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Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c33.s4: § 7. Conflict of policy in the Maratha camp : Sindhia versus Holkar

Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c33.s4

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§ 7. Conflict of policy in the Maratha camp : Sindhia versus Holkar

v3.c33.s4.1

From the very beginning Ramchandra failed to impose his will on his associates. Even before their start from Kerauli Māhādji had left him in a huff and moved towards Mārwar, because he could not agree with Ramchandra, and the latter had to depute Ganoji Kadam to mollify Sindhia and bring him back (January 1770.) The victory over the Jāt Rajah (6th April) caused the old sore to break open in an aggravated form; now began a sharp and irreconcilable conflict of public policy as distinct from a personal quarrel. The question was, what should the Marathas do next? Should they wait in the Jāt country, starve Nawal Singh out of his stronghold,—it may be, after months of blockade,—and thus realise the tribute due from him, before proceeding to the recovery of their Doab possessions and lost power at the Delhi Court? Or, should they leave the Jāt issue unsettled and hasten to the Doab for reconquering it with the help of Najib-ud-daulah before the coming of the rainy season put a stop to campaigning for four months and forced their vast army to eat its bread in idleness? [SPD. xxix. 252.]

v3.c33.s4.2

Māhādji Sindhia, apart from the blood feud that he bore to Najib, instinctively perceived that this Ruhela chief was the one enemy of the Marathas in the North,—great in his military genius and resources, and greater still in his political insight and diplomatic suppleness. He, therefore, proposed that the victorious Marathas should promptly come to terms with Nawal Singh by accepting a moderate money indemnity, leave a friendly Jāt Rajah in their rear, and march into the Doab for wresting their jagirs there by force from the Ruhela and Bangash usurpers, especially for punishing Najib, the arch-Ruhela and the moving spring of all anti-Maratha combinations among the Afghans of the North, now that his Durrani patron was unable to come to his aid.

v3.c33.s4.3

Ramchandra Ganesh advocated exactly the opposite policy: the Jāt Rajah having been effectually crushed, he could be safely left behind to be squeezed by Maratha tribute-collectors with exorbitant demands, and the Maratha army should enter the Doab in alliance with Najib, wrest all the Jāt possessions there by this combined Maratha-Ruhela attack and share them with Najib. He was reluctant to face a long and costly campaign by attacking Najib, who was sure to be supported by the Bangash, the trans-Ganges Ruhelas and the Nawab of Oudh. The dreaded spectre of a pan-Muslim coalition against the returned Marathas, like the one which had triumphed in the Panipat campaign, cowed his spirit. As he told his colleagues, "We have come here after ten years, and if we do not first make friends with Najib, then all would join him against us, and with such a combination of enemies opposing us we shall have to fight a hard fight, the result of which no man can foresee." Tukoji Holkar was the hereditary rival of the house of Sindhia. Najib's very astute Hindu agents visited him, and by bribing his ministers induced them to persuade their young master to follow Malhar's policy of always backing Najib's interests in the inner council of the Maratha leaders. The Peshwa approved of Ramchandra Ganesh's plan, and about the 24th of April the Maratha army began to cross into the Doab. [SPD. xxix. 254-262, 246, p. 307.]

v3.c33.s4.4

In less than three months the result declared itself and proved that Mahadji Sindhia was the better prophet. No doubt, the Marathas took some Jāt villages, but none of their former lawful domains in that region was released by Ahmad Bangash or Hafiz Rahmat or even by Najib himself, and not a pice of compensation or tribute was paid by them. These Afghans frankly told the Maratha envoy, "We are soldiers, we do not surrender lands unless compelled by superior force." [SPD. xxvii. 214.] Thus the hoped-for smooth recovery of jagirs and collection of money through Najib's friendly persuasion came to nothing, as Māhādji had foreseen. The faithless chief of Najibabad kept the Marathas deluded by his smooth talk, wasted months in hollow negotiations, and opened a secret correspondence for uniting all the enemies of the Marathas in that province in order to defeat their enterprise. He achieved a masterly triumph of diplomacy for the remainder of his life, and the Southern chiefs were completely befooled. It was only after his death that the Marathas by going to war with the Afghans won back any of their former possessions in the Doab. Thus once again in Maratha history, a Holkar had ruined the national cause in the North by his selfishness and personal jealousy. We shall now see in detail how the events moved on these lines during the third Maratha penetration into Hindustan.

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