Talk:The Panipat Campaign of Marathas/@comment-182.64.57.186-20131022105639

I wanted to write a review and critique on this article but had restrainted myself due to tendency of people on such forums to abuse anyone with dissenting opinions, but still i wish to take my chances.

My observations are as follows :-

1) You said “Marathas gave such a blow to the enemy that there hasn't been a single invasion from northwest again in last 250 years" . This is factually incorrect. The invasions of path an Tribals in 1948  on kashmir is one good example.

Instead "victory at panipat and Afghan military prowess was to inspire hope in many orthodox Muslims and Mughal royalists and fear in the British". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Panipat_%281761%29 ( direct quote read it here).

In fact Loss at panipat exposed many inherent Hindu military weakneses namely their ability fight a pitched face to face battle with enemy rather than " hit and run and loot " which they were always good at, rampant religious obscurantism " like doing Tirath and puja while on war  " and their overconfidence and belief  in numbers  , maratha army at panipat was the largest hindu army accumulated in  1000 years,  their defeat by a smaller afghan army broke hindu confidence forever and nipped in the bud the grand design of  "hindu rashtra" which the likes of RSS are still finding hard to sell ( realize)  300 years after panipat.

2) I dont seem to understand why all Hindu military defeats are attributed to quirks of fate.

a) Second battle of panipat (quoting wikipedia) : - Hemu was winning but an arrow accidently hit his eye

b) Third battle of panipat (quoting you ) :- " It was only matter of time now, Shinde started his attacks on Najib preventing him from coming for the aid of Abdali. This is when accidently, Vishwasrao fell to a stray bullets while facing the charge of Afghan reserve and camel mounted artillery known as "Shaturnal"..

I deduce from the above that instead of finding the root causes of your failures, you like rest of the hindus blame military defeats on plain bad luck.

It is a great tragedy that even Modern educated Hindus do not give due credence to their opponent's Courage and bravery, their ingenuity,   their strong faith and resolve on the other hand The British and the Americans make even their microscopic enemies look good.

or Do you sincerely that luck (God) was always on the side of muslims in the battlefield ?

3) Many Times in this article You are implying that Marathas died for cause of Dharma in panipat, I wish to refute this by stating the following -

a) Marathas as an army were hated in this country ( Hindus & Muslims alike ), they led maurauding armies who looted and raped their fellow countrymen irrespective of their religion  much like what afghans did in india, they even employed   Pindaris who were professional looters solely for the purpose of loot and pillage , so people at that time had no sympathy   with them ( Sacking of surat by shivaji is one good example where majority of the looted businessmen were hindu )

b) marthas even looted and destroyed temples : The destruction of temple of Renga Nath at Sri Rangapatnam during the war with mysore is a case in point.

c) Marathas were poor administrators only interested in loot and not governance that is why they were rather happy in accepting chauth from inept indian rulers rather than taking over.

Thus, Marathas were not defending any religion at panipat but themselves.

My list on the facts stated by you is long, but I rest my case here

Yours faithfully

An Indian who believes in India’s future