THE Persian manuscript of which this is a translation was handed to me some years ago by Chaudhri Rámzán Ali, Ta’luqdár of Unao, who had heard that I was collecting unpublished records of Oudh history. He found it in the library of his grandfather, the late Ta’luqdár Chaudhri Dost Ali, who had obtained it from an official of the Oudh Court. The deceased Ta’luqdár had died only shortly before I received this manuscript, and as he had left a large and valuable library, I hoped to be favoured with other manuscripts of this class, but unfortunately the library was scattered. This untoward event cannot, I believe, be said to be attributable to any fault of the present Ta’luqdár, and his anxiety to place this work in my hands shows he was alive to the value of family libraries, which are now growing very rare. I take this opportunity of thanking him for his kindness in giving me this work. The author, Abú Tálib, gives in the body of the work (v.p. 13 seq. ) an account of his family and of his antecedents prior to his arrival in search of an official career in Oudh. The general narrative of the book is based on the knowledge of affairs which he acquired through his official connection with the Nawáb Wazír and the East India Company’s agents in Oudh. He gives a detailed history of his personal services and adventures as a revenue official under Haidar Beg Khán; his experience as a subordinate of Colonel Hannay, who farmed the country known as Sarwár; and of his connection with Mr. Johnson and others as a manager of the confiscated jágírs of the Begams of Oudh. Little is, therefore, left to be gathered of his life up to the time he removed to Calcutta, which was not long before he wrote his record. He does not seem to have returned to Oudh: On the 7th February, 1799, A.D., he sailed from Calcutta, and went round the Cape to Europe. He visited Ireland, England, France, Turkey and other European States, returning viâ Basrah to Bombay, and he went through to Calcutta, where he arrived on the 14th August, 1803. He has left a well-written account of his travels, Masír-i-Tálib, now difficult to procure. His ultimate fate is not known.
The chief value of this record is that it is a contemporaneous history, and the author was intimately acquainted with all the affairs about which he wrote, and was, indeed, a principal?? actor in most of them. He is fearless in his disclosures, and, if he is scathing in the denunciation of the Nawáb Wazír and his ministers, he is certainly warm in the defence of his patrons when he considers them unjustly attacked. Of his honesty I have no doubt. The book is so well arranged and concisely written that there is fortunately no need of a summary here: and the reader will at once, as he reads, be able to observe and note the bearing of each part of the chronicle on many questions still open to discussion connected with the beginning of British interference in Oudh affairs.
| GONDAH, OUDH; | |
| June 9, 1885. | W. HOEY. |
I, THE humble Abu Tálib, son of Muhammad Isfaháni, beg to inform those who are interested in and value historical truth and accuracy that, in the year 1211 Hijri, during my residence in Calcutta, Captain Richardson, a gentleman of great natural ability and very eminent, asked me, the humble author of this book, to commit to writing all the occurrences of the time of Nawáb Ásafu’d Daulah, so that the real facts of that period, which are inaccurately and partially retailed by unreliable strangers, might be brought together in one clear narrative. In compliance with the request of that kind friend, these fragmentary notes were collected. As the writing of history is the most important of all means of conveying knowledge, if my readers discover any error, I beg to be pardoned, for I have lost my diaries, and I have been compelled to write from memory.
As the succession of office passes from one to another, I shall, before entering on the real subject of these pages, give an account of some of the servants of the late Nawáb, Shujá’ud-Daulah, so that the reader may not be at a loss to know who the persons are whose names will subsequently occur.
| Twelve centuries and twelve years from the Flight |
| Saw me ‘Tafzíhu’l Gháfilín’ indite. |
| * * * * * |
| For my repose pray ye who read these pages,* |
| Which shrine my name though I be dead for ages. |
IT must be remembered that, at the time of the death of the late Nawáb, Shujá’ud Daulah, there were three sons of his of full age, who enjoyed a recognized position in the public eye. The eldest of these was Mirza Amáni Asafu’d Daulah, born of the Nawáb Begam, who had been declared heir apparent during his father’s lifetime, and had held a separate sarkár like his father. The management of that sarkár and the correspondence between father and son had been entrusted to Saiyad Murtaza Khán, Tabá Tabái, who eventually became Mukhtáru’d Daulah. This Mukhtáru’d Daulah was one of the old retainers of the Nawáb Wazír’s family, and a nephew of Nawáb Mustafa Khan, one of the nobles of Wiláyat, who emigrated to Hindustan and obtained high appointments in the imperial service, some from Muhammad Sháh, and some from Safdar Jang, his náib.
Another son of the late Nawáb Wazír was Mirza Sa’ádat Ali, who, at the time of his father’s death, was employed with about 20,000 horse and foot in the province of Bareli, which had been wrested a few months previously from the hands of the Ruhelas. The control of political and military affairs in that quarter was vested in Muhammad Bashír Khán, an Abyssinian slave, and the training and education of the prince was entrusted to Tafazzul Husen Khán. It may be briefly noted regarding the latter, that Lahaur was his birthplace and that of his father, and his grandfather, Karmullah Khán, was for some time agent at the Delhi Court for Mu’ínu’l Mulk, the Subahdár of Lahaur. After the reverses at Lahaur, Tafazzul Husen Khán came at the close of the days of the late Nawáb Wazír to the Súbah of Oudh, and attached himself to the fortunes of the Nawáb’s family.
A third son was Mirza Jangali, who was honorable, brave, patient, and dignified. He was at this period with his eldest brother.
Under the late Nawáb Wazír, the appointment of Náib was nominally held by Muhammad Iraj Khán, a man of the meanest extraction. He had no real power. His first elevation was to the appointment of dárogha of the cantonment bázár, and from this he rose to the position of Náib. It should here be noted that from the time of Safdar Jang up to the present, the agents of the Nawáb Wazír’s family have always been men of low origin, with the sole exception of Mukhtáru’d Daulah, who was of noble extraction.
Súrat Sing and his son-in-law, Rája Jagannáth, were superintendents of the accounts of revenue collectors. This Súrat Sing was an experienced and trustworthy man, one of the old servants of this family. He had been Rája Mahánaráyan’s itláq-navís, and was of his caste. The last-named Rája was the Díwán of the late Nawáb Wazír and eventually Náib-i-Mulk; and the famous Beni Bahádur was suráhi-bardár of this Mahánaráyan, and Mahanaráyan was son of Rámnaráyan, and he and his brother Partáb Sing were dewans of Safdar Jang. They were the sons of Atma Rám Khatri, the Díwán of Burhánu’l-Mulk. In those days no officials except these could be credited for trustworthiness and honesty. The Nawáb’s military regulations and the ordering of the escort on occasions of public appearance were in the hands of Muhammad Bashír Khán, who was a kind of second Náib like Muhammad Iraj Khán, for some servants were entertained by him and some by Muhammad Iraj Khán, and some by neither of them. Since the late Nawáb used to discharge all business personally, these Náibs were men of no influence.
The charge of the treasury and the passing of the military accounts and the muster-rolls, and the offices connected therewith, were under Tapar Chand, who was the nephew of the famous Zauqi Mal; and Shaikh Abu’l Barakát Khán Bakhshi was employed in this departmeut under his superintendence. This Shaikh Abu’l Barakát Khán was one of the Shaikhzádás of Kakori, a man of family, perfect and without flaw. Among his relatives is Ma’zu’ddin Khán, one of the notables of Lucknow, a man who by proved loyalty has established claims on this family; and a few other men still remain distinguished for knowledge snd courtesy, for administrative experience and military skill.
Among the officers commanding firelock infantry, Basant Ali Khán Khwája, and among those commanding the matchlock infantry, Latáfat Ali Khán and Mahbub Ali Khán Khwája bore the rank of General. Bahár Ali Khán and Jawábír Ali Khán Khwája were employed on the guard of the haram-sará, and private treasury. Ambar Ali Khán Khwája, who was endowed with many excellent qualities, was employed as dárogha of the toshak-khána and travelling báwarchi-khána, and Maulavi Fazl ’Azím, with Hasan Raza Khán as his deputy, was dárogha of the permanent báwarchi-khána. Various relatives of Mirza Ali Khán and Sálár Jang, although they were unemployed, held splendid jágírs and kept up the style of nobles, and had a voice in councils on important matters. It must here be stated that these two brothers are sons of Muhammad Isháq Khán Shustari, who had made a position for himself in the time of Muhammad Shah as a hired buffoon who studied the Emperor’s humours. There is neither chastity nor self-respect in this family. “This house is all sunshine.” The family of Safdar Jang and the people of Lucknow have been corrupted by them. Another of the intimates of the late Nawáb is Hasan Raza Khan, who used to render certain personal services to the late Nawáb and enjoyed such complete intimacy with him as to be his very mouthpiece, for most orders were delivered through him. This Hasan Raza Khán is sister’s son of Kalb Ali Khán, one of the notables of Sháhjahánabád, and an imperial officer. Burhánu’l-Mulk married a daughter of this family after he settled in Hindustan, and acquired name and influence through the alliance; and the daughter of Sa’ádat Khán, mother of the late Nawáb, was born of a slave girl owned by this family, who was presented to him in his marriage dower, and Burhánu’l-Mulk strove during his life to serve this family and show his gratitude to them; but Safdar Jang held himself aloof from them, because they looked down upon his wife.
Bandah Ali Khán, Ibrahím Ali Khán and Ashraf Ali Khán, sons of that slave girl, who are now in Lucknow, are sons of the paternal uncles of Kalb Ali Khán, and besides these there are two or three hundred persons of small note in Lucknow, descendants and relatives of Kalb Ali Khán. Muhammad Ibrahím Khán, an officer of the empire and a friend of Burhánu’l-Mulk’s from the beginning of his career, a man of very high station and of good reputation in Lucknow, was a paternal uncle of Hasan Raza Khán, and was raised to the position of Kotwál of Lucknow and custodian of the haram-sará and private treasury of Burhánu’l-Mulk and Safdar Jang. But Hasan Raza Khán did not presume on this close connection with the late Nawáb Wazír, but preferred to serve like an inferior, and thus secured a place in his affections. Intelligent he is and respected, skilled in many military arts and in the discipline of soldiers, endowed with resolution, endurance and dignity; but he is notoriously simple, easy-going, and parsimonious. Who is there who is not inclined to be lazy unless there be a whip to drive him? But parsimony springs from confirmed habits of economy.
Among the revenue officials the two Goshains, and Nauroz Ali Khán and Muhammad Násir Khán, an Abyssinian slave, were the most prominent. The two Goshains maintained about 20,000 horse and foot, nágahs and others, and administered the Dúáb from Korah to Anúpshahr. Nauroz Ali Khán, with 7,000 or 8,000 well-kept horse and foot, was employed in repressing the refractory in Sultánpur, Partábgarh, Akbarpúr and Allahábád. Muhammad Násir Khán Habshi, with 5,000 or 6,000 good horsemen and infantry, was stationed for the punishment of the rebellious Rájas of Sarwár, as the country between the Ghágrá and the hills was called. Of these, Nauroz Ali Khán was a protége of this family and of Mughal extraction, and the two Goshains are chelás of Indargir Goshain, who had exerted himself in the service of Safdar Jang in the war with Ahmad Khán Bangash and ’Imád’ul Mulk, and had thereby established claims on his patronage.
Almás Ali Khán and Haidar Beg Khán also held insignificant appointments in the Revenue Department, but it would take too long to mention all the officers of the revenue branch in the Subah, for there were thousands of this class employed in the Government service.
The late Nawáb was an exceedingly skilful and wide-awake governor. For instance, take the case of the ámil of Khairábád, who, on account of the strength of his residence and the power of the zamíndárs, made some improper request which annoyed the Nawáb. The latter ordered seven Kayaths, who lived by letter-writing, to be brought from the bazár. He gave each of them one mahál of Khairábád, and dismissed them. He appointed Parshád Sing Kumedán with three regiments to support them, and punish any one who might not submit to them, and forwarding them instructions by letters, he kept them employed for some years in the administration of that district, and by their means the result was prosperity, economy in expenditure, a surplus of revenue, and all other tokens of a good administration.
One of the military commandants was Saiyad Jamálu’d Dín Khán Turáni, a man endowed with all qualities of a commander, who had 2,000 Mughal cavalry, good soldiers, well mounted. Another was Murtaza Khán Baríj, the son of the well-known Mustafa Khán, who was employed at the head of a similar contingent of well-mounted cavalry. Qásim Khán Mandal and other Afghán officers, to the number of four or six thousand, looked up to him as their leader and formed, as it were, one brigade. Jamshed Beg and Khwája Ni’matullah commanded 2,000 Turk sawárs with good horses and appointments, trained after the English style. This Jamshed Beg was of the stock of the Ját zamíndárs, and in his boyhood fell into my father’s hands and was brought up carefully among his slaves, but being discontented with my father’s service, he went to Áqá Táhir, a friend of my father’s in the service of the East India Company, and remained with him for some months and learned the drill of the Turk sawárs. After Áqá Táhir’s and my father’s death and the disbanding of the Turk sawárs by order of Council, he entered the service of the late Nawáb, and at his request trained these 2,000 Turk sawárs. He was a worthy commander. There were three other divisions (kampú) of firelockmen. The command of most of these lay with Basant, and the rest had commanders of repute and respectability. There was also Mír Ahmad, commander of the Najíb battalions, which numbered about six or seven thousand horse. They were composed of reliable men with substantial means and well armed, because Mír Ahmad, who was their trainer and drew up for them regulations of military discipline and exercises, had brought together only men of good family, and arming them with matchlocks, drilled them and trained them in various manœuvres and practices, according to the duties imposed on English regiments in those days, and they could handle cannon and muskets rapidly and effectively. Other officers, such as Shaikh Ihsán and Bálá Rao Marhata, and others like them, there were many, whom there is no special reason to mention. The officials of the late Nawáb were not wanting in skill, despatch, and efficiency in the discharge of their duties, as will hereafter be seen. In a short time this whole circle of officials was broken up, and owing to the intrigues of self-seekers, men fit to fill their places were as impossible to find as though there had been a famine of men in the Subah.
Now I begin the narration of this history. The death of the late Nawáb occurred on the last day of the month of Zíqa’da 1188 A.H., which was one month before the beginning of the year 1189 A.H. On that day a calamity overtook the residents of Faizábád, and there was no one, European or native, small or great, who was not affected with grief. They had not finished the funeral obsequies of the deceased, when the heir-apparent began to think of his accession, and summoning Sálár Jang and Mirza Ali Khán and other nobles from the funeral train, prepared to take his seat on the ruler’s masnad. All represented to him that, as by the grace of God there was no rival to his claims, and his servants and relatives, being aware of the friendliness of the English, were all ready to yield him allegiance, it would be better if he did not exhibit impatience, and the English officials, among whom were Colonel Collins and Mr. Conway, considered it advisable to wait; yet he did not heed them, but showed the greater haste, so that all had to yield to his wishes. At the same time he nominated Mír Murtaza Khán his Náib, with full powers, and created him a Haft-hazári and Sáhib-i-naubat, and appointed Jhao L’al, a native of Faizábád, a man of low extraction, his household steward, to officiate for Muhammad Bashír Khán; gave him a fine troop of cavalry and infantry, and employed him in several capacities as his private servant. And he honoured several common soldiers, who had been his orderlies, with the title of Rája and gave them the command of troops and loaded them with gifts, although they were not really deserving of such notice. He gave to Tahsín Ali Khán, his Khwája Sará, the post of Názir Khán-sámán and many other such offices. Seeing this, the true friends of the late Nawáb despaired of the future and grew apprehensive on their own account.
First of all Muhammad Iraj, on pretence of obtaining a sanad from the Emperor, went off to Sháhjahánábád, and after his arrival there, delayed the purpose of his visit and began to prosecute his own acquaintance with Zulfiqár’ud Daulah, with the result that after a little time he was appointed by him Náib of the Subáh of Akbarábád, and Asafu’d Daulah reckoned his departure a gain and took no notice of his conduct. As in Faizábád he was near his grandmother, who disapproved of most of his proceedings, he conceived a dislike for that city and moved to Lucknow and began to build there. This was a manifest mistake which he committed, because the climate of Faizábád is better than that of Lucknow, and the ground at Lucknow is uneven and its bazárs and streets are narrow and confined. Had he first of all selected a level site for his new residence, a city worthy of a name would have been raised for less expense than was incurred in the building of Lucknow. At the same time, too, the residents would have escaped all unpleasantnesses, and his name would have survived for the wisdom of his selection.
AT this juncture Mr. Middleton arrived in the province on the nomination of Mr. Hastings, the Governor, and had hardly time to draw breath when Mr. John Bristow arrived in Lucknow to supplant him, on the nomination of General Clavering: and about the same time, the beginning of the year 1189 A.H., Mirza Sa’ádat Ali also came to Lucknow. The reason of this was that Asafu’d Daulah, immediately on his accession, sent for his brother, and despatched Mahbub Ali Khán, one of the most reliable officers attached to Bareli, to undertake the administration and send Sa’ádat Ali to him. Mirza Sa’ádat Ali, having sounded Murtaza Khán Baríj and other officers round him, finding that no one would assist him, hastened to join his brother. In this year Nauroz Ali Khán died and Saiyad Mu’azziz Khán, younger brother of Mukhtaru’d Daulah, was appointed his successor as Subahdar of Allahábád, and left for that place with all the pomp, paraphernalia and circumstance of office. Muhammad Násir Khán Habshi also having died, the territory known as Sarwár was divided out to several persons.
Asafu’d Daulah demanded his father’s accumulated treasure from his mother, and there were many unworthy passages between them. At last the Begam, on obtaining a deed of release from her son, gave him 50 lakhs of rupees, Another of the events of this period was the dismissal of Haidar Beg Khán and the appointment of Mahbub Ali Khán to the chakladári of Korah. A resumé of the history of Haidar Beg Khán will not be out of place. His father was a native of Fatahábád in Kábul, an ignorant and insignificant Falaqchi, and all the relatives of Haidar Beg Khán to this day, whether born in Hindustan or in Fatahábád, have not a spark of discretion, and persist in practices which even lower animals abhor, but he was himself a discreet man, wise, and of flexible disposition. He and his brother Nur Beg were jointly employed in some small way in the administration of this Subah, and both were notorious for extortion, oppression, selfishness and perfidy. In the days when Beni Bahadur was Náib, having acquired some reputation and wealth, they embezzled the revenue of their parganas, and for this reason the late Nawáb imprisoned them and pressed them to disgorge. The elder brother succumbed under the blows and kicks of bailiffs, and died from sun-heat. Haidar Beg Khán also was on the point of death when Bahár Ali Khán, taking pity on him, informed the Begam of his wretched condition. When this appeal was made to the Begam, she was overcome by that tenderness natural to women, and exerted herself to save him. Haidar Beg Khán, having opened communication with the Begam, held out bribes to her followers. After a long interval he obtained the tahsíldári of chakla Korah, and after a second disgrace, further embezzlements of his came to light. He was now to drink a cup of the old brew,* but Saiyad Muhammad Khán, the brother of Mukhtáru’d Daulah, came to his aid and saved him from destruction.
In Rajab of this year I came to Lucknow with Saiyad Zainu’l Abdín Khán Tabá Tabái, who had been invited by Mukhtáru’d Daulah, The latter received him with respect and assigned him 2,000 horse and foot. In this place it seems proper to explain the connections which Zainu’l Abdin Khán had with this Government. The said Khán was one of the famous Saiyads of Mashhad-i-Muqaddas, and proficient in arts and sicences, especially in the science of medicine, and Safdar Jang treated him with respect and deference. From the moment of his arrival in India he formed an intimacy with Muhammad Quli Khán and was inseparable from him. When Muhammad Quli Khán was imprisoned, he endeavoured to effect his release, but he failed, and fearing Shujá’u’d Daulah’s power, he went off to Bengal.
I was born in 1166 A.H., in the city of Lucknow. My maternal grandfather was Abu’l Hasan Beg Isfaháni, who was among the associates of Burhánu’l Mulk from the beginning of his career. After that Nawáb’s death he renounced the world and led a private life. My father was Muhammad Beg, who, having come to Hindustan, entered the military service of Safdar Jang and won his confidence. On the termination of the struggles between the Afghans and Rája Nawal Rai, when Muhammad Quli Khán was appointed náib of the Subah, my father was appointed in his retinue. A friendship and intimacy sprang up between them. For this reason when Safdar Jang came into this Subah, and Muhammad Quli Khán was appointed to Allahábád, my father, not wishing to part from him, went to Allahábád. After the arrest of Muhammad Quli Khán, Nawáb Shujá’u’d Daulah endeavoured to conciliate my father, and maintained him as before in his civil and military charge. After two or three years, when the Nawáb came again to Allahábád, and Mirza Najaf Khán fled from the camp, he distrusted my father also, and resolved to imprison him. My father, leaving all his goods and wealth on the spot, fled to Bengal. The Nawáb confiscated two lakhs of rupees in cash and property belonging to my father, and placed a guard over me, who was then in Lucknow. After a short time, out of regard for my family, he removed the guard and supplied money for my education, and treated me with favour. After two or three years, when my father sent for me, he permitted me to leave and sent me to Bengal. My father died a year after my arrival in Murshadábád. Then Zainu’l Abdín and I spent five years honorably in Muzaffar Jang’s suite in Bengal, until Mukhtáru’d Daulah induced me to return to Lucknow.
At this time Mr. John Bristow asked Mukhtáru’d Daulah to give Benares to the Company as jágír. Mukhtáru’d Daulab, on the condition of receiving support in the seizure of Etáwah and Bareli, and of the recognition of the right to Allahábád, the income of which provinces was about Rs. 1,50,00,000, and also with a view to securing his own position, which was dangerous and insecure on account of the caprices of his master and the nobles round him, considered it wise to comply with this request and induce Asafu’d Daulah by specious arguments to acquiesce; but the result was opposite to what he anticipated, as will be seen from what follows. The hapless wretch involved himself and all his connections in calamity.
Another event of this year was the Nawáb’s visit to Etáwah. This move was resolved upon, because Muhammad Iraj Khán, instead of exerting himself for the Nawáb’s purposes, had begun to intrigue with Mirza Najaf Khán, and the Emperor delayed to confer on the Nawáb the dignity of Wazír, and also because the Nawáb desired to seize the territory of Ahmad Khán Bangash, who had died a few months before the late Nawáb. Accordingly, having made over the níábat of the Subáh with the insignia of rule to Saiyad Muhammad Khán, the elder brother of Mukhtáru’d Daulah, he set out in that direction with all his forces in the month of Shawwál. When he arrived at the bank of the Ganges, and two divisions had crossed, and the third was still on this side, orders were given to disarm the third division; but the men prepared to fight, and demanded their pay. When an English force, which was then encamped at Bangarmau, came up, and with the first and second divisions prepared to attack them, the unfortunate men fled in disorder, and the two divisions which were left were at the advice of Mukhtáru’d Daulah handed over to the English officers for training. But the English officers were soon removed, and the discipline of these battalions was entrusted to Basant Ali Khán. On the Nawáb’s entering Farrukhabad a yearly nazrána of 5½ lakhs was imposed on that province and continues to this day, and another sum in money and chattels having been levied by confiscation of Ahmad Khán’s property, the Nawáb moved on to Etáwah, and remained there some months.
Many events happened at this time. Among these was the desertion of several of Najaf Khán’s followers who came to the Nawáb’s camp. The cause of this was that Asafu’d Daulah, attributing to Zulfiqáru’d Daulah the non-conferment of the dignity of Wazír, recalled while the seige of Díg was in progress, the auxiliaries, about 10,000 horse and foot, which Shujá’u’d Daulah had supplied to him. After this, by holding out bait to the officers of his camp, he gained them over and caused the dispersion of his force. Among those who swallowed the bait at this time was Fatah Ali Khán Durráni, who came over with five or six thousand well-mounted horse and foot, and a well-appointed battery and camel guns and abundant stores. But after some time, being pressed for money, and seeing the Nawáb’s bad management, he sold all his property to the people in the camp for a trifling sum, and returned alone to his home. Zulfiqáru’d Daulah, notwithstanding these occurrences, did not despair but captured Díg. After this he induced the Emperor to confer on the Nawáb the dignity of Wazír and thus put an end to all cause of quarrel. Zulfiqáru’d Daulah himself was created Náib Wazír.
IN the beginning of this year occurred the removal of the two Goshains and the appointment of Zainu’l-Abdín Khán to the administration of the Duáb. At this time Ghátampúr, Akbarpúr-Bírbar, and Akbarpúr-Sháhpúr, Rasúlábád, Sikandra Biláspur, and Phaphúnd, parganas of the Duáb yielding 15 or 16 lakhs, were made over to me by Zainu’l Abdín Kbán. The Goshains were ordered to conquer the remaining portions of the Kalpi division and support their troops thereon. Anúpgír, who was the elder brother, regarded this gift, which involved the subjugation of a foreign territory and the collection of its revenues, as his death warrant, and so went off in disgust with most of his followers and joined the camp of Zulfiqáru’d Daulah. Umraogir remained with two or three thousand cavalry.
Another event of this year was the flight of Muhammad Bashír Khán. He was staying in Najíbábád in the Bareli province, when an order came to the other officers in camp to arrest him. The Habshi regiment first of all proceeded to take him. When they had got near Muhammad Bashír Khán’s tent he got notice and thought what he could do. Then Mír Bahádur Ali, one of the Bárhá Saiyads, and Abdu’r Rahmán Khán, a Qandhári Afghan, came in to him. They were under obligations to him, and among his intimate friends. Mír Bahádur Ali said: “Mount your horse and post as quick as possible across the Ganges into the Emperor’s jurisdiction. Meanwhile Abdu’r Rahmán Khán and I will keep the regiments engaged.” Muhammad Bashír Khán did so, and Mír Bahádur Ali, turning to Abdu’r Rahmán Khán, said: “Now is the opportunity to show true friendship and to stake life in return for kindness.” The Khán concurred, but said he had no weapon, and the Saiyad replied: “I have both Afghan sword and dagger. One is enough for me. Take which you please.” Abdu’r Rahmán took the sword and went out at one side. Mír Bahádur Ali, with the Afghan dagger, kept the regiment in play at the critical moment and fell fighting. Muhammad Bashír Khán, gaining time to cross the Ganges, fled to Muhammad Iraj Khán. His baggage and all his property which remained unlooted were confiscated. After this Surat Sing was appointed to the government of Bareli.
The facts connected with the disbanding of the Najíb battalions are as follows: - These battalions had been employed by the Goshains to subdue the territories on the other side of the Jumna. The news of the disgrace and dismissal of the Goshains reached them. They crossed the river and came up to the camp to demand their pay. All that time Jhao La’l, Tapar Chand, and Basant, accusing Mukhtáru’d Daulah of treachery in giving Benares and the control of the army divisions to the English, turned Asafu’d-Daulah against him and were seeking to ruin him. Therefore Asafu’d Daulah, knowing that Mukhtáru’d-Daulah had but few troops and supporters, and that he could not resist these regiments, and that he would be either disgraced or killed, appointed him to drive them off. Mukhtáru’d Daulah, seeing through this device, desired to pour oil on the troubled waters and pacify the excited regiments and gain them over to himself, but he could not succeed owing to the intrigues of these three men and the incitements of the matchlock regiments, who were in league with them. They refused to listen to Mukhtáru’d Daulah and drew up in line of battle. Mukhtáru’d Daulah’s force was likely be defeated, but some of their leaders were killed and the survivors fled. After this, when the teachery of Jhao L’al and Tapar Chand had come to light, the Nawáb Wazír arrested both and handed them over to Mukhtáru’d Daulah: and they remained in confinement until Mukhtáru’d Daulah’s death.
Another important event which happened during this expedition was the murder of Mukhtáru’d Daulah and Basant. After the imprisonment of Jaho L’al and Tapar Chand, Basant, losing all faith in Asafú’d Daulah, began to think of his own safety. At this time Mirza Sa’ádat Ali, who was in the camp denuded of all rank, acting on the suggestion of Tafazzul Husen Khán, employed as his tool Ajab Khán Afghan, a daring character of those days, an acquaintance of Tafazzul Husen Khán’s, and a friend of Basant’s, and through him began a conspiracy with Basant. After a deal of negotiation it was settled that Basant should put Asafú’d Daulah and Mukhtáru’d Daulah out of the way; that Sa’ádat Ali should succeed his brother, and Basant become his minister of war and finance; and that Ajab Khán should guarantee the death of both. Accordingly one day, when the Wazír was complaining in Basant’s presence about Mukhtáru’d Daulah, Basant, catching at the opportunity, obtained a kind of permission to kill him, and, resolving to kill them both, prepared a banquet with treacherous designs, and invited them both to it. Mukhtáru’d Daulah, who, notwithstanding the loss of his trusted officers and troops, was confident in his reliance on the English, showed himself reckless and incautious, and, being ignorant of the snare, went to the entertainment. The Wazír, although he was unaware of Basant’s intention as to himself, made some excuse. Basant, being disconcerted at his denial, went to him three times at midday, and, expatiating on the splendour of his preparations and the amusements provided, pressed him to attend; but he could not succeed, for the Wazír’s time had not come. Accordingly Basant, putting off his murder to another day, gave the signal for the murder of Mukhtár-ud Daulah to Fazl Ali and Tálib Ali, friends of Ajab Khán, and to two others. Mukhtáru’d Daulah at this hour, on account of the great heat of the sun, dismissing his servants and followers to his tent, went down himself to an underground apartment and began to listen to music, when suddenly Mír Fazl Ali, stepping forward a couple of paces, killed him with a succession of rapid blows. Thereupon Basant sent word to Mirza Sa’ádat Ali and the Goshain, who were among his accomplices, and told them he was going to the Darbár to kill the Wazír, and that they should mount their horses and come up with their supporters. He also ordered his two divisions to come up with guns. He then set out for the Wazír’s tent with two regiments which were present. A wall had been drawn round the Wazír’s tents because he was given to long sleeping, and one door had been left in the wall. This door had then been closed because of the murder which had been announced; and hence Basant did not obtain admittance unchallenged. The Wazír sent out word to him to come in alone. As he knew that the Wazír had no knowledge of his designs on him, and the murder of Mukhtáru’d Daulah had been committed with his approval, he did not hesitate to go in alone, and taking with him Baḍe Mirza, a strong man, a relative of his own, who was under him dárogha of the Wazír’s Díwán Khána, and a slave who was a second Baḍe Mirza in strength, he went into the Wazír’s presence and made a sign to the officers of the two regiments to enter the Díwán Khána after him on a pretence which had been agreed on. When Basant came before the Wazír, the latter reflected that if Basant remained alive, his complicity in the murder of Mukhtáru’d Daulah would become known and give rise to inquiries by the English, and he therefore gave the signal to some ten or fifteen men near him to despatch Basant, and Nawáz Sing, one of the Rájas on duty, dealt him a blow with a sword and felled him to the ground. Baḍe Mirza and the slave were stupefied and were unable to check Nawáz Sing. But when Nawáz Sing, after inflicting some more unnecessary blows on the corpse, placed his booted foot on its head, the blood of resentment boiled within Baḍe Mirza’s heart and he drew his sword and killed him. Then the attendants of the Wazír one and all attacked Baḍe Mirza and the slave, but not finding themselves fit to face them, ran into corners. Baḍe Mirza then going forward to the Wazír, as he had no evil intentions, said, “I have done this deed out of my regard for Basant and I have no disloyal intention. I shall now leave this place only on condition that orders are given that no one shall kill me.” The Wazír pledged his word. Baḍe Mirza left and went to his home. The two regiments that were prepared to enter, seeing Basant’s head before them, dispersed. Mirza Sa’ádat Ali, coming up at this moment with some armed cavalry, was, like the regiments, unable to venture in, and, learning the fate of Basant, went off in despair to the tents of the Gosháin for assistance. The Gosháin, admitting that their plans had completely failed, gave him a swift mare and bade him fly. So Mirza Sa’ádat Ali, flying forthwith from the army with Tafazzul Husen Khán, Baḍe Mirza, and the slave and some others, rested not till they had reached the Emperer’s territory. An hour later the two divisions came up and demanded retribution for the murder of Basant and to be allowed to plunder Mukhtáru’d Daulah’s tents. Yusuf Ali Khán, dárogha of Mukhtáru’d Daulah’s artillery, faith ful to the deceased, put forward some guns and Mughal gunners to check them. The Wazír, notwithstanding the remonstrances of those near him, summoned up courage, went to the divisions, and by distributing presents to the officers, endeavoured to conciliate them. The tumult of the troops subsided. Anwar Ali Khán, who was Mukhtáru’d Daulah’s Khwájasará and adviser, and without whom he would have been unequal to the duties demanded of him by the Wazír, conveyed his corpse to the suburbs of Etáwah and burying it there, lived a broken-hearted recluse. The officers of the army buried Basant’s corpse with imposing ceremony and maintained crowds at his grave for many days after, and kept a cook and distributed food to the poor.
Another event was the appointment of Latáfat Ali Khán as the Wazír’s agent at the Emperor’s Court. It came about in this way. The late Nawáb, leaving him and his troops in the province of Bareli, assigned him maháls yielding fifteen lakhs of rupees, for the support of his troops. After Mukhtáru’d Daulah’s death, the Wazír, when he made up his mind to return to Lucknow, resolved to select a man who should remain with a fitting retinue at the Emperor’s Court. Latáfat Ali Khán, who hoped to place himself beyond the reach of misfortune by removing himself to a distance from the Wazír, managed by bribery and intrigue to obtain this post. Having spent some years under the protection of Zulfiqáru’d Daulah, he was, in 1195 A. H., dismissed, and his jagír resumed. He and his cavalry entered the service of Zulfiqáru’d Daulah. On the death of the latter he thought himself safe, but Muhammad Beg Khán Hamdáni, getting him into his power by some stratagem, put his eyes out at the order of Mirza Shafi, Khán. He is now dragging out a miserable existence in that neighbourhood.
Other events of this year were the appointment of Muhammad Iraj Khán as Náib and his death soon after, and then the offer of the appointment to, and the refusal of it by, Hasan Raza Khán and Haidar Beg Khán Kábuli. The office of Náib may be said to have remained vacant for some time after Mukhtáru’d Daulah’s death, and Rája Jagannáth Díwán conducted the administration under the instructions of Mr. Bristow. The Wazír wrote a friendly letter summoning Muhammad Iraj Khán, who, because he had no confidence in the Wazír, wrote to Mr. Bristow that if he sent for him on his own responsibility, he would come, and if not, not. Mr. Bristow reassured him. Muhammad Iraj Khán came with Muhammad Bashír Khán to the banks of the Ganges opposite Bangarmau. Here the ferrymen, at the instigation of Muhammad Iraj Khán, forbade Muhammad Bashír Khán to cross, and he returned to Etáwah. Muhammad Iraj Khán crossed and was invested with the dignity and duties of Náib Wazír. During the whole term of Iraj Khán’s office, Muhammad Bashír Khán remained at Etáwah. Afterwards, through the efforts of Mirza Hasan Raza Khán, he obtained permission to cross into Oudh. Not long afterwards he was attacked by cataract and retired into private life on the income of the jágír which had been assigned him. He is still alive in Lucknow. Further, Muhammad Iraj Khán, when he was in power, fearing that on him should be avenged Mukhtáru’d Daulah’s death, removed Saiyad Mu’azzaz Khán from Allahábád, as well his elder brother Saiyad Muhammad Khán, who was a dismissed Náib of the Subáh, and he imprisoned all the relatives and protegés of Mukhtáru’d Daulah, and as long as he lived, his sole object was their persecution. Afterwards, when Mr. Bristow said something to him in their favor, he replied “According to the agreement which has been ratified between our two powers, you have no right to interfere in the affairs of this State. Drop this subject. If you do not, you will have to furnish an explanation to our agent through the Council in Calcutta.” Mr. Bristow, when he heard this answer, regretted much having summoned him, and became silent. Muhammad Iraj Khán was seized by dropsy about this time and died, and his lying swagger ceased.
Among the events of Muhammad Iraj Khán’s administration was the disbanding of the remaining regiments of the old divisions. This happened thus. The Wazír, on his return from Etáwah, gave commands to English officers in the regiments in Basant’s camp and left them behind. The commandants and subordinate officers, who were habitually disobedient and had received hints from the Wazír’s officials to be disobedient, evinced unwillingness to carry out orders. Accordingly the arrangement did not work. Some regiments which were in the neighbourhood of Etáwah and attached to the force cantoned at Farrukhábád mutinied, imprisoned their officers, extorted their pay from them, and went off with their muskets and guns and joined Najaf Khán’s camp; some other regiments in that quarter dispersed, leaving their equipments behind. Their commandants, who came to Lucknow, were blown from the guns. These events caused great alarm to the English officers who were in command of them. Indeed, many of them during this émeute were looted in their flight and were killed by the zamíndárs of the Duáb. One of them, Major IIowe, took refuge with me in Phaphúnd, remained for some days, and was conveyed to a place of safety. After that the English officers enlisted new recruits instead of the mutineers and raised their regiments to full strength. The general command of them was given to Colonel Gower.
The nine or ten thousand troops who were with Mahbúb Ali Khán in Koráh were also disbanded. After the mutiny of the other regiments, the Wazír suspected these also and detached an English officer secretly to disarm them. This officer, with four regiments disguised as travellers, came within a short distance of Mahbub Ali Khán’s camp, aud obtained an interview with him; and then, drawing out his men at night, ordered an assault, advanced close up to the camp and suddenly opened fire with musketry and cannon. As Mahbúb resided in the city and the camp was without officers and no one was prepared except the sentries on guard, the whole body being taken by surprise took to flight. Their equipments and valuables were plundered by the scoundrels of the camp, and Mahbúb, seeing nothing left but to submit, went to Lucknow. On his arrival a jágír was assigned to him for his support, and he spent some years in comfort. This jágír was eventually resumed and he then moved with some others to Sháhjahánábád. From this he went after some years to Makka and died there. The chakla of Korah was given, on Haidar Beg Khán’s recommendation, to Almás Ali Khán. Through the oppressions of his náib Basti Ram the revenue fell from twenty lakhs to six or seven. Finally, after Iraj Khán’s death, Mirza Hasan Raza Khán, already mentioned, who had by this time become a public and private friend of the Wazír, and a channel of communication between the Wazír and Mr. Bristow, was appointed to fill the post of Náib, but inasmuch as he was without administrative experience, Mr. Bristow recommended that another person who had practical experience should be selected and made his coadjutor. Hereupon Ismá’íl Beg Shurah, a vagrant from the bazárs of Irán, and hence utterly without faith or honesty, or a thought either for the public good or his master’s welfare, who was at this time Mr. Bristow’s factotum and one of his confidants, actuated by the hope of some imaginary gain, instead of which he reaped loss and ruin, recommended Haidar Beg Khán Kábuli to Mr. Bristow. Mr. Bristow was deceived by his plausibility, flattery, and misrepresentations—arts in which he was a master— and the dignity of Náib-i-Kull was conferred on Hasan Raza Khán, and that of Náib-i-Mulk on Haidar Beg Khán. Tikait Rai was appointed by Hasan Raza Khán peshkár and superintendent of accounts. As Rája Jagannáth had previously been confirmed in the appointment of Díwán, Haidar Beg Khán did not consider himself his equal, and referred most of his papers to Tikait Rai, Hence the clerks became undisciplined, and Tikait Rai obtained complete control. This Tikait Rai was a villager’s son, and in the time of the láte Nawáb was a servant on Rs. 15 a month of Khush Nazar Khwájasará, who was tahvíldár of the jewel house. While in this employment he was guilty of embezzlement, and was imprisoned during the life of the late Nawáb, but after his death was released and became servant of Akbar Ali Khán, dárogah of Mukhtáru’d Daulah’s Díwán Khána, and thus became acquainted with Anwar Ali Khán, who was Mukhtáru’d Daulah’s factotum; then, becoming familiar with him by his buffoonery and tale-bearing, he began to meddle with every one’s affairs, and because he had rendered some little service to Hasan Raza Khán, he was now raised to this dignity.
At the end of this year Mr. Bristow was removed and Mr. Middleton was appointed a second time to Lucknow, and notwithstanding the obligations which have been mentioned under which Haidar Beg Khán lay to Mr. Bristow, he caused him much annoyance at the time of his departure. This unworthy conduct of Haidar Beg Khán’s was not with a view to extort any gain, but was the outcome of his natural disposition, for whoever treated him well he returned him evil. This statement is proved by the cases of the Nawáb Begam, Bahár Ali Khán, Murtaza Khán, Saiyad Muhammad Khán, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Bristow, and Major Palmer, who were all his benefactors, and their cases will be stated. The treatment with which he requited the help he received from Tafazzul Hasan Khán arose from a cause which will be detailed.
IN this year Colonel Gower was sent into the Duáb with his contingent, which was in the service of the Wazír, with orders to raze the forts of the refractory zamíndárs and break their power. He first came to Korah. Basti Ram, the Náib of Almas Alí Khán, who, on account of his great oppression, was nicknamed Ujár Rám, sacrificed some zamíndárs instead of the really refractory leaders. Then he moved to the districts under Zainu’l Abdín Khán, and, while he was there, something happened which caused the English uneasiness and resulted in the cancelment of of the order. It was this. There was in the pargana of Tálgám a ta’luqdár named Fatah Chand Pátak. He paid five or six thousand rupees of revenue and had a zamíndári income of about equal amount. Carried away by the conceit of youth and by natural daring, he used sometimes to prove refractory. The Colonel surrounded his fort, which was in an open plain and weakly fortified. After three days, when they had made a breach, the Colonel gave orders for an assault. The Pátak sallying out with 3,000 men from his fort, attempted to make his escape at the point where the Colonel himself was. The soldiers resisted his passage, and a severe fight ensued in which about 400 privates and 10 British officers were killed. The Pátak escaped from the field unhurt.
In this year Haidar Beg Khán removed Surat Singh, who used to collect nearly 70 lakhs from the Bareli Division, and entrusted it to Kundan L’al and two or three Kayaths, who were protégés of the Ruhela family and residents of that country. They remained in office two years, and during that time they sent numbers of cultivators from that district into Faizulla Khán’s territory. To that period the beginning of the depopulation of Rohilkhand is referred. The Kayaths were imprisoned for their embezzlements and died in confinement, and large sums which they owed to bankers and traders remained unpaid. The only cause for the removal of Surat Singh was the Náib’s private greed.
In the same year the contingent under Mián Afrín, who was an associate of the Wazír’s eunuchs and at this time among his intimates, was also disbanded. They were some thousands of horse and many foot. The younger Goshain, who had remained in the Subah with two or three thousand horse, desired to join Zulfiqár’ud Daulah’s force, and crossed the Ganges. When he arrived at the Bithur Ghát on the banks of the Ganges, he seized several relatives of Tapar Chand Khazánchi, who had come there to bathe, and carried them off. He had got seven days’ journey beyond the Wazír’s jurisdiction before the order for their release arrived. No one had courage to stop him and the Khazánchi’s relatives remained some years his prisoners until at last Tapar Chand gave the Goshain his pay and procured their release.
In this year the dismissal and ruin of Zainu’l Abdín took place. It should be noted that Haidar Beg Khán from the beginning of his career, though feigning loyalty, was bent for years on avenging his brother’s death on Shujá’u’d Daulah’s descendants, and was determined not to let a vestige of them survive. For this reason be was unintermittingly bent on disbanding the troops and ruining the inhabitants of the country. He used to get rid of every old and respectable official and employ in his stead some mean man of low origin, and he did not put forward the equal of any one whom he removed. If any of the English desired to interfere for the reform of affairs, he prevented them, until no one remained to check him and he established himself supreme. He had an eye solely to his own interests. Remembering, however, these lines:—
| Burn me not, for God can limit |
| The range of thy resentful ire: |
| When the fuel is exhausted, |
| The flame, unfed, must then expire, |
he relinquished his first designs so far as to let the remnant of them (Shujáu’d Daulah’s descendants) be. He was really a prudent man and understood business: so, why else than for this reason was he guilty of this bad administration?
In short, Haidar Beg Khán, who desired the ruin and disgrace of Zainu’l Abdín Khán, called him to Lucknow at the very season of revenue collection, and began to negotiate with others for the administration of the Dúáb. This led the zamíndárs to play a waiting game and the collection of revenue fell into arrears. Afterwards he let him return and put forward Almás Ali Khán in Baisákh as a candidate for the post, and Basti Rám, Náib of Korah, showing a want of prudence, then informed most of the zamíndárs of this move. Some letters of Basti Rám’s, bearing his seal, were intercepted and sent to Lucknow. As he had acted at Haidar Beg Khan’s instigation, no notice was taken of this. But the rains had not set in before Haidar Beg Khan thought of another expedient and proceeded to put his intention into execution. It was this. Ismá’íl Beg Shurah at his suggestion informed Mr. Middleton that Zainu’l Abdín had sent for his family from Murshadábád, and that they had left Allahábád and were about to arrive at Etáwah; that, on their arrival, Zainu’l Abdín would join Zulfiqár Khán’s camp with 12,000 horse and foot and artillery and the revenue he had collected. Therefore Haidar Beg Khán sent Basti Ram an order to seize Zainu’l Abdín Khán’s family and at the same time dismissed the Khán. The fact is, that Zainu’l Abdín’s family was coming by Haidar Beg’s own order up the Gumti, and arrived in Lucknow a month after his dismissal, and all that Ismá’íl Beg told was false. In fine, after his removal, Haidar Beg gave those maháls, which had yielded some years previously 52 lakhs, and in my time 45 lakhs, for something over 30 lakhs to Almás Ali Khan, who remained there for some years continuously, and eventually effected a reduction to 25 lakhs. Zainu’l Abdín Khán’s cavalry, some 10,000 men, were also made over to Almás Ali Khán, and Haidar Beg having made out that Zainu’l Abdín owed six or seven lakhs, wished to imprision him, but certain circumstances prevented his doing so. After some months Zainu’l Abdín died of chagrin and rage.
In the course of these changes, I suffered severely. The way was this. As I had charge of the maháls round Korah and I was all the year on bad terms with Basti Ram, he embraced this chance and instigated the refractory zamíndárs of those maháls to plunder me. Accordingly, in the space of three or four days, 10,000 Rájputs collected round the cantonment of Ghátampur, but as there were round the cantonments small mounds of earth like bastions, I had in my turn strengthened the place by digging ditches from the one to the other, on pretence of making a trench into which to shoot rubbish. This fortification prevented their ingress. I remained on the alert under arms night and day for fifteen days, with four or five hundred sepoys prepared to die. After that I made arrangements to leave, and I gave out that I would next morning set out along the Músanagar road, a difficult road west of Ghátampur, for the ghát at Kannauj, which was the passage Zainu’l Abdín would take on his return from Etáwah; and that I would fight any one who opposed my journey. My real intention was to proceed viâ Korah, which lies east of Ghátampur, to Lucknow, and there have an interview with Zainu’l Abdín. The Rájputs were misled and stationed themselves to a man along the other road during the might and lay in ambush for me. In the morning, when the whole of my baggage had been loaded and sent on in the direction of Korah, I and my companions, with three or four guns, got between the baggage and the Rájput leaders, who had with them about a thousand or two thousand men; and when the baggage had got on about a kos in advance, I set out slowly, maintaining a musketry fire as I went. On discovering this move, the Rájputs were amazed, and, hoping to ensnare by the grains of fair speech the prey that had escaped them, sent a messenger saying: “Your departure is a cause of disgrace to us. It is better for you to leave your baggage behind and travel along the road which leads you to a ford after a journey of two or three stages in our territory, so that we may treat you hospitably and show our fidelity.” I replied that I could not rely on their word; that if they were in earnest they should send certain of their leaders into my camp as a condition of my complying with their wish. These leaders, impelled by intense greed and presumption, came. I continued parleying with them, as I went on my way, until we came in sight of Korah, and the Rájput leaders grew very uneasy and begged to be allowed to depart. They fancied that I would hand them over to the ámil, Basti Rám, and thus securing my own escape from him, go on to Lucknow. I demanded from them the payment of arrears of revenue, and having, after some negotiation, got ten thousand rupees out of them, I let them go. Basti Rám, when he saw my boldness and resource, dropped his enmity and made me his guest. Next day I crossed by the ghát of Shiurájpur and went on to Lucknow. Here what I had managed to do when in this strait, enhanced my reputation. After my arrival in Lucknow Haidar Beg Khán sent word to me, advising me to desert Zainu’l Abdín and come over to his side. I replied that I would not. This was the first circumstance that caused him to take a dislike to me. Another cause rose out of the disbanding of Saiyad Jamálu’d dín Khán’s cavalry and the Turáni horse. The most of those skilful horsemen with horses in prime condition, who had been attached to me in the Dúáb, went on their dismissal into Zulfiqáru’d Daulah’s camp.
I BELIEVE it was in this year that Mirza Sa’ádat Ali returned from Akbarábád to Lucknow. This happened thus. When the Mirza left Etáwah and entered Zúlfiqáru’d Daulah’s camp, the latter treated him with marked attention, reassured him, and gave him the pargana of Biána for his support, and incited him to seize the country on the other side of the Chambal. A vast number of deserters from the Wazír’s army and others gathered round him and went to his pargana. But in a fight with one of the zamíndárs of the pargana he sustained a reverse and returned to Akbarábád.
Then he sent Rahmatullah Khán, brother of Tafazzul Husen Khán, to Mr. Bristow and asked permission to return to the Subah (Lucknow). After some time, having obtained permission, he came to Lucknow, and after an interview with his brother, went on to Benares, and he continues to reside there up to the present, and the two or three lakhs which he derives as a fixed income from the Subah, he draws without trouble through the English officials.
Tafazzul Husen Khán left the service of Sa’ádat Ali in the course of this journey and went to Gauda. From there he went to Calcutta, and through the influence of Major Palmer obtained service from Governor Hastings. He was appointed to accompany Mr. Anderson, when he was nominated mediator in the affairs of the Patel, and after the conclusion of that peace, which proved the source of hundreds of quarrels, up to the time that he become the associate of Haidar Beg Khán, he was the companion and adviser of Major Palmer on every occasion and in every affair. This will be mentioned in its proper place.
It was, I believe, in the same year that Mirza Jangali, who has been already mentioned, being hard up for money, went off and joined Zulfiqáru’d Daulah, and the Amíru’l Umara, considering his accession an advantage, provided him with ample means. Mirza Jangali remained in that quarter as long as Zulfiqáru’d Daulah lived and for a long time afterwards. In 1207 A.H., I think it was, he turned again to Lucknow.
It should be stated that Haidar Beg Khán, of all servants, inflicted the most annoyance on the descendants of the late Nawáb. For instance, the sons of the deceased, who are in Lucknow, although each is allotted a thousand rupees a month, are starving owing to his breaches of faith, his dodging and his affronts. The women of his palace, who are in Faizábád, are sometimes so overpowered by hunger, because of the delay in paying their allowances, that a hundred or two hundred females make a raid from the haram-sará, loot the bazár and carry back with them grain and other necessaries. Up to the present no one has arranged for the marriage of any of his daughters, because funds are not found, and the Nawáb-i-’Áliya, Shujá’ud Daulah’s mother, who had even in his time had nothing to do with his son’s affairs, and who managed to live contentedly but with difficulty on a jágír of one lakh, was unable to provide for so great a number; nay, as long as she lived, she grudged nothing to them, and after her death their condition became pitiable. The Nawáb Begam, who has a vast jágír and an immense income, owing to her hardheartedness and insensibility to shame, and her want of leisure from her own pursuits, which are not fit to be mentioned, does not give a thought to the welfare of that side of the house. Worse than all, when a son of the deceased, impelled by hunger, went to Calcutta, and the Governor proceeded to advise the Wazír, the Wazír replied: “It is the cravings of youthful folly which have led the youth to go there; you should calm him down and send him back to me.” Where is the painful craving of violent hunger and where the folly and pride of youth? It is a thousand leagues from love to patience.
It must be remembered that this closeness of the Wazír and Haidar Beg Khán in their treatment of those who had claims on them is a fact, but the extravagance of their own expenditure was so great that their waste would support an army. A trifle only of this extravagance is incurred during the whole of Phágun at the Holi, in the Wazír’s carnival, and marriages and illuminations, and each year five or six lakhs are set spart for these customary celebrations; and similar expenses are incurred in the Muharram; and the expenditure on his elephants, his stables, and kennels may be imagined when it is stated that he has twelve hundred elephants, two or three thousand horses and a thousand dogs to feed. Of these, 400 elephants, 500 horses and a hundred dogs are fit for riding or the chase, and the rest are good for nothing. The others are kept by dishonest servants for purposes of peculation, so that if a dog die, they procure another from the streets and put a collar on him. The expenditure on the Wazír’s pigeon-house, cockpits, sheep-folds, deer park, monkey, snake, scorpion, and spider houses, is so great that, if they were carefully managed, the money would suffice for the maintenance of all the children of the late Nawáb and of his women, for 300,000 pigeons and fighting cocks are kept, and there are some snakes a pair of which eat a maund of flesh. All things are fondly cared for by the Wazír save men, especially his relatives and old dependents. Another expense is the pay of the Wazír’s household servants, who number thousands, including 2,000 farráshes, 100 chobdárs and khidmatgárs, and 4,000 gardeners, and hundreds of cooks. His cook-room costs Rs. 2,000 or 3,000 per diem, and the loose and idle characters whom he has with him on his tour, carrying baggage, camp furniture, and tents, amount to a thousand, who receive their daily bread as wages. His expenses pass description. The prodigality of Haidar Beg Khán may be guessed when, after his death, Tikait Rai set down his table expenses at 50 lakhs, and this foolish expenditure was not confined to the Wazír and Haidar Beg or to Mirza Hasan Raza Khán and Tikait Rai, but every one who had anything to do with Government or revenue collection, was appointed to his post without fear of being called to account. Accordingly Fatah Ali, chela of Almás Ali, constructed so many sarais, tanks, mosques, and temples that he cannot himself have met the cost, and the expenses of Almás Ali Khán, and of each of some officials and friends of Tikait Rai, are as great as used in old days to be those of the late Nawáb. And this was the ease with all their agents and dependents, so that this waste was not confined to them only, but was the general rule in matters of food and clothing, buildings, amusements, and all expenses of both males and females. Men of position in Lucknow are not so affected by slenderness of income as to feel themselves thereby straitened, for if they are close-handed in matters of clothing and on occasions of weddings and funerals, they are reckoned among the lower orders of society, If they spend lavishly, they must have money. Hence under the pressure of necessity they have resorted to swindling, and whole families have been ruined.
Another of the events of this year was the leasing of the whole country of Sarwár to Colonel Hannay, and the beginning of my connection with it. This came about thus. The Colonel applied to Haidar Beg Khán to place at his disposal the services of some trustworthy and experienced administrators of this Subah, who might assist him in managing the country. Haidar Beg nominated six persons, of whom I was one. As the Colonel’s rigour and ill-temper and Haidar Beg Khán’s ill-treatment of the friends of the English were notorious, I declined to join the Colonel and begged to be excused the service, but Haidar Beg Khán, hoping that I might be disgraced by the Colonel in his wrath, and that he might thus pay me off for my former non-compliance with his wishes in the case of Zainu’l Abdín, would not listen to my representation, but said that I must serve the Colonel according to the Wazír’s orders.
Accordingly, I complied, at the time unwillingly and under compulsion, with this order, which was the beginning and cause of my acquaintance and connection with the English. Notwithstanding this, Haidar Beg Khán and his party gave out that the English knew but little of me, and the people were turned against me; but they were too ashamed to avow their own connection with the English as it was intended to solely further their personal interests.
Let every one judge of the facts for himself. To be brief, the other five persons who had an advantage over me by Haidar Beg’s protection were turned off by the Colonel, some for embezzlement, some for idleness, and others for incompetence. The Colonel conceived a strong liking for me because I was circumspect night and day from a sense of independence and self-respect, and I showed no greed for money, so that eventually he left in my hands all the affairs of his troops and of the revenue administration, amounting to forty lakhs of rupees, and fixed my salary at one thousand rupees per mensem from his private purse, but I declined to take pay as a servant, and said I should prefer some mark of favor at the end of the year if he continued satisfied with me. I meant by this that, even should he continue satisfied with me at the end of the year, I should escape even this remuneration, and that, if in the meantime I should do anything which would displease him, I could, as I was working for him without pay, excuse myself and appease him by declining all reward. This device proved very useful. Three years passed in friendship and concord, and whatever fault my subordinates committed in administration, the Colonel,owing to his great confidence in me, attributed nothing to me and held them alone responsible; but, during that period, matters were ripening which caused dissatisfaction to Haidar Beg Khán and Tikait Rai. They are as follows:—
In the pargana of Hisámpúr there was a ta’luqa comprising ninety mauza’s, of which a part of each was in the ta’luqa and the rest belonged to zamíndárs. The ta’luqdár, abetted by Haidar Beg Khán, had taken possession of a large quantity of uncultivated land belonging to the zamíndárs and used to pay Rs. 5,000 for it into the hazúr tahsíl, and used to divide the profits of it with his abettor. As this ta’luqa was among the lands excluded from the Colonel’s lease, the Colonel collected Rs. 50,000 after survey and measurement from the ta’luqa and ousted the ta’luqdár from the land he had wrongfully seized, and in this way he dealt with all abettors and accomplices of Haidar Beg Khán and Tikait Rai, many of whom there were among the ta’luqdárs and zamíndárs of those parts. Since the Colonel carried out all his plans through me, Haidar Beg Khán and Tikait Rai, although they knew perfectly well that, the Colonel being a thorough business man, his agent could not interfere with his resolution, blamed me for all his actions. They regretted the introduction they had given me to the Colonel and cherished malicious intentions regarding me.
Another event was the appointment of Ismá’íl Beg Shurah to the Subah of Allahábád. The explanation of that is this. Ismá’íl Beg, on pretences connected with the despatch of mails and through Mr. Middleton’s and Haidar Beg Khan’s friendship, used to interfere with the officials of that Subah. At first this meddling went only so far that he levied black-mail from every official by working on his fears and hopes through false reports, and by the same means he obtained douceurs from the Wazír and all his servants. Afterwards, when he had scraped large sums of money together, he used to pay for an ámil the qist in advance, which was a condition prior to his confirmation in his appointment, and then, notwithstanding that he took four per cent. interest, he used to take possession of the ámil’s i’láqa. In this way he built up a large ta’luqa in Allahábád, and his whole heart was set upon it, when the administration of the Allahábád district was handed over at a fair jama to Mirza Muhammad Hasan, an unsophisticated man, a Persian noble, resident at Benares. Ismá’íl Beg Shurah paid for him the qist in advance and became his agent at head-quarters, took the profits for himself and tricked him. This he managed thus. When Mirza Muhammad Hasan was going away, he left some blank papers with his seal affixed in Ism’áíl Beg’s care, that he might not in emergent cases have to wait for a letter from him from Allahábád. Ismá’íl Beg, after two or three months, without giving notice to Mirza Muhammad Hasan, brought about an inquiry as to his mismanagement. Replies were sent. When they were not accepted by the Nawáb, Ismá’íl Beg wrote a forged resignation of the Mirza’s appointment on one of those papers and tendered it to Mr. Middleton. In this way the unfortunate Mirza Muhammad Hasan was dismissed and Ismá’íl Beg was appointed in his stead on Haidar Beg Khán’s nomination. But Haidar Beg Khán’s motive in nominating him was not to befriend him, for he entertained doubts of him, that as he had recommended him to Mr. Bristow, he might now recommend another to Mr. Middleton. It must be noted that Haidar Beg Khán brought many men to ruin while feigning friendship for them and nominating them to appointments. He never rendered any one any assistance after procuring his appointment, and the knowledge of his indifference caused the zamíndárs and the troops appointed with his nominee to prove refractory, until the victim fell into arrears and was imprisoned and disgraced. But the circumstances of Allahábád were not such as to require the attention of Haidar Beg Khán, and it was only Isma’íl Beg’s folly that caused his overthrow. He was greedy to acquire zamíndári, and when any zamíndár fell into arrears of revenue, he induced him to write a deed of sale to him in lieu of that arrear and some cash, and hence most zamíndárs of the Subáh spent their money and fell into arrears, and knowing that Ismá’íl Beg could not lift up their land and carry it away, they executed deeds of sale and gave them to the fool. After two years Ismá’íl Beg was imprisoned for arrears and was kept in prison for a long time by Haidar Beg, until Mr. Johnson, in 1196 A. H., who was bent on clipping Haidar Beg’s wings, released him and sent him again to Allahábád, where he held the same position for two years more, and after that went with Mr. Bristow to Bengal.
IN this year Khwája ’Ainu’d Din, was appointed to the province of Bareli. This happened thus. When Haidar Beg Khán had become secure in his position and gradually grew insolent, and was careless about remitting the Company’s instalments, Mr. Middleton, to stop his insolence, put forward Shaikh Shafi’ullah, one of the friends of Iraj Khán, and appointed his gomashtas over Haidar Beg Khán’s collectors to gather in revenue: but, as Shafi’ullah was a covetous and imprudent man, Haidar Beg Khán exposed the blunders and dishonesty of his gomashtas and procured their removal. Khwája ’Ainu’d Dín was one of these gomashtas, and was the sazáwal over Kundan L’al aforementioned. As he had kept Haidar Beg Khán in good humour with him in this interval, he was now appointed collector of Bareli, and was maintained there for five or six years, notwithstanding that he caused notorious ruin. He was in 1197 A. H. dismissed on Mr. Bristow’s persistent representations. This ’Ainu’d Dín, one of the companions of Khádim Hasan Khán Bangáli, was an odd character. To show his indifference to the world, there were thousands upon thousands of scoundrel beggars maintained by him in his camp, and once a day he used to walk about among them naked with a stick in his hand, and give each of them a copper with his own hand and indulge in banter with them. He was so vile-tongued and foul-mouthed, that the crowd of them, notwithstanding their absence of restraint were not his match. To make a show of generosity, he used every year, after the 10th of Muharram, to scramble his household furniture, and refuse no one who asked him for a present. If any one asked for a great sum, he wrote the amount on a slip of paper and put it with fifty other slips marked half for smaller and half for larger sums, and gambled for them as Europeans do with one another. In short, his waste from the date of his dismissal to his death in 1209 A. H., as far as the public could observe it, amounted to 40 or 50 lakhs of rupees.
Another event of this year was the death of Mirzá Ali Khán, owing to the bad climate of Almuhrá. The Wazír, from the beginning of his rule, considered two tours incumbent on him every year. One was at the conclusion of the rains, sometimes to Almuhra and sometimes to Butwal, and at this season of the year both these places are like Jahannam for the inclemency of the climate and the difficulties of transit. For this reason, thousands of camp-followers die every year in this tour, and it is impossible to describe the hardships which they endure in crossing ravines and traversing the heights and hollows, and the passes of mountain and forest. In these places the Wazír’s personal servants and followers march first, then the able-bodied members of his escort, and last the invalids. The three parties become jammed, and for a time are unable to find roadway. The Wazír’s personal servants stand at the head of the crowd battering with sticks, and in the same way the able-bodied men of the escort. In this confusion men are unable for two or three days to attend to their necessities and lie on the ground in the open air without food. The price of grain also is under these circumstances, and at all such times, twice as high as at Lucknow; and luxuries of food, such as fruit and the like, cannot be had. If rain happens to fall at this season, there is a tumult as of the resurrection in the camp, and thousands of horses, bullocks, camels, and men are seized with fatal illness. Then, if a camel falls in the mud, all at once so many men tumble over it that the camel sinks, load and all, into the earth and causes a block in the path. In the year 1210 A. H. I was present on a tour of this kind as far as to Faizábád, and saw all the incidents of the camp. The following is a brief narrative:—
In the rains of that year the Wazír, having dismissed Tikait Rai, told Mr. Cherry that he would himself look into the affairs of the province. The rains now stopped, and he determined to go to Butwal. Mr. Cherry said that things could wait, and there was still some prospect of rain; that the Wazír would do well to postpone his determination. The Wazír replied that he would take his ministerial officers with him as far as Faizábád, and on the way decide some matters which were pending, then send back the ministerial establishment, and act afterwards as Mr. Cherry advised. In the second stage, high winds and heavy rain set in and, owing to the great number of elephants and cannon, the whole road became a slough of mud, and the two remaining stages were traversed in six days with indescribable difficulty. From Dariábád to Faizábád it seemed as if dead horses, bullocks, camels, and men had been sown in the mud. When I arrived in Faizábád, most people who could not be accommodated at the Asaf Bágh, the Wazír’s residence, pitched their tents in a place where the mud was a cubit and a half deep, tied their animals to long poles and stood holding on to the ropes on the inside of their tents, owing to the violence of the wind and rain. When this state of things had lasted for fifteen days, the Wazír was no longer able to endure it, and ordered the camp to cross the Ghágra. The bridge they had thrown across the river broke that night, and the boatmen said they could not construct it again. Messengers brought in word that the water was several feet deep in the places where they had gone hunting the previous year, and that the mauza’ where the Wazír’s tents had been separately pitched was under water. The Wazír, believing the story of the messengers to be untrue and to have been concocted by them with the leaders in the camp, ordered, while the rain was still actually falling, that the camp should cross in boats. Jhao L’al appointed his sazáwals to watch the men, and himself stood at the ghát for five days in all the rain, and superintended the transport of the troops. Every time that a boat attempted to cross, the passengers despaired of their lives owing to the turbulence, roughness, and rapidity of the Ghágra, which is in these respects more especially dangerous than other rivers. In those five days several boats and elephants were lost. On the sixth day the Wazír, when he heard that half the camp had crossed the river, determined to go over. It happened that the pegs of the tents had become loose from the heavy rains, and the kahárs were holding the tents up with their hands. Next morning he desired to move the tents to another place. He searched on both sides for some miles, but not a place was found. Accordingly he returned, and gave orders for withdrawal to Faizábád. They returned with the same difficulty they had gone. After some days, when the rains ceased, he again undertook the passage by boats and completed his journey.
Furthermore, in the tour at this season, there are a hundred mast elephants in the camp, and sometimes while they are marching, or when they break from their tether or get beyond the control of their mahauts, they kill people, and the drivers often tie their elephants near the tents of the Wazír’s courtiers, and by this trick get money from them for their removal; and these persons are subjected to the same infliction night and day without intermission for two or three months.
The second tour is made to Bahraich in the very height of the hot season, and although this tour does not last over a month and a half, yet horses, cattle, and men die in numbers from the excessive heat of the sun. As the Wazír indulges in opium, he sleeps until very late in the morning, and then eats breakfast and starts on his march after a full watch of the day has passed; and travelling in a palankeen made of khas which water-carriers keep sprinkling on all sides, he arrives at his halting-place some time after midday. Here so many tents of khas and movable pavilions of grass are pitched, that the severe cold gives ague to any one who sits down, and it is only those who have experienced the pain know what men then suffer.
A greater hardship still is, that every grove which is under or near his camp is kept exclusively reserved for the domestic uses of the Wazír and for his stables, and if any grove be unoccupied, no one pitches in it, for if the Wazír sees a tent, he drives the owner of the tent out of the country. This order prevails from a jealousy of the comfort of other men, which is a natural characteristic of his, and which is not more especially exemplified on his tours than at his fixed residence. A proof of this is his prohibition of certain articles, one of which is ice. Although the ice manufacturers have frequently represented to him that if he would allow them to sell ice, they would manufacture an even greater stock for him than they were doing, and their expenses would be less, he has refused to allow them. Although he possesses hundreds of gardens in Lucknow and Faizábád, and in the suburbs of both cities, and they yield such quantities of fruit and flowers that hundreds of low-caste men among his orderlies gather them, and there is still to spare, yet fruit and flowers decay, fall, and are thrown away. In the mango season he attaches all the groves of the residents of Lucknow and Faizábád, and in this way many houses of the poor are plundered by the piádas who are appointed to confiscate the produce of the groves. The restriction on the sale of keora and roses, and all perfumes is so strict, that people import essence of keora from Bengal, and the better classes at the marriages of their children make garlands of flowers gathered from the jungles and put them round the necks of their guests, for the sale of wild flowers is forbidden in the city. Rare foods are wholly interdicted, but such fruits as ground-melons, mangos, and so on, are barred only during the first fifteen days of their respective seasons. Fine clothing materials and all articles of luxury which can be confiscated, are interdicted. Accordingly, some one introduced a new invention into Lucknow for calico printing. The Wazír ordered that he should deliver all his outturn to him. One day the Wazír happened to see a specimen of this chintz on some one, and he put the master-printer on a donkey and had him paraded through the city, although he was a respectable man, and the employer of four or five hundred apprentices. And horse-dealers are not allowed to sell to any one else until they have shown their horses to the Wazír and writhed under the hands and tongue of Rája Mahrá,* and so with other merchants. And his personal servants and attendants, both when on tour and when at head-quarters, are forbidden to go to women, even to their wives, and harkáras are employed especially and precautions are taken so closely, that if some unlucky fellow goes anywhere secretly at midnight, he is arrested. When could all these things be told? Moreover, I do not intend to record the Wazír’s fanlts, for my book would become bulky. But all that is connected with the public, and that is necessary to history, I have written. If affairs of this description were unnoticed, it would be impossible to write a history of his times.
IN this year Murtaza Khán Baríj, a rasáldár commanding 2,000 cavalry, was dismissed and joined Zulfiqáru’d Daulah. He was one of Haidar Beg Khán’s benefactors, and in return he met with what he experienced. Mr. Middleton also was removed, and in his place came Mr. Hussey, and after a short interval the appointment of Resident was filled by Mr. Purling. In the middle of this year General Coote visited Lucknow. The Wazír went to Allahábád to meet him, and entertained him as his guest. Mr. Harry Vansittart, Hoshyár Jang and Mr. Johnson accompanied the General, and were his advisers. Colonel Hannay came down from the country of Sarwár to wait on the General, and as he was much displeased with Haidar Beg Khán, he disclosed his iniquities and intended to procure his punishment, but as the General was obliged to return quickly by order of the Council, the matter was deferred.
IN this year Mr. Bristow arrived in Calcutta on his return from England, with the appointment to Lucknow, and proceeded from Calcutta to Lucknow. Mr. Purling was removed, and Haidar Beg Khán quaked for some time on account of his conduct, but was put at his ease when Mr. Middleton and Mr. Johnson were subsequently associated with Mr. Bristow. Thereafter Mr. Bristow became merely a post-office for the transmission of letters on matters affecting the affairs of the Company; and the negotiations between the Governor and the Wazír, and the collection of money and the payment of it to the troops, were all entrusted to the other two.
As Haidar Beg Khán had no regard for Mr. Bristow, Mr. Bristow’s influence was gone, and being unable to put up with his insolence, he returned to Calcutta. The other two, Mr. Middleton and Mr. Johnson, remained in undisputed possession.
About this time the dispute between Chet Singh and Governor Hastings came to a crisis, and for this reason great disturbance arose in the Wazír’s dominions and thousands of people were slain by the zamíndárs. In this exigency Haidar Beg Khán had arrived with a disciplined force within a few kos of Benares, but owing to his natural cowardice he could not venture to go to the Governor. He opened up communications with Chet Singh also, for he considered it politic and prudent to do so, in order that he might eventually join the side which he found prevailing; but the Wazír was some stages behind Haidar Beg Khán, and when he heard of this conduct of his, Sálár Jang, the little-wit, and several associates of the Wazír, enemies of his house, and his mother and the two Khwájasarás, advised the Wazír to return to his own country and pay attention to its affairs. They said: ‘Mr. Hastings and all the English have been disposed of, what necessity is there for us to get ourselves into trouble?’ But the Wazír turned a deaf ear to the fools, and plucking up courage, joined the Governor in Benares. After the termination of this disturbance at Benares, the Wazír took leave of the Governor and returned to Lucknow. On the occasion of this visit, Haidar Beg Khán gained a number of concessions from the Governor, as he was pleased with the Wazír: first, an order for the dismissal of all the English officers who were in command of the Wazír’s regiments, and for disbanding the regiments themselves, and for the removal and expulsion of every Englishman employed under the Lucknow Government, whether on the recommendation of the Governor or any one else; second, permission to dismiss from pargana Aráil Major Osborne, who had been employed in reducing the country of the Bundelás and had wrested many parganas from them after severe fighting: another, the reduction of the pay of the force under Colonel Gower who had gone to the Dakhin.
In this year also, Colonel Hannay was removed from the districts of Sarwár, and ’Abdullah Beg appointed in his place. This ’Abdullah had been a Turk sawár in the Company’s service, and came after his dismissal to Lucknow, and through Mr. Bristow’s influence was appointed Sazáwal of Farrukhábád. Here he accumulated a great sum of money in a few years. As he had been appointed by Haidar Beg Khán, he now got this place, but after a few months he was killed by Amír Beg Mughal, a well-known and highly respected tankhwáh-dár, because the fated fool made use of some indecent abusive language. Amír Beg and his brother were also killed.
The facts regarding Colonel Hannay, are briefly these: Haidar Beg Khán did not wish the English to have a footing in the country, and for this reason, and because of the disgrace which had over taken his nominees in Sarwár, he was constantly endeavouring to discredit the Colonel and procure his dismissal, until eventually the Governor’s mind was poisoned against him, and Haidar Beg Khán caused him to be suspected of oppression, depopulation of the province of Sarwár, and embezzlement of the Wazír’s revenue. Thus, injuring his reputation with the Governor and Council, he endeavoured to get him removed. These false charges were repeated and passed on from one to another until all the English, without inquiring into the facts, spoke reproachfully of his misconduct. Hence I shall, without respect for persons, truthfully record here something of the events of his administration in the hope that, the real facts being laid before impartial judges, the stigma attached to him may be removed.
The charges brought by Haídar Beg Khán are three: (1) oppression, (2) depopulation of the province of Sarwár, and (3) making money by embezzlement.
The truth of the charges of oppression and depopulation is this. Sarwár is a country which, a hundred years before this, had been yielding a kror of rupees, and in the days of the late Nawáb Shujá’u’d Daulah) had perhaps yielded as much as twenty lakhs, and Haidar Beg’s ’ámils had not collected more than twelve lakhs. Colonel Hannay handed into the Wazír’s treasury twenty-two lakhs clear of expenses. The cause of this great falling off in the jama, was the thriftlessness of the rájas of that country who were bent on sensual pleasures. The tenants relied on grazing and cattle-breeding for their maintenance and abandoned agriculture. Thus a village, which a hundred years before paid a revenue of two thousand rupees, now paid only one hundred, and that, too, although there are five hundred tenants’ houses in the village, and each householder has five or six hundred head of cattle. And the soil of the country of Sarwár is so rich, that the rabí’ instalment of revenue is collected in the first year from newly broken land. Notwithstanding this superiority of the soil, and the great number and wealth of the tenantry, yet, through the refractoriness of the rájas and the weakness of the collectors, the jama’ fell in this interval to ten lakhs.
In short, the Colonel, understanding the case, after many negotiations and numberless quarrels, expelled the refractory from the country, and taking under his protection the small tenants who had always been in terror of them, laid the foundation of prosperity. Although in these changes the revenue of some parganas of Gorakhpur fell off, most maháls showed an increase, and the reduced jama’s showed a promise of rising. Accordingly, in the Colonel’s last year that country yielded thirty-five lakhs, and there was every hope that in three or four years the revenue would reach fifty lakhs, when Colonel Hannay was removed.
The rájas, after resisting to their utmost, left the mountains and jungles, and having taken shelter under the protection of the zamíndárs of Sultánpur and A’zamgarh on the banks of the Ghágra, made themselves obnoxious every now and then. The Colonel therefore wrote to Haidar Beg Khán: ‘A collector like me, and an opportunity like the present, you will not again find, and in a few years the revenue of this country will be rising. It is therefore advisable that you should now make an effort, so that these exiles shall remove to a distance and he rooted out.’ Haidar Beg paid no attention. The rájas alluded to, as their domains were near, relied on their strength and waited for their opportunity. During the disturbances at Benares they crossed the Ghágra (at the orders of Chet Singh and the Begam’s khwájasarás) and killed and plundered the Colonel’s náibs and agents, and exerted themselves to restrain the tenants from obeying the Colonel’s orders for the extension of cultivation. Accordingly, two or three thousand tenants, and two or three thousand of the Colonel’s employés, were killed in this raid, and the country was again depopulated, and Haidar Beg’s náibs were afterwards unable to collect as much as was then collected, owing to their own weakness and to this daring act of these outlaws. The conclusion drawn by the English on the insinuations of Haidar Beg Khán was based on these calamities. But the expulsion of these bad characters and of their agents, who were and are deserving of removal, and the famine which ensued through this occurrence, and the falling off of revenue, all happend after the Colonel’s time, and were in no way attributable to any fault of his.
There is no doubt that the Colonel amassed money, not, however, by embezzlement, but through firmness and knowledge of business on his part and on that of his associates, Dr. Blain, Major MacDonald, Captain Franklin, Captain Garden, Major Lumsden, and others, for profits were realized after paying the income which had been stipulated for with Haidar Beg Khán, and collections were much in excess of the revenue realized in preceding years.
The cause of Governor Hastings’ dislike to the Colonel was that, though he had five or six thousand sawárs and infantry with him, and was near Benares, he could not come up to his relief. The Colonel was not to blame for this, for he crossed the Ghágra from Faizábád with 2,000 men immediately when he heard of the insurrection at Benares, and sent orders to Captain Garden and all his officers, who were scattered through the country, to come up, each from his residence, and join him at Sultánpur. Each of these officers who crossed the river was plundered and killed by the exiles already mentioned. Captain Garden, who had crossed in haste with five or six hundred men without artillery, fought a whole day with the rebels and made his way to Tándá, where Ghulám Báqar Ali Khán, the Nawáb Begam’s collector, was. He intended to rest there for the night, and to cut his way on next day fighting as before, but the collector posted his men to resist the Captain and forbid him to enter the town, and drew to his own side of the stream the boats lying in the deep water of the ravine, which ran between the Captain and Tándá. The Captain’s men, therefore, losing their self-control, threw down their arms and plunged into the river. More than half of them were killed or drowned. The Colonel, notwithstanding that he heard this, determined to go from Faizábád to Benares, with the men he had. Therefore, the sawárs who were with him, and were more numerous than his foot, being prompted by the Begam’s khwájasarás declined to accompany him. The Colonel went to the houses of their leaders, who were many of them unworthy to receive him, and strove to move them, but without avail. After this, finding it hopeless, he turned back to guard the cantonment, where his treasure and property lay, and a large concourse of these outlaws had gathered to plunder. The Colonel had left me with 200 sawárs and infantry to guard the cantonment. When the Colonel crossed the river, about 50,000 Rájput sawárs gathered round the cantonment from three sides to attack me. But as there were deep ravines all round the cantonment and the bridges were carefully watched, the sawárs were delayed while waiting for appliances with which to cross. Nineteen days and nights passed over me in marvellous transitions until the Colonel’s return gave me a new lease of life. In short, although by the arrival of the Colonel and his companions and soldiers on all sides of the cantonment, some five thousand men were collected, the Rájputs still remained firm in their resolve. At this juncture two regiments came up from Kánpúr* to the Colonel’s aid. The Colonel distributed the old force and his new contingent into three parties, and was preparing to attack the enemy, when the latter formed into three bodies. It so happened that they were crossing that day, and half of them were that side, and half this side, of the ravines, when the Colonel’s force came up to punish them. Half were killed and drowned, and the rest were dispersed. The Colonel, finding the road now open, went with all his property into Lucknow, where his two regiments were disbanded. After some months the Colonel went to Calcutta to obtain satisfaction from Haidar Beg Khán, but after applying to the Council he lost hope, and after two or three days hanged himself.†
Another event of this year was the appointment of Rája Surat Singh by Haidar Beg Khán to the country of Sarwár, to remedy the disorders which had ensued on the inopportune murder of ’Abdullah Beg. He was well qualified to discharge that duty successfully, but when he had been there only fourteen or fifteen months, he was transferred to Bareli, and his administration produced no good results.
In this year also an order came from the Council to Mr. Middleton and Mr. Johnson, for the confiscation of Sálár Jang’s and the Nawáb Begam’s jágírs, because of their shortcomings during the émeute at Benares and their ill-treatment of Colonel Hannay.
The Nawáb Begam’s jágír was entrusted to Mirzá Shafí’ Khán Mughal Iráni and that of Sálár Jang was permitted te remain with Almás Ali Khán, as he had managed it for twenty-seven years, but the condition was added, that he should not give anything to Sálár Jang, and should pay in the revenue and taufír to the Wazír. Haidar Beg, now getting an opportunity, suggested to the Wazír to charge the Nawáb Begam with the money instalments due to the Company. The Nawáb Begam refused to pay, and this led the Wazír to march in force to Faizábád. Mr. Middleton and Mr. Johnson accompanied him in this expedition. The foolish khwája-sarás determined to stand a siege with the three or four thousand men they had, but the Nawáb Begam, after the guns had been mounted and appliances of war inspected, sent the two khwájasarás to her son and took refuge herself in the palace of the Nawáb-i-’Áliya, and this unfortunate lady’s jágír was also confiscated, because she could not help giving protection to her son’s widow. The Wazír, who owed the two khwájasarás a grudge from his boyhood, now put them in iron fetters and omitted no detail of bodily inflictions, outrages, and indignities. He sacked his mother’s residence and took from it 50 lakhs of rupees in cash, and 50 lakhs of property, in gold, silver, and clothes, and returned to Lucknow. Haidar Beg Khán, who owed his very life to the Begams and Bahár Ali Khán, did not utter even one word in their favour, but seems to have been the cause of the aggravation of their misfortunes.
IN this year the quarrel occurred between me and Haidar Beg Khán. It happened as follows: Haidar Beg Khán who had been emboldened from the time of Mr. Bristow’s second appointment, became more secure after meeting the Governor and experiencing his kindness, and grew still bolder than ever. Under the cloak of loyalty he was rebellious and insolent. Accordingly he defeated by every pretence he could devise, the measures enjoined by the Company; and if he could not defeat them, deferred their execution; and if neither of these courses was possible, he tutored the Wazír to say “yes,” “very well,” and make excuses; and after all these subterfuges he used to carry out only a tenth or a trifling part of everything. Mr. Middleton and Mr. Johnson, who had been appointed to carry out orders through him, were continually disheartened and distracted; and Almás Ali Khán, now finding his opportunity, after having kept Mr. Bristow for some successive years in suspense between hope and fear, obtained a reduction of revenue, and all collectors followed Almás Ali’s example and procured a reduction of revenue and introduced an increase of expenditure. Haidar Beg Khán, on account of the presence of English supervisors, feared the disclosure of the dishonesty of his own collectors, and could do nothing but conciliate them. In consequence of this, in a few years, one-third of the revenue, which was about a kror, was lost in a manner which will be explained, and the collectors becoming independent, treated Haidar Beg Khán and the tenants just as they liked; and the powerful tenantry, driven to extremities, began to become refractory. On account of this disorder and the delay in the affairs of the Company, the two gentlemen (Mr. Middleton and Mr. Johnson) agreed that they should not be dependent on Haidar Beg Khán for the discharge of the business of the Company, and that they should put some one forward through whom they might transact some affairs, and thus render Haidar Beg Khán less absolute and more compliant. Accordingly, Ismá’íl Beg Shurah, Shaikh Shafí’-ullah, Murád-ullah Khán, Mirza Shafí’ Khán, and two others, came forward, one after another, for this purpose. Haidar Beg Khán made some of them secretly his friends, and caused others to be dismissed on proving acts of embezzlement against them. He grew bolder and endeavoured to render Mr. Middleton and Mr. Johnson powerless. He sought out plans to produce disorder in the jágírs which were in Mr. Middleton’s trust. One of these was this. He gave a hint to Balbhadr Singh, a zamíndár in one of these jágírs, who had long been enjoying an allowance of Rs. 500 a month from the Begam, and was residing on the other side of the Jamna, to commence a disturbance, and this disorder continued for two years. Although as many as two or three English regiments and six or seven thousand men of the Wazír’s army were detached to expel him, they could not effect his expulsion, for Mirza Shafí’ Khán, Mr. Middleton’s gomashta, was secretly siding with Haidar Beg Khán; and the Hindustani troops, because they were of good family, and the English troops, because they were associated with the Hindustanís, favoured Haidar Beg Khán and did not exert themselves. About this time Almás Ali Khán, at Haidar Beg Khán’s instigation, represented the jama’ of Sálár Jang’s jágír to be five lakhs of rupees, and in the course of correspondence tendered his resignation. His idea in doing this was, that as only three or four months remained of the period of collection, and the zamíndárs had known him for 27 years, they would certainly not throw in their weight against him, and thus this jágír would deteriorate like the Begam’s jágír, and Mr. Middleton himself and the public generally would see how helpless he (Mr. Middleton) was, and thus he (Almás Ali Khán) would of a necessity be placed by them (Mr. Middleton and Mr. Johnson) in charge of both jágírs again from the beginning of the next fasli year. But Mr. Johnson, girding himself to the task of the two jágírs and resolving to carry out his word, invited my assistance in his undertaking. I asked to be excused for fear I should excite the enmity of Haidar Beg Khán. Mr. Johnson insisted on my aiding him, and by promises of protection and favour induced me to undertake the business. At the beginning of the undertaking Haidar Beg Khán and Almás Ali Khán, in the pride of their power and on the strength of the disorder of the jágírs and the scattered position of the parganas, raised doubts everywhere in the whole Súbah as to my ability to manage them, and made light of me; but many respectable persons who had suffered, became as ready to obey as they had been refractory, because the facility with which I carried on affairs was known through the whole Súbah and patent to the eyes of Haidar Beg, Almás Ali, and all their collectors. Although the revenue of the jágírs was not very large, being not quite 20 lakhs, yet the parganas were scattered all over the Súbah. My náibs, however, were so well acquainted with, and gathered such intimate knowledge of, the affairs of the parganas, that they used to discharge their business and stand in readiness to take further orders, and in this way the habitual refractoriness of Haidar Beg’s time, and the yearly clamours of Almás Ali and the collectors for reduction of the revenue, came to an end, and my náibs showed an increase of revenue. All this can be proved by inspection of the papers of the years preceding and succeeding this year which are in the Wazír’s office. All the affairs of Mr. Johnson, being undertaken with system, were in this way daily progressing, when, as fate would have it, the cards were again shuffled, as will be explained hereafter, and fortune favoured the scoundrels.
The services which I rendered to the Wazír’s government during this period were three. First was the saving of two lakhs of rupees taufír from Sálár Jang’s jágír, the revenue of which Almás Ali had represented to be five lakhs, whereas I collected seven lakhs. The explanation of this is as follows:—The zamíndárs of the jágír fled at first, as Almás Ali had expected. After a covenant, bearing Mr. Middleton’s seal, to the effect that they would never again be handed over to Almás Ali, had been sent to them, they returned and disclosed the tyranny and oppression of Almás Ali; and the agreement was made that they should pay to the Government something less than the amount which Almás Ali had used to realize by khám tahsíl. Thus, although a reduction of 30,000 rupees was made, seven lakhs were realized from that jágír. As Almás Ali had always represented a falling off in all the maháls entrusted to him, and had handed in a written under-statement of the revenue of this jágír, and as the disclosure of a taufír of two lakhs would show he was a thief and shut his mouth against asking yearly for a reduction, and as the same suspicions would arise against all Haidar Beg Khán’s náibs, the latter and Almás Ali did all they could to lead me astray, but it was of no use. Among other things, Haidar Beg Khán promised to let me have the two lakhs taufír to spend, if only I did not tell Mr. Johnson, and privately sided with him, but, having regard for Mr. Johnson’s claims on me, I declined his offer, and I fully exposed the secret understanding which he had maintained with Almás Ali for several years.
The second service I rendered was the defeat and extermination of Balbhadr Singh, an act for which the Wazír, in his anxiety to suppress his violence, had offered a public reward of a lakh of rupees. The power of this man needs no illustration, for he was a very rival of the Wazír, and from the time of Safdar Jang until now, he had been the plunderer of the province. This service was effected by three operations.
First, I alienated the affection of his clansmen from him, and cut the cord which bound his band together. Mirza Shafi’ Khán, by withdrawing at Haidar Beg’s suggestion the 500 rupees a month allowed to Balbhadr, had caused his misconduct, and his brothers and clansmen believing him to have right on his side, could not help joining him. Therefore I called up his agent in the presence of his brothers and I offered him an allowance of as much as 2,000 rupees a month, in addition to those villages on which he had previously received 500 rupees a month for his support, but he stood out for more and did not agree to this. His brothers now conceived that by his refusal he was handing them over to death.
Next, in that country there is a jungle, and in the heart of it at every few kos distance there is a fortified post. When any former collector went against Balbhadr in force, if he turned him out of one place, and hurried on in pursuit of him without demolishing it, Balbhadr simply went from that post to another, and so through all back again he came into the first. This was an advantage to Balbhadr Singh, for if he had been dependent on one solitary stronghold, he would have been unable to reach any spot at all distant. For this reason I entertained three or four hundred labourers, and when I expelled him from any post, I cut down the jungle and razed the fort until he had no place of refuge left.
The third operation is the fight which I had with him. When the struggle between Balbhadr Singh and me was at its height, I heard of the removal of Mr. Middleton and Mr. Bristow, and Mr. Johnson, as luck would have it, had gone away before this to Calcutta. Loyalty to these two gentlemen and chagrin at my separation from them, as well as my antipathy to Haidar Beg Khán, led me to resign my employment. Although Mr. Middleton wrote to me repeatedly that Mr. Bristow would extend to me the same protection and consideration that he had done, I did not recover my confidence, and so closed my accounts with their government. Haidar Beg Khán, though he desired to have revenge on me, was far-seeing and was pleased with my retirement, and gave me an acquittance receipt without going into accounts. After this blew over, I gave up the pursuit of Balbhadr Singh and went to a village on three sides of which were water, and which was fortified. Balbhadr Singh, who had before heard that I was weak, now grew more bold than ever and pitched his tents opposite my encampment, and the concourse of the unbelievers so closely pressed on all sides of my camp that any one who raised his head was hurried into the next world. I was stung by this and jealous of my reputation, and I determined to face him. One day that he went to the banks of the river to bathe I made a night attack with 600 followers who did not know I had lost my appointment; but, owing to the crookedness of the road, a delay occurred, the night ended, and Balbhadr Singh, who was on the alert and ready, seeing the paucity of my supporters courted an encounter. The fight lasted till midday, and each party routed the other several times. In the afternoon victory declared for me. About six or seven hundred noted Rájputs of that zila’, and near relations of his, were killed. Balbhadr Singh fled with the survivors to the bank of the river and began to cross. My men coming up fired a volley from their muskets. Two out of five boats sank with all on board, about 500 men, and all were drowned. Balbhadr Singh was driven away in a wretched plight, half dead with fear. There was not one village in the jágír of which some well-known people were not killed. After this victory I felt at my ease and, before another collector was appointed, I collected a lakh of rupees and I paid off both soldiers and revenue police. I then came to Lucknow and hurried to call on Mr. Bristow as Mr. Middleton had left.
The end of Balbhadr Singh was this. In the rabi’ of the same year he returned to this side of the river. His clansmen, after the scare they had got, refrained from joining him, and he proceeded to loot with three hundred newly-recruited horse and foot. Ismá’íl Beg Khán, my náib, and Major Lumsden and other officers of two English regiments which had been there from my time, surrounded the jungle, and, as no stronghold had been left to him, succeeded in reaching him, and passing through the stockades* where his servants were, wounded and captured him. Next day he died of his wounds.
A third service which I rendered was the waking up of Haidar Beg Khán, Almás Ali, and all the collectors, and the causing them to stand upright in the service of the Wazír, as has already been described.
In this year Haidar Beg dismissed and imprisoned Tapar Chand Khazánchi, and placed in charge of the treasury Bijairáj, who had caused the disturbance at Benares and had fled to Lucknow for fear the English should call him to account. He left the Bakhshigari with Bholá Náth, the sarishtadár of Tapar Chand’s office. This Bholá Náth has no equal as a cheat and peculator. The whole army is heartless and demoralized by him, for, in collusion with the officers he is guilty of endless embezzlement and theft, and he bribes every one who is put in as his náib, and up to this day subsists by the same malpractices.
IN this year happened the removal of Mr. Johnson and Mr. Middleton and my resignation of the management of the jágírs. The circumstances attending these events are as follows:—When all Haidar Beg’s devices failed to effect his object, as has already been explained, and he could neither upset the arrangements in the jágírs nor deceive me: nay more, when his scheming proved the cause of my good fame and stability, I attained both wealth and position, and officers expert and experienced, both military and civil, gathered round me in numbers, and difficulties were easily surmounted. For this reason Haidar Beg Khán, fearing his own displacement, now resorted to the plan of fixing some suspicion on Mr. Johnson, who was a firm and successful administrator, and procuring his removal. At this time it happened that Major Palmer came to Lucknow under Governor Hastings’ orders to demand twelve lakhs of rupees in addition to the ordinary instalments. Accordingly Haidar Beg Khán, through Tafazzul Husen Khán, conspired with the Major, and secured his co-operation in his plans by holding out to him the bait of the Residency at Lucknow. Then he began, according to his custom, to procrastinate about payment. Mr. Johnson and Mr. Middleton now lost heart, and were mute before Governor Hastings, who, notwithstanding their excellent management, interfered on the advice of this miserable Major Palmer. For a long time there was no sign of the money. This led the Governor to ask Haidar Beg to explain. He replied that the delay had occurred owing to an order from Mr. Johnson, and he sent a forged letter to this effect, bearing Mr. Johnson’s seal, to the Council. Mr. Johnson was summoned to Calcutta to answer this charge. As the Governor was at this time ill and had been rendered powerless in Council, the members of Council made a great deal out of this small matter, using it as a pretext for re-appointing Mr. Bristow. Mr. Middleton resigned through mortification, and they sent Mr. Bristow to Lucknow for the third time. I was in Lucknow when Mr. Johnson left. Just at the same time news came in of great outrages by Balbhadr Singh, and Mr. Middleton ordered that I should he sent for. As Mr. Johnson, when he bid me good-bye, had concealed the circumstances of his departure and consoled me with a promise of his speedy return, I left Lucknow and was involved in all those troublesome enterprises which have been described. I was successful and returned with laurels to Lucknow. To come to the point, Haidar Beg Khán, though he got rid of Mr. Johnson by the trick I have mentioned, did not succeed in his object of obtaining Major Palmer’s appointment. As a last resort he employed himself in deceiving Mr. Bristow. This gentleman was well aware of his peculations and knavery, but, though he was determined to defeat him, Ismá’íl Beg Shúrah, for the furthering of his own ends, kept Mr. Bristow inactive so that Haidar Beg gained time. It happened in this way. As Ismá’íl Beg had made up his mind to seize my ’iláqa and deprive me of my station which rivalled that of Haidar Beg Khán, he put it into Mr. Bristow’s head not to allow me any share in affairs for a short time, so as to reassure Haidar Beg Khán, and thus, while striving to put him at his ease, slowly contrived his ruin. And yet it was a fact that at that time Mr. Bristow was strongly supported by the members of Council; things had been carried on by me with success; abundant means of defeating Haidar Beg were at hand, and all that he wished was sure to be effected: and in delay there was the danger of the opportunity being lost and of Governor Hastings recovering control. This was actually what happened. When my ’iláqa was divided out, over one-half was entrusted to two or three friends of Haidar Beg Khán’s, and the rest was left with Ismá’íl Beg Khán and Taqi Beg Khán, náibs of mine. Ismá’íl Beg got nothing whatever. In the next year, Governor Hastings regained his power and he removed Mr. Bristow on pretence of a change of plans.
Another event of this year was the establishment of courts of law. On this point it has to be said that, notwithstanding the immense population and the magnificence of Lucknow, there was not, and there is not, any recognized jurisdiction of courts of criminal or civil law. All transactions of money-lending are stopped and every one who has the power oppresses some one else, and the only punishment meted out to an oppressor is when the sufferer takes his life in his hand and seeks his revenge himself, or when some influential man in the city takes him under his wing. Qázi Ghulám Mustafá and Mufti Ghulám Hazrat and many famous learned men—for there are numbers of accomplished and just and discerning men of other countries also here—elected to remain in their private houses, through fear of the sneers and ridicule of the Wazír’s servants. Besides this, the Wazír’s servants generally make their chobdárs their agents and obtain fatwá’s and decrees such as they desire. The position of chief justice of the Súbah, a dignity which is the nearest to that of the Súbahdár himself, and an office to be filled only by men of great knowledge and high bearing, had been conferred some years before on Bhawáni Singh Rája, an orderly of the Wazír’s, and is now filled by some one else like him. This results wholly from the villainy of the Wazír’s servants, who desire to have no rule but their own in the city, and while they do not allow him a chance of doing justice, they blame it on his ill-health.
| Justice is pushed aside, complaint is vain: |
| ’Mid all this wrong, alas! what can we gain? |
When the Wazír does hold a court of justice, what he does is, he deputes a chobdár with the complainant and tells him to “go and do what this oppressor, who makes himself out to be oppressed, wants;” but the protection of the oppressor is everywhere the custom. The Wazír is in the matter of criminal justice utterly heedless. There was a firework-maker in the Wazír’s service lived in the Sabza muhalla, in which is my house, and he used to entice children of nine and ten years of age by their love of fireworks and kill them at the bidding of wizards, until men got a clue and dug up his house. They exhumed several corpses of children with their tongues and hearts cut out and their faces burned, and carried them in that state to the Wazír’s door, but for all their cries and lamentations there was no notice taken of them. The firework-maker remained in concealment for some days, but now carries his head as high as ever in that muhalla, and frightens the parents of the murdered children with accusations of plundering the Wazír’s property. Here is another illustration. A man named Nauroz Khán killed Razá Beg Mughal, a relative of the late Nawáb. As the culprit was a relative of Jhao L’al, all the deceased’s mother’s appeals for justice were vain, and at last two lads about fifteen years of age, sons of the deceased’s sister, killed the murderer at the Wazír’s gate and ran away. Though the Wazír searched for them, they were not to be found. Cases like this are too numerous to be written.
Another oppression is that which the Wazír’s subjects suffer in his two regular tours, for his camp-followers have permission to take grass, bhusá, firewood, earthen pots and other such things, and the subjects are so accustomed to oppression, that they reckon this tyranny nothing: but these men, on pretence of taking these things, levy as much grain and money as they go along, from the fields and houses of the peasantry, as keeps them for two or three months on tour and forms a fund for two or three months at Lucknow. Add to this, they burn at night for illuminations the houses of the peasants, which are vacated because of the nearness of the camp: and the consumption of firewood and other supplies already mentioned is so great in the camp, that they pull out the pillars of the people’s houses and throw down the thatch to get wood for cooking their half sér of flour. When Tikait Rai or the collectors complained to Jhao L’al of the oppressive nature of their conduct, he used to reply that if it were meant to put an end to these practices, the Wazír’s excursions, which are the means of enlivening his spirits, would be brought to an end; and that, if it were not for the two or three months in the year that his servants get something, it would be impossible to be in attendance on the Wazír. Those who exclaimed against the tyranny were silenced when they heard this.
In short, Mr. Bristow, when he learned all these things, was incensed and bitterly reproached Haidar Beg. The latter, fearing lest Mr. Bristow should himself undertake these matters, appointed Maulavi Múbín, a celebrated scholar, for some months during Mr. Bristow’s time, to the post of Civil Judge, and after Mr. Bristow’s removal he appointed Muhammad Nasír Khán, a son of Mukhtárn’d Daulah’s paternal uncle, and a personal friend of his own, to this post, and fixed salaries for court officials. After a couple of years the officials, being unpaid, dispersed, and Muhammad Nasír Khán even left his native place and took up his residence in Benares. In 1207 A.H., for some unknown reason, Tikait Rai nominated to this office Mufti Ghulám Hazrat, who is eminently qualified for the duty. Although the Mufti still continues appointed to the bench, yet, owing to the delays in payment of the officials of the court and to the authority usurped by influential men in the city, he might as well not exist.
In this year Mr. Cooper, who had been appointed in Mr. Johnson’s stead as Mr. Bristow’s assistant, kept himself aloof from very shame, and being unable to endure these rascalities, left for Calcutta.
IN this year Khwajá ’Ainu’ddín was removed from Bareli on Mr. Bristow’s complaint, for the ruin he was there working, and Rája Surat Singh was appointed in his stead. He went there from Sarwár and died after a lapse of a year and a few months. Then Rája Jagan Náth, who had been sent as his assistant and deputy, on account of the close of the civil courts, was appointed principal, and the foundations of prosperity were laid in that province, but the unfortunate subjects of the Wazír who trusted in him were again involved in calamity, for in 1200 A. H. Haidar Beg dismissed Rajá Jagan Náth and merged the district in that of Jhao L’al. Jhao Lal’s náib was Bhagwándás, whose father was the notorious Bálak Rám, a relative of Jhao Lal’s. This Bhagwán Dás acted so immoderately that he was killed by a collector. The province was then made over to Mirza Mahdi and became excessively impoverished. The effects of his oppression extended even beyond the málguzárs to others, in the form of house-taxes and corn-tax, and even went as far as taking a tenth of their thread from women who worked spinning wheels, so that his tyranny became a proverb. Rája Jagan Náth was placed under surveillance on a charge of false accounts, and after the death of Haidar Beg Khán was rigorously imprisoned through the malignity of Tikait Rai. He died of a broken heart in 1207 A. H., and was thus freed from the fear of tyrants.
In this year occurred the dismissal of Mr. Bristow and the appointment of Major Palmer to succeed him. This came about as follows. During the whole of Mr. Bristow’s, tenure of office, Major Palmer stayed at Lucknow and exposed all Haidar Beg Khán’s lies to the Governor. For this reason the Governor, having now recovered power, explained to the Council how the Wazír’s affairs were daily becoming worse, and how Haidar Beg was laying the blame on the Company’s gomáshtas, and said that it seemed advisable, in order to test him, to remove the Resident and gomáshtas from Lucknow, and to leave Major Palmer there as the Governor’s agent. Hence Mr. Bristow was dismissed and Ismá’íl Beg Shúrah, who has been connected with every Resident from the days of the late Nawáb until now, as his postal agent, had not courage enough to remain at Lucknow and went with Mr. Bristow to Calcutta. For this reason he destroyed the accounts of two years, and besides this he took a vast sum out of the collections of Allahabad on his way down country. He died not long afterwards in the neighbourhood of Calcutta. After his heaping up, with an utter disregard of the sufferings of men, a fortune, which is believed to have been many lakhs of rupees, his children are now reaping the reward of their father’s sins and are living in extreme poverty and distress. Ismá’íl’s money was in deposit with other people, and any one who held money when he died, misappropriated it.
I also determined to leave Lucknow at the same time with Mr. Bristow, but Haidar Beg Khán became very importunate, wrote a letter with his own hand before the open Qurán, expressing his satisfaction with me, and professing himself clear with me, and sorry for his illtreatment of me, and declaring good intentions toward me for the future, and gave it to me. Although I knew of old the laxity of his promises, yet, reflecting on my want of employment and the lack of interest in me shown by the English, I considered it best to accept his professions, and I remained for some years waiting for something to turn up, and proved to all my innocence and his faithlessness.
Another event of this year was the visit of Governor Hastings to Lucknow. The Wazír went to Benares to meet him and put him up in his Diwán-kháná, which is known as the Imárat Báoli, and entertained him as an esteemed guest. While the Governor was at Lucknow, there arose a famine and high prices prevailed such as men had not heard of for hundreds of years. Thousands of people died daily of inanition, and the heaps of corpses which accumulated in the suburbs caused a stench in the whole cìty. In this distress some English people who were residing at Lucknow, showed great sympathy for the famine-stricken poor, each of them provided food and medical attendance for five hundred or a thousand helpless people while the famine lasted, and then sent them home. Haidar Beg used daily to give out a thousand rupees by Governor Hastings’ command, to be divided out to the infirm sufferers, but as the distributors were avaricious men, needy slaves and commandants of Haidar Beg’s regiments, they abused the trust and used to appropriate more than half to themselves. And so great was the disorder they allowed at distribution, that heads, hands and other limbs of applicants for relief were hurt, nay lives were actually lost in the scramble. Besides this, if a young girl who could talk well and had a pleasant voice met their view in the crowd, they hurried her to Haidar Beg Khán’s haram; and indeed most of Haidar Beg’s children are by these girls. It must be said that, if their master is so heedless in the treatment of the creatures of God, that he is bent on the gratification of lust even in the midst of such distress and cohabits with such persons, it is not to be wondered at if his servants are avaricious of money. Haidar Beg Khán was, from the commencement of his career, given to distributing money in such ways that the hands and feet and heads of the poor were broken, for he had a thorough belief in the sayings of astrologers, and these men used sometimes to weigh him in a balance and get the equal of his weight in silver, copper and clothes, and sometimes they ordered him to distribute coppers to the poor, and sometimes also when he was himself in fear for any reason, he used to do the same. To this day one result of Haidar Beg’s folly is seen in Lucknow, surviving as a memento of him. A number of professional beggars, who post themselves at particular places, have taken to demand false charity such as he used to give, and hundreds of persons in every street of the city pull the hands and clothes of respectable passers-by, so that it is difficult to go along the road, for if anything be given they drag the donor from his vehicle or horse, and the strong among them kick and thump the weak and take their share, and if nothing is given, they indulge in every abuse that comes to their tongues. Any one who has been in Lucknow and felt the hands or tongues of these rascals, knows that there can be no greater evil than almsgiving of this kind.
During this period Prince Jawán Bakht fled from Sháhjahánábád and came to Lucknow. The Governor and Wazír went to receive him and treated him with the usual ceremony. A pension of three lakhs per annum was assigned to him. As he had a political connection with the Wazír, a close intimacy also sprang up between them, but this intimacy was destroyed by the prince’s youthful follies, one of which was his marriage with two women of the town, and so the prince elected to reside at Benares: but after the quarrel between Ismá’íl Beg and Ghulám Qádir, and the departure of the Patel, the prince came with Lord Cornwallis up to the suburbs of Lucknow and went on towards Sháhjahánábád without entering Lucknow. Before he arrived at Delhi, a large gathering formed round him, and if he had been of the right stuff he could have snatched the empire. But he was swayed by the ease he had tasted at Benares, and after visiting his father, he brought away his family to Akbarábád on pretence of managing that Subah, and hurried straight from there to Lucknow. As the Wazír did not on this occasion come out to meet him or show him any respect, he went again to Benares, where he died soon afterwards of cholera. This happened at the end of Sha’bán 1202 A. H. His pension was about to be discontinued on account of his misconduct already mentioned, but, owing to the humanity of Lord Cornwallis, it was spread over his wives and children.
Another of the events of this period was the banishment of Mirza Hasan, a young Mughal retainer of this Government, a provident and experienced man, who was at this time superintendent of the Wazír’s domestic offices, nay, his very soul and tongue. The reason of this was as follows:—Mirza Hasan reduced the expenses in every department of the Wazír’s household, fixed a monthly salary for his servants, and put an end to their indolence and the oppressions they committed on the Wazír’s subjects. He placed trustworthy harkáras over the dároghas, and stopped the habitual embezzlement and theft practiced in all departments. His economy in all his arrangements was so great that, if detailed, it would be deemed exaggerated. If they wanted one straw from the Wazír’s garden, offering even a gold-mohar for it, they could not get it. Accordingly, the dároghas and their ’amla, among whom was Maulavi Fazl Azím, Sarbaráhkár of the Báwarchikhána, conspired to get rid of him. The Maulavi complained against him to Hasan Raza Khán, and, as Haidar Beg was angry with him for dunning him for money for the Wazírs expenses, the two carried tales about him to the Governor. The Governor merely said to tell the Wazír that men of this class were not fit to be entertained by him in his personal service. Haidar Beg retailed this in an exaggerated form to the Wazír, and the Wazír, although be held him dearer than life because of his meanness, at once gave orders for his banishment from the city. The unfortunate man was not allowed time to draw breath, retired to Kálpi, and died there after a few years. Governor Hastings, who was fully aware of Haidar Beg’s faults, and had intended in this visit to procure his dismissal and to set the Wazír’s affairs straight, was compelled to go to England to settle some urgent matters, and was unable to carry out his designs. So, seconding Major Palmer’s efforts, he exerted himself to have Haidar Beg Khán made permanent, and left for Calcutta. Next year he sailed for England.
IN this year Haidar Beg, as Governor Hastings had left for England and Governor Macpherson was only temporary, went farther than before and entrusted the revenue and military affairs of the province to persons who had helped him in his previous troubles. He now plotted against some well-known men, nobles and military officers, who had up to that time managed to hold their own. In the course of time he overthrew them. Among these were Jamshed Beg and Khwaja Ni’matullah. He sent them from Lucknow with 2,000 Turk sawárs on the pretence of their assisting ’Atá Beg Khán, a relative of his and faujdár of A’zamgarh. The Khán was waiting for them and gave the order for the disbanding of the Turk sawárs, and produced a firmán for their plunder in case they should return to Lucknow. On this account most of these sawárs went off to Akbarábád.
Another of Haidar Beg’s acts was the disbanding of the regiment which had captured the fort of Gwaliar. This regiment was in the Company’s service and came with the Governor to Lucknow. The Wazír was pleased with their smartness and skill in manœuvre, and by great importunity induced the Governor to give them to him, and he had retained them in his own service.
IN this year happened the removal of Major Palmer and the appointment of Colonel Harper. The Colonel came from England with the appointment in his pocket. Governor Macpherson made it conditional on the Wazír’s pleasure. The Colonel came to Lucknow, and, by promising Haidar Beg his support and coalition, obtained a letter expressing satisfaction with his appointment and gained his end.
It must be noted that, throughout the previous intrigues, Major Palmer and Tafazzul Husen Khán fancied that while the original office of Resident at Lucknow had been weakened by the dismissal of Mr. Bristow, yet that, inasmuch as Major Palmer was an intimate patron of Haidar Beg’s and a close friend of Governor Hastings, he would have complete control, and that Haidar Beg would prove obedient to him. Their expectations of what the friendship of Hastings would effect were soon disappointed, and Haidar Beg, having gained his point, allowed Major Palmer just so much consideration as was due to the office of an agent. Major Palmer swallowed his wrath and put up with this. Even that position he did not maintain, for Haidar Beg was in his secret. As Major Palmer’s appointment had its origin in a conspiracy against the public welfare and a desire to promote his own private gain, it resulted only in infamy and exaction.
IN this year Sálár Jang, who has been already mentioned, went to the place appointed for him. He was debarred from calling on the name of God and hearing the word of God according to the practice of every Mussalman in his last moments, for during his lifetime he had refrained from reading the Qurán and they dared not even mention in his house the name of the ‘Súra Yásín,’ which is especially intended for these moments; and if there was any occasion to refer to it, they spoke of it as the Nanáwán, or ‘nameless thing.’ This fact suffices to show at once how far he was either tolerant, religious, or fearless.
In this year Haidar Beg, when he heard of the dignified bearing and noble qualities of Lord Cornwallis, who had arrived in Calcutta as Governor, went to Bengal. This nobleman, who was free from all guile and entirely without motives, was completely deceived by his apparent openness, and treated him with courtesy and trust. Accordingly, Haidar Beg, embracing the opportunity, carried several points with Lord Cornwallis and returned to Lucknow successful and exultant. Among these matters were: (1) a reduction in the annual payment to the Company; (2) a remission of the arrears of past years; (3) the abolition of the taxes imposed to meet the expenses of the cantonments, and the removal of officers who were employed in the service of the Súbah. Nine months elapsed between his departure and his return.
Immediately on his return he quarrelled with Jhao L’al and made Bareli over to Mirz Mahdi, who has already been mentioned, a man who, it was notorious, had not even the ability to fill the post, and who was one of Tikait Rai’s associates and reckoned among his protégés. Jhao L’al’s house and all his property were confiscated to meet the accounts, and he was himself imprisoned. After a year and a half he managed to satisfy Haidar Beg and was released.
Two months after Haidar Beg’s return, Colonel Hauper was removed, and Mr. F.* was appointed, and at the same time the news of Lord Cornwallis’ intention to visit Lucknow was received. The Wazír went to Allahábád to receive him, and Haidar Beg went as far as Benares, and they returned together. In accordance with custom they entertained the Governor and presented money, goods, and curiosities; but Lord Cornwallis would not take anything whatever of all they presented, and he endeavoured to out-do all previous Governors in the marks of respect and courtesy which he showed the Wazír. In fact, Lord Cornwallis, as the couplet puts it,—
| What knoweth he of lies who lives and speaks aright? | ||||
| Crooked or straight alike, a candle gives but light. |
| The selfish soul that sowed for others’ pain |
| Left all, and harvest of his toil was none: |
| Loss of both worlds—this was his only gain: |
| He died in seventeen ninety-one.* |
After his death the practice of confiscation by the State, which had been the rule since the days of the late Nawáb, and was in this case above all others necessary, was not enforced. The reason was that Hasan Raza Khán, thinking of his own future, acting on behalf of Lord Cornwallis, intimidated the Wazír and restrained him from confiscating Haidar Beg’s house. The wealth amassed by him, consisting chiefly of jewels and gold, was left by his children, who were very young, in the hands of the women, each keeping what she had, for they knew they would anyhow wrest all from them, and everything became scattered all over Lucknow. Nothing that any one held returned to its owner; and the servants and agents of the haram, carrying off precious stones and all sorts of things rolled up in carpets, became so wealthy that the son of a khidmatgár, Muhammad Hasan Khán, who lives in Haidar Ganj, is now worth about a lakh of rupees. Haidar Beg has left many daughters and sons. Of these Akbar Ali Khán and Husen Ali Khán are by his wife, and are best known. Husen Ali is credited with bad practices and levity of character, but Akbar Ali is a steady youth, reticent and well-behaved. No misconduct on his part has been observed or heard of. I should not wonder, provided he gain experience, if he proves himself fit to succeed, and that rightfully too, to his father’s office.
I shall now relate what resulted among the various classes of society from the conduct of Haidar Beg, so that every one may know. First come the officials. When they saw the wealth and outward show of Haidar Beg, and that they were partners in his dishonesty, they adopted a high style of living and expenditure like their master. Thus the expenses of Náib, Díwán, sarishtadár, bakhshi and khazánchi, ordinary and current only, are in each case as great as were in old days the expenses of Burhán’ul Mulk himself. Besides this they spend their time in follies and give no thought to the management of the State and army. The corruption of the secretaries and clerks is so great, that any one who gives one of them a hundred rupees gets a place at a hundred rupees a month with an assignment of land and a parwána for tankhwáh. In the accounts of the collectors and troops, the sums which they have in this interval intercepted, would amount to krors of rupees. Bankers, both in the private affairs of the Wazír, and also more especially in their capacity of treasurers in dealing with the public, swallow up about a sixth part of receipts on pretence of interest and discount, and take it as their dues. The prodigality and peculations of the collectors had become an established thing long before this time, and have been exposed in the same place as the extravagances of the Wazír. The Wazír’s different stewards of his various domestic departments are so bold in their dishonesty, that they openly sell in the bázárs at cheap prices the grain and other fodder of his horses, wet and dry, and meat, oil, butter, and all the spices of the cook-house, and cooked food, and everything entrusted to their keeping, clothes, tents, swords and guns. Of all the evil practices which inspire men with confidence in peculation and cause universal corruption, the worst is this. The commandants of regiments and the captains of artillery, and the dároghas of every department, have accustomed themselves to a rate of living four times as great as their annual income, and if they do not embezzle, where do they get the money? Of a class with this is the entertainment of the Wazír by his collectors. Each entertainment of the kind costs from five to fifty thousand rupees according to the grade, high or low, of the official. The man who is the greatest thief is most profuse in this line, and is most highly esteemed. “Ye who have eyes to see, take warning.”
As to the troops, fifty of every hundred are fictitious, and the agents, the jamadárs, and the bakhshi take among them the pay of these fifty fictitious. Ten horses, perhaps, in a hundred may be fit to ride. Most men are without accoutrements, and those that any have, are worthless. Of the people generally, every one who has any power of resistance, by reason either of house, or confederates, or court influence, gives to the collector, after an infinitude of worry, a little of what is due from him and spends the rest ìn paying his helpers, and in the preparation of a fort and procuring arms, and all means of resistance to authority; he who is weak cannot get leisure from the annoyances of the collector to scratch his head, and whatever he can in any way raise, the collector takes from him; nay, more, the collector has his eye open to sell his bullocks and agrieultural implements.
The revenue of the country, is shown in the following schedule. In it the revenue of the year 1199 Fasli, the middle of Haidar Beg’s administration, has been selected, and the increase or decrease as compared with 1188 Fasli, the last year of the late Nawáb, has also been entered. The estates which are ‘hazúr tahsíl,’ the confiscated jágírs, and the ‘sayar’ items of revenue, amounting in all to about twenty lakhs of rupees, are not included. If the demand had been paid up in full, the jama’ of 1188 Fasli would have been three krors, and the decrease would be one kror:—
| Iláqa. | Jama’ of 1188 Fasli. | Jama’ of 1199 Fasli. | Increase. | Decrease. |
| Sháhráh, Itáwah and Korah, iláqa of Almás Ali Khán. | 93,17,000 | 64,04,300 | … | 29,12,700 |
| Chakla Bareli | 65,70,000 | 35,00,000 | … | 30,70,000 |
| Bahraich, Gondah, and Gorakhpur. | 16,22,000 | 10,00,000 | … | 6,22,000 |
| Sarkár Khairabad | 11,64,000 | 13,80,124 | 2,16,124 | … |
| Sultánpur | 6,13,000 | 5,35,000 | … | 78,000 |
| Allahábád | 9,94,000 | 8,15,000 | … | 1,79,000 |
| A’zamgarh and Máhal | 8,66,000 | 7,00,000 | … | 1,66,000 |
| Partábgarh and Ahmeti | 13,40,000 | 6,18,000 | … | 7,22,000 |
| Sandíla and Malíhábád with Hardoi. | 5,98,300 | 5,38,645 | … | 59,655 |
| Akbarpur Dostpur | 4,45,000 | 4,15,000 | … | 30,000 |
| Awadh and Daryá-ábád and Rudauli. | 13,82,000 | 11,31,815 | … | 2,50,185 |
| Manikpur Bahár | 1,81,000 | 1,60,000 | … | 21,000 |
| Baiswára, Bareli, and Dalmau. | 18,45,000 | 13,65,303 | … | 4,79,697 |
| Ta’luqa Muhamdi | 2,29,000 | 2,00,000 | … | 29,000 |
| Khairagarh | 2,10,000 | 2,00,000 | … | 10,000 |
| Tándah | 4,70,000 | 8,13,076 | 3,43,076 | … |
| Haveli Lucknow | 1,62,000 | 72,000 | … | 90,000 |
| Sílak and Salon | 5,90,000 | 2,50,000 | … | 3,40,000 |
| Total | 2,85,98,300 | 2,00,98,263 | 5,59,200 | 90,59,237 |
In short, after Haidar Beg’s death, among all the great host of officials, Tikait Rai was selected by the Wazír, and the Wazír’s idea in making this choice was this: he hoped that, as Tikait Rai was less forward and less important than Haidar Beg, he would not resist his foolish demands and would not oppose his wishes in deference to the English as Haidar Beg had done. In this matter of such vast importance he considered nothing else, good or bad, but this one point. Let the wise and discriminating consider what must be the issue of an act which in its inception rested on a foundation such as this. In the same way all the Wazír’s actions are characterized by the same absence of forethought. For this reason respectable people withdrew, and disreputable persons came forward. Still, even the latter do not find things easy, for if the person appointed to an office does anything opposed to the Wazír in the despatch of his duties, he at once becomes the victim of the Wazír’s ill-temper, and if he follows Tikait Rai’s example and conforms to the Wazír’s wishes, as the country is going to the bad, he afterwards becomes the subject of reproach. If those who are detached to the service of the English, act according to the secret wishes of their patrons and play the hypocrite, they become the butt of the wrath and hatred of the English: and if they conduct themselves uprightly, they fall into the whirlpool of the Wazír’s malice. I, the author, am one of these latter, who have been for twenty years involved in persecution. There is no knowing how God’s people will obtain release from the wrath of the oppressors. True, there is release in separation from them, but as it involves the desertion of their native land by a great number, it is impossible, and as to rebellion against the Wazír, though it would effect deliverance, it is not practicable, for the apathy of the public and their habitual reconciliation to the customs of India, and the admixture of discordant elements in the population, and the support given by the English to the Wazír, prevent it.
In short, inasmuch as all those who were worthy of the post of Náib, had been stripped by the persecuting assailments of Haidar Beg, and had retired into private life, and Tikait Rai was the picked man among those who were available, Lord Cornwallis and the Members of Council confirmed the Wazír’s selection, although they were aware of the mean origin of Tikait Rai, and, as they did not think it would conduce to their keeping the Wazír in good humour, they did not venture to bring forward those who had been the victims of Haidar Beg’s dislike, although this was what the case demanded. And yet, as a fact, they should in everything have run counter to the wishes of the Wazír, and should have checked the tendency to excesses in which he so recklessly indulged. If, for the sake of introducing that complete plan of government in which is bound up the business and prosperity of the public, and in which they are themselves expert, and which I shall write about at the close of this book, they were once for all to make the Wazír accept the unpleasant and, as it were, compel him to it, it would be highly advisable: and after seeing the results of this plan, the Wazír would be so satisfied that he would never regret the change.
In short, the Wazír, after receiving sanction, raised Tikait Rai to the position of Náib, and giving Hasan Raza Khán also permission to supervise the administration, nominated him Názir. If Hasan Raza Khán had been worth anything, he could have had a wide influence in the affairs of the State, but fearing responsibility and having no knowledge of business, he held aloof in everything, and screening himself behind Tikait Rai in all matters, made him so prominent, that he himself became dependent on him. Tikait Rai, on the other hand, from incapacity and worthlessness, began to exact too much service from him, until at last things came to the point of a quarrel between them, and Jhao L’al found his opportunity between them.
It must be remembered that Mirza Hasan Raza Khán is not to be blamed in this quarrel, for out of regard for his own dignity and that of his friends, from the time of Haidar Beg up to now, he had always disliked pressure and exertion, and was content with whatever was given him or happened him. The cause of his conduct in this instance was Mirza Ja’far, his sister’s husband, for he excited in his mind by various suggestions false notions as to his and his own efficiency. As a fact, Hasan Raza Khán and Mirza Ja’far were both utterly unable to manage their private affairs, and for this reason they were always in straits and hard up. The brusqueness and laziness of Mirza Ja’far were so great, that in the mere capacity of private agent (mukhtár) to Hasan Raza Khán, and during the nominal and temporary tenure of the post of Náib Bakhshi, he gave offence to all his old friends, and daily kept putting off hearing what people had to say, pleading great pressure of business. Yet he used to sit up till three o’clock in the morning listening to music, surrounded by clowns and buffoons.
| Master and I—we are a pair so neat, |
| That two more masters for the two were meet. |
IN this year Lord Cornwallis, becoming convinced of the mismangement of affairs at Lucknow, wrote a letter of recommendation for me in terms befitting his station and dignity, and sent me to Lucknow. I had been four years in Calcutta. During that interval what had occurred was as follows:—Lord Cornwallis, when he heard my representations, after my arrival in Calcutta, promised to help me when opportunity occurred, and nominated me for the time to the agency at Haidarábád; but owing to the war with Tippu which then broke out, and his own departure for the Dakhin, he kept my appointment in abeyance. The Governor-General, therefore, made some verbal recommendations regarding me through Tafazzul Husen Khán and left for the Dakhin. Haidar Beg, however, who used to hear alarming news from the Dakhin, gave no effect to the Governor’s orders. He died about the time the war ended, and Lord Cornwallis, when he returned to Calcutta, being resolved to support me, sent me to Lucknow. His intention was that through his letter I should gradually get a footing in the administration at Lucknow, and he would afterwards work out his designs regarding me, Unfortunately, at the very time that I arrived in Lucknow, Lord Cornwallis went to England. Rája Tikait Rai, out of fear for his own security, and Hasan Raza Khán, through his want ofindependence, gave me no place. They kept putting me off with promises for some years, and paid me the 500 rupees a month which had been fixed many years before by that Government as my stipend.
In this year Hasan Raza Khán and Tikait Rai visited Calcutta to bid good-bye to Lord Cornwallis, and to wait on Mr. John Shore, the new Governor. The two of them were honoured with drums, the armorial bearings of ‘the Fish,’ and with steps of rank, and they left Lucknow in mutual ill-feeling. Hasan Raza Khán wished to take me with them on this embassy, but, through fear of Tikait Rai, said nothing of it to the Wazír. Tikait Rai wished the same, but could not venture to express his wish for fear of Hasan Raza Khán. The two left Lucknow. After their departure I applied to the Wazír to be permitted to join the embassy and pay my respects to Lord Cornwallis. The Wazír gave me a khila’t and accorded me permission. I joined Hasan Raza Khán and travelled with him for three stages. When Tikait Rai heard this, he was greatly excited, sent alarming reports to the Wazír, and forwarded to him repeated letters, advising my recall. Hasan Raza Khán was helpless, insisted on my return, and sent me back. The two arrived in Calcutta, and, owing to their silliness and discord, returned next year to Lucknow without either experiencing any satisfaction. They represented their expenses to the Wazír as amounting to about 15 lakhs of rupees.
IN this year Mr. F.* was removed and Mr. Cherry was appointed to Lucknow. Mr. F., after his dismissal, remained at Lucknow fruitlessly, and endeavoured to conciliate the Wazír by presenting nazars to the Nawáb Begam; and, although more than five or six residents of Lucknow used not to visit him, he had a day fixed for receiving them. He did not even adhere to the day, but used to change it, and thus the few who used to go to see him usually returned disappointed.
| Oh! who will chide the rose and say: |
| “Of feathered songsters to thy side |
| The bulbul only comes to woo; |
| Then why hast thou its pinions tied?” |
Mr. Johnson, who was his assistant, was in every way an able man, so much so that the Wazír’s officials could not sleep comfortably at night for very dread of him. But what was the use of this, when he had no power owing to the discord of Mr. F., and was in a state of constant uneasiness through the resentment he felt at his undignified conduct. Notwithstanding all this the official influence of Mr. F. was greater than that of any other agent of the Company.
In this year Wazír Ali Khán’s marriage with the daughter of Ashraf Ali Khán, son of Bande Ali Khán, took place. The amount of fireworks, illuminations, and other vanities displayed was so vast, that the details would swell this book. More than twenty lakhs of rupees were squandered. On the day of the wedding the Wazír himself walked on foot before Wazír Ali’s takht-i-rawán. When the people urged him to ride, he replied: “I have vowed with all my heart that I would on this day walk like all the servants before Wazír Ali’s conveyance.” For all this excessive show of respect for Wazír Ali, the Wazír after a short time confiscated all his allowances and properties, saying, “This son of a farrásh has returned to his origin:” for Wazír Ali used to strangulate fowls and pigeons in the haram-sará and call on the servants to go into mourning and used to clothe himself in black, as if he were thereby taking omens for the Wazír’s death. For this cause the Wazír was angry with him. The reason why he termed him a son of a farrásh was this: Wazír Ali was really the son of a farrásh, and the farrásh had for a money consideration made over his wife while pregnant to the Wazír. This is not the only case of the kind; nay, all the Wazír’s children are of similar origin; for the Wazír’s servants bought up every woman they could whom they found pregnant, in the beginning of her pregnancy, from her guardians, and placed her in the Wazír’s haram. And sometimes a pregnant woman presents herself at the side of the Wazír’s conveyance and cries: “Though you do not recall the time I slept with you, still take pity on your son whom I carry in my womb:” and the Wazír acknowledges her claim and places her in his haram. Some of his friends of the lower classes had the entrée of his haram, and the ugly features and dark complexion of the children in his haram are incontrovertible evidence of their thorough-bred descent. After this marriage he instituted marriage ceremonies every year about this season, and this custom became one of the finishing festivities of the Holi. Next year he asked the daughter of Mirza Jangali for his second son, Raza Ali. Mirza Jangali, having no choice left in the matter, at last reluctantly gave his consent. But on the bridal night he could not control himself and wept openly, giving vent to his grief and rage in loud cries. Although his cries revealed the secret of his pain, the Wazír said: “Why does my brother weep at parting with his daughter. She is not going to another land where he cannot see her.” He was weeping at the impropriety of a granddaughter of Shujá’u’d Daulah’s entering the house of a nobody, whose legitimacy all respectable people deny, and in their regret cry: “Allah hath sealed up their hearts, their ears and their eyes: they have deceived him.”
IN this year General Abercrombie came by boat to Cawnpore for military inspection. He was still on his journey when the Ruhela war re-opened. The Wazír, who interviewed him opposite Dalmau, was induced after much entreaty to fight against Ghulám Muhammad.
The cause of this was as follows:—At this period Faizullah, son of Muhammad Ali, son of Muhammad Khán, who had obtained after Háfiz Rahmat’s death, a jágír yielding twelve lakhs of rupees, and had by his skill and prudence tripled the revenue, and gathered together all the people of his tribe, died. His eldest son, Muhammad Ali Khán, succeeded him as his heir by the Wazír’s orders, but within a few days, as the hearts of the leaders of the clan were estranged from him on account of his unbridled tongue and his want of valour, his younger brother, Ghulam Muhammad, who was in command of the troops and had many good qualities, killed him. He calculated that, as it was the custom throughout the Súbah that the survivor should continue to pay the Wazír’s revenue, and no questions were asked, there would be no chance of any interference by the Wazír. But, as the strength of this clan had been jealously marked by the English from the time of Faizullah, and they had had nothing to lay hold of hitherto owing to Faizullah Khán’s prudence, Governor Sir John Shore, now thinking this an opportunity for crushing the clan, wrote to General Abercrombie to that effect. The Wazír, as his hunting season was near, began to raise excuses, and to look for pretexts for delay and for treating with Ghulám Muhammad, until he was at last compelled by the General’s importunities to act, and he moved with his army two stages in the rear of the General’s camp. Ghulám Muhammad, misled by Mr. Cherry, had refrained from any adverse movement; being now reduced to despair, he advanced with fifty or sixty thousand men and met the English force five kos on the other side of Bareli. Next day a sharp engagement ensued, and he fled to Rámpur, and taking his family with him, fortified himself in the mountains opposite Rehrah. Owing to the inactivity of some English officers and the intrepidity of the Ruhelas, the English were on the point of sustaining a defeat, but the General, who occupied the centre, notwithstanding the dispersion of his right wing, held his ground and kept up an incessant cannon fire. The advanced guard of the Ruhelas, who were in the heat of victory engaged in decapitating the dead, became a mark for the fire, and they and the fugitives of their force were shot down. About 1,000 native soldiers, and one hundred Europeans and ten or twelve officers, were killed on the General’s side, and about the same number fell on the other side, as well as some chiefs, among whom were Najju Khán and a son of Umar Kháñ. Among the points which favoured their enemies was the foolish haste which the Ruhelas showed in attack; for if the Wazír’s force had come up and they had attacked them, the English would have been unable to remedy the defeat which would have ensued. To resume, after the victory the Wazír joined the General’s camp and pursued the routed army, pitched his camp at Rehrah and invested the place. Notwithstanding their defeat the Ruhelas were as eager as before for fight. Ghulám Muhammad, however, seeing the superiority of the English, obtained a promise of safe conduct and came to negotiate. He was not allowed to return. Mr. Cherry worked Nasrullah Khán, Ghulám Muhammad’s náib, who was with him, round to his side, and after a month and a half the Ruhelas, finding themselves helpless, agreed to a peace. About 50 lakhs of rupees and nearly half of their country fell into the hands of the Wazír. Of the money, about 12 lakhs were paid to the English as blood-money and compensation to the families of those killed in the campaign. Muhammad Ali Khán’s minor son was appointed to the headship of the clan, and Nasrullah was nominated náib. Umar Khán and other Ruhela sardárs, who had led to this war, obtained permission to return to, and reside at, Rámpur, and were left to profit by experience, which is the best master. Ghulám Muhammad Khán, who had been made a prisoner and sent to the fort of Chunár, was released and a pension of Rs. 1,500 per mensem was settled on him as his share of the Ruhela jagir. He settled this on his wife and children, and left the Company’s dominions for the performance of a pilgrimage to Mecca. It is said that after performing this pilgrimage he returned to Muscat, and came on to Surat, whence he proceeded to Bijainagar. He is now prepared to serve Zamán Sháh in hopes of obtaining his assistance in return.
In the course of these transactions Mr. Cherry on several occasions exhibited a high degree of acuteness and trustworthiness. His claims on the Wazír became apparent. Among these services was the deception he practised with the agents of Ghulám Muhammad. He induced them to believe that this attack had originated with the Wazír, and that the English were merely acting under his orders; but that when the English get an opportunity, they would restrain the Wazír from his purposes. This led them to maintain a waiting attitude and make no active preparations. Whereas, if they had moved at all, the whole province of Bareli would have been captured by them, and 50 or 60 guns and other munitions of war would have fallen into their hands. They could have summoned some thousands of Sikhs to their aid, and the war would have fallen upon the Wazír’s Súbah, and he would have been placed in great difficulties. A second service was the arrival of Ghulám Muhammad to negotiate, and the rupture between Nasrullah Khán and the rest of the clan. This very much facilitated matters. The third service was the gain by the Wazír, without any conditions, of the money plundered and of the territory wrested. Yet a further service was the settlement of the affairs of the Ruhelas on a footing good for the Wazír and the Company, and bad for the Ruhelas. The fact is that the Ruhelas were offering Mr. Cherry eight lakhs of rupees on condition of his favouring them, but he was firm. Jhao L’al also at the beginning of the quarrel was prepared to give ten lakhs of rupees to Mr. Cherry if he would let things go on without inquiry. Yet, in this case also, he remained honest and loyal to the two Governments. Notwithstanding all this, there happened what happened to him through the Wazír’s inappreciation of his worth.
IN this year Tikait Rai was set aside and Jhao L’al stepped into the post of Náib without khila’at or formality. The reason is that, as Tikait Rai had neither presence nor ability, and was, moreover, excessively fond of boys, he commanded no respect, and the peculation, disorder, and greed, which had been common before, became worse than ever. All the officials were beardless youths, and each of his companions vied with the other in independence, and Tikait Rai was guilty of great excesses in grants of villages, land, daily stipends to Brahmins, and in bestowing gifts, and monthly allowances of thousands of rupees upon these young lads. Baijnáth and Dhanpat Rai amassed lakhs of rupees on the pretence of interest. In this way, the revenues of maháls were concealed, and they carried on the business of the Government by loans bearing interest, and bonds for these loans were taken in the name of the English, and most mahájans of the city as well as they divided the profits, until eventually thirty lakhs of rupees interest per annum was acknowledged as an item of expense. Hulás Rai and Nirmal Dás misappropriated vast sums out of the income of the maháls under their managemenat. Besides this, all these except Nirmal Das, who was a humane and dignified man, turned the people against themselves by their habit of bad language and idle talk. This evil habit became confirmed, and they came to practise not upon the poor alone, but even with respectable people. Accordingly the Wazír’s and Mr. Cherry’s servants were kept running for twenty days to the treasury to draw their instalments, and received abuse from the officials. Frequent complaints of this reached the Wazír and Mr. Cherry. Tikait Rai apologized, but there was no improvement, until at last a dispute arose between Baijnáth and Hulás Rai. Jhao L’al was informed of all their secrets by Bálak Ram, who was a close friend of Hulás Rai. Baijnáth and Dhanpat Rai, claiming all the country as security for the payment of the loans, suspended the payment of the instalments due to the Wazír and the English and all the expenses of the State. Tikait Rai, thinking it advisable to forestall inquiry, addressed the Governor, Sir John Shore, and represented that the sole cause of all this was the Wazír’s prodigality, and asked the Council for a letter of advice to the address of the Wazír and a note to Mr. Cherry, directing him to use his influence to limit the Wazír’s expenditure. The Governor complied with his application, and Mr. Cherry asked him for a schedule of account. As all that Tikait Rai wanted was that thirty or forty lakhs of rupees should be cut off the Wazír’s and his servants’ expenditure and devoted to the payment of the yearly interest, and was quite regardless of the waste by his own protègés and his personal prodigality, Mr. Cherry did not obtain a satisfactory reply. He therefore resolved to take advantge of the appeal made by Tikait Rai to the Governor for reduction of the Wazír’s expenses, to create a breach between Tikait Rai and the Wazír, and obtain through the Wazír the control of expenditure, and of the revenue on the following plan; that Hasan Raza Khán should be Bakhshi, Bahráj* Khazánchi, and some one else Díwán, and the Wazír himself general superintendent. He fancied that, as the Wazír could not exercise supervision, that duty would be entrusted to him, and that these three appointments would be nominal, while he would be in a position to direct everything. But at this point some prudent persons told him that it was inadvisable to support the Wazír, though it was proper to create the breach proposed: that, as Tikait Rai would have no refuge but in the English, he would have to bow to the yoke, and he (Mr. Cherry) would obtain the mastery without resistance, and could then gradually remodel every department. This advice was good, but Mr. Cherry, deeming it proper to side with the Wazír, because of his incapacity, asked the Council for permission to adopt this course, and although Mr. Cooper was against this proposal, the Governor, for heaven knows what reason, gave his consent. Jhao L’al and Bachhráj counselled the Wazír to humour Mr. Cherry for the time, avail himself of his assistance to remove Tikait Rai, take the reins into his own hands, and that they would then baffle Mr. Cherry.
All these now aided Mr. Cherry to set Tikait Rai aside, and each cherished in his heart designs to defeat the intentions of the others. Thus Jhao L’al, relying on his intimacy with the Wazír, hoped to become Náib himself. Bachhráj thought that, as the Wazír would not be content with Mr. Cherry’s control after Tikait Rai’s removal, the choice would fall on Tafazzul Husen Khán. Hasan Raza Khán and Mirza Ja’far fancied that they would, through the appointment of Bakhshi, be practically Náib. They were wholly ignorant of Mr. Cherry’s object, who had not laid his plans to gratify their designs. Accordingly, if Mr. Cherry’s counsels resulted in upsetting Jhao L’al, he would have had afterwards to dispose of these two and of Bachhráj; and they would then have attributed all they did to Jhao L’al in order to clear themselves.
In short, after the removal of Tikait Rai and the disclosure of Mr. Cherry’s aims, Bachhráj, being disappointed in his expectation of Tafazzul Husen Khán’s appointment and his own designs of supremacy, which he had hoped to secure for his own ends in the treasury, was compelled to support Jhao L’al. Hasan Raza Khán, having no one else to rely upon, clung to Mr. Cherry, and Jhao L’al, who desired the ruin of both Bachhráj and Tafazzul Husen Khán, took the same side for the time to suit his own purposes. They kept Mr. Cherry in play for a while, until he gradually unveiled his purposes. When he disclosed his plans, the Wazir said: “I am a man of my word, and I am attending to the affairs of my State. Jhao L’al is the medium through whom I carry out my orders. If any important difficulty arises I shall of course consult you.” Mr. Cherry now saw how matters were, and thought himself compelled to support Tikait Rai. Now some persons pointed out to Mr. Cherry that this was a foolish resolve; that he should put forward the claims of the mahájans, for the delay in paying which the English were blamed, and call on the Wazír to settle them; and that, as the payment of these claims in one lump was impossible, the appointment of Tikait Rai as Díwán would necessarily ensue. At the beginning of this trouble I had told Mr. Cherry that this was the first case of the kind he had had to deal with, and that I had seen two or three such crises before; that the Wazír, Jhao L’al, and Bachhráj would certainly not place themselves in his hands; that it would be best for him, when the Wazír’s interests made him dependent on him, to employ two or three persons of tried honesty and experience in the routine of the Wazír’s affairs, and begin his reforms through them; but not to trust matters to the promises of the Wazír, Jhao L’al, or Bachhráj. Mr. Cherry replied: “The Marhattas are notorious for their craft and cunning, and I have managed them. I must be left to deal with these who are nothing to them, and see what the result will be. After the result of my endeavours to win the Wazír’s consent, which will be that the thread of administration will come into my hands, everything that I wish will be carried out.” In short, Mr. Cherry, having inspected three years’ accounts of Tikait Rai’s, said to the Wazír that the excellence of Tikait Rai’s administration was apparent from these papers and the imputation of embezzlement was altogether wrong; that it was advisable to appoint him Díwán, and Hasan Raja Khán Bakhshi; that Jhao L’al should be maintained in his old post and Bachhráj hold the treasury. The Wazír replied: “How can the suspicion of Tikait Rai’s dishonesty, which you had said was proved, be removed by these false documents of his and your cursory examination of them? He was removed on the condition that no efforts for his restoration should be made on your part.” Owing to this rupture between the Wazír and Mr. Cherry, a long altercation ensued and they ceased to visit each other. As it was impossible to bring the Wazír to his senses without strong measures and threats, and it was inadvisable to maintain Mr. Cherry near the Wazír in such a dispute, the Governor removed Mr. Cherry, and sent to Lucknow Mr. Lumsden, who was agent at Benares, and he wrote to the Wazír that he had removed Mr. Cherry as he desired to maintain the Wazír’s dignity, and that he hoped the Wazír would not permit Jhao L’al to have any share in the Náib’s duties, as he was a turbulent spirit. The Wazír and Jhao L’al, construing this into a confession of weakness on the Governor’s part, outwardly complied with his wishes, but secretly acted in direct opposition to them. It must be understood that this rupture between the Wazír and Mr. Cherry arose from a stubbornness on the Wazír’s part, to which Bachhráj had prompted him by means of Tafazzul Husen Khán and his own gomashta, Shimbhu Náth, and he incited the Wazír by deceitful words to believe that he could rely on the temper of the Governor and the Council for the attainment of his ends. Had it not been for this, the Wazír would not have dared to oppose Mr. Cherry, and the affair would not have been so prolonged. Stranger than this, after Mr. Cherry’s removal, Bachhráj, although he had gained his end, began to aspire to the distinction of Náib, and he cultivated the friendship of Jhao L’al, and became an enemy of Tafazzul Husen Khán under whose shield he had been living for fifteen years. Notwithstanding all these machinations, he has outridden every danger and is waiting for his chance to come.
In this year Burhánu’l Mulk’s daughter died. She was a chaste and magnanimous woman. She passed her whole life in the enjoyment of authority and wealth, but not one act did she ever commit inconsistent with her greatness. They say that before her birth the footsteps of Burhánu’l Mulk were dogged by poverty, but that from her birth good fortune began to attend upon his family, and the breezes of prosperity to blow from the bounty of heaven. When Nawáb Safdar Jang was defeated by Ahmad Khán Bangash, she was at Sháhjahánábád. Jáwed Khán Mudáru’l Mahámm, meditated some outrage to her. The lady prepared with her servants to resist him and succeeded in blunting the fangs of his cupidity. On Safdar Jang’s return she gave all her treasures as a thank-offering for his safety, and bestowed robes of honor, magnificent equipments and accoutrements on all her husband’s servants who had shared his dangers. After this she had no private funds left, but she subsisted contentedly during her son’s lifetime on the jágír, yielding about a lakh and a half a year, which the Emperor had conferred on her, and coveted nothing from the domains or treasury of her son. Although the late Nawáb adopted many pretences in the endeavour to supplement her income, his devices failed: and so, when she died, she left not more than ten or fifteen lakhs of rupees, cash and goods, which she had saved up for a pilgrimage to Mecca. But the Wazír, fancying that she must have left a vast fortune, subjected her retainers to many tortures. There is a custom of sitting in mourning for forty days at the place of death, universally observed by all Muslim women in India. The Wazír did not allow the mourners for the Begam to observe this ceremony. He dragged within one week from her house old ladies in waiting of Safdar Jang’s time, and Muharram Ali Khán and Matbu’ Ali Khán, who had each lived for sixty or seventy years in the enjoyment of the highest respect, and had been accustomed to be treated with honour, and in whose presence the late Nawáb had always behaved courteously; placed fetters on their feet and made them walk through the streets of Faizábád; and on base suspicion beat them and degraded them. When nothing was extorted by this means, they were all brought to Lucknow. At last he was satisfied by confiscating all their personal properties, and this detestable proceeding, which disgusted everybody, ended. The only riches that he found, beyond the treasure at first disclosed, was the good fame of the departed lady.
Another of the events of this year was the visit of the (Governor) General to Cawnpore. The explanation of this was that the officers of the brigades had addressed the Council at Calcutta regarding their rank and salaries. The Governor came up by dák to Cawnpore and settled the points in dispute. The Wazír sent Jhao L’al, on the pretext of an escort with Wazír Ali, to receive and entertain the Governor at Cawnpore, and he invited him to visit Lucknow. The Governor, after he had settled this business, came to Lucknow, while the dispute with Mr. Cherry was in progress, and gave some advice. He returned to Calcutta as quickly as he had come.
IN the beginning of Muharram of this year, Mr. Cherry left Lucknow for Benares and Mr. Lumsden settled down at Lucknow like a nonentity. The star of Jhao L’al reached its zenith. Ghulám Qadir Khán, a servant of the Company and Mr. Lumsden’s spokesman, was corrupted by the lying overtures of Jhao L’al, and Jhao L’al’s mind became easy.
I also now considered it inadvisable to remain at Lucknow, and left with Mr. Cherry, and, after passing the rest of the rainy season up-country, I set out for Calcutta. As Jháo L’al had in the course of the late intrigues held out inducements to me, both directly and indirectly, to assist him and throw Mr. Cherry over, and I had not done so, he had fostered a grudge against me, and it was highly probable that he would on some pretence injure me. At this juncture, the Bareli maháls which were under Shambhu Náth, Baijnáth’s brother, were made over to Almás at a reduced jama. He divided out Nirmal Dés’s iláqa and Baiswára to Mirza Mahdi, and an orderly, Nawáz Singh. Although this Mirza Mahdi had been raised from the dirt by Tikait Rai, he joined Hasan Raza Khán when Tikait Rai was Náib, and aspired openly to the Níábat. Tikait Rai for this reason removed him and imprisoned him for embezzlement. When after a time Tikait Rai’s position became shaky, he broke off from Hasan Raza Khán and made up to Jhao L’al. On paying five or six lakhs he obtained his release, and by a contemptible fawning, to which honourable men do not stoop, he became Jhao L’al’s confidant and confederate. Now he was on intimate terms with Tafazzul Husen Khán, because the son of the latter is married to his brother’s daughter. In the face of the ruin which he has worked in Bareli, he still has a finger in all the affairs of the Súbah and is doing his utmost to ruin Hasan Raza Khán, Jhao L’al and Tikait Rai.
To sum up, the service which Jhao L’al rendered the Wazír at this time was this. He reduced in some cases, and in others cut off, the auxiliary allowances granted to relatives and old friends and military chiefs, even those of the very kinsmen and brothers of the Wazír, and those of the women of the seraglios of Burhànu’l Mulk and Safdar Jang and of the late Nawáb; and he lodged the savings thereby made in the Nawáb Wazír’s personal treasury. He feared incurring disrepute on account of delay in paying the instalments due to the English, and he paid off the debts of Tikait Rai’s time, amounting to about a kror and a half. He did this thus: He deferred payment of the interest due on the English bonds, and borrowing forty lakhs from the Nawáb Wazír he paid cash. He spread the debts due to bankers of the city over seven years, and told them that their lien was on the world above. Some of them stood out. When the inquiry was referred to Rája Mahra, they made up their accounts and accepted this arrangement. Yet he not only failed to notice the prodigality of the Nawáb Wazír’s officials and Tikait Rai’s protègés, who had now become his officials and protègés, but the old evil actually grew worse. More, the thin veil of decency formerly maintained was withdrawn.
It must be said that this course was no new one with him. Even before this, when he appointed any one to any post, he assigned it to him as if it were a jágír. For instance, Bálak Ram, who was the Názir of 1,000 bárgírs, used to receive from Tikait Rai the price of the grain and of the shoeing of their horses each month, and of two suits of clothing for each horse each year, and the pay of the bárgírs themselves. For all this, the horses had to stand uncovered for three watches in the depth of winter, and many perished of the cold. He used to have them shod only twice in the year, that is, when the usual tours were near, and he used to give them grain once only in several days. He delivered to the bárgírs only half their monthly pay. If a bárgír ventured to complain in the darbár, Jhao L’al represented him to be an idiot or maniac, and discharged him. On account of the command to be always in attendance on the Wazír and of the necessity to humour him, he had not time to scratch his head. He was thus regularly engaged every day from two hours before sunrise to ten o’clock in the day, and again from four in the afternoon to about ten at night. If he had not relied on his own agents, but had personally scrutinized their labours, he would have lost his influence with the Nawáb Wazír entirely. The following story illustrates this:—One day Almás Ali Khán said to him: ‘Safdar Jang, although he had the business of one Súbah only to attend to, used not to spend the mid-watches over the affairs of the Súbah, and it is essential that you who have so heavy a burden should have a time and place fixed for business.’ Jhao L’al replied: ‘I know nothing of Safdar Jang; but I know this much, that the work of one pargana, one Súbah, or ten Súbahs is all the same. Every one who refers any matter to me must receive a reply whether it be ‘yes or no.’ For this business it is not worth while to have a time or place specially set apart.’ It was for this reason that the Nawáb Wazír liked him, and often used to say: ‘Hasan Raza Khán, Haidar Beg, and Tikait Rai were all three untrue to me, but Jhao L’al set my house to rights.’ This was a curious delusion of his.
After these affairs had been settled the Nawáb Wazír prepared for his tour of that season, but on this occasion he resolved to visit Allahábád, Cawnpore, and Farukhábád, to show off to the English and his subjects the dignity with which he had invested Jhao L’al. He gave orders for the repair of the buildings in the Fort at Allahábád which he had despoiled of some stones to remove them to Lucknow. From Allahábád he came to Cawnpore, and feeling sunubbed because no notice was taken of Jhao L’al by the officers there, he went on to Farukhábád. Here he removed Muzaffar Jang’s eldest son, and took the part of another of his sons.
The explanation of that is this: Muzaffar Jang, son of Ahmad Khán Bangash, having died, his eldest son succeeded him. The Nawáb Wazír accused him of poisoning his father and set him aside. Whether the charge was false or true, is not known; but there is a strong suspicion that this act was one of Jhao L’al’s plots, and his aim was to have Khudáwand Khán appointed Mukhtár. Jhao L’al was distrusted by the Governor, and he was always bent on elevating his own creatures. Thus he made friends of the Marhattas of Kálpi, and he looked on the strength of Ali Bahádur as his own on account of Himmat Bahádur, whose daughter had been married to his son in exchange.* He summoned from Rámpur Umar Khán, who had been the cause of Ghulám Muhammad’s rebellion, and placed him in the Nawáb Wazír’s service. Through him he caused complaints to be heard against Nasrulla Khán. His aim was to spread the influence of Umar Khán at Rámpur. When the Governor demanded an explanation, he pretended to let the matter drop and sent Umar Khán away, and replied that the Wazír had sent for him to get a sword from him. It was in pursuance of this scheme that he desired to instal Khudáwand Khán as Náib at Farukhábád. As the influence of this Khán over the Afghans of Mau, Shamsábád, and Farukhábád was not to be secured, while the elder son of Muzaffar Jang was on the spot, it is not unlikely that this led to the accusation which was charged against him.
Another event of this year was the arrival of Zamán Sháh Abdáli at Lahaur, and the hiding of the Sikhs in the mouse holes of the Panjáb. As it was supposed that the Abdáli, like his grandfather, would not stay at Lahaur, but would go forward to plunder Lucknow and Benares (for there was nothing in the ruined city of Delhi to satisfy the invading horde), the English prepared to resist him. They made the Fort of Allahábád their base, and having communication along the river Ganges, which was advantageous for the purpose of supplies, they formed a camp at Kannauj. Munitions of war and reinforcements came up in successive despatches from Calcutta, and they remained in expectation of the Abdáli’s approach. But when he had made his preparations to take Lahaur, he received tidings of the rebellion of his brother Mahmúd, the Governor of Hírát, who had been incited to this by the promise of the support of Muhammad Khán, the King of Persia. He therefore returned with all possible speed to Kábul, but he left an army of occupation in the Dúáb between the Atak and the Jhelum, about one-third of the Panjáb. This force succeeded in reducing that territory. As the Russian Army meditates a move on Persia, Muhammad Khán is now occupied with them. It is reported that a peace has been patched up between Mahmúd and Zamán Sháh; and the latter will return to Lahaur in the beginning of the winter. What advantage the English saw in occupying Kannauj is not apparent. Perhaps they intended that, after Zamán Sháh’s arrival at Delhi, they should march forward through the Bareli maháls on the banks of the Ganges to a fordable passage and there post themselves. By the occupation of Kannauj, Lucknow and Benares were not protected, for any one who intends to go to Lucknow will not go through Akbarábád, which would necessitate crossing both the Ganges and Jamna, but would cross the Ganges at Hardwár, and gather round him the Ruhelas of Ghausgarh and Rámpur, and go on unopposed to Lucknow and Benares. To guard Lucknow it is, therefore, most advisable to take up a position on the banks of the Ganges on the Bareli side. In this case the Ruhelas of Rámpur cannot make any sudden movement, and the closing of the fords of the Ganges is easy. Besides, the Ganges is commanded and the Fort at Allahábád is in the rear; and the conveyance of supplies is not threatened.
When the rumour of Sháh Abdáli’s approach was current, news reached Calcutta of an intention on the part of Jhao L’al to join the Abdáli. The Governor, Sir John Shore, became uneasy, and considered that no time should be lost. He took Tafazzul Husen Khán with him and proceeded to Benares by dâk. Thence he set out for Lucknow with 4,000 horse and foot, and suitable preparations. The Nawáb Wazír and Jhao L’al, who thought that the Governor was coming to arrange for the fight with Zamán Sháh, went to Jaunpur to meet him, and returned with him to Lucknow. After the usual ceremonies, the exchange of turban and hat and so on, the Governor asked the Nawáb Wazír to remove Jhao L’al and appoint another Náib. The Wazír made all possible excuses, but finding it impossible on this occasion to resist, he prohibited Jhao L’al from coming to the darbár. He resolved to give the Niábat to Almás Ali Khán, and in order to deceive Tafazzul Husen Khán and to gain some of his own ends, he nominated Tafazzul Husen Khán also. Before obtaining the Governor’s sanction he gave Almás Ali his seal and some offices, and thus signified his appointment as Náib. That old wolf, notwithstanding that he had always protested his refusal of the appointment, now accepted it to assist the Wazír in his fraud, and to secure the continuance of Jhao L’al. The Wazír’s intention was that by giving him this appointment, the estrangement of the English should be perpetuated, and that the errors of Jhao L’al should remain concealed owing to there being no friction between him and Almás Ali, and thus gradually he would obtain an opportunity of reinsatating Jhao L’al. But the Governor knew that giving the Niábat to Almás Ali would be delivering the sheep to the wolf, and he declined to accept the nomination. He requested the appointment of Tafazzul Husen Khán. The Wazír had himself mentioned his name and could not refuse to appoint him. He complied with great reluctance. ‘The fool is taken in his own net,’ and so it was. The Governor after settling this affair and increasing the Wazír’s annual contribution to the Company by six lakhs of rupees for the maintenance of newly-recruited Turk sawárs, obtained the banishment of Jhao L’al to Azímábád, and returned to his capital.
After the Governor’s departure the Wazír evinced his dissatisfaction by at once turning out Major Palmer, who had been left behind to support Tafazzul Husen Khán, and other English officers from the houses in which he had lodged them when the Governor came to Lucknow. He was asked the reason of this, and he made some excuse. He is at times cross and at times pleasant to Tafazzul Husan Khán. He regrets the freedom and license to which he was accustomed under Jhao L’al, and secretly seeks a change. Almás Ali also, on account of the snub he recived in connection with his nomination to the Niábat, shares the counsels of the Wazír and meditates evil, awaiting the turn of fortune.
It must be observed that the selection of Azímábád as Jhao L’al’s place of residence was injudicious, His conduct did not deserve so much notice. His total banishment was the advisable measure. To show consideration for such mean creatures is to lower the dignity of a Government in the eyes of men. The refusal to give effect to the nomination of Almás Ali was proper. He has by embezzlement and peculation brought together 20,000 horse and foot, and amassed a great treasure. To give such a person further power is impolitic. Besides this, he is such a spoiler that every province which was ever entrusted to him, though he was for several reasons maintained in its administration, he laid utterly waste. This is shown by the small revenue exhibited for his districts in the statement already given. Up to the present he has twice rebelled. Once, with his army, artillery, and treasure he attempted to join Afrásiáb Khán: and again in the same way he threatened to go to Kálpi, until Haidar Beg Khán conceded all his demands. Mr. Johnson and Mr. Bristow were each once removed to please him, and he then gave in. It is not unlikely that the fatal follies which we hear are being committed in the Súbah as a relish to the removal of these two gentlemen, may be intended to procure his cherished ends and those of the Wazír. But the appointment of Tafazzul Husen Khán is judicious, both on account of his own wisdom and sagacity and on account of the discriminating knowledge he has of the Wazír’s officials, and no better device could be hit upon for securing a good understanding between the English and the Nawáb Wazír; but to effect a radical good by putting the military on a proper footing, improve the country, or remove the evil practices which have become common, or reform the Wazír himself, is impossible while cross-purposes are at work. To expect this of the Khán, or any other native, is like looking on the house-top for an article hidden in the courtyard; for this end cannot be attained without the co-operation of the English power, and their supervision of the whole proceedings of the local officials and the army. Had the Wazír and his officials had any sense of shame, or appreciation of good advice, they would, during the ten or fifteen years that they have had absolute power, since Mr. Johnson and Mr. Bristow left, have effected reforms; whereas, through every one’s struggling to make affairs serve his own ends, they have brought matters to the present pass. Whoever be Náib, if he be weak and easy-going, and do not inquire into the Wazír’s conduct, he will find his evil habits render all government impossible; if he inquire into everything, the result will be a quarrel between him and the Wazír, and the humiliation of the Wazír will necessarily reduce the dignity of the Náib’s office. Suppose the impossible—that the Náib does correct the Wazír and eradicate or modify his injurious propensities, still the Naib cannot rid himself of his human nature, and where neither the Wazír nor the English exercise any control over him, how far will he restrain himself from seeking his personal gain? Suppose that a man of angelic goodness be found, as he is but one, how can he reform this medley concourse of soldiers and subjects and officials, who have been for years demoralized aud grown confirmed in their evil habits?
The proper plan for managing the Súbah is this: Let the Wazír be, once for all, duly admonished and his expenses limited; let him have control of them, and, as in Haidar Beg’s time, have no voice in revenue or military affairs; let all intriguing and mutinous spirits be removed from about him, and some Englishman be appointed with full powers to the administration of the Súbah at Lucknow; an officer who is thoroughly experienced in government and who knows the people of India intimately, and who is loyal to the interests of both Governments; and let the Náib, Díwán, Khazánchi, Bakhshi, and other officials remain subordinate to him and draw up their estimates under his instructions, and lay them before the Wazír for sanction; let some English officers be appointed to superintend the troops, and provide horses and accoutrements, and pay the men regularly every month and see that they render service; let every one— soldier, official, or subject—who breaks the new regulations or resists, be at once expelled the country, so that those who remain may pursue their occupations in security, and every evil-doer vanish. All the old collectors and subordinates, and nearly all the old military officers should be got rid of, for they are puffed up with pride and are given to prodigality and a thousand other evils. They cannot submit to control, and will not discriminate between benefactors and mischief-makers. It is impossible to correct them. The middle classes and the poor must be brought forward and appointed to offices. They will act according to orders and disinterestedly in the hope of gaining position and increased credit.
The interest of the tenantry lies in security for the poor and reducing the strong. A revenue tax should be assessed on each which he can pay, and at the same time himself subsist in comfort. Honest collectors should be selected from the middle and poorer classes, and should have no power to change the revenue assessment. In each district of the Súbah there should be a military station to repress the refractory under the direction of the collector. A formidable force of English troops should be posted at Bareli, even a fort should be built, so that the Ruhelas may have no time to scratch their heads. It is advisable to remove on every possible pretext the leaders of that clan from that country and from the Wazír’s army, until they become in the course of time powerless. In no other way can this be done. Otherwise in critical times they will emit the most dangerous sparks of mischief.
There are twelve couplets in the original; but the whole is not worth reproducing. I have turned only the first couplet and the last.
↩The original is the Persian proverb: Hamán ásh dar kásah rúbakár búd.
↩A man of low origin, a kahár by caste, raised to a confidential position by Á safu’d Daulah.
↩Sic in MS.; but I think the word should be Kampu, meaning Sultánpur, already mentioned.
↩In this connection read Chap. III., Book V. of Mill’s History (Wilson’s edition) which shows how Colonel Hannay’s administration was canvassed at Hastings’ trial, years after.
↩The word in the original is not very legible, but it seems to be intended for some derivative of the Arabic root watd, ‘a stake,’ ‘to drive a stake,’ and means a stockade, to which Balbhadr Singh was reduced by the operations mentioned on p. 66.
↩The name is not given in the original.
↩The original has the Arabic proverb “Alkhá,inu Khá,ifun”—the dishonest man is beset by fear.
↩The original has ‘annásu ala díni malukihim’?
↩The stone bridge near the fort.
↩It is impossible to reproduce in English the Persian chronogram (abjad) contained in the last line, so I have turned the Persian quatrain into an English verse, the first three lines of which are an exact rendering of the original, and have given the English date in the last line, as if it had been an epitaph.
↩The name is not given in the original.
↩Probably the name should be Bachhráj.
↩The son and daughter of the one had been joined in marriage to the daughter and son respectively of the other.
↩