298Safdar Jang and the Imperial Court After Burhan-ul-Mulk’s death, his two young relatives, Safdar Jang and Sher Jang, petitioned the court for the governorship. As the language and the contents of their petition show, both the petitioners treated the governorship of Awadh as the personal property of Burhan-ul-Mulk.118 Nobody, not even the emperor disputed the validity of such an assumption. This signified that the legitimization of an otherwise illegally asserted claim (Burhan-ul-Mulk’s defiance in sticking to the subadari of Awadh in spite of an imperial order transferring him to Malwa) had already taken place. It also highlighted that Burhan-ul-Mulk’s stay in Awadh after 1726 was exclusively by the virtue of his own strength. Yet, Sher Jang and Safdar Jang referred their cases to the centre and unlike the

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Nawabs of (p.283) Bengal119 refrained from settling the dispute among themselves. This shows the limitation of the new subadari in Awadh. Nadir Shah’s presence in Delhi and the fear that he might stay in India was a crucial factor in this context. Nadir Shah is reported to have cast his greedy eye on the treasury of Awadh as well.120 The attempt of Burhan-ul-Mulk’s relatives to appropriate the subadari and the treasury of Awadh, disregarding the authority of the Delhi court could have brought the Persian invader to the province.

The award of the subadari was consequently for life and the province became the subadar’s home country (dar-ul-mulk).121 The new governor, Safdar Jang paid two crores of rupees from the provincial treasury as a peshkash for his governorship. This again showed the governor’s personal claims over the treasury of Awadh.

However, the jagirs of Burhan-ul-Mulk, those which were outside Awadh, were not regarded as a part of the inheritance. The late governor’s jagirs, according to the Mughal convention, were resumed and we find Safdar Jang repeatedly petitioning for their reassignment.122 In his petitions nowhere did he mention his relation with Burhan-ul-Mulk as grounds for his claim to the jagirs of the deceased.

Thus, by the time Burhan-ul-Mulk died his family’s claim over Awadh had been largely established. But the jagir, with all its modifications, still tied together the divergent parts of the nominal Mughal empire. In other words the Mughal court was not yet prepared to equate the new subadar, however independent he be, with the traditional indigenous chiefs.

(p.284) With the coming of Safdar Jang to power in Awadh, there was yet another major development. Safdar Jang appropriated the imperial prerogative of conferring titles and mansabs. Although the formal approval of the emperor was sought, they were initially conferred by the governor himself. Besides, the nature of the emperor’s approval was merely confirmatory and could be conveniendy set aside if it did not accord with the governor’s interests. It was the governor’s responsibility to provide jagirs against such mansabs. The imperial consent to such jagirs was merely to add grace and dignity to the act.123 Also, in 1745, in the wake of a famine, Safdar Jang managed the resumption, as we have seen earlier, of the jagirs of a large number of the nobles and mansabdars posted outside Awadh. The extent of independence Safdar Jang assumed in provincial matters is further illustrated from the details of his relations with the centre and the principalities in the neighbourhood. On more than one occasion, he clashed, for example, with the wazir on matters which had a bearing on the province.

In 1740 when Nadir Shah left Delhi, the ‘Mughal nobles’ and their associates held the most important offices and constituted the most powerful group at the

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centre. Qamar-ud-Din Khan was the wazir, Nizam-ul-Mulk had lately been appointed the mir bakshi while Khwaja Sad-ud-Din and his son, Khwaja Hafiz-ud- Din Khan held the offices of the khan-i saman and the mir atish respectively. But in view of their role in the battle of Karnal and also on the plea for the urgency of a strong and independent monarchy, the other group headed by Amir Khan attempted to take the emperor into confidence and hatch a plot against them. The emperor was persuaded to sack Qamar-ud-Din Khan and make Amir Khan the wazir of the empire.124 The (p.285) plot, however, failed and Amir Khan had to withdraw to Allahabad, following a strong protest by the ‘Mughal’ group.125

Amir Khan’s appointment as governor of Allahabad was not well received by Safdar Jang. Being the successor of Burhan-ul-Mulk who had held the provinces of Awadh and Allahabad on his death, Safdar Jang presumably aspired for the governorship of Allahabad as well. Yet he avoided a conflict with Amir Khan,126 for, in the recent regrouping, the governor of Awadh had been gradually isolated from Qamar-ud-Din Khan. The breach had commenced with Burhan-ul-Mulk’s resentment over the conferment of the office of the mir bakhshi on Nizam-ul- Mulk. The wazir had also opposed Safdar Jang’s bid to secure the jagirs of Burhan-ul-Mulk. The breach between the wazir and Safdar Jang widened owing to their conflicting interests in the Moradabad-Bareilly region. Safdar Jang thus found it necessary to ally himself with Amir Khan. Moreover, with a large part of the province of Allahabad, e.g., the sarkars of Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chunar and Benaras being under his control, Safdar Jang thought it inadvisable to antagonize Amir Khan as long as the latter did not attempt to wrest these sarkars from his control.

Safdar Jang was not unaware of the possible consequences for him of the presence of a noble with close links with the emperor as the governor in Allahabad. It could well impose serious constraints on his control over, at least, these four sarkars, all the more because Mir Rustam Ali Khan who had held them on ijara for about fifteen years, and Balwant Singh, the powerful zamindar of Benaras, had their own grievances against him. Following a dispute with the governor of Awadh over the rate of the ijara in 1738, Mir Rustam Ali had been divested of the ta‘ahhud of these sarkars and had been left with only the (p.286) deputy faujdari of Benaras.127 In the case of Balwant Singh, Mansa Ram’s successor as the ijaradar and faujdar of Benaras, Chunar and Jaunpur, Safdar Jang insisted on the payment of a heavy peshkash of Rs 5,00,000 and an increase of Rs 2,00,000 over the existing amount.128 Mir Rustam and Balwant Singh approached the emperor through Amir Khan, in a bid to come into direct contact with the centre and thus challenge the position of the governor of Awadh. As Qamar-ud-Din Khan, an old rival of Safdar Jang, was still the wazir of the empire, they succeeded not inconsiderably in their bid.129 But they could not upset Safdar Jang’s scheme, since Amir Khan’s prime interests lay in the centre.

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Safdar Jang’s efforts to befriend Amir Khan were thus guided by his interests in the province. His attempt to obtain an important office at the centre was again to gain ascendancy over his potential rivals in the region. For the same reasons, as we shall see below, later he turned against Amir Khan, to finally become the wazir and to wield unshared authority over the entire province of Allahabad.

In August 1743, Amir Khan was back at the court. Immediately after this, on his suggestion, the emperor invited the governor of Awadh as well. Amir Khan hoped that Safdar Jang’s presence in Delhi would strengthen his hands against his enemies whereas if he were to remain in Awadh Amir (p.287) Khan’s position in Allahabad could be threatened. On the other hand, Safdar Jang also seems to have realized that he could not secure ground even in Awadh unless he held an important position at the court. For the province was theoretically a part of the empire and forts all over the country including Awadh were still under the control of the centre.130

Safdar Jang arrived at the court on 17 November 1743 and within a few months on 21 March 1744 the office of mir atish which had eluded Burhan-ul-Mulk twice in 1727 and 1739 was conferred upon him.131 As Safdar Jang replaced Khwaja Hafiz-ud-Din Khan, an associate of the wazir and Nizam-ul-Mulk, his appointment was a major gain for Amir Khan too. The office gave its holder an authority to supervise the major arsenals and the forts all over the empire132 and included the responsibilities of looking after the person, the assets and the honour of the emperor as well.133 Safdar Jang was thus in close touch with the emperor. Besides, he and Amir Khan were now in a position to strengthen themselves militarily against the ‘Mughal’ group.134 The province of the Punjab was one of the strongholds of the ‘Mughal’ group. Amir Khan, therefore, had managed to keep at least one contiguous province, i.e., Kashmir under the control of his own man, Asad Yar Khan. In the absence of Amir Khan from the court, however, Asad Yar Khan’s loyalty to Amir Khan was questioned. On 4 October 1744 therefore, Safdar Jang replaced him as the governor of Kashmir.135

(p.288) But, while Safdar Jang and Amir Khan acted in unison against the ‘Mughal’ group, their interests and views in matters of the regions, as we have seen above, were not identical. This was one reason why Mir Rustam and Balwant Singh expected Amir Khan to mediate, as indeed he did, while recommending their cases to the emperor.136 Safdar Jang apprehended a threat to his position in Awadh if Amir Khan was allowed to combine his governorship of Allahabad with the office of the wazir at Delhi. He was thus gradually alienated from Amir Khan too, and aspired to build his own group at the centre. In achieving this quickly he was also assisted by Amir Khan’s temperament. Amir Khan was arrogant and cared little for ‘the decency that the nobles should maintain while conferring with the Kings’ during the period when he held the office of the wazir for over seven months in 1746 owing to the illness of Qamar-

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