SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This is a study of Saiyid Muhammad Reza Khan who held the office of Naib Nazim and Naib Diwan of Bengal from 1765 to 1772. It includes the early life of the Khan, but concentrates particularly upon the years from 1756, when the Khan first held public office, to 1775 when after a lengthy trial he was reinstated at Murshidabad as Naib Nazim. Chapter One takes note of previous work upon Reza Khan, appraises the sources used in this study, and considers the nature of Anglo-Mughal relations at the moment when Reza Khan entered politics. The study proper commences with the Second Chapter which traces Reza Khan's early life from his birth in Iran, his arrival in Bengal and marriage into the ruling family, down to 1756 when he achieved office. Chapter Three describes the Khan's appointment to and dismissal from the post of Faujdar Chittagong and his first contact with the English. Chapter Four deals with his elevation to the Naibat at Dacca in 1763, and Chapter Five discusses the circumstances leading to the Khan's promotion to the Naibat Subandari in 1765. Chapter Six is devoted to the Khan's rise, within the system inaugurated by Clive after the grant of the Diwani, to the zenith of his power. Chapter Seven deals with the rebuffs the Khan suffered after Clive's departure, while Sykes was Resident at Murshidabad, and Chapter Eight is concerned with the politics behind the decision to introduce English supervisors into the districts in 1769. Chapter Nine provides an account of the Khan's activities during the great famine, and of the curtailment of the Khan's power by the newly created Controlling Committee in 1770. While Chapter Ten reviews the Khan's uneasy co-operation with that Committee in 1771 and 1772, Chapter Eleven, the last, seeks to explain the circumstances leading to his arrest in 1772, and the motives of Warren Hastings who managed his trial. The study closes with a brief note upon the Khan's reinstatement in 1775 and his career until his death in 1791.