Question

‘Alongside endless military campaigns, the Marathas developed an effective administrative system as well’. Justify the statement.

Answer 1

Explanation:1.Shivaji

2.Peshwas and administration

3.Expansion of Maratha Empire

JUSTFICTION...The Maratha kingdom was a powerful kingdom which arose out of a sustained opposition to Mughal rule.

Shivaji (1627-1680): He carved out a stable kingdom with the support of powerful warrior families (deshmukhs). The backbone of the Maratha army was the groups of highly mobile, peasant-pastoralists (kunbis). He used these forces to challenge the Mughals in India. After his death, effective power in the Maratha state were wielded by a family of Chitpavan Brahamanas who served his successors as Peshwa (or principal minister). Poona became Maratha kingdom’s capita

Answer 2

Alongside endless military campaigns, the Marathas developed an effective administrative system as well-:

• The Maratha administrative system was mostly based on land and commercial-based administration and it kept evolving till the time when under the rulership of Peshwas, it was made a centralised system.
• What kept the administration going was the motives of profit maximization and collection of taxes. Basically, this system prevailed under the leadership of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. He was inspired by Chanakya and made certain innovations to the policies.
• The system included people who were highly skilled, efficient and competent. They played the role of middlemen between the subordinates and the central government.
• The administrators were given full rights to manage their respective territories. It was a system which took into consideration the merits and qualifications for assigning the work to officers.
• The Vidhan who was the administrator, and Aghad-Mahal were the judicial executives, local chiefs were known as Vidarbha and local government was termed as Machhayya.
• The land tax varied from village to village according to their socio-economic status.

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