At the time of his accession to the throne, Farrukh Siyar was a young man of 30. Although he was extremely handsome, he was utterly weak, thoughtless and devoid of physical and moral courage. He was faithless to promises, ungrateful to benefactors, tortuous in intrigues, cowardly and cruel. He was led by his personal favourites, Mir Jumla and Khan Dauran Khan. He started picking up quarrels with the Sayyid Brothers and tried to exercise real power.

As Sayyid Brothers had put him on the throne, they demanded complete control over the Government, particularly in the matter of appointments and the distribution of the spoils of victory. From day to day the conflict became bitterer. Farrukh Siyar resorted to treachery and intrigue of the dirtiest type.

Hussain Ali was deputed to lead the imperial forces to quell insurrections in Rajputana. At the same time, secret letters were written to the rebel Ajit Singh Rathore, Raja of Jodhpur, promising him rich reward if he did away with Hussain Ali The scheme failed. Ajit Singh submitted and passed on the letters of Farrukh Siyar to Hussain Ali.

Another plot was hatched. Nizam-ul-Mulk, the Viceroy of the Deccan, was recalled and the province was placed in the charge of Hussain Ali. When the latter was on his way to the South, Daud Khan, Deputy Governor of the Deccan, was secretly instigated to obstruct him. That plot also miscarried. Daud was defeated and killed.

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There were many oeuvres and counter-man oeuvres for three years. The Emperor tried one trusted nobleman after another to lay hold of Abdullah Khan while his brother Husain Ali was in the Deccan but none had the the courage to carry out his nefarious designs. Raja Ajit Singh, the father-in-law of Farrukh Siyar, was called for help by the Emperor but the Raja knew the character of his son-in-law. He came to Delhi but he threw in his lot with Abdullah Khan. Even Nizam-ul- Mulk and his cousin Muhammad Amin Khan turned against the Emperor.

When Husain Ali came to know of the plots against his brother, he decided to come back to the North. He reached Delhi in 1719 and resolved to end the sorry state of Affairs. Among his force were 11,000 Maratha troops led by Peshwa Balaji Vishwanath, Senapati Khande Rao Dabhade, Santaji Bhonsle and others.

The fort and palace in Delhi were cleared of the partisans of Farrukh Siyar who had taken refuge in women’s compartments. He was dragged out, blinded and confined in a ‘bare, dark, unfurnished hole.” After a few days in which indignities were heaped upon him, he was starved, beaten, given slow poison and at last put to death in the most ignominious manner on 28th April, 1719.

According to Irvine, “Farrukh Siyar was feeble, cowardly and contemptible and strong neither for evil nor for good and his attempt to assert hiw own power made his reign throughout an agitated and perplexing one, ending in another imperial tragedy,” Again, “The way of doing what had become almost a necessity was unduly harsh, too utterly regardless of the personal dignity of the fallen monarch. Blidning a deposed king was the fixed usage, for that the Sayyids are not especially to blame. But the severity of the subsequent confinement was excessive and the taking of the captive’s life was an extremity entirely uncalled for.”

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During the few years of the Reign of Farrukh Siyar, the Mughal Empire drifted towards dissolution. There was disorder everywhere Chiefs, Landholders and leaders of Tribal Bands began to defy the authority of the Government. There were fights in the streets of Delhi among the followers of different nobles. Roads became infested with thieves and robbers.

The Emperor himself set the example of misappropriating provincial revenues on their way to the imperial treasury and his example was followed by ambitious adventurers. The orders of the Government began to be openly flouted. Officers left their posts without permission. Rules and regulations were neglected. Corruption and inefficiency prevailed. As troops were not paid, they became mutinous.

There was jealousy and rivalry among nobles belonging to different factions, particularly the Turanis, the Iranis, the Afghans and Hindustanis. The Turanis had come from Trans-Oxiana and they professed the Sunni faith. The Iranis had migrated from the Eastern and Wastern provinces of Iran and they were Shias. The Afghans had come from the mountainous border regions across the Indus and many of them belonged to the Rohilla Tribe.

They were mostly Sunnis. Among the Hindustani Nobles were Muslim Families which had settled in the country for many generations and they were jealous of the new arrivals. These factions remained under control till the death of Bahadur Shah I. However, after that, their importance and influence increased because every rival claimant to the imperial throne asked for their help.

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Each faction tried to establish its control over the person of the Emperor and was prepared to adopt any means to achieve its objective. When Hussain Ali decided to depose Farrukh Siyar, he brought in the Marathas and forced the Emperor to give them many concessions.