Sack of Delhi (1757)

Overview

The sack of Delhi took place from 28 January to 22 February 1757, carried out by the Durrani Empire under the Afghan king Ahmad Shah Durrani. Delhi, then capital of the declining Mughal Empire, had already suffered multiple 18th-century invasions, including one by Nader Shah. Following Nader Shah's death, Ahmad Shah Durrani consolidated eastern territories into the Durrani Empire, based in Kandahar.

Background

The Mughal Empire's decline accelerated after Emperor Aurangzeb's death in 1707, amid Maratha incursions and succession disputes. Ahmad Shah Durrani launched successive invasions of Mughal India beginning in 1747. A 1749 campaign forced Punjab's governor, Moin-ul-Mulk, to cede regional revenues after the Mughal emperor authorized concessions rather than send reinforcements. A third invasion in 1751–1752 ended with the siege and sack of Lahore, the capture of Moin-ul-Mulk, and Afghan annexation of Punjab and Kashmir. After Moin-ul-Mulk's 1753 death, internal Mughal power struggles — including the imprisonment of his successor, Mughlani Begum, by vizier Imad ul-Mulk — led Mughlani Begum to invite the Afghans to invade again.

Invasion and Sack

Citing the vizier's misrule, other nobles, including Najib ud-Daula and Mughal emperor Alamgir II, also invited Ahmad Shah to intervene. He launched a fourth invasion in November 1756 with roughly 80,000 men, taking Lahore in December with little resistance and advancing toward Delhi despite limited Maratha resistance under Antaji Mankeshwar. Delhi's defenders largely capitulated, and Ahmad Shah's forces arrived before the city on 28 January 1757.

Ahmad Shah met Alamgir II at the Fatehpuri Mosque and entered Delhi, though residents fled or barricaded themselves indoors. Alamgir was placed under house arrest. Despite initial orders against sacking, bazaars were plundered from 29 January, tribute was extracted from Feroz Shah Kotla, and Ahmad Shah minted coins in his own name and arranged a marriage between his son, Timur Shah Durrani, and a daughter of Alamgir II. Discriminatory measures were imposed on Hindus, and Mughal nobles faced extortionate demands enforced through torture, including foot whipping; many died, were crippled, or died by suicide. Imad ul-Mulk and Intizam-ud-Daulah were forced to surrender large sums of gold, coin, and property. An elderly woman, Sholapuri Begum, was coerced under threat of torture into revealing the location of buried family wealth, which Afghan forces subsequently excavated.

Aftermath

After further campaigning against the Marathas and Jats, Ahmad Shah briefly sacked Delhi again in March 1757 before departing for Afghanistan in April. Estimates of the total loot range from 30 million to 300 million rupees, transported by thousands of pack animals. The invasion diverted and weakened Mughal and Bengal Subah forces, contributing to their defeat months later at the Battle of Plassey, a turning point in British colonial expansion in India.