A History of Agriculture in India v2.c86.s5: A Poor Agricultural Base

v2.c86.s5.1

The Marathas had their power base in the Deccan, an infertile rocky area with scanty water resources. It depended upon an uncertain monsoon, which, when it failed, converted the Deccan into a land of famine and hunger. This was a decisive handicap in the race for supremacy in India, whose main contenders on the collapse of the Mughal empire were the Marathas and the British. The British occupied the most fertile areas of India with rich alluvial soil and high rainfall, viz. Bengal, Bihar and the coastal area of Andhra and Tamil Nadu. This explains, why the Marathas who had conquered Delhi in 1737, occupied the Punjab in 1758 and almost fulfilled their dream of flying their saffron flag from the Krishna to the Indus, ultimately failed to consolidate their gains. On account of a poor agricultural base, the Marathas resorted to the plunder of fertile provinces of Mughal India, and thus antagonized the inhabitants of these provinces. Moreover, their guerilla tactics of warfare, which served them so well in the Deccan terrain, were entirely unsuitable for the flat Indo-Gangetic plain.