Secret Agreements

It is the 31st of August 1743. It has been almost three months since the Nawab of Bengal Alivardi Khan and the Peshwa of Marathas Balaji Rao had come to a settlement that the Maratha soldiers would not invade Bengal again if the Nawab paid a hefty sum.

This settlement between the Nawab and Peshwa Balaji directly harmed the Maratha warlord Raghoji Bhonsle. Raghoji who was independently invading Bengal was routed by the combined forces of the Peshwa and the Nawab.

Thus, Raghoji took his complaint straight to the highest power in the Maratha empire, Chatrapati (Emperor) Sahu I. In a garden in the emperor's palace, the three men Raghoji, Balaji, and Sahu were sitting around a table.

Sahu spoke in a gentle tone, "I don't want the enmity between you two to grow anymore and affect this empire that has taken generations to build. I want you two to come to an agreement before me and end this debate privately instead of talking about it in the royal court."

It was almost an unspoken secret at this point that the Peshwa was growing stronger than the emperor. But nobody could deny the contribution of the Peshwas in growing the empire either. But even so, the power of the emperor was not entirely lost until now.

Consequently, the powerful Peshwa could not disagree with the summons and mediation done directly by the emperor himself.

Raghoji spoke with a frown, "Your Highness, I didn't want to fight with the Peshwa either. That's why I had set my sights eastwards to expand the territories of the empire. But I don't know why the Peshwa joined hands with the Nawab to fight me when I was on my way to conquer both Orissa and Bihar. Being youthful doesn't excuse such actions."

Raghoji took a dig at Balaji's age. He couldn't stand the thought that a kid of 19 years who was still wet behind his ears was declared the Peshwa, the prime minister of the empire. Raghoji respected Balaji's father's merits but that didn't mean the son could also share in those merits.

Sahu didn't immediately answer but just turned to Peshwa Balaji Rao. Balaji bowed his head slightly and answered, "I didn't arbitrarily decide to join hands with the Nawab to thwart Raghoji's plans. I was just making the best out of a very difficult situation."

"What do you mean?" Sahu asked for further explanation of Balaji's vague remarks.

"I had gotten a letter from the emperor of the Mughals to step in and help the Bengali Nawab. I had to either risk a war with the Mughals or help Bengal and get a tax of 1/4th of their revenue and some more cash. I chose the latter. I was also using this opportunity to show off the might of the Maratha empire. It's not like I harmed Raghoji physically."

Balaji was narrating the events to make it sound like his actions had nothing to do with keeping a check on Raghoji's growth. It was all for the Maratha empire.

"I could have taken over the region easily and gotten more in taxes. And the Mughals are in no shape to wage wars with us anyway. You just wanted to stop me from getting stronger. You say you didn't harm me but thousands of my men are dead and my spoils were also looted."

Raghoji's anger-laced voice was growing louder after each word but when Sahu turned to look at him with calm eyes, his voice gradually went back to normal. But he was still speaking through gritted teeth.

Peshwa Balaji nodded calmly, "I admit that was a mistake on my part. My men were not properly informed to not attack you for real. I had only asked them to act it out but they made a mistake in the excitement of the moment. If you remember, I had even ditched the Nawab's army and come to your camp with just my light cavalry."

After pausing for some water, he continued, "As for the Mughals, I don't think we need to antagonize them just yet. We can slowly take over their territories while showing an amicable appearance. We don't want to push them into joining forces with the Europeans."

It was indeed as Balaji explained. He had broken off from his allies to pursue Raghoji on his own. It was because Nawab's armies were too slow for the chase but now he could spin that story to fit his narrative. He planned to just act out a battle from the beginning.

Raghoji was shaking in anger but couldn't retort at all. Peshwa Balaji was giving plausible reasons for all the accusations. The more he retorted out of anger, the more it was likely that Shahu would find him unpleasant. It was no secret that Sahu was very fond of Balaji.

After listening to the arguments from both parties and deliberating on it, Shahu concluded, "Although Balaji was right in his decisions, I believe he could've handled things in a better way to not harm Raghoji. Raghoji indeed suffered a loss due to Balaji, so he needs to be compensated for that to resolve the bitter feelings. Are you two willing to follow the compromise I offer?"

Balaji hid his frown while Raghoji was all smiles as both replied at the same time, "It would be my honor, Your Highness."

"Hmm, okay. Let's do it this way, the tract lying west of Patna and east of Allahabad and a yield in 12 lakhs of Rupees a year from Bihar are assigned to the Balaji. And Raghoji will get the two provinces of Bengal including Orissa and Oudh in their entirety and all of Bihar except what was assigned to Balaji." Shahu gave his final verdict.

The emperor took into account that Raghoji was already on his way to conquer the territories he was assigned before Balaji intervened. This would be enough to satiate the ambitions and greed of both of them while also increasing the Maratha territory. It was a win-win for everyone.

The old emperor whose power was weakening by the day was using whatever means available to continue developing the empire that was founded by his grandfather. He also had his own ambitions to fulfill the dreams of the first Maratha ruler Shivaji I.

Both Raghoji and Balaji had some minor dissatisfactions about the compromise but they didn't outwardly show it. Overall, it was an acceptable settlement for both of them.

"Thank you, Your grace." They answered in unison as Shahu nodded in satisfaction.

In this way, while the Nawab of Bengal was stressing about how to make up for the money to be paid to Peshwa Balaji for the peace, his lands were being divided and distributed between the two Maratha leaders without his knowledge. 

….

Although the Nawab himself was still unaware of the distribution of his lands among the Marathas, Vir who had read about it in history books knew about the storms this settlement between the Peshwa and Raghoji would bring to Bengal.

After just a few months, Raghoji's army led by Bhaskar will once again invade Orissa and terrorize Bengal.

'I need Bengal to be peaceful for my projects to move forward. If the invasions continue, it will only waste more of my time. Maybe I should start looking into creating fortifications and training a personal army for security.'

Vir had wandered into his thoughts out of boredom while sitting beside Madhab and Swarup who were discussing various things with their closest aides. The current topic of discussion was about tax collection so Vir wasn't very interested.

While he was half listening to the conversation, the mention of one name caught Vir's attention. "Alivardi seems to be very tight on funds. At this rate, it is questionable if he will be able to defend against another invasion."

Most people who had a decent information source and some intelligence would be able to guess that the current peace was only temporary. Raghoji was alive and well and probably very angry at having to lose his troops for nothing after attacking Bengal for such a long campaign.

It was only a matter of time before that anger was directed at Bengal once again.

The cunning young Peshwa who has a rivalry with Raghoji will probably not come to Bengal's rescue this time. He has already accomplished his goal by reducing Raghoji's army. Now he has to just wait and watch as Raghoji and Alivardi eat away at each other's strength.

"Alivardi probably hasn't even thought of the possibility of the Marathas going back on their promises. Let's wait and see for the time being, the situation is still manageable." Madhab made a cool judgment.

At this point, Vir's childish voice caught everyone's attention, "Why don't we have our own army? If it is so dangerous outside, don't we need an army too?"

"We have an army of 1500 men, they protect us and key locations of our family like the coin mint. You don't have to worry about that." One of the aides thought that Vir was scared so he tried to reassure Vir about their safety.

"But I heard that the last time the Maratha invaders came, they looted our house. Didn't we have guards then? We need to have a well-trained army loyal only to us to protect us. Treasure invites trouble. We can't expect others to protect us and our wealth forever."

Although a young child speaking seriously looked very cute, his words forced everyone to think about the topic some more.

"It's not like we haven't thought of that before. We used to have an army of 4000 men but we had to cut down on the numbers to not create any friction with the Nawab."

"Our greatest profits come from coin minting and taxes, if we make an enemy out of the Nawab, all of it will go away. Most of the soldiers are used for protecting the mint and tax collections." Swarup sighed in frustration.

It was a conundrum that forced the Jagat Seth's family to put their safety in the Nawab's hands by paying for part of his military expenditure.

"Why don't we create a large factory complex and fortify it just like the British did with their Fort William? We can make it much larger and create a fortified factory town." Vir talked about the idea that he had been thinking about.

"Go on." Madhab urged Vir to continue the explanation.

"We can build all kinds of factories that we own inside of this factory town. As for the workers, we can recruit a few members of the families of the people who sign up to join our army."

Swarup excitedly clapped his hands, "We can have loyal workers and soldiers at the same time. That's a great idea."

'It is kind of like taking the family hostage to induce loyalty in the soldiers, but the security that comes from their families working a factory job that pays regularly will also help them.'

"Yes. Also, we can just hide them as the workers and guards of the factory town so we don't have to send our army to the Nawab to fight his wars." Vir continued his explanation.

It was common for the Nawab to requisition the soldiers from the officials, nobles, and landlords within his region to fight for his cause.

Everyone in the room began imagining a large fortified city of factories defended by their personal army. If such a city was built, they would feel much safer.

Madhab poured cold water on the excitement, "We need to first get permission from the Nawab to even begin such a massive construction. And even if we got the permission, we cannot be sure if building such a town would be economical. The cost of constructions would not be small."

"Then we can start by selecting a large area, securing the land, and building a few factories. We can begin fortifications later in a few years." Vir provided another option.

Madhab thought for a while and nodded, "It could work. In that case, we can always stop new constructions if it seems to become too expensive."

The discussions continued for a long time. The feasibility, what kind of factories to build, how big should the land be, where to put the residential district, and all kinds of other ideas were being floated and discussed. A rough image was starting to form in everyone's minds.

Although it was just an idea at the moment, the excitement to see it built into reality was shared by Vir, Madhab, Swarup, and the aides. As is human instinct, they all wanted to build a safe space where they could hide from the outside world.