Abstract and Keywords
This chapter examines the development of the new subadari in Awadh and the Punjab, which signified the subordination of all the military, executive, and financial authorities within these provinces to the governors (subadar). In order to maintain stability in the provinces, the emperor granted certain privileges to the governors resulting in their eminence compared to the position of the diwan who was in charge of the jagirs. The emperor allowed them to govern with these privileges in order to keep them away from key positions at the centre but the eminent position of the subadar had led to increasing provincial independence. In a bid to assert his authority, the emperor encouraged and monitored the governors within the old pattern of the centre-province relations. Later, a process of institutional change in the position of the governors seemed to appear under Farrukh Siyar. However, the governors’ claim for control over provincial finance in particular clashed with the concept of the new wizarat. The factional politics at the court were then extended to the provinces resulting in further deterioration of the administration.
Keywords: Mughal empire, Awadh, Punjab, Subadar, diwan, imperial power, emperor, governors,
provincial finance, Farrukh Siyar, wizarat
I Awadh
WHILE THE NOBLES’ urge for additional powers at the centre implied that the principle of the king as the real core and the source of authority was no longer tenable, its extension to those posted in the provinces marked a virtual rejection of the centre itself. The unwillingness of the governors to function with their erstwhile military and executive powers had a bearing on the existing imperial
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109The Changing Position of the Governor
framework. In this chapter we will examine the stages of the evolution in Awadh and the Punjab of the new subadari which signified the subordination of all the military, executive and financial authorities within these provinces to the governors.
The chapter again illustrates Bahadur Shah’s failure to appreciate the conditions in which the governors began to ask for extended powers. The emperor saw the problem in the perspective of the pretensions and high claims of the old nobles and acceded some privileges to the governors in view of their eminence and stature. He allowed them to govern with these privileges not to enable them to meet the difficult conditions in the provinces, but because he wanted them away from, and was not prepared to allow them to be (p.58) in key positions at, the centre. In a bid to assert his authority, the emperor still encouraged the checks on the governors within the old pattern of the centre-province relations. Later, under Farrukh Siyar a process of institutional change in the position of the governors seems to have begun. However, the governors’ claim for control over provincial finance in particular clashed with the concept of the new wizarat. The factional politics at the court were then extended to the provinces resulting in further deterioration of the administration. Thus, the course of the developments in the provinces in which originated the nobles’ difficulties was also affected by the developments at the centre.