POLITICAL CONDITION OF GUJARAT IN THE

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

By
Vijay Vadher
Department of History, MA II
PRN: 8022040335
Political Condition of Gujarat in the Eighteenth Century
• Historical context

1. MUGHAL INFLUENCE

• With the collapse of the Mughals’ central authority in the early eighteenth century,
Gujarat also lost its political stability. The provincial governors began to exercise power
rather independently and often undermined imperial expectations.

• Non-compliance with imperial orders contributed to political chaos and confusion. To

continue in power, the governors resorted to forging alliances, political manipulations
and military force. Beginning in the 1720s, each succeeding Governor of Ahmadabad
ousted his predecessor by use of military force.

• None, apparently, could muster the means or had the ability to consolidate his
authority and carve out an autonomous state. The unstable political condition in
Gujarat encouraged the Marathas to participate in political contests.
• Like the Mughals in the eighteenth century, the Marathas were politically
fragmented and some warrior families such as those of Dabhade, Gaekwar,
Sindhia, Holkar and Bhonsle, and Pawar were only nominally under the
control of the Maratha king and his minister the Peshwa.

• Gujarat experienced increasingly frequent incursions from the south by the

Dabhades together with Damaji Gaekwar and Kanthaji and Udaji Pawar.

• Once these groups acquired territorial possessions, they were recognised

by the Maratha king and the Peshwa as practically independent and were
considered free to govern their possessions provided that they paid half of
the revenue to the Maratha headquarters at Poona.
 2. ROLE OF GAEKWADS OF BARODA

• From the second quarter of the eighteenth century, the Gaekwars ruled over
Gujarat and controlled the fiscal resources of the region.

• The Marathas adopted the strategy of invading, roving and taking possession of
the countryside or at least forcing the local governors to surrender a part of the
revenue of those regions.

• Consequently, the Mughals in Gujarat lost both substantial revenue resources and
imperial political control and by 1750 it had become a shadow of its former self,
exercising only ritual sovereignty over the region.

• In 1753, the Gaekwars took control of Ahmadabad and thus put an end to the
hundred and eighty years of Mughal rule in Gujarat. Gradually, they established
their sway over a large part of the province with the exception of Surat and some
localities in the possession of zamindars.
 3. MARATHA FACTIONALISM

• The internecine warfare between different Maratha factions, in which the Nizam
of Hyderabad and the East India Company played a major role, also adversely
affected Gujarat.

• Damaji’s participation in the factional conflicts or pro Raghunath Rao stance

caused a huge material loss and greatly damaged his power and position.

• In 1768, his death triggered a succession dispute among his sons which further
aggravated an already volatile political situation in Gujarat. The succession crisis
and the heightened factionalism of the Maratha warrior groups paved the way for
the English to sneak into the corridors of power.
 4. PRINCELY STATES OF BARODA

• The state of Baroda was founded by Pilajirao Gaekwad. Dabhoi, Champaner,

Viramgam had already fallen under the Maratha control.

• By 1727 the Faujdars enfirely lost control of the Thanas. The Thanas of Mangrol,
Kutiana, Una, Delwada, Sutrapada, Somnath-Patan and other Thanas became
independent. In terms of West Gujarat and Kathiawad, the Nawabi of Junagarh
was formed by Sher Khan Babi in 1747.

• The Mughal authority in the peninsula started declining early in the century. This
was largely unchecked due to pre-occupations of the officers with the mainland.
 5. OTHER PRINCELY STATES:

• Jarwan Mard Khan (1744-53) was the first Nawab of Radhanpur and Sardar
Muhammad Khan laid the foundation of Balasinor. A few Koli leaders also took
advantage of political instability and carved out petty principalities for
themselves.

• The Gohel chief Bhavsingh Ji of Sihor setup his independent rule in 1723 and
built the city of Bhavnagar.

• Rai Singh Zala (1730-45) constructed a port at Dhrangadhra and made it a

capital of his state.

• Anand Singh, brother of Maharaja Abhay Singh established the Rathor rule at
Idar.
• When the English superseded the Siddis in 1756 in the command of the Surat castle,
Bhavsingh ji secured their assistance on the same terms.

• He raised Bhavnagar from being only a small chieftainship into a principality of

considerable importance his successors also encouraged the trade by every means in
their power. Some of them known as “Native States” survived the British. Conquest
and continued to exist till the recent merger.

• These chieftains, nobles and officials expanded their sphere of activity in the course
of the century and became decisive in new power structure in their respective
localities.
• This period also saw the rise of British East India Company as a
sovereign authority. Using its position as a merchant body in the
economy of Surat the Company could capture Surat’s castle in 1759, its
first conquest in Gujarat and monopolize Surat’s trade to a great extent.

• This was followed by the conquest of Bharuch. It was an outright

territorial conquest and was planned in advance with a view of
territorial aggrandizement.

• The Bombay Presidency’s attempts at conquest of Gujarat were aborted

in 1781 due to the failure of first Anglo-Maratha war but 20 years later
due to their intervention in the internal crisis of Baroda they could
establish subsidiary alliance with Baroda principality.
• Through Baroda’s over lordship over the rest of the principalities in Gujarat the
Company could penetrate into the interiors.

• The Company used revenue settlements or fixing of tribute to be paid to the

Gaekwads and the Peshwa by these principalities, as an instrument towards
establishing their presence in Saurashtra and the regions of North Gujarat.

• In 1818 due to Peshwa’s defeat in the third Anglo-Maratha war the British
became paramount authority in Gujarat.
• Bibliography:

• Ghulam A. Nadri, The Eighteenth-Century Gujarat: The Dynamics of Its

Political Economy, 1750-1800, Brill, 2009.

• Edalji Dosabhai, History of Gujarat from the earliest to the present times,
New Delhi, 1986.

• Ashin Das Gupta, Indian Merchants and the Decline of Surat C. 1700-1750,
New Delhi, 1994.

• Ruby Maloni, Europeans in Seventeenth Century Gujarat: Presence and

Response-Social Scientist-Vol. 36, No. ¾ (Mar. – Apr., 2008), pp. 64-99 (36
pages)