Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c54.s6.1

v4.c54.s6.1

At the beginning of May 1802, Jaswant Rao Holkar lost all hope of using his eldest brother as his screen, and took up the policy of standing forth as the working head of the House of Holkar (vicariously for the infant Khāndé Rao II). He began to press the Peshwā with all his power to give public recognition to this claim. The timid and deceitful character of Bāji Rao and his truly oriental policy of gaining time by doing nothing decisive in the hope of "something turning up," led by an irresistible sequence of events to the Treaty of Bassein and the loss of Marātha independence.