Description

With the disintegration of the Mughal Empire, a power vacuum was created at the center in India. The Rajput and Maratha powers were in a position to take advantage of the situation and take the center stage. But both the powers miserably failed to fill the power vacuum. This gave a chance again to a foreign power to take advantage and fill the political void. The East India Company found an opportunity to step into captures political power in India. This book presents an objective assessment of the circumstances leading to this phenomenon. This work gives evidence in proof of its assertion that the Marathas and the Rajputs did not possess leadership which could take stock of the situation and makes moves for the united effort to replace the Mughal power. Moreover, there was lack of unity among the Marathas and Rajput themselves. Various states of Rajputana could not overcome their self-interests. Among the Marathas, the leadership of Peshwa was only nominal and various power centers emerged which did not have the sagacity to act in unison. An effort has been made in this work to analyze the steps which if taken would have brought about unity and change the course of history, although this is a matter of the realm of ifs and buts of history.1439