112The Beginnings of the New Subadari After the death of Bahadur Shah there seems to be some appreciation of the difficulties of the provincial government. During Muhammad Amin Khan’s absence, Mir Musharraf,19 a local Afghan of Malihabad deputized for him in the province. The appointment of a local man was perhaps because of his familiarity with local problems. In such a situation it was not unlikely that the privileges which had specially been given to Chin Qilich Khan would become (as indeed they did), part of the governorship of Awadh. Thus, Muhammad Amin Khan’s successors, Qilich Muhammad Khan and then Sarbuland Khan held the governorship of Awadh with more than one faujdari and some additional authority.20

Thus set in, the process of the changes in the position of the governor in the early-eighteenth century. These changes are to be seen in the light of developments both at the court as well as in the province. Sarbuland Khan and after him Chhabele Ram were appointed governors with additional authority as they were close associates of Farrukh Siyar. Still the former’s links with the Shaikhzadas of Awadh and the latter’s familiarity with the province weighed considerably in their appointments. Sarbuland Khan was expected to use the support of the Shaikhzadas in meeting the threat of the zamindar revolts.21 Sarbuland Khan, however, failed, despite his efforts to ensure stability in the (p. 66) province by extending some favours to a section of the Shaikhzadas, namely, the madad-i ma‘ash holders.22 On 3 July 1714, therefore, he was replaced by Raja Chhabele Ram with an addition of 3000 conditional (mashrut) sawar to his existing rank of 5000/5000. His nephew, Girdhar Bahadur also came with him and was given the faujdari of Bahraich,23 an important trans-Ghagra sarkar of Awadh.

These additional privileges of the new governor were evidently to equip him to deal with the zamindars more effectively. However, the prevalent political atmosphere at the court, together, of course, with his growing acquaintance with

Page 5 of 32

113The Changing Position of the Governor

the nature of provincial problems compelled him to make continued demands for sources of power. A man of the emperor, Chhabele Ram was openly the wazir’s foe and was fully involved in court intrigues.24 When Chhabele Ram was appointed governor, the wazir had conceded him additional powers, since he did not want him to be in power at the court. Now that the rift between the wazir and the emperor widened, Chhabele Ram also secured the (p.67) office of the provincial diwan for one of his close relations, Anand Ram Brahman,25 This was an obvious case of erosion of the centre’s authority over the province, even if the emperor perhaps only intended to contain the wazir, the diwan in the province who represented the wazir had usually been an important check on the governor.

Chhabele Ram led more than one successful expedition against the zamindars, but the province does not seem to have been restored to stability. In order to maintain orderliness in the suba, he wanted his governorship extended and a few more faujdaris added to it. Chhabele Ram also expected to combine with his existing offices the governorship of Allahabad and an increase in his mansab.26 But his petition, notwithstanding the emperor’s support, was accepted only marginally.27 After about one and a half years of struggle for additional power and longer tenure, Chhabele Ram was then transferred to Allahabad.28

The governorship of Chhabele Ram (July 1714–October 1715) has much significance for our argument. For the first time in our period, the governor by having his loyal supporter as diwan of the province tried to be virtually supreme in Awadh. Again, it was he who first made an attempt to secure the governorship for a longer term. It was done largely with a view to securing greater strength so that he might govern the province effectively. It is also not unlikely that he thus sought a base in case of his and his master’s defeat in their battle against the wazir. This was what he later tried to (p.68) do as the governor of Allahabad.29 Further, his attempt to govern both Awadh and Allahabad together may not be construed as the mere ambition of an individual. In view of disturbances in Baiswara region which extended to Allahabad suba as well, it was an administrative necessity. Later Burhan-ul-Mulk and Safdar Jang made every possible effort gradually to acquire the whole of the province of Allahabad.30

Chhabele Ram attempted a major break from established Mughal convention. He failed, but his governorship set a precedent. An incident of conflict between his successor, Muzaffar Ali Khan,31 and the diwan over the sair (taxes other than land revenue) of the areas earmarked for jagir assignment (paibaqi) in early 1716 shows the governor’s endeavour to control matters relating to the finance of the province. The incident also records the governor’s resentment over the possession of executive powers by the diwan. The diwan in this case held the faujdari of Lucknow and in his capacity as faujdar he appointed the kotwal (police officer) of the city. And yet the governor appointed his own kotwal under the pretext of the maintenance of law and order. The emperor when he heard about the dispute, rejected the pleas of both the governor and the diwan and

Page 6 of 32

114The Changing Position of the Governor

directed Samsam-ud-Daulah to nominate the kotwal from the centre as was the rule.32

The incident illustrates how the provincial governor began to make encroachments into an area which had hitherto been theoretically under the imperial centre. But this was incompatible with the notion of imperial control over the province, and also clashed with the concept of the new wizarat of Saiyid Abdullah Khan, the wazir of Farrukh Siyar. (p.69) The wazir, therefore, tried to prevent the process from gaining further ground, which in the cases when the governor was not his associate also reinforced the province’s estrangement from the centre. During the tenure of the next governor (July 1716–December 1717), his personal presence in Awadh notwithstanding the diwan held the deputy governorship of the suba as well.33 The arrangement was intended as a check on the governor. For, in this particular case the governor was Aziz Khan Chaghta34 who was not only opposed to the wazir 35 but was capable of successfully defying him. Aziz Khan was a leader of the Afghans of Shahabad, a pargana town in the sarkar of Khairabad.

The wazir virtually tried to retard a process which was developing in the provinces in response to internal conditions. His attempt provided nourishment to the agencies that weakened imperial control over the province. The attempt far from being aimed at restoring imperial authority was actually geared to promote the interests of a section of the nobility. With the widening gap between the emperor and the wazir and his faction, the latter apprehended a threat to their position from a powerful local chief being in control of the province with a rank of 6000/6000. Aziz Khan Chaghta was thus transferred (December 1717) to be replaced in quick succession by two of the wazir’s associates.36 Again, in November 1718, when a confrontation between the emperor and the Saiyid brothers was imminent, the governor of Awadh was recalled to the court.37 This (p.70) was at the instance of the wazir and formed part of his preparations for a final showdown with the emperor. In the meantime Mir Musharraf who had been appointed faujdar of Lucknow on 7 September 1718, controlled the province as its deputy governor.38 On 11 January 1719, Muhammad Amin Khan was directed to go to Awadh and take charge of the governorship of the province.39 But he did not comply with the imperial order. The wazir, instead of pressing ahead, utilized the situation to strengthen his own position.40 Consequently, for over three months, Awadh remained without a full-fledged governor.41 Again in 1718, for almost the whole year, Awadh was governed by an absentee governor. After their ascendancy, the Saiyid Brothers appointed one of their associates, Mir Musharraf to the governorship of Awadh. But since they feared a strong reaction against the excesses they had committed against Farrukh Siyar, Mir Musharraf was asked to stay at the centre. His young and inexperienced son, Mir Asad Ali Khan alias Mir Kallu deputized for him in Awadh.42

Page 7 of 32

115The Changing Position of the Governor

(p.71) Thus, developments at the court apart from reflecting the nobles’ alienation from the emperor also had a bearing on the province’s links to the centre. Factional politics allowed the province to drift from the control of the centre. The circumstances that attended the appointment of the next governor of Awadh are of particular import in this connection. In 1719 Chhabele Ram, the governor of Allahabad, and after his demise his nephew Girdhar Bahadur, revolted against the Saiyids. According to the author of the Tarikh-i Hindi Girdhar Bahadur was finally forced to submit to Ratan Chand, the vakil of the Saiyids.43 But significantly enough it was Girdhar who dictated the terms of agreement. He handed over the fort of Allahabad to Ratan Chand on condition that he be appointed to the subadari of Awadh along with the office of the diwan and the faujdaris of the entire province.44 It is not unlikely that the Saiyids agreed to concede Awadh to Girdhar with unprecedented powers in order to remove him, at whatever cost, from Allahabad. For, an undisturbed control over the road passing through Benaras, Chunar, Allahabad, Kara and Bindki, etc., was indispensable to ensure safe passage of the Bengal treasury to the Mughal court.45

In this case it was not the emperor nor even a faction of the nobility but the governor himself who chose the province. This was certainly not inconsistent with developments at the centre where nobles endeavoured to dictate the course of state action.46 However, the method of Girdhar’s posting was irreconcilable with sixteenth-seventeenth century Mughal convention when governor’s appointment followed unfettered from the will of the emperor, even though initiatives for it sometimes came on the recommendation of certain nobles. Girdhar’s governorship was self-earned which included the rights of diwani and faujdari as well. This was the beginning of the new subadari in Awadh. But even though Girdhar was the first new subadar in Awadh, the chief constituents of the new subadari—long tenure, full authority (p.72) in financial, administrative and military matters were evident in the aspirations of Chhabele Ram and possibly Muzaffar Ali Khan.

Subadari along with faujdari was not an absolutely new phenomenon in the history of the provincial administration of the Mughals. The governor in a few cases in the late-seventeenth and the early-eighteenth centuries, combined his office with one or the other faujdari.47 In Awadh in this period, however, more than one important faujdari consistently remained under the control of the governor. A phenomenon which began as a privilege developed in the wake of the zamindar disturbances into an administrative necessity, as an essential part of the subadari. The governor’s endeavour was to keep faujdaris, if not under his own charge, at least in the control of his associates.

The governor’s urge for a change in his position may also be seen in the light of a new practice which seems to have gained ground towards the close of the seventeenth century. In the last years of Aurangzeb’s reign, a number of

Page 8 of 32

116The Changing Position of the Governor

jagirdars of Baiswara had faujdari rights over their jagir mahals. As the perspectives of these jagirdars-cum-faujdars were very narrow, their chief aim having been to assure themselves of undisturbed realization of the revenue of their jagirs, they did not hesitate to come to terms with the zamindars. This imposed certain constraints on the exercise of powers by the regular faujdars and even the subadar and this amounted to legitimizing dual authority in the province.48 The governor, by arrogating faujdaris for himself or to his dependable associates, sought (p.73) to restore stability and orderliness in the province. This, the governor believed, would meet the substance of the jagirdar’s demand too. For, it was in an atmosphere of uncertainty and inefficiency that the practice of combining faujdari with jagirdari rights had begun to evolve. Similarly, with his control over the office of the diwan, the governor intended to keep a check on the distribution of revenues and jagirs in the province.

It may also be noted that in Awadh it was the governor and not the diwan, as in Bengal, who gave a new direction to the links between the province and the imperial centre. It is true that the diwan, at least for a brief period in Farrukh Siyar’s reign, tried to assume a dominant position. The conflict between Saiyid Muzaffar Ali Khan and the diwan showed the latter’s endeavour to emulate the example of Murshid Quli Khan, the diwan of Bengal. But not even by equipping him with executive and military rights over certain areas (deputy governorship and faujdari) could the wazir help him succeed, as did the diwan of Bengal, in his bid to reduce the stature of the governor. For, it was not merely the question of the ambition of one or the other individual. The diwan’s unprecedented powers in Bengal grew out of the restructured revenue administration in that province. By transferring most of the jagirs to Orissa and by introducing and encouraging a new pattern of revenue administration, Murshid Quli Khan managed to exercise exclusive control over provincial administration in Bengal.49 On the other hand, no attempt was made to convert the jagirs on a large scale into khalisa in either Awadh or the Punjab. A large part of the revenue of the Mughal empire including these provinces, had been in jagirs. In Awadh, the proportion of jagir land to the khalisa seems to have gone up in the early-eighteenth century. Towards the end (p.74) of our period the khalisa certainly suffered heavy reductions till its jama fell to even less than three per cent of the total jama of the province. In the Punjab the proportion of the khalisa to the jagirs was comparatively high (30 per cent of the total jama of the province) in the earlyeighteenth century. By the end of Muhammad Shah’s reign, however, it declined considerably (about 22 per cent of the total jama of the province).50

Indeed in Awadh and the Punjab quite a few problems of the provincial administration related to jagir administration. The governor in Awadh must have discouraged the continuation of at least some of the khalisa lands. For the karoris (khalisa officials) in Awadh were by and (p.75) large defiant local Shaikhzadas who barely recognized the authority of the governor or the faujdars. It is interesting to note that Rad Andaz Khan the faujdar of Baiswara in

Page 9 of 32

117The Changing Position of the Governor

the early-eighteenth century, repeatedly reported to the centre the threat which the arrogant karoris posed to the local administration.51

The jagirs in a measure, also created conditions to the advantage of a resourceful governor. Although the administration of jagirs was largely under the control of the provincial diwan, political stability, without which no mansabdar could assure himself of his due from his jagir, depended on the efficient and effective operation of the governor’s authority. In the wake of weakening imperial authority, the jagir thus also enabled the governor to deal with the jagirdars on his own terms. This, among other things, facilitated the emergence of the circumstances in which the governor in Awadh effectively took contract of the jagirs of all the outsiders in his province. Further, as a rule no tankhwah jagir could be made without the signature and seal of either the emperor or the governor.52 The governor and not the diwan would thus command a superior position in the province, so long as the revenue of Awadh remained predominantly in jagirs of the mansabdars.