of the Moghul horse, who were, it will be remembered, his personal followers.
Najaf Kuli, accompanied by the regular infantry, following at the double, the Jats were broken; and the resistance of Sumroo's battalions only sufficed to cover the rout of the rest of the army, and preserve some appearance of order as he too retreated, though in somewhat better order, towards Dig. An immense quant.i.ty of plunder fell into the hands of the victors, who soon reduced the open country, and closely invested the beaten army. Such, however, was the store of grain in the Fort of Dig, that the strictest blockade proved fruitless for a twelvemonth; nor was the Fort finally reduced till the end of March, 1776, when the garrison found means - not improbably by connivance - to escape to the neighbouring castle of k.u.mbhair with portable property on elephants. The rest of the Thakur's wealth was seized by the victors - his silver plate, his stately equipages and paraphernalia, and his military chest, containing six lakhs of rupees - which may perhaps be regarded as not very inferior, in relative value, to a quarter of a million sterling of our modern money.
In the midst of these successes, and whilst he was occupied in settling the conquered country, the Mirza received intelligence from Court that Zabita Khan, emboldened by his easy triumph over the Diwan, Majad-ud-daulah (Abdul Ahid Khan), had taken into his pay a large body of Sikhs, with whom he was about to march upon the metropolis.
The enterprising minister returned at once to Dehli, where he was received with high outward honour. He was, on this occasion, attended by the condottiere Sumroo, who, in his usual fashion, had transferred his battalions to the strongest side soon after the battle of Barsana. Sumroo's original patron, Mir Kasim, died about the same time, in the neighbourhood of Dehli, where he had settled, after years of skulking and misery, in the vain hope of obtaining employment in the Imperial service. The date of his death is given by Broome (Hist. of Beng. Army, p. 467) as 6th dune, 1777: it is added that his last shawl was sold to pay for a winding-sheet, and that his family were plundered of the last wreck of their possessions. But the detail of this year's events and their consequences requires a fresh chapter.
NOTE-The following is the text of the supplemental treaty of 1772, as given by Captain Hamilton. (The former portion having provided in general terms for an alliance, offensive and defensive.) "The Vuzeer of the Empire shall establish the Rohillas, obliging the Mahrattas to retire, either by peace or war. If at any time they shall enter the country, their expulsion is the business of the Vuzeer. The Rohilla Sirdars, in consequence of the above to agree to pay to the Vuzeer forty lakhs of rupees, in manner following - viz., ten lakhs, in specie, and the remaining thirty lakhs in three years from the beginning of the year 1180 Fussulee." Only redundant or unimportant phrases have been omitted: there is not a word of payment to the Mahrattas. The contention that the Vazir of Oudh was only surety for the payment to the Mahrattas is not very pertinent. For the Mahrattas did not quit Rohilcand till the Vazir expelled them, and the money was not paid. But, as we have seen, the gloss is unsupported. Besides Hamilton, Tarikh-i-Mozafari and Francklin's "Shah Alum" have been the chief authorities for this chapter.
CHAPTER IV.
A.D. 1776-85.
Vigour of Mirza Najaf - Zabita rebels - Emperor takes the Field, and the Rebellion is suppressed - Sumroo's Jaigir - Abdul Ahid takes the Field - Unsuccessful Campaign against the Sikhs - Dehli threatened, but relieved by Najaf - Mirza's arrangements - Popham takes Gwalior - Begum Sumroo - Death of Mirza Najaf - Consequent Transactions - Afrasyab Khan becomes Premier - Mirza Shaffi returns to Dehli - Is it Peace? - Murder of Shaffi - Action of Mr. Hastings - Flight of Shahzada - Madhoji Sindhia goes to Agra - Afrasyab's Death - Tribute claimed from British - Death of Zabita Khan - Sindhia supreme - Chalisa famine - State of Country - General distress.
1776. - THE splendid exertions of Mirza Najaf, though not yet at an end, might have been expected to give the Empire a breathing-time wherein to recover its strength. If we except the British in Bengal, it was now the most formidable military power on this side of India. No more than three fortified places remained to the Jats of all their once vast possessions. The Mahrattas had been occupied in the Deccan by the events that followed upon the death of their Peshwa, Madho Rao; and the whole of their forces were temporarily withdrawn during the course of the year, by order of his successor. Najaf held viceregal state at Agra, surrounded not only by his faithful Moghuls and Persians, but by two brigades of foot and artillery, under the command, respectively, of Sumroo and of Medoc. The Mirza's chief Asiatic subordinates were Najaf Kuli Khan his adopted son, the converted Hindu, otherwise Saif-ud-daulah; and Mohammad Beg of Hamadan: two officers of whom frequent mention will be found in the progress of this narrative. Mirza Shaffi, the minister's nephew, also held a high command. Shah Alam lived the life of ease which had become a second nature to him, at Dehli, surrounded by able servants of the Mirza's selection. One of these, indeed, soon obtained an apparent ascendancy over the indolent monarch, which was destined to afford another instance of the wisdom of that maxim invented of old in the East, "Put not your trust in Princes." The only enemy who could disturb the repose of what may be termed the Home Districts was Zabita Khan, who still exhibited all the faithlessness so common with his race, and a turbulent disposition peculiar to himself. Finding all present hope of aid from the Jats and Mahrattas at an end (and instigated, it was suspected, by his late unsuccessful opponent, the Financial Minister, Abdul Ahlid Khan), Zabita, as stated at the close of the preceding chapter, turned to the Sikhs: a people who, in the decay of the Empire, had established themselves in the Sirhind territory, notably in Pattiala, and in Jhind. These pushing warriors - of whose prowess, both against and for the British, modern history tells so much - gladly accepted the invitation of the Pathan insurgent, and, crossing the Jamna in considerable numbers, joined his force at Ghausgarh, the fort between Saharanpur and Muzafarnagar, of which mention has been already made. It is even stated by Francklin (though, as usual, without specification of authority) that the Pathan on this occasion embraced the religion of the Sikhs, a sort of eclectic Monotheism tinctured with Hindu doctrine.
1777. - This conduct was justly regarded by the Mirza as a gross instance, not merely of disloyalty, but - what in his eyes was even worse - of impiety. In the opinion of a stern soldier of Islam, such as the Persian Prince had always shown himself to be, the act of joining with unbelievers was unpardonable. He therefore despatched a strong force against the combined rebels, under the command of an officer named Abdul Kasim Khan. Nothing daunted, the Confederates drew out their troops in front of the fort of Ghausgarh, and at once engaged the Imperial troops, whom they at the same time outflanked with a large body of horse, who got into the rear of the Imperialists without being perceived.
Placed between two attacks, and deprived of their leader by a stray shot, the latter soon gave way, and Zabita, having pursued them for some distance, returned to his stronghold triumphant. On this Mirza Najaf Khan resolved to take the field with all his power, and ere long presented himself before Ghausgarh, accompanied by the Emperor in person. The Mirza was aided in this campaign by the force of 5,000 men, with artillery, contributed by the new Viceroy of Audh, as part of the peshkash, or fine for the invest.i.ture, and for the succession to the office of Vazir of the Empire, which had been held by his father, and which he desired to retain against the counter-claims of the Nizam and of other compet.i.tors. (Vide last chapter, p. 115.) The Pathan had, however, evacuated the fort on receiving notice of their approach, and retreated with his allies to their country beyond the Jamna, closely followed by the Imperial forces. An attempt at negotiation having been contemptuously rejected by the Captain-General, Mirza Najaf Khan, the two armies engaged on the famous field of Panipat, and the action which ensued is described (with manifest exaggeration) as having been only less terrible than the last that was fought on the same historic ground, between the Mahrattas and the Musalmans, in 1761. Beyond this the native historians give no particulars of the battle, which raged till night, and with not unequal fortunes, if we may judge from the result - for on the following morning Zabita Khan's renewed applications to treat were favourably received; on which occasion his estates were restored, and a double matrimonial alliance concluded. The Mirza himself condescended to take the Pathan's sister as his wife, while his G.o.dson (so to speak), Najaf Kuli, was promised the hand of Zabita's daughter. The pardon of this restless rebel was attributed to the intercession of Latafat, the General of the Audh Vazir, who is said to have had a large bribe on the occasion. (Francklin, chap. Y.)
Peace being thus restored to Hindustan, the Minister revisited Agra, where he proceeded to provide for the administration of the country.
The English sought his alliance; but the negotiation failed because he would not surrender Sumroo. Asaf-ud-daulah, Viceroy of Audh, was recognized as t.i.tular Vazir; a trustworthy chief, Maulah Ahmad Dad, was appointed to the charge of Sirhind; Najaf Kuli Khan held the vast tract extending from that frontier to the borders of Rajputana; and Sumroo was placed in charge of the country adjoining Zabita Khan's lands, in the centre of which he fixed his capital at Sardhana, long destined to remain in the possession of his family, and where a country house and park, familiar to the English residents at Meerut, still belong to the widow of his last descendant. This territory, nominally a.s.signed for the maintenance of the troops under the adventurer's command, was valued in those days at six laths of rupees annually; so that the blood-stained miscreant, whose saturnine manners had given him a bad name, even among the rough Europeans of the Company's battalion, found his career of crime rewarded by an income corresponding to that of many such petty sovereigns as those of his native country.
1778. - The beginning of this year was marked by a bloodless campaign, to which Majad-ud-daulah led the Emperor. The Rajputs were the object of the attack, and they were rigorously mulcted.
The Mirza's personal share in this matter was confined to that of a peacemaker. He probably disapproved of the campaign, which had been undertaken in a spirit of rivalry to himself; and by obtaining terms for the Rajputs he made new ties while displaying his own power. He accompanied the return of the expedition to Dehli, where his daughter was married to Najaf Kuli in the presence of the Emperor.
Mirza Najaf Khan then departed once more to Agra, the seat of his administration and his favourite abode. But his repose was not of long continuance, and he was soon called upon for fresh exertions; the Sikhs having risen against Maulah Ahmad Dad, the Faujdar of Sirhind, whom they defeated and slew. On the receipt of this intelligence the Emperor had deputed Abdul Ahid Khan - known to us by his t.i.tle of Nawab Majad-ud-daulah - with an army nominally under the command of one of the Imperial Princes, to indict signal chastis.e.m.e.nt upon obstinate offenders. If the surmise of the native historians be correct - that Abdul Ahid Khan had been privy to the late combination between the Sikhs and Zabita Khan against Mirza Najaf - the fact of his being sent against them, without any objection from so wise and loyal a minister as the Mirza, can only be accounted for by citing it as a proof of the peculiar danger to which great men are exposed, under an Eastern despotism, of reposing their confidence in secret enemies. That Abdul Ahid was even then plotting against his patron will be seen to be likely from his subsequent conduct, and certainly derives no confutation from the circ.u.mstance of his being a native of Kashmir, a country the faithlessness of whose inhabitants is proverbial, even in Indian story.
The Prince, whose standard was the rallying point of the army, is variously named as Jawan Bakht, Farkhanda Bakht, and Akbar; the former being the name of the Prince whom we saw acting as Regent during the Emperor's residence under English protection at Allahabad, the later that of the future successor to the t.i.tular Empire. Whoever it may have been, the outset of the expedition promised him success, if not distinction. The Imperial host, 20,000 strong and with an efficient park of artillery. came in contact with the enemy at Karnal; but Majad-ud-daulah preferred negotiation to fighting, and induced the Sikhs to pay down a sum of three lakhs, and pledge themselves to the payment of an annual tribute. Joining the Sikh forces to his own, the Majad-ud-daulah next proceeded northwards, but was brought to a check at Pattiala by Amar Singh, the Jat chief of that state. Here fresh negotiations ensued, in which the perfidious Kashmirian is said to have offered to allay himself with the Sikhs for the destruction of Mirza Najaf Khan, on condition of being supported by them in his endeavours to be made Prime Minister in the room of that statesman. Whether the Jat leader had profited by the lesson lately read to his brethren of Bhartpur, or whether he was merely actuated by a desire to try conclusions with the Kashmirian, having penetrated the cowardice of his character, is matter for conjecture. Whatever the intrigue may have been, it was soon frustrated. A large Sikh reinforcement profited by the time gained in the negotiation to advance from Lahor; the Karnal force deserted the Imperial camp, and a general onset was made upon it the following morning. Led by a half-hearted commander and an inexperienced Prince, the Imperialists offered but a faint resistance; but their retreat was covered by the artillery, and they contrived to escape without suffering much in the pursuit, and indeed without being very closely followed up. It is interesting to observe, among the names of the Sikh Sirdars, who played this game of "diamond cut diamond" with the Kashmirian, that of Ranjit Singh, afterwards the wily Egbert of the Panjab Heptarchy, and the firm friend of Britain for nearly forty years.
This disastrous campaign occurred in the cold weather of 1778-79, and the victorious Panjabis poured into the Upper Doab, which they forthwith began to plunder.
1779. - Meanwhile, Mirza Najaf Khan remained in contemptuous repose at Agra, only interrupted by a short and successful dash at some Rajput malcontents, who had been stirred up, it is thought, at the instigation of his rival Majad-ud-daulah. That inefficient but unscrupulous intriguer is also shown by Captain Grant Duff to have been at the same time engaged in a correspondence with Madhoji Sindhia, in view to joining, when once he should have gained possession of the power of the Empire, in an attack on the British Provinces. Duff gives this story on the authority of Sindhia's own letters, which that chief's grandson had placed in his hands; but he does not say whether the fickle Emperor was or was not a party to this iniquitous conspiracy for the ruin of his faithful servant and his long-established friends.
Certain it is that Sindhia was at that time very far from the statesmanlike views and reasonable aims which he ultimately adopted. Towards the close of the year, indeed, he took the ill-judged step of joining with Haidar Ali and the Nizam with the object of expelling the British from every part of the Indian Continent. But Mr. Hastings soon disturbed the plans of the confederates and ere long rendered them hopeless. Some were conquered by force of arms, others were conciliated; and Sindhia in particular, received a lesson which made upon his sagacious mind a permanent impression.
1780. - There was, in the country now known as Dholpur, between Agra and Gwalior, a local Jat landholder who had in the decay of the Empire followed the example of Suraj Mal (of Bhurtpore) and a.s.sumed independence. In 1771, when Shah Alam was returning to the throne of his ancestors, Chatr Singh, the then Zemindar, advanced money to the Treasury, and was soon after created a peer by the t.i.tle of Maharaj Rana. Henceforth he figures in history as the "Rana of Gohad." Having a hereditary feud against the Mahrattas and a hereditary claim, such as it was, to the fortress of Gwalior, then in Sindhia's hands, he seemed to Hastings a useful instrument for causing a diversion. Major Popham, one of the best of the local officers, was accordingly sent to a.s.sist the Rana and stir up a confederation of Jat and Rajput powers to aid against the Musalman-Mahratta alliance by which British interests were threatened. The situation of the fort of Gwalior on a scarped and isolated rock over 200 feet high, need not here be more than mentioned; the manner of its capture, however, cannot be too often referred to as an instance of what resolution and conduct can effect in Asiatic warfare. Having prepared scaling ladders in such secrecy that even his European officers were ignorant of what was being done or planned, Popham sent a storming party of sepoys, backed by twenty Europeans, to a place at the foot of the rock pointed out to him by some thieves. It was the night of the 3rd August, 1780, and the party, under the command of Captain Bruce, were shod with cotton to render their approach inaudible. The enemies' rounds were pa.s.sing as they came near the spot; so the a.s.saulting column lay down and waited until the lights and voices had ceased; then the ladders were placed against the cliff, and one of the robber guides mounting returned with intelligence that the guard had gone to sleep. The next moment the first ladder was mounted by Lieutenant Cameron, the engineer officer, and the others followed in silence, Captain Bruce having reached the rampart with twenty sepoys, a scuffle ensued which lasted till Popham arrived with the Europeans and made good the entrance. Thus was this strong place captured, and without the loss of one single life on the British side. The fort was made over to the Rana, but he did not long retain it, Sindhia having recaptured it. He soon afterwards took Gohad also (1784), and the descendants of the Jat chief are now known as Ranas of Dholpur.
We have seen how marked a feature of the Emperor's character was his inability to resist the pertinacious counsels of an adviser with whom he was in constant intercourse; and it is certain that he gave Majad-ud-daulah all the support which his broken power and enfeebled will enabled him to afford.
But the danger was now too close and too vast to allow of further weakness. The Emperor's eyes seem to have been first opened by his army's evident confusion, as it returned to Dehli, and by the prevaricating reports and explanations which he received from its commander. If Mirza Jawan Bakht was the prince who had accompanied the ill-stared expedition, we know enough of his prudence and loyalty to be sure that he would have done all in his power to make his father see the matter in its true light; and what was wanting to his firm but dutiful remonstrances, would be supplied by the cries of fugitive villagers and the smoke of plundered towns.
Najaf Khan was urgently summoned from Agra, and obeyed the call with an alacrity inspired by his loyal heart, and perhaps also by a dignified desire for redress. As he approached the capita], he was met by the Prince and the baffled Kashmirian. To the former he was respectful, but the latter he instantly placed under arrest, and sent back under a strong guard. The fallen Minister was confined, but in his own house; and the Mirza, on reaching Dehli, confiscated, on behalf of the Imperial treasury, his wealth, stated to have amounted to the large sum (for those days) of twenty lakhs, reserving nothing for himself but some books and a medicine chest. This was the second time he had triumphed over an unworthy rival, and signalized his own n.o.ble temper by so blending mercy with justice as has seldom been done by persons situated as he was. Abdul Ahid Khan - or Majad-ud-daulah - was a fop, very delicate in his habits, and a curiosity-seeker in the way of food and physic. It is said by the natives that he always had his table-rice from Kashmir, and knew by the taste whether it was from the right field or not.
Fully restored to the Imperial favour, the Mirza lost no time in obeying the pressing behests of his Sovereign, and sending an adequate force under his nephew, Mirza Shafi, to check the invaders. Their army, which had been collected to meet the Imperialists, drew up and gave battle near Meerut, within forty miles of the metropolis; but their unskilled energy proved no match for the resolution of the Moghul veterans, and for the disciplined valour of the Europeanized battalions. The Sikhs were defeated with the loss of their leader and 5,000 men, and at once evacuated the country.
1780. - It cannot have escaped notice we have been here reviewing the career of one whose talents and virtues merited a n.o.bler arena than that on which they were displayed, and who would have indeed distinguished himself in any age and country. Profiting by experience, the successful Minister did not repeat the former blunder of retiring to Agra, where, moreover, his presence was no longer required; but continued for the brief remainder of his life to reside in the metropolis, and enjoy the fruit of his laborious career in the administration of the Empire, to which he had restored something of its old importance. Mirza Shafi commanded the army in the field; while Mohammad Beg, of Hamadan, was Governor of the Fort and District of Agra. Najaf Khan himself was appointed Amir-ul-Umra (Premier n.o.ble); his t.i.tle, as it had long been, was Zulfikar-ud-daulah - "Sword of State."
I have not thought it necessary to interrupt the narrative of the Mirza's successes by stopping to notice the death of Sumroo. This event occurred at Agra on the 4th of May, 1778, as appears from the Portuguese inscription upon his tombstone there. He appears to have been a man without one redeeming quality -"stern and b.l.o.o.d.y-minded, in no degree remarkable for fidelity or devotion to his employers" - the one essential virtue of a free lance.
This character is cited from the memoirs of Skinner, where it is also added that he cannot have been devoid of those qualities which attach the soldiery to their officer. But even this becomes doubtful, when we find the late Sir W. Sleeman (who was in the habit of moving about among the natives, and is an excellent authority on matters of tradition), a.s.serting that he was constantly under arrest, threatened, tortured, and in danger at the hands of his men.
The force was maintained by his widow, and she was accordingly put in charge of the lands which he had held for the same purpose.
This remarkable woman was the daughter (by a concubine) of a Mohamadan of Arab descent, settled in the town of Kotana, a small place about thirty miles north-west of Meerut, and born about 1753. On the death of her father, she and her mother became subject to ill-treatment from her half-brother the legitimate heir; and they consequently removed to Dehli about 1760. It is not certain when she first entered the family of Sumroo, but she did not become his wife till some time afterwards. It has even been doubted if any formal marriage-ceremony ever took place, for Sumroo had a wife living, though insane; and the fact was probably sufficiently notorious to prevent any Catholic clergyman in that part of the country from celebrating a bigamous alliance with the rites of the Church.
1781 .- At his death he left a son, baptized as "Aloysius," who was still in his minority; and the Minister, observing the Begum's abilities, saw fit to place her in charge, as has been already said. The ultimate result amply justified his choice. In 1781 - under what influence is not recorded - she embraced Christianity, and was baptized, according to the ritual of the Latin Church, by the name of Johanna. Her army is stated to have consisted, at this time, of five battalions of Sepoys, about 300 Europeans, officers and gunners, with 40 pieces of cannon, and a body of Moghul horse. She founded a Christian Mission, which grew by degrees into a convent, a cathedral, and a college; and to this day there are some 1,500 native and Anglo-Indian Christians resident at Sardhana.