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