Wednesday, January 24, 2018

200 years of Mhow: The Battle of Mahidpur and the Treaty of Mandsaur

Dec 21 2017 was the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Mahidpur (Third Anglo Maratha War) in which the Holkar Army led by their young king Malhar Rao Holkar II lost to the East India Company Army led by Sir Thomas Hislop and Major General John Malcolm.

On 6 January 1818 the Treaty of Mandsaur was signed by Sir John Malcolm on behalf of the East India Company and Minister Tatya Jog on behalf of the ruler Malhar Rao Holkar II. Article 7 of this treaty led to the creation of Mhow Cantonment. This is how it reads: Article 7. In consideration of the cessions made by this Treaty, the British Government binds itself to support a field force to maintain the internal tranquility of the territories of Mulhar Rao Holkar and to defend them from foreign enemies; this force shall be of such strength as shall be judged adequate to the object. It shall be stationed where the British Government determines to be best, and (In; Maharajah Mulhar Rao Holkar agrees to grant some place of security as a depot for its stores. (Source: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Mandsaur) 

This is how the Wikipedia entry on the same battle reads:

The Battle of Mahidpur was fought during the Third Anglo-Maratha Warbetween the Holkar faction of the Maratha Confederacy and the British East India Company at Mahidpur, a town in the Malwa region, on 21 December 1817.
On 21 December 1817, the British, led by Sir Thomas Hislop, attacked the Holkar army led by 11-year-old Maharaja Malhar Rao Holkar II, 22-year-old Hari Rao Holkar and 20-year-old Bhima Bai Holkar. The Holkar artillery, led by Roshan Beg, attacked them with a long line of 63 cannons. At one point, the British were on the verge of losing the battle. However, they were helped by Gafur Khan, a traitor in the Holkar's camp. Khan deserted the battlefield with the force under his command. After this, the Holkars were decisively defeated.[1]
Malhar Rao II, Tatya Jog and others escaped to Alot.[1] A peace treaty was signed on 6 January 1818 at Mandsaur. Holkars accepted all the terms laid down by Britishers in the Treaty of Mandsaur. At the conclusion of this Third Anglo-Maratha War, the Holkars lost much of their territory to the British and were incorporated into the British Raj as a princely state of the Central India Agency.
This battle led to the final destruction of Maratha power. Baji Rao II, who was trying to consolidate Marathas, finally surrendered in June 1818. British abolished the position of Peshwa, and Marathas were limited to the small kingdom of Satarauntil its annexation to Bombay state in 1848.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mahidpur

A metre gauge train journey which cannot be done any more...

The metre gauge line is functioning between Mhow and Sanawad. A small part of the long journeys it used to traverse till some years ago. On Aug 15 2016 a small group of train enthusiasts took a train journey on this route from Akola to Mhow. Though this was not so long ago it was from a different era if one were to look at it in a 'rail' sense. The railway station still had the old name 'Mhow.'
Soon only memories will remain.

Here is the link and the description as given by Pawan Koppa

On Independence day 2016, we undertook one final journey on the Akola - Mhow Passenger powered by Mhow's YDM-4 #6719. The line was going to be truncated soon to a small portion which remains today : Mhow - Sanawad. My last trip on this line was in 2010 between Akola and Indore. I was raring to do it again and I got one last chance to do it along with Jayasankar Madhavadas, Aditya S Nivarthi and Rajeev Nair. It was one unforgettable journey which will be remembered by us always - from the rustic rural greens to the lovely samosas at Akot, the Dhulghat Spiral, the banker attachement at Kalakund and climbing up the ghats between Kalakund and Patalpani - this was one unforgettable trip! Presenting you a small snapshot of the MG journey omboard the 52974 Akola - Mhow Passenger


Click here to see the video

And for lovers of the Kalakund to Patalpani ghat section there's quite a lot of stuff here.