The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c7.59

c7.59

Balaji Baji Rao was perhaps a better Brahman than his father, but as a statesman and soldier he was much inferior to Baji Rao I. The Pan-Hindu policy of the second founder of the Maratha empire was deliberately abandoned by his son. Baji Rao had pursued both in Malwa and in the Konkan a policy of conquest and annexation. A policy of annexation is at the beginning expensive and does not yield immediate financial profit. Mill had no difficulty in proving that the annexations of Wellesley were financially unprofitable, and the same criticism could be levelled against Baji Rao’s progressive and aggressive campaigns. The Marathas, however, unlike the English, looked upon war as a normal source of revenue and Baji Rao suffered from a chronic lack of funds. Perpetually harassed by his creditors, he hardly knew any peace and his anxieties have often found expression in his letters to Brahmendra Swami.¹ Balaji Baji Rao, therefore, decided to abandon his father’s policy and to make war profitable. In one letter he styled himself a disciple of Shivaji Maharaj, apparently because he thought he was treading in the footsteps of the great Maratha in making war pay for war. But he forgot that while Shivaji had no alternative but to foster his annual mulukhgiri expeditions as a normal and regular source of revenue, he himself might very well have improved his finances by developing the natural resources of the tolerably large dominions bequeathed to him by his father. The policy of annexation, which Baji Rao systematically pursued both in the north and in the west, was abandoned by his son, nor did the excellent idea of rallying the Hindus against the Muhammadan rulers of India appeal to him. When he sought an interview with Sawai Jai Sing, it was to extort money from that friendly potentate; and the main, if not the sole, purpose of his numerous expeditions was the recuperation of his exhausted coffers. This fact is clearly indicated in the following lines written by him to Nana Purandhare.² ‘My father, like Bhagirath made a stream of gold flow from the north to the south for twenty four years. Thanks to his blessings, that stream is still in ever increasing flow and has completely satisfied the rulers of the provinces, the leaders of the army and my sincere friends. The golden stream has added to thirst only. Raghuji and Fatte Sing Baba had in the past brought a golden stream from the south but its flow was interrupted at places. For many days in the interval the stream from the south did not flow. By God's grace the stream of wealth is flowing well in this army this year but there are many dry lands on the way to Poona and it will be entirely absorbed (in transit) on that account. If the northern and the southern streams could in their high flood be united at Poona without any absorption on their way, then I could get rid of my debts and secure rewards of my labour both in this world and the next. The Ganges flows to the sea but saves the whole world; in the like manner do these northern and southern rivers flow in the present age and benefit many people. All rivers and streams flow to the ocean, the Kaveri alone has been brought to the service of men. So do these rivers of wealth render but little service to the main interest, though they do immense good to other people. It is proper that people with an insight should take into consideration the rights and the wrongs of this matter and so act that the sterility of Poona may be removed.' The Peshwa's meaning is quite transparent, and the policy adumbrated in the letter was bound, when followed to its logical end, to produce one result only—namely, the wholesale alienation of his father's Hindu allies and the complete denationalisation of the Maratha army.