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In the aboriginal 19th century erstwhile the British were attempting to grow successful the Indian subcontinent, they were faced with conscionable 1 large determination powerfulness susceptible of destroying their emerging empire – the Marathas. Spread crossed respective tiny kingdoms, from modern-day Tamil Nadu successful the southbound to Gwalior successful the northbound and Odisha successful the east, the Marathas, astatine 1 point, were said to person occupied a 3rd of the subcontinent.
Though the authorities acceptable successful spot by Chhatrapati Shivaji dissipated by the aboriginal 1800s, successful Maharashtra, the Marathas proceed to person a resounding presence. Ever since the commencement of Maharashtra successful 1960, 12 of the state’s 20 main ministers person been Marathas, including the incumbent Eknath Shinde. Issues related to the Maratha community, including the heavy debated request for reservation, consistently framework electoral narratives successful the state’s polls.
In this four-part series, we volition bash a heavy dive into the multi-faceted past of the Marathas and unravel immoderate singular and chartless facets of the community’s improvement implicit the centuries.
If 1 were to participate Mumbai via plane, they would astir apt onshore astatine the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. Arriving by train, it would beryllium done Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. A tourer could walk their time lounging successful Shivaji parkland oregon instrumentality successful the taste offerings of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Museum. In a fewer years, Mumbai’s iconic Bay whitethorn adjacent beryllium adorned by a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji, which, according to existent plan, volition beryllium 1 of the tallest successful the world. In Maharashtra schoolhouse textbooks, Shivaji is depicted arsenic the laminitis of the state, his deeds and subject exploits serving arsenic a root of fable for children.
As Danish anthropologist Thomas Blom Hanson wrote in Violence successful Urban India (2005), “The Shivaji mythology is simply a nodal point, the humanities fabrication astatine the bosom of authorities practices, governmental rhetoric, and humanities imaginativeness successful this portion of India.” Loksatta exertion Girish Kuber adds, “In Mumbai, Chhatrapati Shivaji is the astir loved, amongst the governmental parties, near and right, and amongst the people.”
However, contempt this popularity, it is often mentioned that Chhatrapati Shivaji ne'er really enactment immoderate banal successful Bombay. During his reign, and the reign of his successor Sambhaji, Bombay was a acold outcry from the metropolis it is today. When 1 talks astir the Marathas, they deliberation of Pune, the Marathas’ enlargement into the north, and their famed battles with the Mughals and Afghans. But portion it is existent that the Maratha beingness successful Bombay was constricted and inconsistent, the metropolis was precise important successful presumption of the Marathas’ naval superiority nether Chhatrapati Shivaji and Sambhaji, and its outer borough of Salsette was strategically important for some the Portuguese and the British.
On land, the Marathas were initially ascendant and succeeded successful driving retired their main rivals, the Siddis of Janjira. However, they were astatine a disadvantage erstwhile it came to naval power. During the precocious 17th century, the 2 powers battled fiercely for the Konkan seashore which served arsenic the battleground for competing powers. The British, Dutch, Portuguese and determination rulers, each vied for power implicit this lucrative portion of coast.
The Siddis dominated the waters astir Janjira fort, their ancestral stronghold conscionable disconnected the seashore of Alibaug. Recognising the request to vie navally, Chhatrapati Shivaji acceptable up a Maratha naval unit with the nonsubjective of destroying the Siddi clan. In A History of the Maratha Navy and Battleships (1973), historiographer BK Apte writes, “The Siddi was a precise unsafe enemy… to forestall his depredations connected h2o and to starve him out, a navy was essential.”
In 1659, Chattrapati Shivaji laid the instauration for the Maratha navy. As documented successful the Goa archives by the Portuguese politician wide astatine the time, “A lad of Shahaji (father of Chhatrapati Shivaji), the rebel nobleman of the Adilshahi tribunal has captured the territory astir Chaul and Bassein (present time Vasai) and has go rather powerful. He has built immoderate men-of-war successful Bhimdi, Kalyan and Panvel, ports successful Bassein Taluka.”
Chattrapati Shivaji’s vessel gathering exploits threatened the naval superiority of the Portuguese, overmuch to their disdain. They claimed that the Indian Ocean belonged to them since the Pope had granted them the close to due the territories they ‘discovered.’ As Konkan historiographer AB Rajeshirke writes in Political and Economic Relations betwixt the Portuguese and the Marathas (1981), “The Portuguese could not swallow the precise thought that a autochthonal powerfulness should crook retired a naval powerfulness thereby threatening the precise root of their power.”
The East India Company (EIC) excessively were wary of the Marathas, fearing that Chattrapati Shivaji’s naval fleet would endanger their dominance of Bombay. This successful crook created a bid of makeshift alliances betwixt the Siddis, British and Portuguese. “The Siddi became notorious arsenic they would articulation immoderate anti-Maratha confederation to enactment successful contention,” writes historiographer Amarendra Kumar in Kegwin’s Bombay (2014). First, they allied with the Portuguese, past the English successful Bombay and lastly with Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. However, their efforts were repeatedly thwarted, archetypal by Chattrapati Shivaji and past by Sambhaji. The second owes overmuch of this occurrence to 1 antheral – Kanhoji Angre.
Born successful 1669, Angre was the lad of a respected seafarer and arsenic a teen, joined the Maratha navy and became liable for the strategically important land of Khanderi, conscionable 20 kilometres southbound of Bombay. In the years to come, the fortress of Khanderi (also known arsenic Colaba), became the location and office of successive generations of the Angres.
According to Apte, Angre’s power of Khanderi disquieted each the large powers successful the region. In an interrogation with indianexpress.com, Delhi University prof Anirudh Deshpande states that “the Konkan seashore was a precise lucrative country successful presumption of planetary and Indian trade, and astir each powerfulness operating connected the occidental seashore wanted to instrumentality it.” Apte adds that Angre regularly had to vie with these antithetic factions, and “throughout his career, scarcely a season, oregon a period passed without immoderate naval engagement.”
On 2 occasions, the English attempted to decision the Maratha navy. The Portuguese, who described him arsenic a pirate, attempted to person Angre assassinated successful 1720. The 2 adjacent joined forces successful an effort to seizure Khanderi. None succeeded. However, Angre died successful 1739, and wrong 30 years of his death, the Maratha’s naval superiority had ended. However, his bequest of fending disconnected each challenger allowed the Marathas to stay competitory successful the region, aboriginal contributing to their occurrence against the Portuguese and the British.
The Portuguese and the Marathas (Salsette Island)
Back erstwhile Bombay was an archipelago of islands, it was bordered connected its northbound by the Salsette radical of islands including what is present Bandra, Juhu, Versova and Dharavi. Salsette Island is bordered to the northbound by Vasai Creek, to the northeast by the Ulhas River, to the eastbound by Thane Creek and Bombay Harbour, and to the southbound and westbound by the Arabian Sea. The archetypal 7 islands of Bombay, which were joined done onshore reclamation successful the 19th and aboriginal 20th centuries to make the metropolis of Mumbai, present signifier a southward-extending peninsula of the larger Salsette Island.
Salsette was important to the Portuguese arsenic it constituted 1 per cent of the Northern Province, the Portuguese territory that stretched from Daman to Chaul connected the Konkan coast. A larboard successful Bassein (Vasai) harboured immoderate of the largest ships successful the Portuguese navy, and was a root of large trade. Salsette was truthful important that the Portuguese didn’t consciousness the request to make Bombay, adjacent ceding the 7 islands to the British arsenic portion of a dowry successful 1661.
The Portuguese had controlled Salsette since 1534 aft securing the islands successful a pact with the Muzaffarid dynasty of Gujarat. During their regularisation implicit the region, the Portuguese faced changeless challenges from adversaries specified arsenic the Gujarat Sultanate, the Mughals, the Marathas, the British, and different section and planetary powers.
To antagonistic these threats, they developed robust defence systems, including forts, watchtowers, bastions, and outposts, galore of which inactive basal today, albeit successful a authorities of neglect. Additionally, the Portuguese strengthened existing forts similar Mahim, Karnala, and Belapur aft gaining power of the area. These interconnected fortifications were instrumental successful repelling attacks from rival powers, allowing the Portuguese to support power implicit the portion for much than a century.
As the Marathas nether the Peshwas of Pune began to consolidate their powerfulness successful the aboriginal 18th century, they recovered themselves encircled by rival states, forcing them to follow an assertive stance toward neighbouring territories. The Portuguese, who governed the strategically captious Province of the North, including Salsette Island, grew progressively anxious astir the information of their holdings.
Under the enactment of Peshwa Bajirao I, the Marathas launched a calculated run targeting the Portuguese connected the pretext of demanding the customary tribute — one-tenth of gross oregon production. However, Bajirao’s ambitions extended acold beyond fiscal claims. Salsette, with its salient coastal ports, represented a captious gateway to the lucrative maritime commercialized on the Malabar Coast, making it an irresistible prize.
The Marathas’ archetypal incursions into the Province of the North began with an onslaught successful 1724, followed by a much assertive battle successful 1730. During the second campaign, the Portuguese came perilously adjacent to losing Salsette, but the timely involution of the British from the Bombay Islands mediated a impermanent peace, allowing the Portuguese to clasp onto their territory, for the moment.
By April 1737, the Marathas had escalated their efforts, successfully seizing power of Thane. Yet, they understood that their triumph would beryllium hollow without securing different strategical strongholds connected Salsette, including the well-fortified Portuguese outposts astatine Versova, Bandra, and Trombay. At the time, Salsette Island, oregon Sashti, was location to 157 villages, its landscapes dotted with Portuguese bastions defending these cardinal locations.
The Marathas launched 3 unsuccessful attempts to seizure these fortifications that year. But successful their 4th assault, led by Bajirao’s younger brother, Chimaji Appa, they turned the tide. In 1737, the Marathas decisively captured the formidable Bassein Fort (Vasai), which marked the opening of the extremity for Portuguese dominance successful the region. Over the adjacent 2 years, the Marathas tightened their grip, capturing Versova and Madh successful 1739.
This melodramatic run reshaped the region’s governmental landscape. The Marathas consolidated their presumption by constructing caller forts and bolstering existing ones, creating a antiaircraft web that interwove structures from earlier dynasties with those of the Portuguese and, later, the British. The conquest of Salsette and the Province of the North not lone cemented Maratha dominance successful the country but besides acceptable the signifier for the emergence of Bombay arsenic a pivotal centre of commerce and power.
The Marathas held onto the Salsette islands until 1774, erstwhile they mislaid it to the British during the archetypal Anglo-Maratha war.
The British and the Marathas
Despite a analyzable and often fraught relationship, the British successful Bombay, for strategical reasons, did not obstruct assistance to the besieged Portuguese during their conflicts with the Marathas. This dynamic is evidenced successful a December 1738 missive from John Pereira Pinto, Commandant of Bassein and Provisional Governor of the Province of the North, to the Governor of Bombay and his council. Pinto noted that British vessels stationed successful Bombay regularly supplied provisions and ammunition to the Portuguese-held land of Versova.
However, British neutrality was superficial. While supporting the Portuguese, they were besides accused of aiding the Marathas, peculiarly successful their efforts to conception naval ships connected Versova Island. According to the records of writer George William Forrest, Pinto himself urged the British authorities to curb Maratha shipbuilding, suspecting tacit British enactment for the Maratha project.
The Marathas’ triumph implicit the Portuguese successful the Province of the North made them neighbours to different European powerfulness — the East India Company. The Company, initially focused connected trade, had established itself successful Surat nether Mughal protection. But the emergence of the Marathas nether Shivaji altered the balance, arsenic the Marathas’ incursions into Mughal territories diminished Surat’s entreaty to European traders. The British sought a much unafraid basal and yet gained power of Bombay done the matrimony pact of 1661 betwixt England and Portugal.
The British regarded Bajirao I’s subject exploits with a premix of respect and trepidation. During the Maratha-Portuguese war, they cautiously balanced their actions to debar antagonising either side, recognising the value of maintaining Bombay’s safety. Despite strained relations with the Portuguese, the British had nary tendency to person the militarily assertive Marathas arsenic contiguous neighbours.
James Campbell’s Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency (1882) notes that European deserters importantly aided the Maratha forces during this period, bringing expertise successful artillery and siege warfare that contributed to their success.
The Portuguese decision successful 1739 profoundly altered the northbound Konkan’s landscape. With the Marathas present dominant, the British sought to unafraid their commercialized privileges and guarantee their presumption successful Bombay. They acted arsenic mediators successful the 1740 pact betwixt the Marathas and Portuguese, maintaining a precarious bid portion fortifying their foothold successful the region.
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