The Legacy of Shivaji the Great (Military Strategy, Naval Supremacy, and the Maratha Empire)

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In 1707, the last effective Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb, died in Maharashtra, a frustrated man. Even after nearly twenty-two years of war, he failed to conquer the Marathas. With his death began the fall of the Mughal Empire that was to be replaced by the Marathas in Central India and parts of North India. In the early nineteenth century the British took over India not from the Mughals but from the Marathas.

Under Shivaji the Great, with the heady aim of Hindavi Swarajya (Indian Self-Rule), the British saw the Marathas as the principal threat to their colonial project. The story of Maratha resistance to the British was therefore systematically swept under the carpet by the British. This book attempts to tell the untold story of that important period of Indian history.

Col. Anil Athale, a former infantry soldier, is a graduate of Staff College and has a doctorate from Pune University. He was head of the War History Division, Ministry of Defence, and has co-authored the official history of the 1962 Sino-Indian war and the insurgency in the Northeast. He is the recipient of several research fellowships including Fulbright, Kennedy Centre, IDSA, USI, and Philosophical Society. He has been engaged in thirty years of research on conflicts in Kashmir, the Northeast, Ireland, Sri Lanka, and South Africa. He is also the author of seven books on military history.

Research for this book began under the General Palit Military History fellowship of the Parrikar Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis, New Delhi. The question posed by late General Palit, a military historian himself, was "Why did the Marathas, who fought the Mughals so valiantly, succumb to the British so tamely? Or is it that the true history of that struggle has been suppressed by the British?"

As I began the research, I realised that the story of the Anglo-Maratha conflict was intrinsically linked to the rise of the Marathas under Shivaji the Great in the seventeenth century. The story had to begin with Shivaji's concept of "Hindavi Swarajya" and his achievement in welding the Marathas into a formidable political and military force. During the Anglo-Maratha struggle, there had been some events like the Third Battle of Panipat which cast a long shadow and had a direct impact on the outcome of this contest. Hence, these events have to be dealt with in some detail. The focus of the work, however, remains on the central theme of the Anglo-Maratha wars.

There is an enduring myth of Indian history that has cast a long shadow on the present and future of the Indian subcontinent. In 1945-46, as the British were preparing to withdraw from the Indian subcontinent, a key sticking point was the demand for a half share in power or a separate state for Muslims. The Muslim argument was based on the (false) belief that since the British took over India from the Mughals (Muslim rulers), political power should revert to them (Muslims) now that the British were leaving. Such is the longevity of this notion and its widespread acceptance that it continues to breed conflict and strife even in the twenty-first century.