The History and Culture of the Indian People, Volume VIII:The Maratha Supremacy

It deals with the period from the death of Aurangzib (1707) to the third Anglo-Maratha (1818). It was an eventful period that witnessed the end of Muslim rule, the rise and fall of the Maratha empire and the foundation of British empire in India. With the death of emperor Aurangzib vanished the glory and prestige of the Mughal empire. The governors of distant provinces assumed indigence for all practical purposes. The Rajputs, the Sikhs, the Jats, the Bundelas and the Marathas all started thinking in terms of independence and challenged the might of the empire. The Marathas proved the most successful of the lot, liberated their homeland and carried the war into the enemy's country. Peshwa Balaji Vishwanath set on the bold adventure of participating in the imperial affairs by the treaty of 1718. Under his son and grandson, Peshwa Baji Rao and Balaji Rao, participation made way for direction and control. All this while, the British were pushing forward their conquests from the East and the South, and it was clear they would one day clash with the Marathas for supremacy. British diplomacy created disarray among Maratha chiefs and fought them separately. A sleepy, inert, feudal society was overpowered by an aggressive imperialism. The self-sufficient economy based on domestic consumption was shattered first by the extraordinary privileges the British conquerors claimed for themselves, and later by the unequal competition of the Industrial Revolution of the West.