Assertion (A) : Shah Alam II spent the initial years as an Emperor far away from his capital. Reason (R) : There was always a lurking danger of foreign invasion from the north-west frontier.

Assertion (A) is true: contemporary accounts state that Shah Alam II spent his initial years wandering far from his capital and lived in mortal fear of his wazir, which kept him away from Delhi [1]. He took up residence at Allahabad under Company protection after the Battle of Buxar and did not return to Delhi until the Marathas escorted him in the early 1770s, confirming his prolonged absence from the capital [2]. Reason (R) — that a constant threat of foreign invasion from the north‑west caused his exile — is historically true in a general sense (Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali invaded via the northwest) but is not given as the primary cause of Shah Alam II’s initial exile; internal political dangers and loss of effective power are cited instead [3].

Sources

1. [1] Modern India ,Bipin Chandra, History class XII (NCERT 1982 ed.)[Old NCERT] > Chapter 1: The Decline of the Mughal Empire > The Decline of the Mughal Empire > p. 8
2. [2] Rajiv Ahir. A Brief History of Modern India (2019 ed.). SPECTRUM. > Chapter 4: India on the Eve of British Conquest > Weak Rulers after Aurangzeb—An Internal Challenge > p. 63
3. [3] History , class XI (Tamilnadu state board 2024 ed.) > Chapter 15: The Marathas > Circumstances > p. 232