MARATHAS WERE THE ONLY POWER THAT WENT OUTSIDE THEIR PROVINCE TO LIBERATE INDIA

The Marathas were the only Indian dynasty that successfully unfurled the banner of India’s freedom struggle against alien tyranny that lasted six hundred years from the 12th to the 18th century.

MARATHAS WERE THE ONLY POWER THAT WENT OUTSIDE THEIR PROVINCE TO LIBERATE INDIA

The unique feature of this Maratha uprising for liberating India from the shackles of tyranny is that like other Indian kingdoms, the Marathas too were subsumed by the first rush of invasion in the 14th century when the Yadava kingdom of Devagiri was overrun by Ala-ud-din khilji’s general Malik Kafur.

But unlike people in many parts of the country, the Marathas kept smarting under this invasion and occupation and when they had the opportunity, they rose in revolt against the alien tyrants to liberate not just the province of Maharashtra, but took the banner of independence all over the country and freed the suffering people from the yoke of tyranny.

SHAHAJI BHOSALE MADE FIRST UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS AT SECURING INDEPENDENCE

The first Maratha chieftain who attempted to gain independence was Shahaji Bhosale. He was a feudatory under different alien rulers viz., the Nizamshahis, Mughals and Adilshashis. He effectively played one power against another and made two abortive attempts to establish an independent kingdom. But both attempts were brutally suppressed and he spent his life serving as the governor of the Adilshahi kingdom in Bangalore in South India.

VISION FOR INDEPENDENCE SPROUTED IN THE MIND OF SHIVAJI

His vision for independence sprouted in the mind of his son Shivaji Bhosale. Shivaji’s mother  Jijabai also encouraged her son from childhood to think of establishing an independent kingdom.

In his teenage years Shivaji raised the banner of the freedom struggle and began capturing fort after fort. The highlight of his career was that despite many attempts by the Adilshahis and Mughals, Shivaji went from strength to strength. 

Starting from a ragtag army he raised a formidable guerrilla force, established a navy, minted his own coins and crowned himself emperor.

FAILED ATTEMPTS TO THWART SHIVAJI’S STRUGGLE

The Adilshahis sent many of their generals including Afzal Khan, Siddhi Jouhar, and a few others, but all of them had to face failure, and some of them paid for their attempt to cross Shivaji’s path with their own lives.

The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb sent his own uncle Shaista khan, but he too had to shamefacedly retreat when Shivaji cornered him one night and cut off his fingers in a duel from which Shaista Khan tried to flee.

Shivaji’s shock success in his struggle for independence resulted in the foundation of Maratha power. His early death at the age of 54 seemed to be one opportunity for the Mughals to throttle the  nascent power that had started the struggle for independence.

FINALLY AURANGZEB HIMSELF PERSONALLY LED THE ATTACK ON THE MARATHAS

To do this Aurangzeb himself came down from Agra and personally led the attack on the Maratha kingdom. Aurangzeb also managed to capture Sambhaji, Shivaji’s elder son and murder him in cold blood when he refused to recant his faith and convert to Aurangzeb’s religion. Sambhaji’s brother Rajaram was pursued and had to seek refuge in Ginji in South India. Sambhaji’s son Shahu was also captured by Aurangzeb and was brought up as a captive on a diet of hashish drug, which made him a weakling incapable of leading any struggle.

AFTER SHIVAJI OTHER MARATHA GENERALS AND PESHWAS LED THE STRUGGLE

But during these trying days it was Maratha generals like Santaji Ghorpade and Dhanaji Jadhav who kept aloft the banner of struggle. It was Dhanaji’s accountant Balaji Vishwanath Bhatt who seized the opportunity of Shahu’s weakness to play a major role in garnering support of the different Maratha generals in favor of Shahu. In return Shahu appointed him a hereditary Prime Minister. In the later history of the Marathas it was the Peshwas who expanded the Maratha power northwards till they were supplanted by the British in 1818.