Monday, 13 April 2009

Rahim Khan Afghan mercenary of north India


It appears that the 'Raja' Maha Singh, after his failure to take hughli and the areas below it, thanks to the resistance of the Europeans, had come to the northern part. The merchants of kasimbazar as well as the vakil of the Dutch company had visited the Raja, who had prevented immediate plunder of Kasimbazar.
The victory of Makhsudabad induced the neighbouring zamindars to submit to the rebels particularly when the rebels had seized the Mughal faujdar of the area. The French letter of 16 January 1697 estimates the plunder of Makhsudabad to twenty lakh rupees. Most of the people of the west bank had crossed the Ganges and were fleeing towards Dhaka. The rebels had begun to fortify Makhsudabad. It appears that Rahim Khan had not formally proclaimed himself leader. The English reported that Maha Singh, the general of the rebel forces, had declared his intention to become the king of Bengal. The rumour of the next rebel attack on Dhaka, never realised, merely revealed the fragile nature of the Mughal rule in northern Bengal.
Trade had not been normalised till the end of December 1696 and the English saw no possibility of its resumption in the immediate future. Excepting some isolated thanas and fortified enclaves of the European companies the rebels held the western bank of the Bhagirathi. Apart from the plunder of the rich merchants of Makhsudabad, the rebels had seized one lakh ten thousand rupees from the treasury of Makhsudabad with which they could pay the mercenaries at higher rates. They had established chowkies (toll stations) on the Bhagirathi and had begun to issue the dustak (permit) of the 'Raja' for safe conduct of boats at a price. However, in some isolated places, the Mughal thanadars would seize the rebel boats and send these to Dhaka from time to time.
A detachment of the rebels had advanced close to the European factories on the Bhagirathi, which the Europeans resisted. The route from Hughli to Dhaka was open but the merchants were unwilling to send either goods or money. Partitioned in two halves, Bengal was witnessing the operation of two parallel authorities. However the contradiction within the structure of the revolt was also clear. While the higher command was trying to set up the usual paraphernalia of an established authority, the lower command was bent on plunder.
By the middle of January 1697, some of the Afghan captains, not willing to risk their ill-gotten riches, had left Bengal to return to their homes laden with plunder. From the end of January 1697, the rebel leaders had begun to extend their operation of plunder of defencelss towns. Despite the payment of forty thousand rupees by the merchants, the rebels plundered Kasimbazar, where they besieged the European factories, demanding a payment of Four lakh rupees from the dutch and Rs. Nine thousand from the french. The rebel commanders, desperate to get fund to pay their soldiers, were forcibly exacting money from the merchants. Fonneville, the French merchant, escaped at night with a clerk to chandannagar and the French factory at Kasimbazar was plundered.
After March 1697, it was still hazardous to send goods to Rajmahal from Patna. The rebels had plundered Malda after defeating Muhammad Taqi, a big Mansabdar. By that time, Zabardast Khan was rapidly advancing towards the river. The rebels, with the strategy of defeating him before the arrival of troops from north India, had several skirmishes with his advanced detachments. They had concentrated at Makhsudabad, which had saved Hughli from further attacks.

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