The Anglo-Maratha wars and the end of Maratha power

By the end of the eighteenth century, the Marathas were the only Indian power capable of challenging the East India Company across the subcontinent. Forty years later, the Peshwa was a pensioner at Bithur, near Kanpur, and the Company ruled Pune. The three Anglo-Maratha wars explain how this happened — and they are among the most reliably examined topics in MPSC's modern history section.

The First Anglo-Maratha War (1775–1782)

Background

After the death of Peshwa Narayanrao in 1773 — murdered in Shaniwarwada in a palace conspiracy — his uncle Raghunathrao (Raghoba) claimed the Peshwa's office. But Narayanrao's widow gave birth to a son, Sawai Madhavrao, and the ministers led by Nana Phadnavis ruled in his name.

Raghunathrao turned to the English at Bombay for help.

The war

The Treaty of Salbai (1782)

• The English kept Salsette.
• They gave up support to Raghunathrao, who was pensioned.
• They recognised Sawai Madhavrao as Peshwa.
• The treaty brought about twenty years of peace between the Marathas and the English.

The Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803–1805)

Background: the Treaty of Bassein

After the deaths of Mahadji Shinde (1794), Sawai Madhavrao (1795) and Nana Phadnavis (1800), the confederacy fell into rivalry. Yashwantrao Holkar defeated the combined forces of Peshwa Bajirao II and Daulatrao Shinde near Pune in 1802. Bajirao II fled to the English.

On 31 December 1802, he signed the Treaty of Bassein with the Company, accepting Lord Wellesley's subsidiary alliance:

• a British force stationed in his territory, paid for by the cession of territory;
• no dealings with other powers without British consent;
• effectively, the loss of Maratha independence in foreign affairs.

Shinde and the Bhonsle of Nagpur saw this as a betrayal of Maratha independence and went to war.

The war

The Maratha chiefs did not fight together: Holkar stayed out of the war at first, and fought separately later.

The Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817–1818)

Background

Bajirao II resented British control. The Company, under Lord Hastings, was preparing a campaign against the Pindaris — irregular horsemen who raided across central India — and regarded the Maratha chiefs as protectors of the Pindaris.

The British Resident at Pune, Mountstuart Elphinstone, forced Bajirao II to sign the Treaty of Pune (1817), under which the Peshwa renounced his leadership of the Maratha confederacy.

The war

The Battle of Koregaon

At Koregaon, on 1 January 1818, a small detachment of the Bombay Native Infantry — many of its soldiers from the Mahar community — held its position against the Peshwa's army. A victory pillar (Vijay Stambh) was erected at the site. In the twentieth century, Dr B. R. Ambedkar visited the pillar and it became a symbol of Dalit assertion; large gatherings take place there every 1 January.

The settlement

• Bajirao II was deposed and given a pension; he lived at Bithur near Kanpur. His adopted son, Nanasaheb, would later lead the 1857 revolt at Kanpur.
• The Peshwa's territories were annexed to the Bombay Presidency.
• A small principality at Satara was created for Pratapsinh, a descendant of Shivaji Maharaj. It was later annexed in 1848 by Lord Dalhousie under the Doctrine of Lapse.
• Mountstuart Elphinstone became Commissioner of the Deccan and later Governor of Bombay.

Why the Marathas lost

• Disunity: the Maratha chiefs never fought together at the same time.
• The subsidiary alliance: once the Peshwa accepted it, the confederacy's centre was compromised.
• Military modernisation: the Company's infantry and artillery were better trained and supplied; Maratha armies that adopted European methods depended on foreign officers who sometimes deserted.
• Leadership: after Mahadji Shinde and Nana Phadnavis, there was no figure capable of holding the confederacy together.
• Finance: the Company had steady revenue from Bengal; the Maratha states were financially strained.

Questions to practise

Prelims-style:

1. Which treaty ended the First Anglo-Maratha War?
2. Which treaty did Bajirao II sign in 1802, and what system did it bring him into?
3. Who commanded the British at Assaye?
4. When was the Battle of Koregaon fought?
5. Under which policy was Satara annexed in 1848?

Mains-style:

• "The Treaty of Bassein sealed the fate of the Marathas." Discuss.
• Examine the causes of the defeat of the Marathas by the East India Company.

With the end of the Peshwa's rule in 1818, Maharashtra entered the colonial period — and within a few decades, the social reform movement and the national movement would emerge from its towns.