The First Anglo-Maratha War (1775–1782) was the opening round of armed conflict between the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire. Unlike the Company’s earlier, swifter triumphs in Bengal and Carnatic, this campaign ended in a strategic stalemate that compelled the British to formally acknowledge the Maratha confederacy as an equal imperial power across the subcontinent.
The origins of this war lay in the intersection of British mercantile ambition in Western India and bitter succession disputes inside the Shaniwar Wada, the Peshwa’s seat of power in Pune.
The Seeds of Fracture: Post-Panipat Succession (1761–1774)
On January 14, 1761, the Marathas suffered a catastrophic defeat against Ahmad Shah Abdali at the Third Battle of Panipat. When news reached Pune that his eldest son Vishwasrao and cousin Sadashivrao Bhau had fallen, Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao (Nana Saheb) collapsed from grief and died in June 1761.
His death triggered an internal power vacuum that fractured the empire:
1. Madhavrao I: The Young Prodigy vs. Raghunathrao
Nana Saheb’s 16-year-old son, Madhavrao I, was invested as the new Peshwa. Because of his youth, his ambitious uncle Raghunathrao (popularly known as Raghoba) assumed the role of regent.
Raghoba, having led prior campaigns to Delhi and Attock, resented taking orders from his teenage nephew. Bitter quarrels broke out over authority and treasury funds, eventually escalating into open conflict:
- Raghoba rebelled, forming short-lived pacts with traditional rivals like Nizam Ali Khan of Hyderabad.
- Madhavrao asserted his autonomy, defeated Raghoba’s rebellions, and placed his uncle under comfortable house arrest at Shaniwar Wada.
- Under Madhavrao’s remarkable decadelong rule, Maratha prestige was restored: the Nizam and Hyder Ali were defeated, and Maratha garrisons marched back into Delhi in 1771 to reinstall Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II on his throne.
In November 1772, Madhavrao died of tuberculosis at age 27. Historian James Grant Duff famously observed that “the plains of Panipat were not more fatal to the Maratha Empire than the early death of this excellent prince.”
2. The Fratricide of Narayanrao (1773)
Madhavrao died childless, leaving the Peshwaship to his younger brother, the 17-year-old Narayanrao. Because Narayanrao was hot-tempered and inexperienced, the elder statesmen reinstated Raghoba as advisor, but mutual suspicion quickly caused a complete breakdown:
- Narayanrao put Raghoba back under house arrest.
- In August 1773, during the Ganesh festival, mutinous palace guards (the Gardis, led by Sumer Singh Gardi) stormed the Shaniwar Wada demanding overdue pay, egged on by Raghoba and his scheming wife, Anandibai.
- The original written order from Raghoba reportedly commanded the guards to dharaa (seize/arrest) the Peshwa; legend holds that Anandibai altered the letter to read maaraa (kill).
- Narayanrao was hacked to pieces while running to his uncle for protection, crying “Kaakaa malaa vaachva!”(“Uncle, save me!”).
3. The Barbhai Council and Sawai Madhavrao (1774)
Raghoba proclaimed himself Peshwa, but his reign was illegitimate in the eyes of the court. Maratha Chief Justice Ram Shastri Prabhune held a formal trial, found Raghoba directly guilty of fratricide, and sentenced him to capital punishment.
Twelve leading Maratha ministers and generals formed a coalition named the Baarbhaai Council (Council of Twelve Brothers) to overthrow Raghoba. Led by the astute statesman Nana Fadnavis and supported by generals like Mahadji Shinde, Tukoji Holkar, and Haripant Phadke, the council seized control of Pune.
In April 1774, Narayanrao’s pregnant widow, Gangabai, gave birth to a posthumous son: Madhavrao II (Sawai Madhavrao). When the infant was 40 days old, the Barbhai formally invested him as the legitimate Peshwa. Ousted and hunted, Raghoba fled north to Gujarat.
British Catalysts: The Bombay Presidency’s Ambition
While the Bengal Presidency grew immensely wealthy from the Diwani rights of Bengal, Bihar, and Odisha, the Bombay Presidency was financially strained and geographically confined.
- Strategic Real Estate: The Bombay council was desperate to control Salsette, Bassein (Vasai), and the adjacent islands to secure Bombay harbor from Maratha naval incursions and improve trade transit to the Deccan.
- The “Plassey Formula”: Bombay authorities sought to replicate Clive’s strategy in Bengal—propping up a malleable pretender to puppet an Indian kingdom. Raghoba’s exile offered the opening they needed.
When Raghoba offered territorial and revenue concessions in exchange for European bayonets, the Bombay government signed an alliance.
Chronology of Treaties and Escalation
Treaty of Surat March 1775
Signed between Raghunathrao and the Bombay Presidency (led by Governor William Hornby). The British agreed to provide 2,500 troops to install Raghoba in Pune. In return, Raghoba ceded Salsette, Bassein, and shares of revenues from Surat and Bharuch. The combined forces clashed with Maratha forces at the Battle of Adas (Arras) in May 1775.
Treaty of Purandar March 1776
Under the Regulating Act of 1773, the Governor-General of Bengal, Warren Hastings, had supreme authority over other presidencies. Condemning Bombay’s unauthorized war as impractical and dangerous, Hastings sent Colonel Upton to Pune. The treaty annulled Surat: the British recognized infant Sawai Madhavrao as Peshwa and agreed to abandon Raghoba to a pension, while retaining Salsette.
The War Resumes 1777–1778
Bombay authorities harbored Raghoba instead of expelling him. In 1777, Nana Fadnavis granted the French (represented by Chevalier de St. Lubin) access to a port on the western coast. Alarmed by a potential Maratha-French alliance during the American Revolutionary War, Hastings reversed course and sanctioned a full offensive against Pune.
Wadgaon Disaster and Convention January 1779
A British expeditionary force of ~4,000 men under Colonel Egerton and Cockburn marched toward Pune through the Western Ghats. Mahadji Shinde lured them into a trap at Talegaon, employing scorched-earth tactics and cutting their supply lines. Surrounding them at Wadgaon, the Marathas forced the British into total capitulation, signing the humiliating Convention of Wadgaon, which ordered the surrender of all territories seized since 1773.
Multi-Front War & Clashes in the North 1779–1781
Warren Hastings repudiated the Convention of Wadgaon. He dispatched fresh armies under Colonel Goddard from Bengal across Central India, capturing Ahmedabad and Bassein. Concurrently, Captain Popham led an audacious night raid to capture the reputedly impregnable Gwalior Fort from Mahadji Shinde in August 1780.
Treaty of Salbai May 1782
Weary of war on multiple fronts (with Hyder Ali simultaneously attacking Madras in the Second Anglo-Mysore War), the British opened peace channels through Mahadji Shinde. The treaty ended the seven-year war, restoring the status quo ante bellum with mutual concessions.
Key Terms of the Treaty of Salbai (1782)
Ratified in 1783 by Hastings and Nana Fadnavis, the Treaty of Salbai was mediated by Mahadji Shinde and settled the conflict:
- Peshwa Recognition: The British formally recognized infant Sawai Madhavrao as the undisputed Peshwa of the Maratha Empire.
- Abandonment of Raghoba: Raghunathrao’s claims were permanently dropped; he was granted a modest annual pension of 3 lakh rupees from the Peshwa’s treasury and ordered to retire to Kopargaon, where he died shortly after in 1783.
- Territorial Adjustments: The British retained control of Salsette and the island of Elephanta, but returned all other conquered lands (including Bassein and territories in Gujarat) to the Marathas.
- Anti-French Guarantee: The Marathas agreed that no other European powers (specifically the French) would be granted trade or military footholds in their domains.
- Guarantee of Peace with Mysore: The Peshwa bound Hyder Ali to return all territories seized from the British in the Carnatic.
Historical Impact
The First Anglo-Maratha War proved that the Maratha Confederacy, when working in concert under commanders like Mahadji Shinde and administrators like Nana Fadnavis, possessed military logistics and diplomatic cohesion far superior to the fragmented principalities of Bengal or Arcot.
The Treaty of Salbai secured twenty years of relative peace between the Company and the Marathas (1782–1802). It gave the British East India Company the breathing room required to defeat Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan in the Anglo-Mysore Wars, while cementing Mahadji Shinde’s role as the arbiter of northern Indian politics and the protector of the Mughal throne.
