HVK Archives: History of India
History of India - The Times of India
Suresh Desai
()
Sat, 22 Jun 96 22:32:38 PDT
Title: History of India
Author: Suresh Desai
Here are some historical facts, which would be useful to use
in discussions about India's freedom from the Moghuls.
SURESH DESAI
1, Roundelay, Sitaladevi Temple Rd,
Mahim, BOMBAY 400 016.
June 18, 1996
The Editor,
The Pioneer,
Crompton Greaves Bldg,
V.B.Gandhi Marg, Fort,
MUMBAI 400 001.
Maratha Confederacy & Moghuls
Dear sir,
Mr Aniruddha Deshpande, Ph.D. in history, has made a
few historically incorrect statements in his reply
(Pioneer, June 14) to Mr Ashok Chowgule's letter.
According to Mr Deshpande, the so-called (sic)
Maratha Confederacy declined after the defeat of Panipat
in 1761. This is not correct. The Confederacy on the
contrary functioned with redoubled vigour, and
dominated the entire northern India under the inspired
stewardship of Peshwa Madhavrao I. A mighty Maratha
force under the command of Ramchandra Ganesh invaded
the
north to regain and enhance its Pre-Panipat glory with a
vengeance.
The Maratha Confederacy was a real powerful
organisation since 1737 when Peshwa Bajirao I first
knocked at the gates of Delhi, the imperial capital. In
the words of Jawaharlal Nehru whose name Mr
Deshpande's
University bears in his illustrious Discovery of India
"(after Panipat), they recovered gradually and the
Maratha dominions were divided in a number of independent
states joined together in a Confederacy under the
leadership of the Peshwa at Pune... This Confederacy
still dominated a vast area in Western and Central
India".
Shah Alam II was the last Moghul emperor in line
before the Mughal empire ceased to exist in 1806 and not
Bahadurshah Zafar as stated by Mr Aniruddha Deshpande.
Bahadurshah was enthroned by the rebels of 1857 after
they captured Delhi from the British for a brief period.
Bahadurshah was as much as the last Mughal emperor as
Nanasaheb II of the 1857 fame was the last Peshwa.
Charles Metcalfe, who was an able and important
British official, wrote in 1806 "India contains no more
than two great powers, the British and the Mahrattas and
every other State acknowledges influence of one or the
other . Every inch that we recede will be occupied by
them (the Mahrattas)".
In fact, the Mughal empire had ceased to exist as an
effective military and political power after 1737. To
quote Jawaharlal Nehru again - "Mogul emperors had become
vague shadows enjoying ghostly sovereignty." From 1759 to
1772, for full 13 years, there was no emperor at Delhi
since Shah Alam II was mortally afraid of living in the
imperial capital where his father Alamgir II was brutally
murdered by Imad Ul-Mulk. The glorious imperial Moghul
throne was empty and forlorn and during the royal
absence, Najibkhan Rohilla, the chief villain of Panipat
ruled the roost.
The emperor after his defeat at the hands of the
British in the battle of Baksaar in 1764 virtually became
a prisoner of the British East India company and gave up
Bengal to the British for a paltry annual pension of
Rs.26 lakh. Earlier, Siraj-Ud-Daula had surrendered the
Dewani rights of Bengal to the British. The Muslim
rulers of the country thus started giving up large chunks
of the country to the British. The rot was stemmed by
the Marathas who under the command of the great Mahadji
Shinde, rescued the emperor (Shah Alam II) from the
clutches of the British, brought him to Delhi on the day
of Id - 6th January 1772 and restored him to his
ancestral throne.
The grateful emperor, who to quote Jawaharlal Nehru
once again, "had become virtual pensioner of the
Marathas," appointed Mahadji his Chief Political Military
and Administrative Executive - second in command only to
the emperor, who was a titular head. At Mahadji's
instance, the emperor issued a firman (ordinance) banning
Cow Slaughter in the entire North India and transferred
ownership of the Hindu Holy places, Mathura and Vrindavan
to the Peshwa.
Najib's grandson, Ghulam Kader, seized with satanic
fury attacked Delhi and taking the benefit of Mahadji's
absence attacked the Red Fort and perpetrated fiendish
brutalities on the emperor and his family and gouged out
the eyes of the emperor with a sharp instrument called
peshakbaj.
It was a Maratha, Mahadji Shinde, who captured and
executed Ghulam Kader, a Muslim who had perpetrated
brutalities and humiliated the Moghul emperor.
The confederacy of Marathas was very strong till
Mahadji died in 1794. Mahadji had raised the largest
drilled army in the whole of Asia trained by a French
professional De Boigne. He inflicted crushing defeats on
the British and forced them to sign humiliating treaties.
He was the first Indian ruler to get a salute from the
parading army and was the first ruler to attach
mobile hospital to the parade.
Mr Deshpande should give a serious thought to the
caste system which he unnecessarily attacks. Most of the
countries invaded by Imperialist Muslims have been fully
converted to Islam. In India, the Islamic efforts did
not make impressive inroads, mainly because of the caste
system. The flexibility and adaptability of the caste
system is taking modernism in its stride and is proving
to be the most progressive among our institutions.
Yours sincerely
(Suresh Desai)
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