Treaty of Bassein 1802

Also called: Treaty of Vasai · Topic: Europeans in India and the Rise of Company Rule · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

The Treaty of Bassein (also called the Treaty of Vasai) was a subsidiary alliance signed on 31 December 1802 between Peshwa Baji Rao II and the English East India Company. The Peshwa had just been defeated by Yashwantrao Holkar. Under the treaty he accepted British troops and British control of his foreign affairs, and in return the Company promised to put him back on his throne.

It matters for two reasons. First, the Peshwa was the head of the Maratha confederacy, the strongest Indian power of the time, and the treaty brought him under the Company's system. Second, the other Maratha chiefs saw it as a surrender of Maratha independence. Their anger led to the Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803–05).

Explanation

Background: a divided Maratha house

The Marathas were a confederacy, not one state. A confederacy is a loose group of powers under one nominal head.
The Peshwa sat at Poona (Pune) as the nominal head.
Big chiefs ruled their own regions: the Sindhia (Gwalior), the Holkar (Indore), the Bhonsle (Nagpur) and the Gaekwad (Baroda).
By c. 1800 these chiefs were fighting each other for control of the Peshwa's court at Poona.
In October 1802 Yashwantrao Holkar defeated the forces of Baji Rao II and Sindhia near Poona.
Baji Rao II fled to Bassein (Vasai), on the coast near Bombay.
There he asked the British for protection.
This was a textbook case of divide and rule. The Company did not need to attack the Marathas. A Maratha quarrel brought the Peshwa to the Company asking for help.

Main terms of the treaty

The treaty followed the standard subsidiary alliance model. Under this model, an Indian ruler kept British troops in his state, paid for them himself, and dealt with other powers only through the British.
Subsidiary force: the Peshwa agreed to keep a permanent Company force in his territory. Textbooks usually give its size as about 6,000 infantry with artillery.
Payment in land: to meet the cost of these troops, he handed over territory with a revenue of about ₹26 lakh a year (the figure usually given in textbooks).
No independent foreign policy: he could not make war, peace or alliances with other powers without British consent.
No other Europeans: he could not employ Europeans from nations hostile to the British.
British arbitration: his claims against the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Gaekwad were to be settled through the British.
A British Resident stayed at Poona. Under this system, Residents soon began to interfere in day-to-day government and in succession questions [2].
In return: the Company promised to restore Baji Rao II to power at Poona.

How it worked out: the Second Anglo-Maratha War

May 1803: British troops escorted Baji Rao II back to Poona and restored him as Peshwa. He now ruled under British protection.
The Sindhia and the Bhonsle refused to accept the treaty.
To them, the Peshwa had sold the independence of the whole Maratha confederacy.
They took up arms, and the Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803–05) began.
Key events of 1803:
Battle of Assaye (September 1803). Arthur Wellesley, the Governor-General's brother, defeated the Sindhia–Bhonsle armies.
Battle of Laswari (November 1803). General Lake defeated the Sindhia in the north. Lake also took Delhi.
The chiefs had to sign subsidiary-type treaties in December 1803:
Treaty of Deogaon with the Bhonsle, who lost Cuttack (Orissa).
Treaty of Surji-Anjangaon with the Sindhia, who lost lands in north India.
Holkar fought on separately (1804–05). He made peace in 1805.
Weakness that cost them: the Maratha chiefs never fought together as one. Holkar stood aside in 1803, and Sindhia and Bhonsle had already been beaten when Holkar fought.

Results

The Peshwa became a dependent ally. The head of the Maratha confederacy now relied on British troops.
The Company gained huge territory and influence in central, western and northern India, including control of Delhi.
The end of Maratha power came later. After the Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817–18), the office of Peshwa was abolished in 1818. Baji Rao II was sent away on a pension to Bithur, near Kanpur.
The Bassein treaty was the turning point. It opened the door for the Company to treat the Marathas as one more set of protected states.

Time, place and evidence

Date: 31 December 1802.
Place: Bassein (Vasai), on the west coast just north of Bombay (Mumbai), in present-day Maharashtra.
Period: the governor-generalship of Lord Wellesley (1798–1805), the high point of the subsidiary alliance policy. Hyderabad was among the first states to accept it, in 1798 [2].
Key people:
Peshwa Baji Rao II: signed the treaty.
Yashwantrao Holkar: defeated the Peshwa in 1802.
Daulat Rao Sindhia and Raghuji Bhonsle II: opposed the treaty and fought the war.
Lord Wellesley: Governor-General who pushed the policy.
Arthur Wellesley and General Lake: British commanders in the war.
Evidence: our knowledge rests mainly on the text of the treaty itself and on East India Company official records, such as the Residents' reports and the Governor-General's correspondence.

Don't confuse with

Treaty of Bassein, 1534. This was a different treaty with the same name. It was signed between Bahadur Shah of Gujarat and the Portuguese, and it gave Bassein to the Portuguese. The 1802 treaty was between the Peshwa and the English Company.
Treaty of Salbai (1782). It ended the First Anglo-Maratha War and brought about twenty years of peace. The Treaty of Bassein started the Second Anglo-Maratha War.
Treaty of Surat (1775). It was signed by Raghunath Rao, a claimant to the peshwaship, and led to the First Anglo-Maratha War. Bassein was signed by the ruling Peshwa, Baji Rao II.
Treaties of Deogaon and Surji-Anjangaon (1803). These were results of the war. Bhonsle and Sindhia were forced to sign them after they lost. They did not cause the war.

Prelims Hooks

Treaty of Bassein, 1802: signed by Peshwa Baji Rao II with the English East India Company. It was not signed by Sindhia or Holkar.
The Peshwa signed after being defeated near Poona in 1802 by Yashwantrao Holkar.
It was a subsidiary alliance, the policy linked with Lord Wellesley, Governor-General 1798–1805 [2].
The treaty led to the Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803–05), which included the battles of Assaye and Laswari in 1803.
Chronology: Surat (1775) → Salbai (1782) → Bassein (1802) → Deogaon and Surji-Anjangaon (1803) → peshwaship abolished (1818).
Trap: "Bassein" also names a 1534 treaty between Bahadur Shah of Gujarat and the Portuguese.

Mains Points

Disunity as the Company's real weapon. The Peshwa invited the British in because of a quarrel among the Marathas themselves, and in 1803–05 the chiefs fought the Company one at a time. Use this to show how divide and rule turned Indian rivalries into British gains, as it did at Plassey (1757) [1].
Subsidiary alliance as "empire on the cheap." The Peshwa kept his title but lost his foreign policy, his army's independence and his territory, and he paid for the troops that controlled him. It is a strong example of indirect control turning into outright annexation, as happened in 1818.
A turning point in the British–Maratha struggle. Before 1802 the Marathas were the main rival to the Company. After Bassein, the confederacy broke apart, and by 1818 the British were the paramount (supreme) power in India.

Related concepts

Instruments of conquest: divide and rule, Plassey, subsidiary alliance, Doctrine of Lapse

Sources

1Battle of Plassey — Background, Impact, Legacy, Map, & Factsbritannica.com · tier 3
2India — The ascent to paramountcybritannica.com · tier 3