Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Rise of Marathas
Rise of Marathas
After going through the history of Marathas there are many factors participated
in the rise of Maratha nationalism and political power of the Marathas. The
geographical condition of Maharashtra helped in the rise of the Marathas.
Marathas state is surrounded by mountains which provide them security from
outside invaders. Due to mountains they are well trained for difficulties and
they gained lot of skills .They don’t have lot of options to run their lives because
there is hardly any rain in their state and Larger part of Maharashtra is plateau
where man has to struggle hard for his existence. That made the Marathas
courageous and sturdy.due to the difficulties of finding livelihood developed
among the Marathas a spirit of self-reliance and hardwork. Whether a peasant
or a soldier, nature fostered in the Maratha an innate love of independence wich
made him rebellious in spirit. In this combination of courage, cleverness and
power endurance, in his ability to plan and execute surprise and night attacks, in
his skill to extricate himself from a tight corner or to vary his tactics to the
changing phases of a battle without waiting for guidance from a superior, it was
hardly possible to beat the Maratha Soldier.These qualities helped them in
fighting against mughals. The mountainous country made it possible for the
Marathas to adopt successfully the guerrilla tactics. The broken rangs of hills
provided the Marathas readymade and easily defensible rock .
The saints given the message against the supremacy of the Brahmanas, customs
,racism , caste-system and discrimination of low-born and highborn. This
movement and the mass-awakening which it created united and strengthened
the Maratha society.Historian Ranade from Maharashtra stated that the main
cause of the political unrest in Maharashtra was its religious movement and
there is no doubt that different saints of Maharashtra encouraged the feeling of
nationalism among the Marathas.Their teachings, Bhajans etc. seriously
affected the emotions of uneducated Marathas and encouraged them to fight
for safeguarding their society and religion. Marathi language which was simple
and language of the people also strengthened the bonds of equality and unity
among the people of Maharashtra.
The other reason which helped the Marathas in rising is the balance of power
between the Hindus and the Muslims in the South also helped the Marathas in
attaining political power. While in northern India, except in Rajasthan, the
Muslims had practically broken the power of resistance of the Hindus they could
never achieve that success in the South.Therefore, the Hindus could safeguard
their social traditions, temples, self-respect and thereby their love towards their
society and religion in the South. They did not feel disrespected and
disheartened and therefore, had the capacity to fight back the Muslims. That is
why the Muslim rulers of the South had to take help of the Hindus in their
administration. The character of Aurangzeb was also responsible for the success
of the Marathas. Aurangzeb was suspicious of his generals and sons. He invariably
set two generals on his campaigns. The differences between Shah Alam and Diler
Khan were responsible for Mughal Failure in the Deccan. The cold war between
Asad Khan and Zulfikar Khan were also responsible for the prolongation of the
siege of Jinji and the flight of Rajaram in safety to Maharashtra.The negligence of
Aurangzeb towards the affairs of the Deccan during early period of his reign,
and, later on, his attempt to conquer the entire Deccan which provoked the
resistance of the Marathas for the safety of their Jagirs and homelands and the
inclusion of all sections of the people of Maharashtra in the Maratha army, etc.
also helped the rise of the Maratha power.The Mughul power was gradually
growing in south India and during the reign of Aurangzeb the Marathas felt that,
probably, entire south India would be lost to the Mughuls. That united them to
fight against the Mughuls for safeguarding their larger interests. The Marathas
were enjoying several privileges under the patronage of Muslim states of the
Deccan.
Their rulers had given them respectable positions in their administration; they
had not interfered in their social and religious affairs; and, the Marathas were
enrolled in their armies in large numbers. Aurangzeb was a bigot and the power
of the Mughuls under him was enormous.The Marathas could not expect to
enjoy all those privileges under his rule which they had been enjoying under the
weak Muslim rulers of the Deccan. Therefore too, the Marathas chose to
organise themselves against the Mughuls. Thus, prior to the rise of Shivaji on
the political horizon of the South, conditions existed which provided a solid base
to the rise of the Marathas. Nobody had exploited those conditions to build up
the fortunes of the Maratha people and none thought of establishing an
independent kingdom of the Hindus. Shivaji completed this dream of hindus .
He successfully built up the Maratha nation and established an independent
kingdom of the Hindus in the South.
REFERECNES