The Bargis Came to the Land: Maratha War Crimes in Bengal
Among all the brutal massacres, plundering, horrific atrocities against women, and war crimes committed across the world during the Middle Ages, the Bargi invasion of Bengal was among the most heinous and barbaric. In our newspapers and political speeches, while much is said about Islamic invaders and plunderers like Sultan Mahmud and Nadir Shah, no such discussion takes place regarding the Shaivite-Hindu Bargi plunderers in Bengal.
The Bargis were not foreign invading plunderers like the Aryans, Huns, Kushans, or Mongols. They belonged to this very land of India—the Maratha King Raghuji Bhonsle of Nagpur state and his commander Bhaskar Pandit, along with their troops, repeatedly pounced upon Bengalis with primitive greed over a period of ten long years.
It is estimated that during the reign of Nawab Alivardi Khan, a few individuals from Subah Bengal traveled to meet the Shaivite Maratha Prime Minister Bhaskar Pandit and encouraged him to invade Bengal. The objective was to end Muslim rule in Bengal. Hints of this can be found in Bharatchandra Ray’s epic Annadamangal:
There resides the King of the Bargis in Satara fort.
He is a great devotee of mine; speak to him in a dream.
He shall come and suppress the Yavanas [foreign rulers].
Hearing this, Nandi went and related the dream to him.
Upon seeing the dream, the Bargi King grew enraged.
King Raghuji sent Bhaskar Pandit.
Bargis from Maharashtra, Saurashtra, and other regions—
Vast armies arrived, fierce and terrifying in form.
As a consequence of this, the Maratha Bargi plundering forces invaded Bengal six consecutive times—though each time, the Nawab’s troops defeated them in direct warfare.
They plundered the people of Bengal and reduced them to beggars,
Crossing the Ganges by building a bridge of boats.
They slaughtered countless people and burned village after village,
Plundering wealth and carrying off daughters and wives.
The brutal Bargi plunderers, mounted on small pony horses and raising the chant of “Har Har Mahadev”, would encircle and inflict plunder and atrocities upon the Hindu-majority villages of West Bengal. The villages of West Bengal have historically been Hindu-majority, as they remain today. Even the Vishnu Mandaps (shrines dedicated to Lord Vishnu) of Hindu Bengalis were not spared from the atrocities of the Shaivite Marathas.
All the Vishnu Mandaps across Bengal,
They burned down every home and house, big and small.
It is beyond words to describe how brutally and horribly the Marathas carried out their atrocities. Descriptions of these war crimes committed by the Bargis can be found in the contemporary poet Gangaram’s Maharashtra Purana:
— Maharashtra Purana, Chintayasi Edition, 1373 (BS)
All the people who lived in villages big and small,
They all fled in fear of the Bargis.
People fled everywhere in all four directions;
People of thirty-six castes fled without end.
As everyone was fleeing in this manner,
Suddenly the Bargis came and encircled them.
Surrounding them in the open fields, the Bargis sounded their call,
They plundered gold and silver, leaving everything else behind.
Some had their hands cut off, others their nose and ears,
With a single stroke, they took the lives of many.
All the noble women they seized and carried away,
Tying a cord around their thumbs and fastening it to their necks.
As one man released a woman, another would grab her,
Under the weight of sexual assault, they cried out for mercy.
In this manner, after committing so many sinful deeds,
The Bargis finally released all those women.
Then, having plundered the fields, the Bargis entered the villages,
Coming upon large houses, they set them on fire.
All the Vishnu Mandaps across Bengal,
They burned down every home and house, big and small.
In this manner, burning down all the villages,
The Bargis roamed in all four directions, plundering as they went.
Some they tied up with their arms bound behind their backs,
Laying them flat on their backs, they kicked them with shod feet.
“Give us money, give us money!” they demanded repeatedly,
When no money was found, they poured water down their noses.
Grabbing some, the Bargis submerged them in water,
Gasping for air, many lost their lives.
Conquering Bengal was never the objective of the Marathi Bargi plundering forces; their purpose was to loot Bengal’s wealth and commit horrific atrocities against Bengali women. For this reason, the Bargis avoided directly confronting the Nawab’s army. Taking advantage of Nawab Alivardi’s absence from the capital, the Maratha plunderer leader Bhaskar Pandit, accompanied by 700 cavalry troops, covered 40 miles in a single night to attack the city of Murshidabad and plundered it throughout the day. When Alivardi arrived in Murshidabad the following morning (May 7, 1742 AD), the Maratha forces fled the city. On their retreat, the Maratha invaders torched countless villages along the way, leaving behind a trail of burning villages as their footprint.
After the Marathas captured Hooghly in June 1742, the plight of the region’s inhabitants reached extreme levels due to their rampages. The Marathas slaughtered innumerable civilians, and a massive number of women were raped at their hands. Consequently, many people abandoned their homes to protect the honor of the women in their families and fled to the eastern bank of the Ganges River to seek refuge in Godagari. Fearing Maratha plunder, merchants and weavers fled from Birbhum. Terrified by the Maratha devastation in other regions, silk textile manufacturers fled as well. Silk and cloth factories and trade centers were abandoned, food grains became scarce, and commerce faced all kinds of disruptions.
Fleeing Murshidabad while pursued by the Nawab, the Marathas captured Katwa and unleashed terrible havoc there. Alivardi did not sit idle. Gathering troops from Patna and Purnia during the monsoon, he attacked Katwa at the end of the rainy season. At that time, the Marathas were grandly celebrating Durga Puja with their looted money. However, after riding all night along a circuitous route, Alivardi’s troops launched a surprise attack on the sleeping Maratha soldiers on the morning of Nabami. This time too, the Marathas fled without offering a fight.
Bhaskar Pandit reassembled his fleeing Maratha troops and began plundering the Medinipur region, looting and burning down Radhanagar—a famous silk-rearing center—before capturing Cuttack. But when Alivardi advanced with his army and recaptured Cuttack, the Marathas fled south of Chilika Lake (December 1742 AD).
In this manner, over a decade, Maratha invaders remained engaged in various war crimes against the people of Bengal. The Marathas demanded tax revenues (chauth) from the inhabitants across different regions of Bengal. Whenever the common people failed to pay these levies, ruthless atrocities were inflicted upon them. Due to their inability to pay taxes, the Marathas indiscriminately slaughtered countless individuals. In many instances, they wantonly murdered or maimed numerous people without reason.
A contemporary historian wrote that the Marathas did not spare even pregnant women and children. According to one estimate, as a result of the decade-long Maratha invasions, nearly 400,000 inhabitants of Bengal—men and women alike—lost their lives. Countless women suffered abuse at the hands of the Marathas throughout these ten years of raids. The Marathas abducted beautiful women from various parts of Bengal, and innumerable women fell victim to gang rape by Maratha soldiers. According to accounts from contemporary sources, Maratha soldiers would stuff sand into the mouths of Hindu women, break their arms, bind them behind their backs, and gang-rape them. Describing the atrocities inflicted by the Marathas on women, contemporary Bengali poet Gangaram stated that they would drag beautiful women away and tie their fingers to their necks with cord. As soon as one Bargi (Maratha soldier) finished violating a woman, another Bargi would pounce upon her. These women shrieked in agony. After committing these sinful acts, the Marathas would set them free.
“Some had their hands cut off, others their nose and ears,
With a single stroke, they took the lives of many.
All the noble women they seized and carried away,
Tying a cord around their thumbs and fastening it to their necks.
As one man released a woman, another would grab her,
Under the weight of sexual assault, they cried out for mercy.”
Baneshwar Vidyalankar, the court scholar of the contemporary Maharaja of Bardhaman, also wrote regarding the Maratha soldiers that they plundered all property and abducted chaste wives.
In 1743, Balaji, the Peshwa of the Maratha Empire, entered Bengal to protect the province from Raghuji’s invading forces in accordance with a treaty signed with the Mughal Emperor. However, when it came to plundering, Balaji’s “protector” force assumed the role of predators. They were in no way inferior to Raghuji’s invading army; they too plundered village after village and reduced them to ashes.
Meanwhile, the Maratha ruler Shahu summoned Raghuji Bhonsle and Balaji Peshwa, settling the disputes between them (August 31, 1743 AD). Previously, Raghuji and Balaji were rivals. A partition of Bengal’s tax collection (chauth) was arranged between the two plundering forces. The western part of Bihar fell to the Peshwa’s share, while Bengal, Odisha, and eastern Bihar went to Bhonsle’s share. It was agreed that both could plunder at will within their designated territories, without interference from one another. As a result of this arrangement, Bhaskar Pandit re-entered Medinipur and resumed his plundering (March 1744 AD).
Upon learning of the entire situation, Nawab Alivardi decided to adopt the policy of “deceit against deceit” (Shathay Shathyam Samacharet). Under Nawab Alivardi’s command were 9,000 cavalry and some Afghan infantry troops. Ghulam Mustafa Khan, the commander of this military force, was loyal and trusted by the Nawab. On his advice and assistance, Bhaskar Pandit was invited to the Nawab’s tent. When Bhaskar Pandit hesitated to meet the Nawab, Ghulam Mustafa reassured him by swearing an oath on the Quran and escorted him to the tent. Upon reaching the Nawab’s tent, Bhaskar Pandit was slain along with 21 of his military commanders and attendants (March 31, 1744 AD). Immediately, the Maratha forces fled the land of Bengal.
The Nawab had pledged that if Ghulam Mustafa succeeded in killing Bhaskar Pandit and the Maratha commanders, he would be appointed Governor of the province of Bihar. However, the Nawab reasoned that a person who could invite a guest under an oath on the Quran and murder him might betray the Nawab in the future as well. Consequently, the Nawab did not fulfill his promise. Ghulam Mustafa went to Bihar, staged a rebellion, and began inciting Raghuji Bhonsle to invade Bengal once again. But Nawab Alivardi defeated Ghulam Mustafa near Patna; taking advantage of this opportunity, Raghuji advanced as far as Bardhaman and continued plundering.
Finally, in 1751, the signing of a peace treaty between the Nawab and the Marathas brought an end to the Maratha invasions, terminating the severe suffering of the people of Bengal.
Such was the tragic consequence of bringing an external force of Shaivite plunderers into Bengal through a Brahmanical conspiracy to end Muslim Nawab rule.
বাংলা এবং বাঙালির জন্য লড়াইকে এগিয়ে নিয়ে যেতে আমাদের সাহায্য করুন।
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