IGNOU HISTORY NOTES : India History From Mid 18th to Mid 19th Century - The Maratha State System

IGNOU HISTORY Study Notes for IAS, UPSC Exams

History India From Mid 18th to Mid 19th Century

The Maratha State System

Structure

3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Historians on the nature of Maratha Polity
3.3 The Maratha Confederacy
3.3.1 The King and the Peshwa
3.3.2 Bhonsle of Nagpur
3.3.3 Gaikwad of Baroda
3.3.4 Holkar of Indore
3.3.5 Sindia of Gwalior
3.4 Institutional Developments
3.4.1 The Administrative Structure
3.4.2 Long Tenn Trends
3.5 Society and Economy
3.5.1 Agrarian Society
3.5.2 Monetization
3.6 Maratha Relations
3.6.1 Bengal
3.6.2 Hyderabad
3.6.3 Mysore
3.6.4 Rajasthan
3.6.5 Mughals
3.6.6 East India Company
3.7 Let us Sum Up
3.8 Key words
3.9 Answers to Check Your Progress Exercises

3.0 OBJECTIVES

This Unit forms part of a Block that aims at reconstructing an integrated picture of
the Indian polity in the mid-18th century. In this Unit, you will be introduced to:
some views about the nature of the Maratha political system,
the Maratha confederacy and its territorial expansion in the eighteenth century, ,
the political and administrative structure evolved by the Marathas, details of which
will correct the conventional view of Marathas as marauders,
society and economy in the region under study, and
an outline of Marathas relations with the Mughal empire, other regional powers
and the English East India Company.

3.1 INTRODUCTION

The small Maratha Kingdom constituted in the seventeenth century in the Western
Deccan became a nucleus of what has been described as the second much wider
Maratha swarajya (sovereign state) which spread to the north, east and south in the
18th century.
After the Mughal retreat from the Deccan the Marathas expanded and evolved as a
loose association or confederacy of military leaders who were denoted as dars.
Formally the sardars held temporary assignments of land revenue. But in practice
they tended to become hereditary once they established themselves. The new and
powerful polity that was established by the Marathas by conquest in the western
Deccan is in a focus in this Unit.
We survey the transformation of society and economy that was taking place in this
region through the process of state building and the force of commerce.