The Fall of the Moghul Empire of HindustanKeene, H. G. (Henry George)
History
The Fall of the Moghul Empire of Hindustan
Keene, H. G. (Henry George)
India -- History -- 18th century; Mogul Empire -- History
Knowing the man with whom they had to deal, their last hope was
obviously in a spirited resistance, combined with an earnest
appeal to the Audh Viceroy and to the ruler of the Jats. And it
is on record in a trustworthy native history that such was the
tenor of the Vazir's advice to the Emperor. But the latter,
perhaps too sensible of the difficulties of this course from the
known hostility of Safdar Jang, and the great influence of
Ghazi-ud-din over the Moghul soldiery, rejected the bold counsel.
Upon this the Vazir retired to his own residence, which he
fortified, and the remaining adherents of the Emperor opened the
gates and made terms with the Captain-General. The latter then
invested himself with the official robes of the Vazirate (5th
June, 1754) and convened the Moghul Darbar, from which, with his
usual address, he contrived to obtain as a vote of the cabinet
what was doubtless the suggestion of his own unprincipled
ambition. "This Emperor," said the assembled nobles, "has shown
his unfitness for rule. He is unable to cope with the Mahrattas:
he is false and fickle towards his friends. Let him be deposed,
and a worthier son of Timur raised to the throne." This
resolution was immediately acted upon; the unfortunate monarch
was blinded and consigned to the State prison of Salim Garh,
adjoining the palace; and a son of Jahandar Shah, the competitor
of Farokhsiar, proclaimed Emperor under the sounding title of
Alamgir II., July, 1754 A.D. The new Emperor (whose title was due
to the fact that his predecessor the great Aurangzeb had been
the first to bear it) was in the fifty-fourth year of his age. He
was a quiet old devotee, whose only pleasures were reading
religious books and attending divine service. His predecessor was
not further molested, and lived on in his captivity to his death
in 1775, from natural causes, at the age of fifty. Ghazi-ud-din
was at the same time acknowledged as Vazir in the room of the
Khan Khanan. That officer was murdered about five years later,
according to Beale (Orl. Bl. Dicty in voc.) So also the
Siyar-ul-mutikharin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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