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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Critically examine the political, military and administrative factors that led to the transformation of the Maratha character in the 18th century. How did these changes influence its rise and eventual decline?

  • UPSC 2025
  • The Eighteenth Century

The Maratha polity that emerged after Shivaji's death was not a static entity but underwent a fundamental character transformation across the eighteenth century — from a centralized regional kingdom into an expansionist pan-Indian power, and finally into a loose confederacy whose internal contradictions proved fatal.

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What the full answer covers

  • Phase I: The Centralized Foundations (Pre-1713)
  • Political and Administrative Character
  • Military Character
  • Phase II: Transformation under the Peshwas — Expansion Beyond Swarajya
  • Political Transformation: The Peshwa Ascendant
  • Administrative Transformation: Extraction without Institutionalisation
  • …and 4 more sections, with a conclusion

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