Jul 012014
 

IN AHMAD’S TOWN 

The history and the reputation of Ahmadnagar belong primarily to the Moslem and British rulers in the Deccan Plains. In the 19th and 20th centuries, British officialdom and Christian Missions often bespeak complementary ministeries of secular authorities and foreign missionaries. At Ahmadnagar, where both histories unite, the Government of India did not grace the town’s tradition through the use of the location and its facilities. Besides the large cantonment, Ahmadnagar was the settlement for concentrating all German nationals in the year 1939, and it is a chapter not well known in the western world. 

Ahmadnagar was founded as a sultan state on the Deccan, a quarter of a century before Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation struck the Christian Church in Germany and Europe. Thus, its history is relatively brief in India’s annals, and though largely a Hindu Marathi population, its leadership and character were signally Moslem. Under Muhammad bin Tugluq, the sultan of Delhi (1325-51), his 14th century empire „reached its greatest extent, and in area … (was) comparable only to the empires of Asoka (B.C. 273-232) and Aurangzeb20 (1659-1707). The vast empire had communication problems and fermented widespread revolts. As a result Hasan, an Afghan or Turk! officer of the Delhi sultan, proceeded to occupy the Daulatabad fortress in the Deocan. In 1347, Hasan, known as Sultan ‚Ala-ud-din I, ushered in the Bahmani dynasty of nearly two centuries.21 Then in 1490, in the process of a minister aspiring to become sultan himself, the Bahmani dynasty gave way to Ahmadnagar as one of the five Deccan states, along with illustrious Bijapur and Golconda, as well as Bidar and Berar.22 The founder of Ahmad-nagar, or Ahmed-nagar, Ahmad Nizam Shah, „was the son Nizam-ul-Mulk Bhairi, a minister of the Bahmani kings.“23 

Hardly was the Nizam Shahi dynasty of Ahmadnagar a century old when it encountered the expanding Mnghul Empire under Akbar (1555-1605). As the 16th century drew to a close, the glory of Ahmadnagar was beset with family intrigue – a norm for those times and the power and threat of the Mughul king Akbar had increased.24 In this era the heroine of Ahmadnagar, a rare example of ‚Joan of Arc‘ dimensions, gave new life to the town.

Chand Bibi, the queen dowager of Bijapur, who had returned to Ahmadnagar, made a gallant and successful resistance to Akbar’s son, Prince Murad, in 1596, . . . purchasing peace by the cession of Berar. But war broke out again, and in August 1600 after Chand Bibi had perished at the hands of the mob, the Mughul army stormed Ahmadnagar. …25 

Ahmadnagar has left a noteworthy testimony of its place in Deccan history, though it conveys little in comparison to the unrivalled magnificence of Bijapur’s edifices.26 Ahmadnagar’s architectural feats are circumscribed in the one principal ancient building, „the ruined Bhadr palace in white stone, built by the founder of the city. …“27 Less than a mile east of the town stands the Ahmadnagar fortress, erected in an era of glory and power, and it has served efficiently to the present century.28 A further fragment of Ahmadnagar’s tradition stems from the last great Mughul king Aurangzeb, when weary in age and yet in his military pursuits, he died there in 1707. He had sought to suppress the Marathis‘ growing power. In fact, the great Marathi king Shivaji (1627-80), responsible for the Hindu revival and strength, was the son of Shahji Bhonsle, a Marathi officer of the original Ahmadnagar State.29 

As the Mughul dynasty of Delhi and Agra weakened, the Marathi movement and its Confederacy spread over much of India in the 18th century. In turn it progressively encountered the more aggressive East India Company of London with the military defenses surrounding its trading ‚factories‘.30 Under Lord Wellesley, the Governor-General of India, 1798-1805, the British extended their military successes, continuing in the tradition of Lord Clive at Plassey in 1757. Wellesley proved militarily superior in the skirmishes against the Marathi Confederacy, and in 1803 he did „capture the strong fortress of Ahmadnagar, Sindhia’s great arsenal and depot in the Deccan. …“31 Ahmadnagar became an integral part of the growing British Empire.