Fall of the Mughal Empire v2.c25.s5.1

v2.c25.s5.1

This long expedition of Raghunath Rao caused the wildest exultation among the ignorant sycophants of the Maratha Court, and their baseless praise has been echoed by equally ignorant historians of that people in our own days, as "carrying the Hindu paramountcy (Hindu-pad-Padshahi) up to Attock." On a calm examination Raghunath's vaunted achievement is found to be politically a hollow show and financially barren. The full force of the Maratha State, with the exception of the Peshwa's personal retainers and the Sindhia family contingent,—had been concentrated in Northern India for two years under him, and Raghunath came back from this enterprise without having secured a pice for the Punā treasury but saddled with a debt of 80 lakhs to bankers, besides the arrears due to his troops. Politically, his failure was even more fatal. His reckless annexation of the Panjab made a war *à l'outrance* with Abdali inevitable. At the same time he estranged Najib Khan beyond hope of reconciliation, and for the sake of whom? The impotent and faithless Imād-ul-mulk and the invalid poltroon Ahmad Khan Bangash! This was the most ruinous diplomatic alignment of forces possible, and it was due mainly to Raghunath's folly. He scornfully rejected Malhar's advice to keep Najib in hand by following a policy of "live and let live" in the Doab; and he paid no heed to Najib's offer to act as a friendly mediator and make a permanent settlement by amicably marking out the Maratha and Abdali spheres of influence in Northern India. The blame must be shared by the Peshwā in an even greater degree, as the supreme authority. The provocatively advanced frontier which he sanctioned, required a large well-equipped force to be kept constantly on the spot to defend it; and yet the Peshwa did not realize that suzerainty involves such a responsibility. No Maratha soldier could stand the winter of Lahor, and no first-rate Maratha chieftain (like the Peshwa's brother or cousin) was regularly posted as Warden of the North-western marches ; no, not even a secondary general like Holkar or Sindhia. This policy bore its natural fruit on 14th January 1761.