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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

How will you view the Maratha policy of expansion? Delineate.

  • UPSC 2017
  • The Eighteenth Century

The Maratha drive from a Deccan principality under Shivaji to the most formidable pan-Indian power by mid-eighteenth century was neither pure state-building nor pure plunder, but a shifting blend of both.

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What the full answer covers

  • Shivaji's Foundational Model: Expansion Tied to Institution-Building
  • The Peshwa Era: From Regional Consolidation to All-India Ambition
  • The Fiscal Engine: Chauth and Sardeshmukhi
  • Reading the Policy: Builder of Empire or Predatory Confederacy?
  • Consequences and Limits

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