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HILE the English settlement in Bengal grew and prospered, the Mogul Empire at Delhi was waning fast. Year after year fresh troubles arose, and, torn by internal dissension and the treachery of domestic foes, ravaged and spoiled by foreign invaders, the court had lost all control over its distant provinces. Successive nawabs of Bengal kept up a nominal allegiance to Delhi, but grew constantly more independent and more despotic in their rule, till, in 1742, when the tyranny and oppression of the then reigning nawab had become intolerable, his court and army revolted, and, selecting one of their own number, Aliverdi Khan, to be their ruler, placed him on the gadi as Nawab of Bengal.

During this period of lawlessness the Mahratta horsemen of Central India began to invade