Anglo-Maratha Relations
The First Anglo-Maratha War
AFTER recovering from the blow of Panipat, the Marathas appeared once more in full force in the north in AD. 1770 and brought the helpless Delhi Emperor, Shah ‘Alam II, under their control by agreeing to escort him to his capital in return for certain privileges. Warren Hustings concluded the Treaty of Benares in September, 1773, partly to check the revived pretensions of the Marathas in the north. But in the meanwhile a terrible calamity had befallen the Marathas. The young Peshwa Madhava Rao I had expired in A.D. 1772, and internal dissensions appeared among the Marathas, due to the inordinate ambition of the deceased Peshwa’s uncle, Raghunath Rao or Raghoba, and the weakness of Madhava Rio’s brother and successor, Narayan Rao. Madhava Rao I had been able to check the designs of his uncle and even to conciliate him. But his successor, an inexperienced youth of frivolous habits, could not remain on good terms with him and placed him under arrest. This led Raghoba to organise a conspiracy with a discontented body of infantry, and Narayan Rao was murdered before the eyes of his uncle on the 30th August, 1773.
Raghunath Rao was now recognised as the Peshwa, but his Authority remained unchallenged only for a few months. A strong party at Poona, under the leadership of a young Brahmana, Nana Fadnavis, who had luckily escaped from the fatal field of Panipat, began to counteract his measures. A new card was placed in the hands of the confederate Maratha leaders, when in the next year a posthumous son was bom to the late Peshwa’s wife, Ganga Bai. They at once recognised the infant as the Peshwa and set up a council of regency in his name. Foiled in his attempts and driven out of the home provinces, Raghunath Rao appealed for help to the English at Bombay. Thus, as in the Carnatic and elsewhere in India, internal quarrels among Indian princes and chiefs offered an opportunity to the English to intervene in their affairs,
The English at Bombay were then on peaceful terms with the Maratha government at Poona, but they were induced to espouse the cause of Raghunath Rio by the prospect of acquiring certain maritime territories adjoining Bombay, which they calculated would make their position much more secure. In response to Raghunath Rao’s appeal to them, they concluded with him the Treaty of Surat on the 7th March, 1775. By this the English agreed to help Raghunath Rio with a force of 2,500 men, the cost of which was -to be borne by him; in return Raghunath Rio undertook to cede to the English Salsette and Bassein with a part of the revenues of the Broach and Surat districts, and promised not to form any alliance with the enemies of the Company and to include the English in any peace that he concluded with the Poona government., A body of British troops under Colonel Keating had already reached Surat on the 27th February, 1775. The allied armies of Colonel Keating, and Raghunath Rio met the Poona troops on the 18th May on the plain of Arras, situated between the river Mahi add the town of Anand, and defeated them.
But the war had been commenced, and the Treaty of Surat signed, by the Bombay Government, without any orders from the Supreme Council in Calcutta. Warren Hustings himself had no objection to ratifying the Treaty of Surat, but his opponents, who formed the majority in the Council, were opposed to his view. The Calcutta Council, therefore, soon condemned the action of the Bombay Council as “impolitic, dangerous, unauthorized, and unjust”, and wrote to it on the 31 at May to recall the Company’s troops “unless their safety may be endangered by an instant retreat”. A few months later in the same year, it sent Colonel Upton to Poona to negotiate a peace with the Poona regency. Colonel Upton accordingly concluded the Treaty of Purandhar with the Poona Authorities on the Ist March, A.D. 1776. By this the Treaty of Surat was annulled; the retention of Salsette, and the revenues of Broach, by the English was confirmed; the Poona regency agreed to pay twelve lacs of rupees to the English to cover the expenses of their campaign ; and the English renounced the cause of Raghoba, who was to live at Kopargaon in Gujarat on a monthly pension of Rs. 25,000 from the Peshwa’s Government.
This treaty did not take effect. The Bombay Government did not like its terms and the gave shelter to Raghoba in direct violation of the treaty and despite the protests of Upton. The Poona leaders did not fulfil its terms, and in 1777 Nana, Fadnavis received warmly a French adventurer, Chevalier de St. Lubin, and promised to grant the French a port in Western India, which created suspicions in the minds of the members of the Bombay Council about the designs of the French in South India. The Court of Directors in several despatches upheld the policy and action of the Bombay Government, which re-opened the war and sent a force,l consisting of 600 Europeans and 3,300 sepoys, under Colonel Egerton towards Poona in November, 1778. Owing to ill-health Egerton made over the command to Colonel Cockburn in January, 1779. On the 9th January the British troops met a large Maratha army at Telegaon in the Western Ghats, but soon suffered reverses, which compelled them to sign a humiliating convention at Wadgaon. By it all territories acquired by the Bombay Government since 1773 were to be surrendered, the force arriving from Bengal was to be ,withdrawn and the Sindhia was to receive a share of the revenues of Broach.
This disgraceful convention was repudiated by the Governor General, who wrote: “We have already disavowed the convention of Wadgaon. Would to God we could as easily efface the infamy which our national character has sustained.” Freed from the obnoxious opposition of his colleagues, Hustings now adopted measures to retrieve the prestige of the Company. A strong army, sent from Bengal under Colonel Goddard, marched right across (central India and took possession of Ahmadabad on the 15th February and captured Bassein the llth December,1780. They met with a reverse in April, 1781, however, while attempting tc, advance towards Poona and bad to fall back. But in the meanwhile, Captain Popham, who had been sent from Bengal by Hustings to support the Rana of Gohad, an old enemy of the Sindhia, had captured Gwalior by escalade on the 3rd August. General Camac also inflicted a defeat on the Sindhia at Sipri (modern Sivpur) on the 16th February, 1781.
