ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses two aspects that played a crucial role in determining the power and authority of the Bangash Nawabs among the political elite in and beyond Farrukhabad, be it fellow Afghans or other co-sharers of the declining Mughal realm. The first aspect relates to their use of so-called chelas, elite slaves, mainly serving the Bangash military and the administration. The Bangash tribe derived its name from the hilly area, north of the Sulaiman Mountains, in between the Indus and the Kurram River. The Bangash Nawabs systematically recruited personal slaves who were entrusted with the most vital posts in the administration, the revenue collection and the army. These slaves played a significant role as a kind of artificial family in-group which was entirely attached to the person of their patron. The history of the Bangash Nawabs is an interesting case study of Indian military slavery. In fact, it represents a last flickering of a six-century old phenomenon.
