186 
G. N. Dutt —History of the Hutwa Raj. [No. 2 
the East India Company obtained the Dewani of Bengal, Behar, and 
Orissa. The administration of affairs in Behar was vested in a joint 
council of Europeans and natives, and when at the end of the year 1767, 
the Revenue Collector of Sircar Saran demanded rents on behalf of the 
Company, Fateh Shahi not only refused to pay them but gave fight to 
the Company’s troops who were sent against him in consequence, and it 
was with much difficulty that these troops succeeded in expelling him 
from Husainpur. The revenue of the district of Husainpur was then 
farmed out to one Govind Ram; but Fateh Shahi, who had retired into 
the jungles bordering on the then independent dominions of the Vizier 
of Oudh and the province of Behar, watched every opportunity of making 
raids into the district, to plunder the villages and stop the collection of 
revenue. The unsettled state of the country, his easy access to the 
territories of an independent prince, where British troops were unable to 
pursue him and where a part of his zemindari was situated, the im¬ 
penetrable jungles which surrounded the place, Pargana Jogini, to 
which he had removed his family residence (the present Tumcohi) 
from Husainpur, the collusion of the amils of the Vizier of Oudh, and 
above all the attachment of the subjects to their expelled Raja and their 
dislike of a Government farmer,—all contributed to favour his designs, 
and he kept the country around in a constant state of terror and the 
British authorities constantly on the alert. In 1772, the year just pre¬ 
ceding Warren Hastings’ appointment to the Governor-Generalship of 
the Indian possessions of the Company, in one of these raids, Govind Ram, 
the Government farmer, was put to death, and the revenue collection 
came to a stand-still. The Collector of Sircar Saran, which included 
the former district of Husainpur, finding that the rents could not be 
collected so long as Fateh Shahi remained in that situation, recommend¬ 
ed that he should be induced to come in on the promise of an allowance 
being granted him by Government. Govind Ram’s murder was forgiven 
on Fateh Shahi’s solemnly denying any knowledge of the transaction, and 
the Collector’s recommendation on his behalf was acceded to. Fateh 
Shahi then came to Patna, and on an allowance being fixed for his main¬ 
tenance promised to live quietly with his family at Husainpur, which 
was then under the charge of one Mir Jumla, 1 who was styled Superin¬ 
tendent of Government Revenue; and the Husainpur Raj Estates, after 
being kept under direct management for a year, were let out in farm to 
Babu Basant Shahi, cousin of Maharaja Fateh Shahi, on the security of 
the unfortunate Raja Chait Singh of Benares. But the turbulent dis¬ 
position of Fateh Shahi did not long allow him to remain in this condi¬ 
tion of quietude. Within two months he withdrew again from the 
1 This is evidently a mistake for Mir Jamal; see page 210.—Ed. 
