In the same year (1817) as that in which the Pindaris were crushed, and
almost in the same month (November), the three great Mahratta powers at
Poona, Nagpur and Indore rose against the English. The peshwa, Baji Rao,
had long been chafing under the terms imposed by the treaty of Bassein
(1802), and the subsequent treaty of Poona (1817), which riveted yet
closer the chains of dependence upon the paramount power. Elphinstone,
then resident at his court, foresaw what was coming and ordered up a
European regiment from Bombay. The next day the residency was burned
down, and Kirkee was attacked by the whole army of the peshwa. The
attack was bravely repulsed, and the peshwa immediately fled from his
capital. Almost the same plot was enacted at Nagpur, where the honour of
the British name was saved by the sepoys who defended the hill of
Sitabaldi against enormous odds. The army of Holkar was defeated in the
following month at the pitched battle of Mehidpur. All open resistance
was now at an end. Nothing remained but to follow up the fugitives, and
determine the conditions of the general pacification. In both these
duties Sir John Malcolm played a prominent part. The peshwa himself
surrendered, and was permitted to reside at Bithur, near Cawnpore, on a
pension of £80,000 a year. His adopted son was the infamous Nana Sahib.
To fill the peshwa's place to some extent at the head of the Mahratta
confederacy, the lineal descendant of Sivaji was brought forth from
obscurity, and placed upon the throne of Satara. The greater part of the
peshwa's dominions was ultimately incorporated in the Bombay presidency,
while the nucleus of the Central Provinces was formed out of territory
taken from the peshwa and the raja of Nagpur. An infant was recognized
as the heir of Holkar, and a second infant was proclaimed raja of Nagpur
under British guardianship. At the same time the several states of
Rajputana accepted the position of feudatories of the paramount power.
The map of India, as thus drawn by Lord Hastings, remained substantially
unchanged until the time of Lord Dalhousie. But the proudest boast of
Lord Hastings and Sir John Malcolm was, not that they had advanced the
_pomoerium_, but that they had conferred the blessings of peace and good
government upon millions who had suffered unutterable things from
Mahratta and Pindari tyranny.
First Burmese War.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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