The Maratha Empire and Indian Nationalism

 Dear Reader,

Today is the second Saturday of the month and hence I will be discussing about a historical topic relating to Indian nationalism. 

I will write about the Maratha Empire in relation to Indian Nationalism.

 I will begin with this:

An overview of the Maratha Empire

The Marathis are an ethnolinguistic group who speak the language Marathi as their mother-tongue. They live in the state of Maharashtra, and in some districts of Karnataka, Goa and Gujarat. The term Maratha is used to refer to a group of castes of people.

The Maratha caste are a Marathi speaking clan formed out of various families of peasents, blacksmiths, shepherds, pastoral workers and carpenters. They are a middle-peasantry caste which formed the bulk of the Maharasthrian society.

The Maratha empire was an empire created by the Marathas. It formally existed from 1674 to 1818.

 It was founded by Shivaji Bhonsale 1 who was coronated as the emperor in 1674, which in Marathi is called as Chhatrapati. He revolted against the Islamic Mughal Empire and its emperor Aurangzeb.

Shivaji's son' Sambhaji inherited the throne from his father and continued his expansionist policies and defeated Aurungzeb's forces numerous times. 

Upon his death his half - brother Rajaram ascended the throne. He lost some territories to the Mughals but later regained them. After his death in 1700, his widow Tarabai took over the empire in the name of her son Ramaraja.

After Aurungzeb's death in 1707 his son Bahadur Shah 1 the New Mughal Emperor. There was a succession disbute between him and Tarabai. He appointed Balaji Vishwanath as Peshwa which is similar to Prime-Minister. The Peshwa convinced the Mughals to recognize Shahu as the Chhatrapati.

He started the Peshwa system. The Peshwas were the de-facto rulers of the Maratha empire and the Chhatrapatis were figure - heads.

The system continued until 1772.

During this time the Maratha empire expanded throughout India and became the dominant power in the subcontinent.

In 1772 Peshwa Madhav Rao died at the age of 27, and from this point onwards the empire started to decline. After his death several Maratha chiefs and statesmen created semi-autonomous Maratha-states throughout the empire.

This period ended in 1818 with the third Anglo-Maratha war which the British won. This was the end of the Maratha empire and the British gained sovereignty over the Indian subcontinent. 

Now I will discuss the main topic of this blog post:

 The impact of the Maratha Empire on Indian nationalism.

To understand the Marathas one must first understand the Mughals. 

The Mughal empire was an Islamic empire created by Turkish invaders. The first Mughal was Babur who invaded India in 1523. His army went on a killing spree with mass rapes occurring as well. He created towers of heads of Hindus. The other Mughal emperors did these acts as well. They slaughtered Hindus on a mass scale. Many historians call it a genocide.

There was Hindu opposition to the Mughals but as they grew more powerful this opposition reduced.

The Mughals inspired other Muslim kingdoms to arise like the Adilshahi sultanate of Bijapur. 

Shivaji Maharaj revolted against the sultanate and carved out an enclave out of it that formed the genesis of the Maratha Empire.

He was determined to fight the Mughals and other Muslim powers in order to liberate the Hindu people. He aimed to establish Hindavi Swaraj which meant "Self Rule of the Hindus". He claimed that since Hindus were the native people of the land they should have the right to rule themselves. He wanted Swaraj not just in his kingdom but throughout India.

He was the first Hindu king to think on such lines. When the Islamic invasions began in the 12th century most Hindu kings fought to protect their own territories and did not unite with others to protect each-other. This is why some Hindu kings betrayed each other. However most kings like Ratan Singh, Maharana Pratap and Prithviraj Chauhan did fight the Muslims bravely. But even they did not think of uniting all of the subcontinent against the invaders.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj fought for all Hindus throughout India. He wanted to create a nation for Hindus. This was to protect them from hostile outside forces. He was not only against the Islamic Mughals but also the Christian Europeans. 

The Maratha Emperors and Peshwas that followed him continued his mission. The Mughal emperor was eventually deposed and became a puppet in the hands of the Marathas.

The Maratha empire was religiously tolerant and did not adhere to the caste system. Brahmins (Peshwas) ruled over the Kshatriya class which were the emperors, and their generals were Kshatriya Dhangar. This is what made the empire unique among all other preceding Hindu empires.

The Maratha empire had a lasting impact on the psyche of Hindus throughout the subcontinent. 

The geographical extent of the empire made sure that its memory continues throughout the country to this day. For example their influence in Karnataka can be seen in Bengaluru which has an area named Marathahalli. In Old Delhi the Maratha's influence can be seen in the Nuthan Marathi school and the Maharashtra Bhavan.

During the freedom struggle against the British Empire in India warriors like Rani Laxmibai were inspired by Shivaji to fight for Hindus during the First-War or Independence in 1857.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak was another freedom fighter who was inspired by the idea of Swaraj and famously declared " Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it".

The Indian Constitution includes images of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in it.

Shiv Sena is a political party, the name of which can be translated into Shivaji's Army. They are a Marathi and Hindu Nationalist party.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh which has its headquarters in Nagpur is inspired by the Marathas and considers itself to be fulfilling the erstwhile empire's mission of creating a Hindu nation. They are the primary Hindu nationalist organisation in present-day India.

The Bharatiya Janata Party which is part of the Sangh Parivar, and comes from the RSS, is a political party. It's name can be translated into The Indian People's Party.

They, like their parent organisation the RSS, are a Hindu nationalist party. This shows that their idea of India is intrinsically linked with the Hinduism.  The current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, is a professed admirer of Shivaji. The fact that they are the ruling party and have won twice, with PM Modi being the most popular politician in a generation is proof that this idea resonates with the Indian people.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was given the title of Father of the Nation. This is because he lead the Indian freedom struggle against the British. However nowadays he is heavily criticized by people and often rightly so.

His emphasis on non-violence made people forget about the military history of India. The fact that his stuggle was non-violent is one of the reasons why it could not get freedom for Indians quickly. If India had led a violent revolution than the British would have left much before 1947.

India as a nation existed much before Gandhi.

For the above reasons I do not think he should be called as the father of the nation. In fact since India is a 5000 year old civilization I don't think any individual can claim such a title.

However I do believe that Indian nationalism began with the Maratha Empire. It was the first time when Hindus united throughout the country to create an empire for themselves. The fact that it was defeated by the British is in my view a tragedy for Hindus.

The freedom struggle against the British and other European powers like Portugal and France which ruled Goa and Puduchery respectively was the second freedom struggle in India.

The freedom struggle against the Mughals and other Islamic regimes like the Bijapur Sultanate and Mysore kingdoms was the first freedom struggle in India. Without it India would have become an Islamic nation with its native Dharmic culture being extinguished. India would have died. 

It is only because the first freedom struggle was successful that the second one was. If the British had attempted to rule India when the Mughals were in power, then they would probably have shared power and exploited India jointly. Hindus would have been crushed by the might of the two powers.

Therefore I believe we should consider the Maratha Empire as the origin of Indian nationalism. And Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj should be regarded as the founder of Indian nationalism. 

Hopefully India will one day remove the current system which was inherited from the British and create a true Hindu Rashtra. 

And if and when that does happen, it should be Shivaji's face printed on the Indian currency and not Gandhi's.

Jai Shivaji!

Jai Bhavani!

Har Har Mahadev! 

Vande Mataram!

Thank you for Reading