Baji Rao II - in Defence of Bajirao

In Defence of Bajirao

Bajirao II has been panned as deceitful by all English writers. It is said he plotted against them even before the ink at Bassein ran dry. The treaty of Bassein was fashioned in peculiar circumstance and the Peshwa, to regain his seat of power, had no option to play the English against his opponents, the Holkars and his brother Amrutrao in Pune. Immediately he secured this objective he tried to shake off the treaty in insidious ways and later when he felt his independence to deal with the chiefs being stifled, more openly. Yet, he lacked that fire and risk taking ability or warriorship that his grandfather Bajirao I was known for. All his diplomacy crashed before his own weak soldiership. Bajirao II could have lived a most opulent life amongst all princes of India, yet in 1817 he chose to throw it away and cross swords with the powerful English war machine, to try to retain his independence. The English armies looked after their soldiers well and in battles like the one at Koregaon (31 Dec 1817), the Peshwa could not achieve complete victory due to the intrepid fight put up by the British army. Opposing Bajirao II and the Marathas of the day were stalwarts like Wellesley, Malcolm and Elphinstone. Daulatrao Scindia and Yeshwantrao Holkar could not match the genius of these English stalwarts. The 'style' of fighting changed, also, and French generals abandoned Scindia before important battles.

Bajirao II, himself, was not trained in the craft of war or to rule. Kept in prison practically since birth, his education was neglected, something his mother always lamented. The death of Sawai Madhavrao Peshwa propelled him to the office of Peshwa with the help of a very young Daulatrao Scindia, adopted son of the great Mahadji. Bajirao had neither an army nor a treasury, and so he remained a puppet of the Scindia - till Scindia finally left to look after his Northern domains in 1801-2. The war between Holkar and Scindia erupted shortly after and Bajirao sought Scindia's help to keep the warrior Holkar at bay. The combined armies of Scindia and Peshwa were defeated at Hadapsar near Pune in 1802 and the Peshwa left Poona, as he feared being killed by Yeswantrao Holkar (owing to his killing a Holkar a few years earlier for rebelling against his (Peshwa's) authority). Bajirao II quit Poona and went to Bassein where the English offered him allurements to sign the Subsidiary Treaty in return for the throne. After deliberating for over a month, and after threats that his brother would otherwise be recognised as Peshwa, Bajirao II signed the treaty surrendering his residual sovereignty, and allowing the English to put him on the throne at Poona. The English armies then waged war and defeated the Scindia and Holkar armies separately. The divisions in the Maratha confederacy therefore helped the British defeat the Maratha power. It is ironic that at a time when British armies boasted of men like the Wellesley brothers at the helm of affairs, the Marathas had small leaders without a strategic vision like Bajirao II, Daulatrao Scindia and Yeshwantrao Holkar. The death of Tipu Sultan in 1799 and of Nana Phadnis in 1800 had indeed cleared the path for British sovereignty in India on the back of Indian soldiers.

Bajirao II began to feel his subservient status after 1811, and challenged the whittling down of his authority by the new English Resident Mountstuart Elphinstone. This accelerated after the 1815 murder of an agent of the Gaikwad, named Gangadhar Shastri, at Pandharpur. Secretly, Bajirao II began gathering an army ostensibly to fight the Pindaris. Finally, but too slowly, he made his move in 1817 and his army attacked the British residency in Poona. The Battle of Khadki was neither won nor lost and after losing the skirmish at Yerwada due to treachery, a few days later Bajirao II chose to leave Poona rather than inflict hardships on the city. His running battle with the British continued for four months until, having lost his army, his Generals and many wars, he surrendered to John Malcolm in 1818 and was pensioned off. Bajirao's story deserves to be retold and re-analysed. His personal life was no different from the rulers of the time. He tried to shake off his treaty with the British, but was not strong enough to build an all-India coalition. Scindia stayed neutral and did not move against the British. His proteges, Nana Sahib, Rani Laxmibai, Tatya Tope and Rao Saheb, were at the forefront of the 1857 war of independence that followed his death in 28 January 1851 at Bithoor near Kanpur.

It was not the fault of Bajirao II that the bonding between the Maratha Sardars, especially Bhosale-Shinde-Holkar and many such others, had weakened substantially since the 1790s. The power of the British and their political connections across India had increased phenomenally. Such a situation — nothing less than "Shivaji Maharaj" — could have re-established the Maratha supremacy. Unfortunately, Bajirao II was neither born nor trained to be the head of the Maratha Confederacy. At least he showed the will to fight against the British until the end, unlike the Shinde, Holkar, and Bhosale, who shook hands with the British to save their skin. Even the Chhatrapati himself (the owner of the state), Pratap singh, withdrew his support to save his Gaddi.