Last Nizam (9781742626109) Read online

  But in the end it all came to nought. The great Mughal’s burial near Daulatabad touched off a debilitating fratricidal struggle that saw son conspire against son, puppet against pretender, often with murderous consequences. In the course of a dozen years no fewer than 17 aspirants would jockey for the throne. Aurangzeb’s death also opened the way for new players to enter this eighteenth-century great game for the control of the Indian sub-continent and its vast wealth. No longer would wars be fought solely between Hindu and Muslim armies. Britain and France, once content to send emissaries like Norris bearing gifts to win favours from local rulers, were about to become full-blown rivals for trade and territory. For the next hundred years British mercenaries and French freebooters would serve whichever side offered them the greatest rewards. Nawabs, peshwas, rajahs and sultans were forced to sue for peace by handing over territory to the East India Company or French forces and by emptying their treasuries to pay for reparations. Only those rulers with wealth, cunning and a great deal of luck would find themselves with an empire to speak of by the end of the century. One of them would be the Nizam of Hyderabad.

  After attending the burial of Aurangzeb, Qamruddin offered his services to the Emperor’s successor, Bahadur Shah, and was appointed the Governor of Oudh. However, Bahadur Shah’s reign lasted only five years, and with his death the fragile empire that Aurangzeb left behind began to collapse. Nowhere was that disintegration more pronounced than in the Deccan. Chroniclers of the time reported that two decades of war had left its provinces ‘black and barren’ and its fields filled with ‘the bones of men and beasts’.22 The Maratha chieftains who had surrendered to Aurangzeb renounced their pledges, resumed their lands, took up arms and began their raids again.

  Tired of the political machinations that had engulfed the Mughal throne, and the ‘frivolity and incapacity of the Emperor’, Qamruddin opted for a private life in Delhi. ‘For a considerable period he abstained entirely from coming to court, lived in seclusion, and was seldom seen abroad, and then only for the purpose of paying a visit to some man renowned for his piety or his learning.’23 But his sabbatical was cut short when, in 1712, the sixth of Aurangzeb’s successors, Farrukhsiyar, managed to stay on the throne long enough to convince him to take up the post of Viceroy of the Deccan with the hereditary title of Nizam ul-Mulk (Regulator of the Realm) Fateh Jung. Nizam ul-Mulk (as Qamruddin was now known) began building up his own power-base independently of the Mughals in Delhi, while continuing to give obeisance to the throne and even remitting money to the centre.

  Farrukhsiyar demanded Nizam ul-Mulk’s help in subduing the Saiyid brothers, Hussain Ali Khan and Abdullah Khan, who had developed a reputation for setting up and removing emperors ‘like skittles’. In 1719 they marched on Delhi, captured Farrukhsiyar, who was hiding in the zenana, blinded him with a needle, locked him up in a prison cell for two months and then stabbed him to death. Farrukhsiyar was eventually replaced by the 18-year-old Muhammad Shah, who rewarded Nizam ul-Mulk for his help in defeating the Saiyids with the post of Diwan (Prime Minister) in his own court. However, Nizam ul-Mulk’s attempts to reform the corrupt Mughal administration with its cliques of concubines and eunuchs created many enemies. According to Nizam ul-Mulk’s biographer, Yusuf Husain, he grew to hate the ‘harlots and jesters’ who were the Emperor’s constant companions and ‘greeted all great nobles of the realm with lewd gestures and offensive epithets’. Nizam ul-Mulk’s desire to restore the ‘etiquette of the Court and the discipline of the State’ earned him few friends. ‘By envious, malicious insinuations [the courtiers] poisoned the mind of the Emperor against his devoted servant.’24

  In 1724 Nizam ul-Mulk resigned his post in disgust and set off for the Deccan to resume the Viceroyalty, only to find Mubariz Khan, who had been appointed governor by Farrukhsiyar nine years earlier, refusing to vacate the post. Mubariz Khan had successfully restored law and order in the Deccan and fended off marauding bands of Maratha raiders, rebellious Telegu zamindars, bandit chiefs and renegade Mughal commanders, but he was also paying lip service to the Mughal throne, making only token payments and dividing plum administrative posts among his sons, his uncle and his favourite slave eunuch. Unimpressed by the upstart occupying what he considered to be his rightful place, Nizam ul-Mulk gathered his forces at Shakarkhelda in Berar for a showdown with Mubariz Khan’s impressive army. The encounter was short but decisive. Wrapped in his blood-soaked shawl, Mubariz Khan drove his war elephant into battle until he died from his wounds. His severed head was then sent to Delhi as proof of Nizam ul-Mulk’s determination to annihilate anyone who stood in his way.

  With this decisive victory Muhammad Shah had little choice but to recognise Nizam ul-Mulk’s claim to the suzerainty of the Deccan. ‘Now there came to him from the Emperor an elephant, jewels and the title of Asaf Jah, with directions to settle the country, repress the turbulent, punish the rebels and cherish the people,’ recorded Khafi Khan.25 Asaf Jah, or the Equal to Asaf, the Grand Wazir in the court of the biblical ruler King Solomon, was the highest title that could be awarded to a subject of the Mughal Empire.

  There were no lavish ceremonies to mark the establishment of the Asaf Jahi dynasty in 1724. The inauguration of First Nizam, as its leaders became known, took place behind closed doors in a private ceremony attended by the new ruler’s closest advisors. Nizam ul-Mulk never formally declared his independence and insisted that his rule was entirely based on the trust reposed in him by the Mughal Emperor, to whom he swore eternal loyalty. His faithfulness to the Mughal court was unswerving and would be passed down through the generations that followed. The Nizam’s Dominions yielded an income that was almost equal to the rest of the Mughal Empire, yet there was no throne, no crown and no symbol of sovereignty. Coins were still minted with the Emperor’s name until 1858. It was in the name of the Mughal ruler and not the Nizam that prayers were read out in the khutba (Friday Sermon). On the seal used to authenticate all public acts, the Nizam was designated as the ‘Servant of the Emperor’. Though he conferred titles on his subjects, he received his designations from the Mughal Emperor in Delhi.

  As the Viceroy of the Deccan, the Nizam was the head of the executive and judicial departments and the source of all civil and military authority, ruling as an absolute monarch. All officials were appointed by him directly or in his name. Assisted by a Diwan, the Nizams drafted their own laws, raised their own armies, flew their own flags and formed their own governments, but they refused to adopt the title of King even when it was offered to them by the British in 1810. It was not until India was granted its independence in 1947 that the Seventh Nizam, Osman Ali Khan, formally claimed to be a ruler in his own right, but by then it was too late for a sovereign Hyderabad to coexist with a free India. Its independence lasted less than 400 days.

  Despite Nizam ul-Mulk’s earlier differences with the Emperor, his letter acknowledging Muhammad Shah’s farman was couched in the most reverential language. ‘Even if the pen opens its thousand tongues of gratitude for His Majesty it would simply be impossible to recount one out of the innumerable favours and benefits conferred on his servant,’ he wrote. ‘As long as the sun shines on firmament, may the altar of the Caliphate and the asylum of the world remain victorious and blest causing envy to the assembly of Jam and the garden of Paradise.’26

  Nizam ul-Mulk had good reason to be grateful. Alongside his own personal wealth came the spoils of war and status. As the Nizam he was entitled to the lion’s share of gold unearthed in his Dominions, the finest diamonds and gems from the Golconda mines and the income from his vast personal estates. He also adopted the Mughal practice of accepting nazars (gifts) every time someone came to him with a petition or to mark a special occasion. Nazars ranged from gold coins, emeralds, rubies and other precious stones to the finest horses, the best elephants, expensive clothes, daggers and swords, palaces, eunuchs and even dancing girls.

  Nizam ul-Mulk’s first priority was to secure the Deccan from ‘the abominations of infidelity and
tyranny . . . the ruffianism of highway robbers and the rapacity of the Marathas and rebellious zamindars’.27 He then divided his newly acquired kingdom into three parts. One third became his own private estate known as the Sarf-i-Khas, one third was allotted for the expenses of the government and was known as the Diwan’s territory, and the remainder was distributed to Muslim nobles, who in return paid nazars to the Nizam for the privilege of collecting revenue from the villages under their suzerainty. The most important of these were the Paigah estates. The Paigahs doubled up as generals, making it easy to raise an army should the Nizam’s Dominions come under attack. Scattered around the country were also numerous Hindu rajahs and chiefs who were also granted jagirs and allowed to maintain a certain level of autonomy on payment of annual tributes to the Nizam. On the sanads (scrolls) granting them their jagirs, inscribed in Persian were the words ‘as long as the sun and moon are in rotation’.28

  The owners of the estates were mostly absentee landlords who cared little for the condition of the lands under their control. Jagirs were usually split into numerous pieces in order to prevent the most powerful of the nobles from entertaining any thought of carving out an empire for themselves. The system, which continued relatively unchanged until 1950, ensured a steady source of income for the state treasury and the Nizam himself, but also transformed Hyderabad into the most feudal of all the Indian princely states.

  As Nizam ul-Mulk strengthened his dominions, Muhammad Shah barely clung on to his. The Mughal Emperor was better known for his debauchery than his fighting skills. (A miniature painting made at the time depicted him cavorting with one of his dancing girls – his massive phallus in the act of penetration.) Hordes of Maratha warriors terrorised Delhi, and on more than one occasion Muhammad Shah called on the Nizam to keep the raiders at bay. In 1738 a much greater threat came from beyond the Hindu Kush as the Persian conqueror Nadir Shah started advancing towards Delhi through Afghanistan and the Punjab.

  Casting aside his puritanical streak, Nizam ul-Mulk answered the Emperor’s call for help by sending his troops to Karnal, where Muhammad Shah’s forces had gathered to turn back the Persian army. But the combined armies were cannon fodder for the Persian cavalry and its superior weaponry and tactics. Up to 150,000 Indian soldiers were said to have died in the three-hour battle on 13 February 1739. When Nizam ul-Mulk went to Nadir Shah’s tent to negotiate an end to hostilities, the Persian king began upping his terms for the withdrawal of his forces from 5 million rupees to 400 million rupees. When the Emperor protested, Nadir Shah angrily pointed out that he had no choice in the matter.

  A few days later the Persian army began its final march on Delhi, with Muhammad Shah and his wives guarded by 12,000 soldiers, together with whatever remained of the Indian contingents. On the outskirts of the city, Nadir Shah stopped and ordered the humiliated Emperor to march ahead so that he could organise a fitting welcome for his honoured guest. In reality Nadir Shah was there to strip his host of his dignity and wealth.

  However, within 24 hours of Nadir Shah’s ceremonial welcome, the citizens of Delhi began stirring. Just before midnight a group of Persian agents sent to enquire about the price grain was fetching in the bazaar had their throats slit. Shortly after, a group of Mughal prisoners seized their jailers and ran into the streets shouting that Nadir Shah had been assassinated by Muhammad Shah. Almost immediately another rumour spread that Nadir Shah had been killed by one of the female guards of the Mughal harem.

  When the first reports of violence reached Nadir Shah he dismissed them as exaggerated, but by dawn the uprising was in full swing. When Nadir Shah rode through the city dressed in armour, thousands of his soldiers lay dead, many of their bodies horribly mutilated. Reaching the Sunehri Mosque near Chandni Chowk, in the heart of what is today Old Delhi, he climbed the terrace and saw people on the surrounding rooftops throwing stones and other missiles at the Persian soldiers below. When a bullet killed one of his generals standing next to him, Nadir Shah’s anger exploded. Waving his sword above his head he gave the signal for the ransack of Delhi to begin.

  ‘There was scarcely a spot left in Delhi but was stained with human blood,’ reported one survivor. ‘For a long time the streets remained strewn with corpses as the walks of a garden with dead flowers and leaves. The town was reduced to ashes and had the appearance of a plain consumed with fire. The ruin in which its beautiful streets and buildings we loved was such that the labour of years could alone restore the town to its former glory.’29 Most estimates put the number of those killed on that day at 20,000.

  Unable to prevent his capital being destroyed, Muhammad Shah again summoned Nizam ul-Mulk for help. Once more the ageing monarch obliged. A master of tact and diplomacy, he presented himself before the Persian king bare-headed and with his sword hanging around his neck. Appealing to Nadir Shah’s sense of pity and pleading for the massacre to end, Nizam ul-Mulk recited a couplet by the Persian poet Hafiz:

  ‘Oh King your anger has killed so many men,

  If you want to kill some more, bring them back to life again.’30

  Moved by the couplet and sickened by the slaughter taking place outside, Nadir Shah complied. Saying to the Nizam, ‘I pardon in consideration of thy grey beard’,31 he ordered the massacre to stop.

  As the survivors began to bury or cremate their dead, Nadir Shah’s men began packing up the royal treasury and stripping the palaces of valuables. ‘Confident persons sent to seize the treasuries secured such an amount of vessels of gold and silver and vases of China, and articles set with precious jewels, and other valuable things, that the registrars and clerks were unable to catalogue or compute them,’ recorded a contemporary historian. ‘Of the number was the Peacock Throne, studded with inestimable jewels, on the adornment of which the former kings of India spent two millions sterling, with such round pearls and glittering diamonds as were not to be found in the possession of any kings of the past or present time.’32

  The Koh-i-Noor diamond, which now adorns the Crown Jewels, also made its way into Nadir Shah’s collection, after a courtesan told the Persian king that the priceless stone was hidden in Mohammad Shah’s turban. Citing an ancient tradition, Nadir Shah demanded an exchange of headgear with Muhammad Shah, who had no option but to comply. Some estimates of the total value of gold and silver coinage, jewellery, weapons and furniture gathered in slightly under two months run as high as 700 million rupees. The Peacock Throne, decorated with diamonds, rubies, emeralds and pearls, was believed to be worth 90 million rupees alone.

  It is said that even today Delhi has not recovered the level of prosperity it enjoyed before Nadir Shah’s invasion. The Imperial treasury was empty, much of the city had been destroyed and the myth of Mughal supremacy had been dealt a fatal blow. Although the Mughal Empire would continue for another 118 years, it would remain a shadow of its former glory. The only Indian ruler to retain any credibility and keep his Dominions intact was Nizam ul-Mulk.

  Following the sacking of Delhi, the steady stream of exiles from the Mughal capital to the Deccan became a flood. Administrators, artisans, musicians, poets and religious teachers were welcomed into the Nizam’s court. But for all his skills as a ruler, the founder of the Asaf Jahi dynasty was either unable or unwilling to stamp out the worst legacies of Aurangzeb’s reign. Banditry was rife in those areas where the Marathas held sway, disrupting the development of trade and commerce that would make the Nizam’s empire viable. His elite nobles and soldiers were arrogant and morally degenerate. Peasants were exploited and whatever surplus they produced lined the pockets of the feudal aristocracy. No attempt was made to spend money on local infrastructure such as roads, irrigation works or communications. ‘They kept for themselves as much as they could out of the revenues and when subterfuges would no longer answer, they sent the remainder to headquarters.’33

  An official history of Hyderabad published in the 1930s described the Deccan in the final years of the First Nizam’s rule as having been ‘well-nigh devastated as a result
of these perpetual struggles, in many parts it was almost depopulated, and in the absence of anything like a settled government confusion and chaos reigned everywhere. The petty rajahs and zamindars were frequently in a state of revolt. They were always turbulent and very dilatory in the payment of their peshkash. The bigger nobles enjoyed their estates with almost regal powers. They had the power of life and death and exercised a kind of “Imperium-in-Imperio”.’34

  Just days before he died in 1748, Asaf Jah dictated his last will and testament. The 17-clause document was a blueprint for governance and personal conduct that ranged from advice on how to keep the troops happy and well fed to an apology for neglecting his wife. He began by calling on his successors to defend the dignity of the Deccan from the Marathas, whom he referred to as ‘armies of freebooters’. He warned them to be on guard against the Marathas, Pathans, Gujaratis and Kashmiris. As for Hindu Brahmins, they were ‘fit only to be hanged and quartered’. He then reminded his successors to remain subservient to the Mughal Emperor who had granted them their office and rank. He warned against declaring war unnecessarily, but if forced to do so to seek the help of elders and saints and follow the sayings and practices of the Prophet. He cautioned against senseless killing, saying that: ‘Mankind should not be likened to so many ears of barley, wheat and maize which grow anew every year.’35

  He also urged fiscal restraint. ‘Keep the treasury with you wherever you go so that whenever the army gets restive, their arrears can be paid off. There is enough money in the treasury to last seven generations – if properly spent.’ Finally, he insisted: ‘You must not lend your ears to tittle-tattle of the backbiters and slanderers, nor suffer the riff-raff to approach your presence.’36 Having dictated his will, Nizam ul-Mulk summoned his second son Nasir Jung, his wives and chief nobles to his bedside, said his prayers and died aged 77.