Heads of Maharashtra

Name - (Marathi) / Federation of Maharashtra (English) / مہاراشٹرا سنغراجیا (Dakhni) / મહારાષ્ટ્ર સંઘરાજ્ય (Gujarati)

Continent - Asia

Capital - Satara [executive, judicial] Pune [legislative]

Head of state - Chhatrapati Shivaji IV

Head of government - Diwan Ajit Tope

Legislature - Praja Sabha - Prathama Sabha, Dvitiya Sabha

Speaker of the Prathama Sabha -

Speaker of the Dvitiya Sabha -

Judiciary - Nyaya Parishad

Nyayadhish -

Form of government - Federal monarchy under a semi-democratic ministerial confidential constitution

Form of law - Anglo-Hindu Law

Area -

Largest cities

-Mumbai - 10,180,000 (city), 17,615,000 (metro)

-Pune - 8,063,000 (city), 13,025,000 (metro)

-Shivajinagar [Aurangabad]

Time zone - TMP+05:00

Currency - Maharashtrian rupee

Language - Marathi, English (regional), Dakhni (regional), Gujarati (regional)

Population - 112,035,000

Density -

National festival - Shiv Jayanti (February 19) - commemorating the birth (1630) of Shivaji, the founder and first Chhatrapati of Maharashtra

Anthem - Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Ghoshna

Motto -

-ruled by Maharaja

-ruled by Maharaja

-ruled by Nawab

-compensation to Nawab of Banda, after he got overthrown in British Wars > Hindustani War of Independence (1936-9)

-ruled by Wazir

-ruled by President

-formerly independent country, contains special autonomy as a result

-ruled by Kapitav

-during Goan War of Independence, it broke away and the Rane swore loyalty to the Chhatrapati

-ruled by Peshwa

-after overthrow of Peshwa, compensated with smaller domain

From its foundation in the seventeenth to its triumph in the eighteenth to its subsidiary alliance with the British Isles in the nineteenth, over the centuries Maharashtra changed greatly as an entity. Even as British subsidiary alliance provided the Maharashtrian elite with much wealth, many were discomfited by the loss of the nation's historic greatness. Where had the people who flew the saffron banned from Attock to Cuttack gone, and why were they now serving as footsoldiers of the Britishers in China? Furthermore, the great price of the elite's newfound wealth became clear with the Great Famine of 1876-78. The horrors of this great famine occurred across India, but nowhere were they more apparent than in the Deccan, where entire districts were depopulated with hunger and emaciated families had to not only survive with what little food they could find but also fight off cannibal gangs. This was greatly exacerbated by British export policy, fixed in treaty with Maharashtra, which required free trade in grain. Thus, districts which could not feed themselves had to export the bulk of their grain. When Vasudev Balwant Phadke attempted to fight against this by organizing bands of warriors to kill the middlemen exporting grain to the ports, the reaction of the government was to execute him. When the famine came to an end, this horror forced the Maharashtrian elite to determine why this had occurred.

Quickly, the finger was pointed at the nature of the government. At the top was nominally the Chhatrapati, the direct descendant of the much valorized founder of Maharashtra, Shivaji. But in practice, all knew the true ruler of Maharashtra was none other than his nominal head of government, the Peshwa, who served for life on a hereditary basis, and he kept the Chhatrapati in perpetual house arrest. Every once in a while, there was some discussion among the old Maratha clans about overthrowing the Peshwa, and that the Peshwa was a Brahmin and the Chhatrapati the direct descendant of the quintessential Maratha aggravated these tensions. But nothing came out of these discussions. Until 1881, when letters flew around the nation calling for a consultative assembly, and Chhatrapati Rajaram II, wishing to regain his power, signed a decree and got it past the Peshwa's guards. And so, in 1882, a National Convention was held in Puna, with an eclectic group of representatives from various city councils and feudal lords of various sizes. In character, it was surrounded by the atmosphere of a village fair. Here, however, it advocated something a little different from merely restoring the Chhatrapati; rather, it advocated the establishment of constitutional government. And so, in 1883, it issued a draft for a constitution, a charter establishing a federation with formal institutions, and this the Chhatrapati was forced to accept since it, indeed, did enhance his own power while also circumscribing it. And the Peshwa, on the backfoot, saw the way things were going and accepted this too, even as he was reduced to the first among equals in an aristocratic-oligarchic council. This charter, however, was refused by the Rajasthani, Bundeli, Gujarati, and Vidarbhi lords, thus reducing its power to the old heartland.

In the years that followed, the Chhatrapati and Peshwa consistently clashed among one another, while the elite represented in the Praja Sabha attempted to play them off one another to enlargen their own power. For a time it worked. But then, in 1887 came to the throne the young Shahu III, and seeking to gain power he had ideas he was thinking of as heir. He quickly recognized the status of Brahmins in education and administration, as well as grievance by other upper castes and the status of untouchables. To this end, in 1888, he gave a speech declaring the status of Brahmins and Sayyids in Maharashtrian society deplorable, and he declared he had every intention of changing this. He declared that every Maharashtrian not a Brahmin was a Maratha, in the legacy of the great Shivaji, who he declared a god. To that end, in 1889, he inaugurated the first Shiv Sabha in Satara to honour the legacy of his ancestor, and by doing so implicitly attempting to raise himself to the same near-divine level. His agents and supporters created many others across the nation, and quickly they announced candidates for Praja Sabha elections. With full support from the Chhatrapati's agents, in contrast to the Peshwa who lacked anything resembling this, they swept the Praja Sabha. And with that, Shahu III quickly got to work.

He announced new schools, open not to Brahmins but to everybody else, and in a particularly explosive move he declared the establishment of new reservations in government jobs for non-Brahmins. The Peshwa was shoved aside, and with it untouchables like the Mahars were relieved of the horrific persecution they suffered at his hands. But this quickly went further. With him recognizing that the most prominent institutions in Maharashtra were the temple and mosque, he declared they should be removed from the hands of those who currently operated them, the Brahmin of the temple and the Sayyid or other Ashraaf of the mosque. This very quickly turned into Brahmins being forced out of temples with state force. In many cases, temples were razed down and their idols placed in newly-constructed ones on their ruins. Those to serve in them were a group of new people - Brahmins from North India, or newly-trained priests from among non-Brahmins, so-called "Maratha Brahmins". All the while, the Bhakti movement with all of its focus on less esoteric forms of worship quickly spread and became more common, to fill the void created by the weakening of priests, and that Shivaji was undoubtedly a man in the Bhakti mold meant this quickly gained steam. Similarly, among Maharashtrian Muslims, upper-caste Muslims found their status challenged, as their dubious claims of foreign descent were turned against them by a state intent on promoting a more Indic identity and a unique Maharashtrian Islam. One byproduct of this was that the Muslim reform movement, which often viewed low-caste Muslims as unwashed masses unworthy of new reforms, had little impact in Maharashtra.

In many cases, this wave against Brahmins resulted in rioting, shocking the state. But nevertheless, through all of this, the state was able to spread its control around temples and mosques, and through it centralize. Shahu III continued to be a vigorous reformer, whose monopolization of the legislative process led him to create new schools, colleges, and universities. He created new banks, and he banned child marriage. He created new railways across his nation, and when it looked as if debts to the British would be unpayable, he successfully negotiated the transfer of Orissa, nominally run by him but really under Nagpuri rule, to the British in return for relief of these debts. By his death in 1929, Maharashtra was a very different place. But all the while, his reformism reached his limits. That all non-Brahmins were grouped together as "Marathas" meant only a specific group, upper non-Brahmins, got all the benefit of reservations and education, and tensions between them and other so-called "Marathas" came to the surface as it became apparent they were just as capable as virulent casteism as any Brahmin. Though the worst abuses of untouchability were stopped, the practice continued. It must come to no surprise that untouchables and other low-castes started to reject any Maratha identity instead of another label that would allow them to assert themselves. At the same time, Shahu III's refusal to accept anything but the vague form of constitutional government left many wanting more.

And so, during the great crises of the 1930s and 40s, Maharashtra was ill-prepared. The Hindustani War of Independence saw the Hindustani people rebel against both the British and princes, and that some of the princes brutally killed by their own subjects were ethnically Maharashtrian and that Maharashtrian soldiers were bound by treaty to fight for the British, meant sudden division in society. Various Shiv Sabhas made declarations both for and against the war. And the Praja Sabha ceased to be a mere puppet institution as it instead saw raucous debates. The revolution in Andhra in 1941 made these problems worse, as Hyderabad was overthrown and replaced by a Telugu nationalist associationist republic. In both cases, Maharashtra saw large numbers of refugees enter. The Shiv Sabhas saw splits between those who sought to reform to avoid such events occurring in Maharashtra, and those who wanted to keep those ideas out. This division asserted itself as Shiv Sabhas expelled members not in accordance with the majority, and those expelled formed their own organizations. By 1942, Shiv Sabhas effectively split into two organizations, and this became recognized in fact with further political organization. With Maharashtra unilaterally breaking its alliance with the British, this division and the rising low-caste movements would profoundly transform Maharashtrian society....

Founded by the first Chhatrapati, Shivaji I "the Great", in 1674, Maharashtra boasts of a long history. Following its rapid expansion under Shivaji the Great across the Deccan, in the late seventeenth century Maharashtra was faced with a vast Mughal invasion which it barely survived. But by the early eighteenth century the overextended Mughals collapsed and Chhatrapati Shahu I spearheaded Maratha expansion across India. However, his Peshwa (prime minister) Balaji Vishwanath Bhat accumulated vast amounts of power; after Shahu I's death in 1749, the post of Peshwa became hereditary, and it effectively became the real monarch, with the Chhatrapati effectively placed under house arrest in his vast palace. Though its holdings in North India increasingly fractured under suzerain Maratha lords, Maharashtrian power expanded from Utkal to Afghanistan, or, as the saying goes, from Cuttack to Attock.

However, following the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761, in which the Marathas faced a disastrous defeat at the hands of the Afghans, Maharashtra faced near-collapse; it took the efforts of the great Peshwa Madhavrao I and his minister Nana Fadnavis to successfully resurrect the state. When in 1772 Madhavrao I died, following a brief struggle Nana Fadnavis puppetized the Peshwa, placing actual power in a council of nobles. Nana Fadnavis nevertheless proved a capable administrator who kept the empire together. Even the Mughal Emperor was reduced to a pensioner of Maharashtra. When in 1798 the Afghans under Zaman Shah invaded India, this forced the rivals of Britain and Maharashtra into a reluctant alliance against the Afghans, which proved successful in deflecting the invasion, and also removed aligned Tipu Sultan of Mysore from power. This reluctant alliance was strengthened further when in 1800 Nana Fadnavis died, and his brother Moroba became the new Fadnavis; he proved far less suspicious of the British and, after the Anglo-Hyderabadi War, signed a treaty making a subsidiary alliance with the British with 1000 British troops posted at Puna for "protection". The British eagerly enlisted Maharashtrian troops into their armies, finding their fighting prowess impressive, and as such the "Mahratta" soldier with his turban became an important sign of the British Raj. While Maharashtra would retain most of its autonomy, never again would the Shivaji Jhanda be flown from Cuttack to Attock; never again would Maharashtra boast of its dominance over India.

By the 1880s, Maharashtra faced severe tensions. While its monarch, the Chhatrapati, belonged to the Maratha caste, the Peshwa and the Fadnavis who held real power were both Chitpavan Brahmins, and this led to domination of

administrative posts by Chitpavan Brahmins. Such tensions had long existed, but by the 1880s they hit a boiling point; the Chhatrapati, eager to regain some semblage of his long-lost power, called for a convention of notables to resolve this. However, this convention instead backed the formation of a permanent representative assembly, while also turning the pseudo-confederal Maratha Empire into a formal federation. The eventual Charter of the Federation, signed in 1886, thus established the modern Maharashtrian state, a federation of monarchies under the common head of the Chhatrapati. Furthermore, the Chhatrapati's political organization, he used that to become the real power over Maharashtra and shunted aside the Peshwa and Fadnavis.

In 1925, by the Treaty of Allahabad, the independence of Maharashtra was at last recognized, though in practice, it was only after the British Raj was fatally weakened by the Hindustani War of Independence that it could call itself independent. Today, Maharashtra boasts of a long history. The legacy of its old history of imperial expansion may be seen in how Gujarat is ruled by Maratha clans, or in how even today Bengalis damn the atrocities of the Maratha invasions of the eighteenth century; its new history of representative democracy may be seen at the Sabhawada in Puna or the glistening buildings of Kolhapur. Today, for all its severe problems of development and casteism, it perseveres.