मराठ्यांच्या इतिहासाची (नविन) साधने - The New History of Marathas

About the title: A very renowned historian VK Rajwade wrote several books about the Indian and particularly the Maratha History. His book Marathyanchya Itihasaachee Sadhane (The History of the Marathas) is famous and considered a hallmark work, written after detailed and in depth research. The Cambridge University Press now publishes several volumes as the New Cambridge History of India because, to quote the editorial board, “the old history has inevitably been overtaken by the mass of new research published over the last fifty years.” So, the new books published surely tell us the New History. The word new in the title depicts this.

I do not remember how or why I bumped into a book titled the Marathas, Marauders and State Formation in the Eighteenth Century India by Stewart Gordon. I remember having driven all the way up to the Main Library and looked for the book in the History Section. Having not found it on the shelf, I gave the call number to the Librarian and patiently waited as she disappeared somewhere inside to pull this important book out for me. The trip was worth the while.

The book was refreshingly different from all other history books. For the first time, it sounded like the glorious (!?) Indian history battered by the British was finally coming out of the clouds. Gordon was very categorical in putting forward proofs against some of the long held views and the views that are still being taught in schools. I remember having studied – “Bentinck ended thugee”. Gordon was ready to go in the details of social background and find out what exactly Bentinck ended! He researched into the city planning (Pune) and trading places (Barhanpur) and also studied the elaborate tax and revenue systems put in place in the Central India and made a formidable case against the long held British justification of Indian conquest and thus reducing the white man’s burden. For a proud and often arrogant Indian, it may have been an “I told you so” moment. It was an eye opener nevertheless and huge knowledge base too! For all those proud of the ruins of Shanivar wada, how many actually know the architectural details? The grant to establish a planned township of Sadashiv Peth? And makes you ponder over the question Gordon asks – why is it that the British put aside the Peshwe Rumal (documents from the Peshwa Administration) and did not allow anyone to study this meticulous record?

Stewart Gordon, a Ph D from the University of Michigan, wrote the Marathas 1600-1818 after thorough research and it forms the Volume II, book 4 of the New History of India series by the Cambridge University Press. As the jacket of the book says, the Maratha Empire is one of the most colorful but least understood parts of the history. What Gordon uncovers can be surprising. The book hardly deals with a political discourse. The Third War of Panipat has been covered in mere three paragraphs, so is the show down between Shivaji and Afzal Khan and Ahilya Bai’s benevolent administration merits two pages. But Gordon covers in great details the tax system, the collection and tribute rights, the succession wars and loyalty disputes, the diplomacy and much more.