Maratha Confederacy : was created in 1730s by the 2nd Peshwa Bāji Rao I during the reign of Chhatrapati Shahu, the grandson of Shivaji. It became a necessity, partly due the rapid expansion of Maratha dominions in the north as well as the south under his military & administrative leadership & partly due to the opposition to his leadership by the Kshatriya section led by Senāpati Dabhāde & supported by the ambitions of his deputies, especially the Pilāji Gaekwad eager to carve a kingdom of his own. Bājirao had to depend, therefore, on the loyal support of his adherents with proven military capacity. He thus put large areas under the control of his lieutenants of whom the chief were Raghuji Bhonsle, Ranoji Sindhia, Malhar Rao Holkar, & Dāmāji Gaekwad thus creating the Confederacy which carried his victorious arms to Delhi & even into the Punjab. The confederacy which began to crack after the passing of his son Bālāji Bāji Rao in 1761 thanks to the machinations of the British octopus was somehow held together by Nana Fadnavis until his death in 1800. Then began the Anglo-Maratha Wars: European ‘historians’ & their Indian clones titled them ‘The Maratha Wars’ to protect the angelic image of their prime instigator was the rapacious Octopus. The excuse for the first (1775-82) was protecting the ambition of Raghunath (Raghoba), the 2nd son of Bāji Rao I, to succeed his elder brother Bālāji Bāji Rao as Peshwa. Raghoba had failed to prevent the accession of Bālāji’s son Mādhava Rao followed by that of Mādhava’s brother, Narayan Rao. So he got Narayan Rao murdered & declared himself Peshwa in 1773, but was opposed by a strong party led by Nana Fadnavis. The latter’s stand was reinforced in 1774 by the birth of Narayan Rao’s posthumous son named Madhav Rao Narayan whom they declared Peshwa. Down but not out, Raghoba invited the Octopus at the family table – thus was ignited the First Anglo-Maratha War which got stuck in an impasse. Enter the Sindhia who, like the proverbial monkey, helped himself to an ample reward. Then, frightened by the jealousies & intrigues among the Sindhia, the Holkar, Raghoba cowardly son, Bāji Rao II (Peshwa since 1796) ran to the Octopus bringing about the 2nd War (1803-05) which ended with the Octopus reducing the Bhonsle, the Holkar & the Sindhia to its subsidiaries. All the four regretted their stupidity & in 1817, Bāji Rao II ignited the 3rd & most degrading War which threw the Peshwaship along with the entire Maratha Confederacy into the trash can of history. By 1819 the Octopus reigned supreme over the peninsula & by 1835 over the entire subcontinent by devouring Punjab & Sind at the opportune time. [Vide Bhattacharya &Karandikar]
... freedom ' burst forth with the cry of " Vande Mataram " with a vision of free Mother India, and satyagraha was the method or the technique. The earlier movement ended in the establishment of the Maratha confederacy falling short of a united India and now the latest movement has given us a republic and a united India (though paradoxically, it has also brought the division of India along religious lines) ...
... of whom had studied something at least of history, could ever have cherished them. But when Mr. Naoroji began his career nothing more real and solid was possible. The falling in pieces of the Maratha Confederacy and the overthrow of the Sikh power had left the Punjab and the Deccan stupefied and apathetic; the rest of India was politically exhausted and inert. In such circumstances it was inevitable ...
... control of the areas ruled by Tipu Sultan. The war against the Marathas led by Nana Phadnavis followed. By 1799, Tipu Sultan was defeated and in the following twenty years the mighty power of the Maratha confederacy was reduced to ashes and dust. In the meantime, the Moghul emperor in Delhi had shrunk to a mere shadow of his former self; soon he was to become a pensioner of the Company and its virtual prisoner ...
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