DISINTEGRATION OF THE MUGHUL EMPIRE

But instead of submitting to these orders, he prepared to defend his position by arms. He defeated and slew Dilwar Ali Khan and Alim Ali Khan ; and Husain Ali, while getting ready to march against him, was stabbed to death. After the fall of the Sayyids, he again made himself master of the Deccan towards the end of 1720. On the death of his cousin, the wazir Amin Khan, in 1721, the Nizam-ul-mulk was summoned to Delhi and was appointed to the office of wazir in February, 1722. But he did not find himself happy in the vitiated atmosphere of the Delhi court, where the frivolous courtiers of Muhammad Shah rejected his advice and poisoned the Emperor’s mind against him. So he left for the Deccan without the Emperor’s permission in the third week of December,

A.D. 1723. His enemies led their credulous ruler to believe that he was in rebellion and induced the Emperor to send secret instructions to Mubariz Khan, governor of Hyderabad, to fight against him, promising him the viceroyalty to the Deccan in the event of his success. But the Nizam-ul-mulk not only defeated and slew Mubariz Khan at Sakhar Kehda in Berar on the 11th October, 1724, but also indirectly compelled the wretched Emperor of Delhi to recognize him as the viceroy of the south and confer on him the title Asaf Jah, which his descendant still bears. The Nizam-ul-mulk’s efficient administration of the Deccan has been highly praised by Khafi Khan. Ghulam Husain also observes: “It is an extensive tract (the Deccan subah) that he governed with an absolute authority for the space of seven and thirty years.” He died at the grand old age of ninety-one on the 21st May, 1748, when the quarrels for succession to the Deccan government gave opportunities to the European trading companies to interfere vigorously in the politics of the subah.

Oudh

The subah of Oudh then comprised not only modern Oudh but also Benaras to the east of it, a part of the territory to its west and some districts near Allahabad and Kanpur. The founder of the kingdom of Oudh was Sa’adat Khan, an immigrant from Khurasan. Appointed governor of Oudh in 1724, he rapidly rose to power and fame, and was summoned to Delhi at the time of Nadir’s invasion; but he committed suicide the same year. The next governor of Oudh was Sa’adat Khan’s nephew and son-in-law, Safdar Jang. Appointed wazir of the Delhi empire in 1748, Safdar Jang played an important part in the contemporary history of India till some time before his death in 1754, in spite of the opposition of Asaf Jah Nizam-ul-mulk’s son and grandson. He was succeeded in the government of Oudh by his son, Shuja-ud-daulah, who also became the wazir of the empire and was one of the principal figures in the history of Northern India till he died in A.D. 1775.

The Bengal Subah

Murshid Quli Jafer Khan, first appointed Diwan of Bengal and also Faujdar of Murshidabad by Aurangzeb in 1700, became Bengal’s permanent Deputy Subahdar in 1713 and its full Subahdar in 1717. He proved to be a strong and able ruler, though he occasionally adopted severe measures to collect revenues from the local zamindars. He transferred the capital of Bengal from Dacca to Murshidabad. Fully alive to the economic interests of his province, he made attempts to prevent the abuse of dastaks by the servants of the English East India Company and wanted to collect from them the same amount of duties on trade as the Indian merchants had to pay. After his death in A.D. 1727, his son-in-law, Shuja-ud-din Khan, succeeded him in the government of Bengal. It was during the regime of Shuja-ud-din that the Bihar subah, the eastern limit of which extended up to Teliagarhi (near Sahebganj on the E.I. Ry. Loop Line), was annexed to Bengal about A.D. 1733 and ‘Alivardi was sent as its naib nazim. Shuja -ud-din died in 1739, after which his son, Sarfaraz Khan, became the Nawab of Bengal. But the new Nawab’s regime was not destined to last long. ‘Alivardi, his brother Haji Ahmad, the rayrayan