ગુજરાતી
English
4 September 2024
Courtesy BBC. (Google translation from Gujarati)
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had recently said, “Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj did not loot Surat, but Congress has taught such false history.”
After this statement of Devendra Fadnavis, there is a discussion whether Shivaji Maharaj really looted Surat?
History mentions that Shivaji Maharaj looted Surat twice
History mentions that Shivaji Maharaj looted Surat in Gujarat twice. ‘Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’ written by historian V.C. Bendre and ‘Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’ written by Krishnarao Arjun Keluskar in 1906 and Shivacharitra written by Jadunath Sarkar in the period from 1919 to 1952 give detailed information about the robbery of Surat.
It is briefly presented as follows.
Shivaji Maharaj looted Surat in 1664 against the backdrop of Shahist Khan’s looting and atrocities in Pune.
Shahist Khan, a Mughal chieftain and Aurangzeb’s maternal uncle, ruled Maharashtra for three years. Due to this, the economic condition of the Maratha Empire became fragile.
Shivaji himself cut off Shahist Khan’s fingers in the Lal Mahal and expelled him from Pune. After this, he took immediate steps to improve the economic condition of the state.
Surat, located 325 km from the capital Rajgarh, was the economic center and major commercial port of South Gujarat. Shivaji Maharaj decided to loot it.
It was also to get money. He wanted to collect as much money as possible in four days. He wanted to leave as soon as possible with the looted goods.
Center of global trade
Thomas Roe wrote a letter to Jahangir Badshah in Agra Darbar requesting him to protect our Surat warehouse.
At that time, Surat’s business was not only in India but also in Europe, Africa and Middle East countries. The Mughals received crores of rupees from trade tax. Surat was fortified by 5,000 soldiers.
Shivaji Maharaj asked his intelligence chief Bahirji Naik to keep a close watch on Surat. Bahirji’s informer named Raghoji inspected Surat for about three months and collected detailed information.
Out of 5,000 Mughal soldiers in Surat, only 1,000 were warriors. Bahirji suggested to Shivaji that we should attack before additional troops are received. Accordingly, a brave army of 8,000 Marathas advanced rapidly and reached Gandevi village near Surat on 5 January 1664.
The Mughals sent a message to Surat’s Subedar Inayat Khan through their Vakil that “Inayat Khan and the leading merchants of Surat will have to arrange for as much ransom as Maharaj will demand.” Otherwise, if Surat turns ugly, it will not be our responsibility.
After entering the city, the Marathas built outposts at various places. The Mughal soldiers attacked the port of Surat and set fire to its forts so that they could not resist the arrival from the sea. The Marathas did not touch the European settlements, forts or arsenals. The main objective of the Marathas was to loot Surat and they did not want to fight them without reason. So they also did not fight with the Marathas.
The Marathas collected wealth from the city amid tight security. The treasury of the Mughal thanedars and revenue offices became empty. The Portuguese did not have enough soldiers to protect themselves. Seeing this, the Marathas also took their treasury. For three consecutive days, the Maratha soldiers collected a lot of wealth from the havelis of the Hindu merchants and Hindu moneylenders of Surat.
This included merchants like Virji Vora, Haji Zahid Beg and Haji Kasam. Mohandas Parekh was working in the East India Company in Surat at that time. He was charitable and helped people. The property of religious missionaries was also not damaged.
French traveller Francois Bernier wrote in his book, “The Marathas respected the building of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchins of Reverend Father Ambrose. Shivaji Maharaj ordered not to attack the French priests as they are good people.
Meanwhile, Inayat Khan sent his lawyer to negotiate with the Marathas. The lawyer who came to meet him attacked Shivaji Maharaj directly. So Shivaji’s bodyguards killed the lawyer.
After this, the angry Marathas killed four prisoners and cut off the hands of 24 prisoners. Then the Marathas rushed towards Rajgarh with all the treasures of Surat before more troops arrived. V. mentions that Shivaji used the treasures of Surat in C. Bendre’s book.
Second loot of Surat after liberation from Agra
Six years after the first loot of Surat, i.e. on 3 October 1670, Shivaji Maharaj raided Surat for the second time. A large amount of money was brought from Surat to restore the economic condition. The reason for this was the liberation of Shivaji from the Mughal fort of Agra. Mirzaraj sent Jai Singh to attack the Maratha Empire.
Since Jai Singh came with a huge army, Shivaji Maharaj had to enter into a treaty with him. In that famous treaty of Purandar, Shivaji Maharaj had to give 23 forts and four lakh rupees as ransom. After this he had to go to Agra to meet Aurangzeb.
After being insulted in the court, he had to live under house arrest. Shivaji Maharaj’s escape from that imprisonment is known in history. To compensate for the loss, it was decided to loot Surat again.
Surat was attacked for the second time. This attack was on the Subedar of Surat.
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Gottari was informed, but he did not think that the weakened Marathas would attack again.
However, the British President there, Gerold Angier, focused on the Swale port located across the river. The Mughal Subedar remained sitting with only 300 soldiers. On October 2, 1670, an army of 15,000 Marathas attacked the Surat border.
Shivaji sent a message to the Subedar, “The conduct of your rulers forces me to maintain a large army. Money is needed to feed that army. Therefore the Mughals should give me a fourth of their wealth.”
At that time in Swarajya, the area protected from the attack of the king was given one fourth part. It was called Choth. Chhatrapati Shivaji also demanded the same.
On not getting any reply to that message, the Marathas entered Surat on October 3. He looted Surat for three days. He looted money, gold, diamonds and jewels from big merchants and the rich without oppressing the common people.
Religious, good people were also excluded from the loot. The Marathas got treasure worth 80 lakhs from the first loot of Surat, while Rs 66 lakhs were seized from the second loot.
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It has been mentioned as ‘loot’ in many texts
History scholar Sanjay Sonavani has written a 650-page novel ‘Raghoji Ani Loont Surtechi’ based on this incident. It has all these heart-touching descriptions. Sonavani says, it is a novel, but since it is based on historical facts, care has been taken not to push the history anywhere.
According to Devendra Fadnavis, “The word loot was made popular by the Congress.” In this regard, Sanjay Sonwani told BBC, “The same word is also in the correspondence of that time, in the court documents of Shivaji’s time.” Foreign historians have also termed this incident as ‘dacoity’. Not only this, the author of the book named Shivrajbhushan and the famous poet of Shivaji’s time has also described this incident as ‘dacoity’ in his poem. The whole of Surat kept burning for many days. Historian Indrajit Sawant says, “After the loot of Surat, the British there kept correspondence with England. The word loot has been clearly used in this. An English officer named Escalate has described in front of Chhatrapati Shivaji the innumerable piles of wealth kept in his tent. Sabhasad Bakhar, historian Jadunath Sarkar, Gajanan Mehendale, Babasaheb Purandare etc. have written in detail about this incident. At that time, raids, looting, extortion, etc. were done in enemy areas. All the kings used to do this in each other’s area.
In the Middle Ages, Gujarat was ruled by the Marathas. Sardar Damaji Gaekwad, Damaji Thorat, etc. had influence in Gujarat. Shivaji was ruled in Gujarat by them.
The British kept a close watch on Shivaji’s activities. So the news of the second robbery of Surat was published in the British government’s newspaper ‘London Gazette’.
It is mentioned in it that after that incident, the British as well as the Mughals were scared.
Most historians are of the opinion that Surat was looted by Shivaji. The growing influence of the Marathas in the whole country brought great benefits.
Historian V.C. Bendre has explained in detail in his Shivacharitra.
The financial loss incurred was compensated. Courtesy BBC. (Google translation from Gujarati)
