पानीपत १७६१ (मराठा साम्राज्य एवं पानीपत महायुद्ध इतिहास)

114 PANIPAT 1761 the Poona Court nobody’s reputation was safe, are true not only as far as Govindpant himself was concerned, but are applicable to one and all The whole trouble had arisen from the precedent of the Peshwa’s own doings A state servant (albeit the first minister) who had risen by flouting the orders of his master could not hope to secure the willing obedience of his servants The Peshwa had broken the unity of the state by concentrating power in his own hands by all kinds of machinations and subterfuge, by relegating his co-minis- ters in the state to a corner Now the same game was tried upon him by his servants What is clearly seen by studying all the material and taking a com prehensive view of the whole affair is that, both military as well as civil serv ants in the Maratha State thought themselves in spirit more as partners in the state than as servants who could be dismissed at will The trouble had been growing for a long time, but seemed to be coming to a head just at this awkward time when the state was engaged in a life and death struggle with a first class enemy All the sins of commission and omission committed by the Peshwa knowingly or unknowingly before, now came to visit him like the ghost at the table of Macbeth Panipat thus proved to be the culmination of all previous defects in the Maratha system, and was not the result of one man's misbe haviour or default That Sadashivrao Bhau was already prejudiced against Govindpant, we have seen The Peshwa was conscious of this fact and so had written to Govindpant, early in May 1760, to go to Sadashivrao Bhau per- sonally and satisfy him about the accounts, so as to get into his favour,¹⁸ but it was too late Govindpant was now acting on the defensive Sadashivrao Bhau might have tried to assure him that there was no fear of dismissal in store for him but his words had then exactly the opposite effect on Govind- pant’s mind ¹⁹ Even after this Govindpant did not turn a traitor He tried his best, but perhaps he could not put as much heart and energy into the af- fair as he otherwise might have done To sum up, RAJWADE’S charge against Govindpant is proved as far as his keeping of accounts goes, but not on any other count That the Peshwa should have kept a man of Govindpant’s type in such an important border region as the Doab, was wrong and injudicious A far better and younger sardar was necessary at such a key post A clerk grown into a mamlatdar and exaggerated into a sardar was not a fit man for the post But it seems that no better men were available to the Peshwa, which means he had neither trained nor had engaged better men for the post, showing a defective system of recruitment for filling in various posts To appoint men simply because they are near at hand somehow, is not a proper mode for running an empire Those who think of the rise of obscure and ill educated men into imperial diplomats, governors and generals as an achievement of the Peshwas should bear this point in mind The machinery devised by the Peshwa was not fit and sufficient for carrying on an empire, even the constitution and machinery of a trading com- pany like that of the English East India Company was found better adapted to cope with the times and emergencies, but the Maratha system proved in- ¹⁷ RAJ 11’3 ¹⁸ RAJWADE, 1 182 ¹⁹ Ibid 1.242