The Fort That Could Not Hold
Institutional Failure and the Rise and Fall of the Maratha Power Between 1630 and 1818, the Marathas rose from the rocky terrain of the Western Ghats to dominate much of the Indian subcontinent, only to collapse into disarray. Shivaji Maharaj, a brilliant military innovator, built a state through guerrilla warfare, a revolutionary revenue system based on chauth (a 25% protection tax), and a formidable navy. He successfully weakened the Mughal Empire financially, forcing even Aurangzeb to pay tribute. However, within a decade of Shivaji’s death, his navy disintegrated. The Maratha state fragmented into a rivalrous confederacy of five houses—the Peshwa, Scindia, Holkar, Gaekwad, and Bhonsale—that conquered widely but governed thinly. They failed to build durable institutions: no clear succession law, no centralized bureaucracy, no standing national army, no permanent admiralty. This institutional void, more than Mughal resurgence or British military superiority, proved catastr...