Former Prime Minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan at many instances hit out at the opposition by calling them the ‘Mir Jafars and Mir Sadiqs’ of present time.
Mir Jafar and Mir Sadiq are two people from 18th-century India who are symbolised as the subcontinent’s ultimate sin of ghaddari (treason), like a South Asian version of Brutus, the man who betrayed Roman Emperor Julius Caesar. But who were they really? Let’s find out.
Who Was Mir Jafar?
Mir Jafar was born in the late 17th century. He served as a Bengal crown major general. Jafar replaced Siraj-Ud-Daulah as the eighth Nawab of Bengal with the help of the British under Robert Clive. Mir Jafar was forced to cede some area around Calcutta in exchange for British assistance in the conspiracy that brought him to the throne, to confirm and expand British economic advantages, and to make large public and private payments as rewards and indemnities to his British supporters. These payments bankrupted the state, and his power was quickly lost.
Who was Mir Sadiq?
Tipu Sultan of Mysore appointed Mir Sadiq as a minister in his cabinet. He supposedly betrayed Tipu Sultan during the Siege of Srirangapatana in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War in 1798–99, clearing the door for a British triumph. He betrayed Tipu by assassinating Tipu’s loyalist Ghazi Khan and then trapping Tipu behind sealed doors. Following the loss, Sadiq was assassinated by some of the bewildered Mysorean forces as he attempted to cross the border to greet the Brit
