Marathas and Princely States of MP: Holkars and Scindias

For nearly two centuries the land that is now Madhya Pradesh was held not by one power but by a dozen, and almost all of them began as Maratha commands. The Marathas crossed the Narmada in the seventeen twenties, took Malwa from the Mughals, and settled two of their generals' families in it: the Holkars at Indore and the Scindias at Gwalior. Around these two grew a map of princely states, Bhopal under its Nawabs, Rewa under the Baghels, Orchha and Datia under the Bundelas, Dhar and Dewas under the Puars, which lasted until the states were merged after independence. MPPSC and MPESB papers ask this chapter as rulers, capitals and treaties.

Malwa passes to the Marathas

The expansion was the work of the Peshwa Baji Rao I, under whom the centre of Indian politics moved from Delhi towards Poona. Maratha armies defeated the Mughal governor of Malwa at Amjhera in 1728, and the emperor finally recognised Maratha control of the province in 1741. Two of Baji Rao's commanders were rewarded with land here: Malhar Rao Holkar, who received territory in Malwa in 1733 and founded the house of Indore, and Ranoji Scindia, whose family took the country around Ujjain and later Gwalior. The third battle of Panipat in 1761 cost the Marathas heavily, and both houses afterwards acted more as independent princes than as servants of the Peshwa.

The Holkars of Indore and Ahilyabai

The best remembered ruler of the state is Ahilyabai Holkar, the widow of Khande Rao, who governed from 1767 to 1795 with her capital at Maheshwar on the Narmada. Her reign is studied as a model of administration: light revenue demands, roads and rest houses, and a programme of temple building and repair across India, including the rebuilding of the Kashi Vishwanath temple at Varanasi in 1780 and work at Somnath, Gaya, Omkareshwar and Ujjain. Maheshwar's weaving, the Maheshwari sari, is traced to her patronage. Yashwant Rao Holkar fought the British in the second Anglo-Maratha war, and the state accepted British protection by the Treaty of Mandsaur in 1818, after which Indore became its settled capital.

The Scindias of Gwalior

The Scindia house produced the most powerful Maratha of the later eighteenth century, Mahadji Scindia, who rebuilt Maratha strength in north India after Panipat, made himself the master of Delhi and the protector of the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II, and raised European-trained battalions under the French officer de Boigne. His successor Daulat Rao Scindia fought the second Anglo-Maratha war and signed the Treaty of Surji-Anjangaon in 1803; he moved the capital from Ujjain to Gwalior, where the camp settlement of Lashkar grew into the modern city below the fort.

Bhopal and the other states

Bhopal was founded in the early eighteenth century by Dost Mohammad Khan, an Afghan soldier of the late Mughal service, and is remembered in exams for its nineteenth century Begums, Qudsia Begum, Sikandar Begum, Shah Jahan Begum and Sultan Jahan Begum, who ruled in succession and built much of the old city. Rewa in Baghelkhand was a Baghel Rajput state, Orchha, Datia, Panna and Chhatarpur were Bundela states of Bundelkhand, and Dhar, Dewas, Ratlam and Jhabua were smaller states of Malwa. The British dealt with all of them through the Central India Agency after the third Anglo-Maratha war of 1817 and 1818, which also broke the Pindaris who had operated out of Malwa.

From princely states to one province

In 1858 the last fighting of the revolt of 1857 took place in this country: Rani Lakshmibai died at Gwalior in June 1858 and Tatya Tope was pursued through Malwa. After independence the states were grouped in stages. The Maratha states of Malwa became Madhya Bharat in 1948, the Bundelkhand and Baghelkhand states became Vindhya Pradesh with Rewa as its seat, and Bhopal was administered separately before all of them, with the Hindi districts of the old Central Provinces, were brought together as Madhya Pradesh in 1956.