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Chapter 62: 1761 part 11
Indian Theatre
Afghan – Maratha War
Marathan conquests in 1758 had pushed the Afgans, under the Durrani Empire back out of northwest India. However political disruptions and revolts had weakened the Marathas hold over the area in the subsequent two years.
The prior year, the Durrani army had defeated the Marathan army at Barari Ghat, and the Marathan leader Dattaji Sindhia had nearly lost his life on the field. However Dattaji retreated with the Marathan army mostly intact and as a result of his care by Sikh physician, he came to an accord with the previously rebellious Sikh which brought about a tenuous but important Marathan-Sikh alliance. This resulted in Sikh forces reinforcing the Marathan army near Delhi as Durrani prepared for another battle over the control of Delhi near Panipat.
Ahmed Shah Durrani, the founder of the Durrani empire could not overlook his prior defeat seeking to take advantage of the unrest had sent forth another invasion into the northwest India for the fifth time.
Third Battle of Panipat
Najib-ud-Daula, tribal chief of Rohilkhand, had previously sided with Durrani and his influence in the region had prevented Dattaji from obtaining any additional allies from the region other than the Sikhs. In additional to troops, the Sikh’s had brought much needed supplies to help refresh and ward off the threat of starvation that was looming in the face of the Marathan retreat.
The Durrani forces number some 100,000 while the Marathan forces and Sikh allies numbers some 85,000. The armies came to clash near Panipet some 60 miles north of Delhi on January 21st.
Although Dattaji and Marathans were victorious, the amount of casualties they had suffered significantly weakened their army as a whole, and limited their ability to pursue significant offensives. To offset this loss of manpower, the Marathas recalled much of their forces off of their southern border with the Mysore.
Durrani would retreat his army back across northwest India, though not without further conflict.
Battle of Kasur
As Durrani retreated, he raided Punjab as needed to maintain what remained of his army, bringing him into increased conflict with the Sikhs of the region, who had now formally allied with the Maratha. On February 25th, a few weeks after the Durrani, defeat the Sikh’s would gather a 10,000 strong army to confront a 15,000 strong contingent of the Durrani army and further contest the control of the Punjab region of northwest India.
With the losses at both Panipat and Kasur, the Durrani continued their retreat from northwest India. Although skirmishes between Sikh-Maratha forces and the Durrani would continue in the Punjab region, but by fall of the year the Durrani would have effectively fully retreated from the region.
The End of the Mughal Empire
Prince Ali Gauhar, the heir apparent of the Mughal Empire, had escaped Delhi in 1759 and his father, Alamgir II, was assassinated soon after in the same year. The Marathas had then placed usurping Shah Jahan III as the Mughal Emperor in Dehli under Marathan suzerainty. This coup along with rampant defacement and looting of Mosques and Mughal palaces, tombs, and shrines was additional reasons that Durrani had invaded India again. Even Shah Jahan II reign was short-lived as the Marathan Saders (nobles) soon deposed him in 1760.
The exiled prince had hoped to strengthen his positions and claim by captured the eastern provinces Bengal, Bishar and Odisha. His attempts to conquer the Bengal had brought him into conflict with the British East India Company.
Battle of Suan
The British East India Company, having for the moment been repulsed by the French at Pondicherry and Wandiwash the prior year, returned its attention to the western parts of Bengal and what remained of the Mughal Empire.
Mir Kasim Ali Khan, the Nawab of Bengal recently installed by the British, joined with the British East India Company against Prince Ali Gauhar.
The Mughal forces were supported by a dozen French officers and over 200 French soldiers led by Jean Law de Lauriston, the remains of the French forces that escaped Chandernagar which had been defeated by the British in 1757.
The Bengal European Regiment send a force of about 300 led by Major Carnac, accompanied by several hundred of the Nawab of Bengal’s Indian forces. On January 22nd, after chasing Prince Ali Gauhar forces (total number unrecorded) for some days, they met them in battle near Suan.
Opening rounds of artillery exchange by the British wounded several of the Emperor’s battle Elephants which then went rampaging across the field fleeing, causing significant disruption and chaos in his army. The British forces then advanced, and the Emperor was now only seeking to flee. French forces made a stand against the British long enough for the Emperor to re-gathered his forces and retreat, when by then the British had surrounded the French elements who then surrendered.
Battle Results:
British East Indian Company Forces: 12 casualties
Nawab of Bengal Forces: none
Mughal Forces: ~unknown
French Forces: 50 casualties, 162 prisoners taken.
British forces chased the Mughal forces for another week, until the Prince and his army learned of the Marathan victory at Panipat. The Emperor, whose treasury was mostly gone, saw much of his forces desert during his withdrawal. With few allies near, he took the offer of nearby chiefs to escort him to the Nawab of Oudh, Shuja-ud-Daula, with whom he took refuge.
The Last Mughal Emperor
The Mughal Empire had only a handful of loyal princely states remaining, Oudh, Rohilkhand (Rohilla), Kashmir, Punjab, Sind, and Bahawalpur in the north, and Mysore, Nizam, and the Carnatic in the south, and Bhopal in the midst of Maratha held lands.
While nominally beholden to the Mughal Empire, these states already had significant independence in their own right. Furthermore, Bhopal and the southern state, were separated from the northern Mughal states by the Maratha, who had recently assassinated the prior Emperor and even deposed their own puppet replacement soon after. The Mughal state itself and its capital Delhi was still in the hands of the Maratha after the battle at Panipat, and Punjab was falling to the influence of their Sikh allies. Sind, Bahawalpur and Kashmir border the Durrani and were likewise cut off from Rohilkhand and Oudh by Maratha occupation in Muhgal.
The gamble that the Nawab’s of Rohilkhand and Oudh had taken in preventing the Maratha from gaining allies in the hope of their defeat had failed. Dattaji Sindhia, leading the Marathan army in Delhi promised revenge against Rohilkhand and Oudh for siding with the Durrani.
Price Ali Gauhar, was named Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II, but presently only Rohilkhand and Oudh had acknowledged such, and he was still in exile from his capital and throne in Dehli. In exchange for this and to supplement his meager army and treasury the new Emperor had promised the hand of his eldest daughter, born the prior year, the Nawab of Oudh, Shuja-ud-Daula’s heir, when she was old enough.[1]
Battle of Bareilly
On June 10th, Dattaji Sindhia led a Marathan army of 60,000 against the armies of Rohilkhand, Oudh, and the Mughal Emperor, led by Hafiz Rahmat Khan Barech, Shah Alam II and Shuja-ud-Daula, which numbered over 50,000. Shah Alam II hoped to defeat the Maratha and move on to re-conquer Delhi and obtain his coronation.
Battle Results:
Maratha Forces: ~10000 casualties
Mughal Allied Forces: ~15000 casualties. Hafiz Rahmat Khan Barech and Shah Alam II killed in action.
Marathan Victory.
The young Emperor’s death, disrupted the Mughal army, and send them running. Seeing no hope in recovering, Shuja-ud-Daula soon retreated his forces form the field and returned to Oudh, leaving Rohilkhand forces to be ravaged and defeated by the Marathan army, resulting in the death of Hafiz Rahmat Khan Barech as well.
The Marathan’s however were heavily spent, the casualties from this battle and Panipat combined were too high, and the movement of forces to the north had left them weakened elsewhere. Rohilkhand was effectively conquered and brought into Marathan control. The Afghan Rohillas peoples were chased into the highlands.
Peace though was made between Shuja-ud-Daula and Dattaji Sindhia which would leave Oudh intact and free from invasion after an indemnity payment.
The death of Shah Alam II, which occurred before the other states had even had time to hear of or consider whether or not they would recognize him, and without an obvious male heir, resulted in the effective end of the Mughal Empire. Despite this, Shuja-ud-Duala would name himself as regent anyway and planned to propose his son or his grandson by Shah Alam II’s daughter as the next Emperor, though this would never come to pass, nor was ever recognized by any of the other former Mughal Empire princely states.
[1] In OTL, Akbar Shah II, was born April 22nd, 1760. He was the second son of Shah Alam II, and was the Mughal Emperor that succeeded him. In TTL a daughter was born instead near the same date. Furthermore, I could not find info on his first son, so I assume he may have died young, nor anything on his other children, though given Shah Alam II much earlier death TTL, most of those offspring (and no additional sons) were conceived.