295Saudar Jang and the Marathas Safdar Jang not only respected the treaty of Burhan-ul-Mulk with the Marathas, but also refused to comply with the repeated imperial directives to him to help Jai Singh against them.91 Subsequently, the emperor through another farman directed Safdar Jang to stay in, and look after the affairs of his own province.92

(p.276) For his refusal to assist Jai Singh, Safdar Jang gave three reasons, the threat of a Maratha attack on Awadh, the zamindar disturbances in the province, and the ‘honour of the faith’, namely, the plea of disgrace for a Muslim khanazad to serve and fight under a Rajput.93 These reasons are however, not borne out by facts. If at all there was any possibility of a Maratha invasion of Awadh it was in 1743.94 But it did not prevent Safdar Jang from rushing to the court at Amir Khan’s invitation. Similarly it is difficult to accept Safdar Jang’s version of the magnitude of the threat posed by the insubordinate zamindars to his authority in the province. When he left for Delhi in 1743 he could place the province in charge of Nawal Rai without undue anxiety and stay at the court for about a decade. In fact, by the time Safdar Jang became the governor, a number of zamindars of Awadh, as we have seen earlier, had been largely subdued and accommodated in the provincial administration. As for the point of the ‘honour of the Faith’, Safdar Jang clarified it in his letter to Abd-ul-Majid Khan. He asserted that ‘in the past the slaves and the servants of this court who were endowed with the honour of being the khanazads never served under the command of this crowd (the Rajputs)’.95 It is needless to say that Safdar Jang’s claim was not supported by the military history of the Mughals.

Muhammad Shah’s second farman to Safdar Jang shows the extent of autonomy of the new subadar. It was the emperor and not the governor who acted on the directive of the latter. The emperor wanted Safdar Jang to join Jai Singh’s expedition against the Marathas. Safdar Jang refused to comply with the order and then made the emperor issue a farman approving what he had done.

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296The Imperial Court, the New Subadars and the Region

Safdar Jang thus made every possible effort not to come into open conflict with the Marathas. But since the wazir and Nizam-ul-Mulk were by no means well disposed towards Safdar Jang, the governor of (p.277) A wadh feared that at their instigation the peshwa could violate the treaty any time it suited him and thus the Marathas could adversely affect his authority in Awadh. He, therefore, seems to have been also prepared to face any Maratha threat to the province. This is illustrated from his letters to Muhammad Khan Bangash and the Maharana of Gahadwala, informing them about his Patna expedition, about the rumours of the peshwa’s plan to invade Awadh and the preparation he had made to encounter the Marathas.96 There is also evidence of Muhammad Khan’s reply to Safdar Jang assuring the latter of his assistance in the event of a Maratha invasion of Awadh.97 According to Ghulam Husain Tabatabai, it was only after he had heard of the peshwa’s passage through Vindhyachal and Benaras that Safdar Jang rode back from Patna.98

Our sources, however, do not mention any conflict between the Marathas and Safdar Jang till the end of our period. On the contrary, in 1743 when the peshwa was in and around Awadh for over a fortnight, he apparently avoided confrontation with the governor of Awadh. Different reasons have been given by our authorities for this. According to Marathi sources, the Brahmans of Benaras were responsible for preventing the peshwa from committing atrocities. Safdar Jang had threatened to kill the Brahmans of Benaras if Balaji entered the town. Under the leadership of one Narayan Dikshit they therefore met the peshwa and urged him immediately to march towards Bihar. Malhar Rao who accompanied the peshwa thought of destroying a mosque, but this was not done on the intercession of the Brahmans.99

However, from the account of Ghulam Husain Tabatabai it appears that it was primarily to safeguard the interests of the Maratha traders (p.278) in Benaras that the peshwa, on the recommendation of Gobind Naik, refrained from doing anything which later might cause them sufferings at the hands of the governor.100 Whatever the reasons, it can be safely inferred from this evidence that the peshwa had his own interests in maintaining relations which were detached, if not cordial, with the governor of Awadh. This was also compatible with the spirit of the treaty of 1736.101

It was again in accord with this spirit, perhaps, that in the late 1740s Safdar Jang and the Marathas often acted in unison at the court. In 1747 Safdar Jang and Balaji Rao were great friends.102 The Maratha envoy to the Mughal court helped him in his struggle for the wizarat and in late 1748 when intrigues and counter-intrigues marred court politics, the Marathas were his reliable allies.103 Again, in 1754 it was with the help of the Marathas that Safdar Jang finally crushed the (p.279) Bangash Afghans of Farrukhabad and also the joint forces of the Rohillas and the Bangash.104

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