Scene -
Location- UPSC final interviews
Interviewer: So Mr. xyz kar (:)), I see that you are interested in Indian history. Could you tell me what would have been the consequences had the Marathas won the third battle of Panipat?
Interviewee: Sir, to sum it up in short, had the Marathas won the battle we would have been having this interview in Marathi.
This is an anecdote I heard when I was growing up. I don't know how true it is but is quite possible indeed.
Today it has been 246 years since the battle which killed 100,000 soldiers in 8 hours. A whole generation of marathas was lost in the battle. 22,000 women were captured by the Afghans and taken back. Infact the 12 O'clock joke on Sikhs started because they used to raid on the Afghan caravans at night to rescue these women. They rescued a lot of the women. The Peshwa took it to heart and died after a few years. The great Maratha empire which ruled a vast portion from Attock in Pakistan to Orissa and had the Mughal emperor as their vassal was divided in confederates. The Marathas raised another army of 100,000 to rescue those captured but that never happened. The afghans too suffered a death blow and never attacked India as they used to do earlier.
Infact the Marathas went into the battle supremely confident of their victory. Infact they took their women and older relatives to the battle so that they could visit the kurukshetra and other holy places after the battle. Marathas had a French trained artillery which was vastly superior to the Afghans. Infact the Marathas had the Afghans by their necks at the start till two Maratha cavalry commanders (sardars) got jealous of the artillery getting the credit and charged at the enemy prematurely with their men and were killed. The Marathas still fought bravely and had the Afghans on the backfoot till a bullet killed Vishwasrao, son of the rulling Peshwa Nanasaheb, and Sadashivrao Bhau charged at the enemy to avenge the death.
The aftermath is just tragic and full of atrocities commited by the Afghans on the Maratha women and old. A lot of them fled and tried to get shelter in the surrounding areas. Infact you can see many marathi surnames in this and adjoining region. The women jumped in the wells to save themselves and 22,000 were captured and taken back to Afghanistan. Their offspring served as slaves in Balochistan region of Pakistan to the Marri and Bugti tribes for generation. Infact these Marathi Marri and Bugti people are aware of their heritage.
Dr. Jayant Naralikar, a noted scientist and sci-fi writer, has a story written where his hero by some quirk of space and time goes in a parallel universe where Vishwasrao never got hit by a bullet which had a ripple effect on the battle and the Marathas won it. The British could never rule India and India remained free. It became a progressive kingdom, much like Japan, ruled by the Mughal emperor in Delhi and the Peshwa in Pune as his prime minister. The result of the battle shaped the present day India. The Vaccuum created by the declining maratha kingdom was filled in by the British who were defeated by the Marathas in the first war but by 1808 ruled India.
There is a statue of Sadashivrao bhau at Panipat. At actual place of the battle a monument near 'kala amb' (black mango) has been constructed in memory of numerous faceless soldiers who died in the battle. The mango tree is said to have turned black due to the blood of the soldiers. My tributes to those marathas who died in the battle and suffered for the cause!
A search for credible source of Indian history to suggest to my team leader who takes pride in his englishness rekindled my interest in this part of Indian history which is not just relevant to Maharashtrians but to all Indians. Looking at it in regional terms would be foolishness.
Jai Hind! Jai Maharashtra! :)
References-
1.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Battle_of_Panipat2.
http://www.google.co.in/search?q=Maratha+Bugtis&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official
