The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c17.2

c17.2

The downfall of the Maratha naval power was due to its inefficiency, but prejudice has handed down the names of the Maratha captains as pirates. Naval practice both in Asia and Europe has undergone revolutionary changes since the days of Kanhoji Angria and Anand Rao Dhulap, and the freedom of the sea in times of peace, if not in times of war, is today accepted as an axiom of international relations. Their interference, therefore, with free navigation and appropriation of alien vessels wrecked on the coast at once condemn the Maratha admirals as guilty of piracy in the eyes of a generation that does not know how universal these practices were two hundred years ago on the Malabar coast, if not elsewhere. And it is generally ignored that the Marathas were not the only nation guilty of such practices. They were simply following the precedents of their European neighbours.