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Updated: June 22, 2025
The death of the Viceroy-Vazir, however occasioned, was a serious blow to the reduced Empire of Dehli, which was just then beginning to enjoy a gleam of sunshine such as had not visited it since the day when Mir Mannu and the eldest son of Mohammad Shah defeated the Abdali, in 1743.
Victorious in the field, in undisturbed possession of the Upper Doab, and with a subordinate of his own nation in charge of the metropolis and person of the sovereign, General Perron was not disposed to brook the presence of a rival and that a Briton in an independent position of sovereignty within a few miles of Dehli.
But the dream of a Musalman restoration, even with Hindu aid, will always have a fascination for the sons of Islam; and the weak Shah Alam adopted the proposal with an alacrity such as he had not shown for many years. On the 5th of January, 1788, he marched from Dehli, accompanied by several of the princes and princesses of his family.
The force was maintained by his widow, and she was accordingly put in charge of the lands which he had held for the same purpose. On the death of her father, she and her mother became subject to ill-treatment from her half-brother the legitimate heir; and they consequently removed to Dehli about 1760.
The position of the hostile armies was thus reversed; that of the northern invaders being nearer Dehli, with the whole of Hindustan at their backs, while the Southern defenders of their country were in the attitude of men marching down from the north-west with nothing behind them but the dry and war-wasted plains of Sirhind.
Accompanying the embassy was a force of 5,000 good troops, with a train of artillery, the whole under command of the deceased Shujaa's favourite general, Latafat Khan. Meanwhile the Imperialists had found the Jats, under their chieftain, intrenched near Hodal, a town sixty miles from Dehli, on the Mathra road.
At first they were very successful, and besieged the premier for three months in Dehli; but Holkar suddenly deserted them, as was only to have been expected had they known what we know now; and they were fain to make the best terms that they could, and return to their own country, with more respectful views towards the empire and its protector.
According to the latter, the people of Dehli were filled with admiring joy, and the Emperor with dignified thankfulness; according to the former, so great was the virtue of the joyful tears shed on this occasion by the Monarch, that they restored his eyesight the eyesight destroyed fifteen years before by Gholam Kadir's dagger.
He was an officer of great diligence, who had large local opportunities, having been in Dehli, the Doab, and Rohilkand, from 1793 to 1796, on a survey ordered by the British Government.
All these things called for prompt action. 1781. On the 27th March, the British Governor arrived at Lucknow, and Jawan Bakht resolved to escape from the palace, and lay before him an account of Dehli politics, such as should induce him to interpose.
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