After having conquered Qandahar, Kabul, and Peshawar, Ahmad invaded India for the first time in January 1748, with 12,000 veteran troops. But he was defeated at the battle of Manpur by Ahmad Shah, the Mughal heir-apparent, and Mir Mannu, son of the deceased wazir Qamar-ud-din, and was put to flight. Mir Mannu was appointed governor of Punjab. But before he could settle down, Ahmad Shah Abdali invaded the Punjab for the second time in A.D. 1750 and conquered it after defeating him. Unsupported by the Delhi court, the Punjab governor found all resistance futile and submitted to the invader.
The Abdali invaded India for the third time in December, 1751, when he again defeated Mir Mannu, conquered Kashmir, and forced the Mughul Emperor, Ahmad Shah, to cede to him the country as far east as Sirhind. Thus the Mughul Empire was further reduced in extent. Mir Mannu was now left as the Abdali’s governor in Lahore. He promised to send to the victor the surplus revenue of the Punjab and not to transact important matters without final orders from him. But the Abdali led another expedition in the time of Emperor ‘Alamgir II (1754-1759). After the death of Mir Mannu in November, 1753, and that of his infant son and successor in May, 1754, the province of the Punjab fell into disorder and anarchy due largely to the wilfulness and caprice of the regent-mother, Mughlani Begam. In response to an appeal from her for help, Imad-ul-mulk, the all-powerful wazir at Delhi, marched to the Punjab, which he himself coveted, in 1756, brought it under his authority, and appointed Mir Mun’im, “the leading nobleman of Lahore”, governor of the province. Enraged at this, Ahmad Shah Abdali invaded India for the fourth time in November, 1756, with greater determination, and arrived before Delhi on the 23rd January, 1757. The imperial city was “slandered and its unhappy people again subjected to pillage”. Imad-ul-mulk surrendered and was pardoned by the invader, who obtained from the Mughul Emperor the formal cession of the Punjab, Kashmir, Sind and the Sirhind district. After plundering the Jat country, south of Delhi, the Abdali retired from India in April, 1757, with immense booty and many captives, leaving his son, Timur Shah, as his viceroy at Lahore with Jahan Khan, the able Afghan general as the lattter’s wazir.
The administration of Timur Shah for one year, from May, 1757 to April, 1758, was a period of utter lawlessness and disorder. The Sikh community, infuriated by the maltreatment of one of its leaders, rose in rebellion on all sides. Adina Beg Khan, governor of the Jullundur Doab, revolting against the Afghan, called in the Marathas to help him. A large army of the Marathas under the command of Raghunath Rao invaded the Punjab in April, 1758, occupied Lahore and expelled the Afghans. They retired from the Punjab leaving Adina Beg Khan as their governor there. But the occupation of Lahore by the Marathas did not last for more than six months. To avenge their expulsion of Timur Shah, Ahmad Shah Abdali invaded India, for the fifth time in October, 1759, and finallyi conquered the Punjab. A more severe collision of the Afghans with the Marathas was inevitable, because both had been, more or less, contending for political supremacy in Hindustan. This took place on the field of Panipat on the 14th January, A.D. 1761. Ahmad Shah Abdali departed from India towards the close of A.D. 1762. He ordered the Indian chiefs to recognize Shah ‘Alam II as Emperor. Najib-ud-dulah and Munir-ud-daulah agreed to pay to the Abdali, on behalf of the Indian Government, an annual tribute of forty lacs.
The Sikhs, who had revived by this time, slew Khwaja Abid, the Durrani governor of Lahore, and occupied the city. This brought back the Abdali to Lahore in March, 1764. He had, however to return to his own country, after a fortnight’s stay at Lahore, owing to the outbreak of a civil war there and a mutiny among his troops. Ahmad Shah Abdali invaded India again in 1767. He could not succeed in effectively thwarting the Sikhs and had to retreat soon “with a consciousness of his ultimate failure”, owing to some internal troubles, chiefly the mutiny of his troops demurring for pay which they had not received regularly. No sooner had he turned back than the Sikhs reoccupied Lahore and the entire open country. Ahmad Shah ” retained hold of Peshawar and the country west of Attock, while he abandoned the Manjha districts and central Punjab including Lahore to the Sikhs; but the Sind-Sagar and Jech Doab in the western Punjab remained a debatable land which finallyi came into their possession in the days of his unworthy successors”.
Though Ahmad Shah Abdali had to return hurriedly from India, his invasion affected the history of this country in several ways. Firstly, it accelerated the dismemberment of the tottering Mughal Empire. Secondly, it offered a serious check to the rapidly spreading Maratha imperialism. Thirdly, it indirectly helped the rise of the Sikh power. Lastly, the menace of Afghan invasion kept the English East India Company in great anxiety, both during the lifetime of Ahmad Shah Abdali and for some time after his death.
Rise of New Muslim States
On the decline of the central authority at Delhi, the inevitable centrifugal tendency was manifest in different parts of the Empire, and the provincial viceroys made themselves independent of the titular Delhi Emperor for all practical purposes, merely pretending to own a theoretical allegiance to his nominal authority. The most important of them were the subahdars of the Deccan, Oudh and Bengal.
The Deccan
The Deccan subah became independent under Mir Qamar-ud-din Chin Qilich Khan better known as the Nizam-ul-mulk. His grandfather, Khwaja Abid Shaikh-ul-Islam of Bukhara, migrated to India about the middle of the seventeenth century and entered the service of Aurangzeb. Ghazi-ud-din Firuz Jang, father of the Nizam, also came to India during the reign of Aurangzeb and rose to fame by holding several posts in the Mughul imperial service. Mir Qamar-ud-din himself was appointed to a small command in his thirteenth year but he was promoted quickly and given the title of Chin Qilich Khan. At the time of Aurangzeb’s death, Chin Qilich Khan was at Bijapur, and observed perfect neutrality during the war of succession among the sons of the Emperor. Bahadur Shah removed him from the Deccan and made him governor of Oudh. He retired from public service for some time but entered it again towards the close of Bahadur Shah’s reign with the title of his father, Ghazi-ud-din Firuz Jang. Farrukhsiyar appointed him governor of the Deccan (1713) and invested him with the titles of Khan Khanan and Nizam-ul-mulk Bahadur Fath Jang, as a reward for his having espoused his cause. From the very outset of his viceroyalty the Nizam-ul-mulk tried to check the growing strength of the Marathas in the Deccan. But owing to party cliques at the Delhi court, he had to lose his viceroyalty of the Deccan by the end of 1713, and it was then conferred on Sayyid Husain ‘Ali. The Nizam-ul-mulk was transferred to Murabadabad and subsequently his removal to Bihar was also thought of. But before he took charge of the new province, Farrukhsiyar’s regime came to a close, and he was transferred to the government of Malwa. It was in Malwa that the Nizam-ul-mulk was able to lay the foundation of his future greatness. His activities there roused the suspicions of the Sayyids, who, in disregard of a previous promise, again issued orders for his transfer
