The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c11.14

c11.14

Till 1750, therefore, the Maratha chiefs had employed in their army and navy European gunners, engineers and sailors, but in 1751 Balaji Baji Rao realised the need of going a step further. In his war against his hereditary enemy of Hyderabad he had suddenly found himself confronted with a new method of warfare hitherto unknown to him. Bussy had carried the war into the Peshwa’s own territories and penetrated as far as Koregao. Balaji Baji Rao at once perceived that the superiority of the hostile army was not due entirely to their artillery, and the tactics of the French general were different from those known to his Indian opponents, although the men under his command had been recruited in this country. The Peshwa adopted the time-honoured expedient of extracting a thorn with a thorn. He would gladly employ a European officer to face tbis new danger, but none, it appears, were available. He seriously thought of subsidising an English force, but the Government of Bombay was not in a position to lend any.² But if competent French and English officers were not available, there were Muhammadan adventurers with some knowledge and experience of the new methods ready to serve the Peshwa, and first Muzaffar Khan, and later Ibrahim Khan, entered the service of Balaji Baji Rao. They had both been trained by Bussy and were more or less familiar with his strategy and tactics, but they could hardly be regarded as fit substitutes for that general, and the Peshwa tried his best to induce him to leave Hyderabad for Poona. At one time the Peshwa felt sanguine about the ultimate success of his negotiations and in 1756 he actually communicated to his Portuguese neighbours of Goa the happy news of the admission of Monsieur Bussy in his service. On 22 May 1756, he addressed two letters to the Governor and the Secretary of State. The concluding paragraph of the first letter runs as follows: ‘In the company of Salabat Jang, who came to assist me, was M. Bussy. He left the said Nawab owing to some difference between them. I admitted M. Bussy into my service and gave him leave to go to his house at Masulipatam. He will join me after the winter and I make this communication so that Your Excellency may be informed of this happy news’. The Secretary of State was told that Bussy had expressed his willingness to enter the Peshwa’s service to which he had been accordingly admitted.¹ The temporary difference between the Nizam and his French protector was, however, soon composed, and Balaji Baji Rao could not procure any European expert to raise trained battalions for him. It should, however, be noted that he did not intend a wholesale military reform or the rejection of the old predatory tactics, but his old army was to be supplemented and reinforced by the new battalions as the Nizam’s had been, and this was exactly what the new gardi force of Muzaffar and Ibrahim did. They did not replace the old predatory force but they co-operated with it. The Peshwa did not pause to enquire whether such a combination of two entirely different and irreconcilable methods was practicable.