Latest / The Rise of Colonialism: How Europe Divided the World — Fexingo History / The Maratha Empire: India's Forgotten Superpower That Challenged the British
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- Lucas: We've talked a lot about the British and French fighting over pieces of India, but there's another power that loomed over that whole story — the Maratha Empire. At its peak, it controlled nearly the entire subcontinent, from what's now Pakistan down to Tamil Nadu. Luna: Really? I thought the Mughals were the big pre-colonial empire. Lucas: By the early 1700s, the Mughals were in steep decline. The Marathas filled that vacuum. They started as a rebel kingdom under Shivaji Maharaj in the 1600s, fighting against the Mughals and the Sultanates of the Deccan. Luna: And by the time the British showed up, they were the dominant force? Lucas: Exactly. For instance, when Robert Clive was winning the Battle of Plassey in 1757, he was actually worried about the Marathas. They had raided Bengal just a few years earlier. But the Marathas' real moment came earlier, under the Peshwas — basically prime ministers who became the de facto rulers. Luna: If you've been stepping into history with us episode by episode, we're now at episode 160. And honestly, if today was worth a coffee to you, that's the link — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It helps keep this ad-free and lets us dive deep like this. Lucas: Yeah, listener support makes episodes like this possible — we don't have to rush. So, the most famous of those Peshwas was Baji Rao I. He was just 20 when he became Peshwa in 1720, and he led the Marathas on an incredible expansion. Luna: What made him so effective? Lucas: He used lightning-fast cavalry raids, a tactic the Marathas perfected. They'd strike deep into enemy territory, collect chauth — that's a 25% protection tax — and then disappear into the hills. Baji Rao once said, 'Let us strike at the heart of the Mughal Empire: the capital, Delhi.' And he almost did. Luna: He actually marched on Delhi? Lucas: In 1737, Baji Rao's forces raided the outskirts of Delhi. They didn't take the city, but it showed the Mughals were helpless. Under Baji Rao, the Maratha flag flew from the Indus River to the Bay of Bengal. Luna: So by the mid-1700s, they were the most powerful indigenous empire in India? Lucas: Absolutely. But then came the disaster of the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761. That's when the Marathas faced Ahmad Shah Abdali, the Afghan ruler of the Durrani Empire. The Marathas marched north with a huge army — maybe 100,000 men — but they were outmaneuvered. Luna: I've heard of Panipat. It's up there with Waterloo in terms of importance, right? Lucas: Exactly. The battle lasted several days in January 1761. The Marathas were surrounded, cut off from supplies. Their soldiers died of starvation and thirst. When the final attack came, the Maratha army was annihilated — an estimated 70,000 killed. The Peshwa's son, Vishwasrao, died in battle. The Peshwa himself, Balaji Baji Rao, died of shock a few months later. Luna: That's devastating. So the Maratha Empire collapsed after that? Lucas: Not immediately. They recovered in the south, but they never regained the north. And internal divisions grew. The Maratha Confederacy was a loose alliance of chiefs — the Scindia, Holkar, Bhonsle, Gaekwad — each with their own agenda. That disunity made them vulnerable to a new power: the British East India Company. Luna: So the British didn't defeat one unified Maratha empire; they picked off these different factions one by one? Lucas: Exactly. The British fought three Anglo-Maratha Wars between 1775 and 1818. In the first, the British backed one claimant against another. By the second, they crushed the Maratha armies in battles like Assaye and Laswari — where Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, made his name. The third war finished them off, absorbing their territories into British India. Luna: But the Marathas had a navy too, right? I read they fought the Portuguese. Lucas: They did! Under Shivaji, they built a formidable navy based at ports like Vijaydurg and Kolaba. They raided Portuguese shipping and even allied with the British at times. But by the 1700s, the Maratha navy declined — they focused too much on land campaigns. Luna: So if they'd kept up their navy, could they have challenged the British at sea? Lucas: Maybe. But the British had better ships and more consistent funding. Still, the Maratha forts — like Raigad, Shivaji's capital, and Sinhagad — are symbols of resistance. They never really accepted foreign rule, even after the British victory. Luna: It seems like the Marathas were on the cusp of being the dominant power in India, but Panipat really changed the course. Lucas: It did. Had the Marathas won at Panipat, they'd have controlled the entire subcontinent. The British might never have gotten a foothold. Instead, the battle shattered Maratha power in the north, and the British stepped into the vacuum. Luna: One thing I'm curious about — how did the Marathas administer their empire? Was it all just military conquest? Lucas: They were pragmatic. They collected chauth and sardeshmukhi — basically 10% of the revenue on top of the 25% — from captured territories. Local rulers often stayed in place as long as they paid up. But the system was decentralized, which worked for expansion but made it hard to hold together. Luna: So their strength was also their weakness. Lucas: Exactly. The Maratha chiefs — the Scindias in Gwalior, the Holkars in Indore, the Bhonsles in Nagpur — they sometimes fought each other as much as they fought the British. That infighting is what the British exploited. Luna: Now that we've covered the Maratha perspective, it really adds a new layer to understanding colonialism in India. Lucas: Absolutely. They were the last major Indian power to fall. And their legacy — the Maratha identity — is still a powerful force in Indian politics today. Luna: Well, it's a rich history we only scratched the surface of. Maybe we can do a deeper dive into Shivaji or the Peshwas in a future episode. Lucas: I'd love that. There's so much more — the siege of Sinhagad, the battle of Palkhed, the treaty of Bassein. But for now, that's a good place to pause.