Anglo-Maratha wars

Topic: The Marathas · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 3 "The Marathas"

Meaning

The Anglo-Maratha wars were three wars fought between the Marathas and the British East India Company: the First (1775–82), the Second (1803–05) and the Third (1817–18). The first ended without a winner at the Treaty of Salbai. In the third, the British removed the Peshwa and took his lands. [2][3]

They matter because in the late 18th century the Marathas were the chief rivals of the British in India. Their defeat in 1818 completed British supremacy in India. [2]

Explanation

Background: a confederacy, not one kingdom

• In the second half of the 18th century, no other Indian power held as much land or had as many armies as the Marathas.
• The Maratha confederacy (a loose group of rulers who agree to act together) was made up of five big houses: [2]
• the Peshwa at Poona (Pune), who was the head,
• the Shinde (Sindhia),
• the Holkar,
• the Bhonsle,

• the Gaekwad.

• Each house owed loyalty to the Peshwa but ran its own army and its own lands.

• Why this mattered:
• When the houses acted together, they were strong.

• When they quarrelled, the British could fight them one at a time.

• Nana Phadnavis was a powerful official who ran the Peshwa's government at Poona. NCERT credits him with organising the first pan-Indian anti-British alliance. It brought together old enemies: the Marathas, Hyder Ali of Mysore and the Nizam of Hyderabad.

First Anglo-Maratha War (1775–82)

• Cause: the British backed Raghunath Rao's bid to become Peshwa. In other words, they took sides in a Maratha family fight over the top post. [2]
• January 1779: the British were defeated at Wadgaon. [2]
• May 1782: the war ended with the Treaty of Salbai. [2][3]
• The British stopped supporting Raghunath Rao.

• After seven years of war, they kept only Salsette, an island next to Bombay (now Mumbai).

• Result: a draw. [3]

• The NCERT chapter shows a mural of a British officer surrendering before Nana Phadnavis and Mahadji Shinde. It captures a moment when the Marathas, not the British, set the terms.

Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803–05)

• Cause: the Holkars defeated Peshwa Baji Rao II. He fled to Bassein and asked the British for help. [2][4]
• Treaty of Bassein, 31 December 1802. Under it, Baji Rao II agreed to: [4]
• keep a British subsidiary force of six battalions (British troops stationed in his state and paid for by him),
• give up territory to pay for those troops,
• keep all other Europeans out of his service,

• drop his claims on Surat and Baroda.

• Why Bassein was a turning point: [4]

• The Peshwa had signed away his freedom.
• The other Maratha houses would not accept this.

• The treaty was a decisive step in the break-up of the confederacy.

• Battle of Assaye, 23 September 1803: a major British victory. The Company force was led by Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington. [5]

• Daulat Rao Shinde fought the Company at Assaye and Argaon in late 1803 and lost both battles. [6]
• End of the war: the Treaty of Surji-Arjungaon with the Shinde and the Treaty of Deogaon with the Bhonsle. [2]

Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817–18) and the results

• Trigger: Governor-General Lord Hastings sent troops into Maratha territory while hunting the Pindaris (bands of raiders who plundered central India). [2]
• November 1817: the Peshwa's forces rose against the British. The Bhonsle and the Holkar joined in. The Shinde stayed neutral. [2]

• Three houses fought and one stayed out, so this was never a joint rising.

• The defeat came quickly. [2]

• The Peshwa was pensioned off: he was paid an allowance and lost all power.
• His lands were annexed (taken over by the British).

• This completed British supremacy in India.

• The road led straight from Bassein in 1802 to the 1818 annexation of the Peshwa's territories in western India. [4]

• Why the Marathas lost (NCERT's two reasons):
• More internal disunity:
  • the succession fight over Raghunath Rao in 1775,
  • the Holkar defeat of the Peshwa in 1802,
  • Shinde neutrality in 1817. [2]
• Better British organisation and technology:
  • the British had one central command and one paymaster, while the Marathas had five partly independent houses,
  • the British had better guns, drill and supply lines, as Assaye showed in 1803. [5]
• The subsidiary force trap: a ruler who paid for British battalions had British troops inside his capital and less money of his own. [4]

Time, place and evidence

• Period: 1775–1818, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, as Mughal power was declining.
• Region: the Deccan and western India, around Poona, Bombay and Salsette, with Malwa and central India for the Shinde and the Pindari campaign.
• Named sites:
• Wadgaon (1779),
• Salbai (1782),
• Bassein (1802),
• Assaye and Argaon (1803),

• Surji-Arjungaon and Deogaon (treaties of the second war).

• Key people:

• Maratha side:
  • Raghunath Rao, claimant to the Peshwa's post,
  • Nana Phadnavis, the Peshwa's chief official (died 1800),
  • Mahadji Shinde, who built up Shinde power in Malwa and ruled from after Panipat until 1794 [7],
  • Baji Rao II, the last Peshwa,
  • Daulat Rao Shinde. [6]

• British side:

  • Arthur Wellesley, the victor at Assaye [5],
  • Lord Hastings, Governor-General during the third war. [2]

• How we know:

• the texts of the treaties themselves (Salbai, Bassein, Surji-Arjungaon, Deogaon),
• East India Company records of battles and annexation,
• the Maratha mural of a British officer surrendering before Nana Phadnavis and Mahadji Shinde, reproduced in the NCERT chapter.

Don't confuse with

• Treaty of Salbai vs Treaty of Bassein: Salbai (1782) ended the first war as a draw. Bassein (1802) was a subsidiary alliance signed by Baji Rao II, and it caused the second war. [3][4]
• Battle of Wadgaon vs Battle of Assaye: Wadgaon (1779) was a British defeat in the first war. Assaye (1803) was a British victory in the second war. [2][5]
• Lord Hastings vs Warren Hastings: Lord Hastings was Governor-General in the third war (1817–18). Warren Hastings was Governor-General during the first war.
• Arthur Wellesley vs Lord Wellesley: Arthur Wellesley was the general who won at Assaye. His elder brother, Lord Wellesley, was the Governor-General who pushed the subsidiary alliance system.

Prelims Hooks

• The Treaty of Salbai (May 1782) ended the First Anglo-Maratha War. The only British gain was Salsette island near Bombay. [2][3]
• The British were defeated at Wadgaon in January 1779, during the first war. [2]
• Treaty of Bassein, 31 December 1802: Baji Rao II accepted a British subsidiary force of six battalions. [4]
• Battle of Assaye, 23 September 1803: won by Arthur Wellesley. Daulat Rao Shinde lost at Assaye and Argaon. [5][6]
• The second war closed with the Treaty of Surji-Arjungaon (Shinde) and the Treaty of Deogaon (Bhonsle). [2]
• Trap: in the third war (1817–18), the Peshwa, Bhonsle and Holkar fought, but the Shinde stayed neutral. In 1818 the Peshwa was pensioned off and his lands annexed. [2]

Mains Points

• Disunity versus organisation. NCERT explains the Maratha defeat from two sides.
• Maratha disunity: the 1775 succession fight, the Holkar–Peshwa clash of 1802 and Shinde neutrality in 1817. [2]
• British strength: a single Company command and better technology, as seen at Assaye (1803). [5]

• Nana Phadnavis's alliance with Hyder Ali and the Nizam shows that a pan-Indian front was possible. After his death in 1800 and Mahadji Shinde's in 1794, no leader could hold the houses together. [7]

• A treaty, not a battle, broke the confederacy. At Bassein (1802), the Peshwa gave up control of his defence, his foreign relations and revenue-paying land. [4]

• The other houses saw it as a sell-out and went to war.
• The same treaty logic ended in annexation in 1818.

• This makes a good case study of the subsidiary alliance as a tool of expansion.

• "Taken from the Marathas, not the Mughals." NCERT says the British took India from the Marathas more than from the Mughals or any other power. Present this as the chapter's claim, then qualify it.

• For: the Marathas held the largest share of post-Mughal India, and the British needed three wars over 43 years to beat them.
• Against: Bengal, Mysore and Sikh Punjab were separate conquests.

Related concepts

• Nana Phadnavis
• Peshwa Baji Rao II

Read more

• Anglo-Maratha wars and the fall