In the wake of the gradual dissolution of the Mughal power, the smaller chiefs and provincial satraps have begun to set up their independent principalities in different parts of India. By the middle of the second half of the 18th century, the Marathas on the one hand and the English East India Company on the other, have set up their establishments. By the end of the 18 century, the struggle between the English and the Marathas resulted in the defeat of the Marathas, although their power was not yet broken, by the Treaty of Bassein of 1802. The final eclipse of the Maratha power could be seen in the defeat of the Marathas in the fateful battle of 1817, confirmed by the Treaty of 1818, by which the English took over the control of the Maratha kingdom. It is in this background that Prof. Kulkarni has traced the biography of an enterprising English officer, James Grant, known popularly in India as Grant Duff. In the early 18th century, as in the 17th, the European Company merchants and officials had to know everything-from fighting, to trading and administering the conquered provinces. By carly 19th century, the trading part of the English Company officials have been separated from the fighters and administrators, which had created a new genre of officialdom among the English. Prof. Kulkarni here traces the life story of such an official, who was a fighter and an administrator at the same time. But he was much more. He was also an historian, who wrote a three volume History of the Marathas, one of the earliest of the Englishmen to do so who had seen the Marathas from very close quarter. As shown by Prof. Kulkarni, this was different from the usual Memoirs of the Englishmen who later wrote perhaps from their diaries kept during.
their sojourn in India. Duff was born in a Scottish family on the 8th of July 1789, a few days after the commencement of the French Revolution, which had no effect on Duff. He could barely complete his education and then joined the East India Company as simple cadet, landing at Bombay in 1806 and joining the Bombay military service immediately. After showing his valour in capturing several forts in the Maratha Kingdom, Duff participated in the fateful battle of 1817 and imparted useful intelligence to Mountstuart Elphinstone and Captain Burr that led to the English victory, although it is now clear that the defeat of the Marathas could be ascribed to their internal faction fighting and the inefficiency of the disorganized Maratha leadership. It has been stated by some historians that Duff was instrumental in provoking the Peshwa to the battle, but Prof. Kulkarni does not allude to that. After the liquidation of the Maratha power, Elphinstone picked up Duff to act as an administrator in the Kingdom of Satara for a period of nearly four years after which the kingdom would be handed over to the Raja Pratap Singh, one of the descendants of Raja Sahu. This arrangement, to last till 1821, was slightly different from the arrangement made at Mysore by Lord Wellesley after the defeat and destruction of Tipu Sultan.
It was by sheer accident that I landed up in this study of Captain James Grant the first Political Agent and Collector of the newly created Satara Raj and also the first writer of comprehensive history of the Marathas which was published in London in 1826.
While preparing a paper on Balajipant Natu, a person known for hoistig the Union Jack on the Shaniwar Wada, the palace of the Peshwas, in 1818, I came across a number of references to Capt. Grant Duff, in the Parasnis collection preserved in the Deccan College. This led me to Professor Kenneth Ballhatchet's servival work on Western India of Mountstuart Elphinsotne's time, Social Policy and Social change in Western India (1817-1830), based primarily on the correspondence official and private preserved in the India Office Library and Records, London. This book made me anxious to know more about Grant Duff. The historians of Maharashtra have discussed at length the merits and demerits of Grant Duff's A History of the Mahrattas, and they have not only rejected his 'Hisotry' but even considered him as the enemy of the Marathas. However, not much has been known of him as an administrator, managing the affairs of the Satara Raj in the most disturbed period in Maharashtra which was also the formative period of the Company Sarkar i.e. the Rule of the East India Company (1818-1857) Ballhatchet's book supplied me good deal of information about the administration of Grant Duff, and also further aroused my curiosity about him.
At this juncture, by sheer co-incidence, I met Professor Ballhatchet in Delhi in 1966 who was invited to participate in a Seminar sponsored by the University Grants Commission on 'Mod-ern Techniques of Social and Economic Hsitory. In the course of discussion, he suggested that a careful analysis of the huge amount of correspondence of Elphinstone and his contemporaries, pre-served in the India Office Library, London, would give ample material on hitherto unknown aspects of Grant Duff's career as an administrator and historian. As there was not the remotest possibility of my visiting London to undertake this study, I just could not take the suggestion seriously.
But that was not to be. Next day Professor Ballhatchet asked me whether I could accept a research fellowship of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London University for this work. He also promised me that he would find out the possibility of creating such a fellowship at the SOAS as early as he could.
And to my great surprise, within a month's time, I received the formal letter of appointment from the SOAS, and the Council of Management of the Deccan College sanctioned, without any hesitation, me study leave for nine months. This is how I was introduced to the western world by Professor Ballhatchet in 1968.
Thus, the motive force behind this piece of research was Professor Kenneth Ballhatchet, who not only secured me the visiting fellowship, but also helped me in a number of ways in my re-search while I was in London. Words, therefore, fail me to ex-press my sense of gratitude for this dear departed friend, who was very keen on seeing the English version of my Marathi book on Grant Duff published in 1970. But unfortunately I could not undertake during his life time.
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