‘Bollywood Glamorizes Maratha-Peshwas; Overlooks Their Loot & Plunder’
Brig (Retd) Bhupesh Singh, SC, VSM, a decorated Army officer and the titular king of Boondi, drops some truth-bombs on glorification of Marathas in movie ‘Chhaava’
These days there is an undercurrent of either manufacturing history or presenting it in a whitewashed manner; even indulging in over-glorification of certain figures to suit the prevailing political narrative. Clearly, it often happens at the cost of others. Therefore, it is high time somebody took the bull by the horn and put some sanity into the heads of peddlers of misinformation.
That’s why I thought of bringing out some home truths and unvarnished facts about the loot and extortion that happened in the Hadoti region. The latter years of this empire were pierced with attacks from mercenaries, the Pindaris, you know, like vanguard of the Maratha conquest in these regions and the kind of loot and extortion and subjugation of locals that happened. So yes, there is a history of them being in Boondi in 1734, and they were invited here for mercenary action purely, and they were paid for it.
The Scindias and Holkars were invited because there was a tussle for the throne but we paid them. So that’s why all the region had a treaty with the British in 1818 because the protagonists that time were tired of this. Our job was to serve the people and for that we needed peace to indulge in all the welfare activities and other administrative things and not to be constantly at war. That is why we had to enter into a peace treaty with the British. We should not hyperventilate, we have to stay real and somebody has to bring sanity and that was the aim.
Installation of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s statue at Pangong Tso, was opposed by locals also because they have their own local identity, local heroes etc. It can’t be happening at the cost of local heroes. Ladakh is border territory and all the bordering areas should have statues of people who have sacrificed their life there or the local heroes.
Zorawar Singh Kalhuria was a great General, all the areas of Ladakh and Gilgit Baltistan, if we have our say there it’s only and only because of General Singh. What a great leader and general that he was. And that’s how it’s there with all the frontier states, areas and borders. In Rajasthan where I belong, there are a lot of outsiders who have fought as the army fought and died there and their statues are there and nobody has any objection with that. But somebody who doesn’t have any contribution in that area and is being imposed there, then some sensitivity towards local sentiments should be there.
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We are an old and rich civilization with a history of sacrifices, then why do we need to impose from outside. Yes, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was a great warrior, we respect him and we bow down to him. But I think nobody should be imposed at the cost of regional identity. Regional identity and sensitivity should be kept in mind before indulging in any such visible show.
Let’s talk about integration, when the British India and princely India merged, it will be news to so many people that princely India, the which was under various Rajvanshas, including some Muslim estates, the total land area was 52 per cent and the population of 48 per cent was living in princely estate till 1947. British India was roughly the area that was under Mughals. The presidencies like Mumbai, Madras and Calcutta and then provinces were formed.
The national anthem features all British areas. Rajasthan was not mentioned in Jan Gan Man (national anthem) as it was not under Mughal or British rule. Bundi was formed in 1241, Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan was our predecessor, we formed it and we have defended it for eight centuries now.
In these eight centuries we have our own very rich and very well documented history which is full of sacrifices, we have our own culture, people and language, almost 40 lakh people have the same culture language. When we integrated in India in 1947, we didn’t assimilate; we didn’t allow Sanskritization of our culture.
As Rajvansh people we need to keep our culture alive; local heroes need to be kept alive. We can’t allow that kind of arrangement where our local identity is completely lost and we get into a somewhat bigger identity; we integrate to keep our local culture alive.
As told to Abhishek Anand
