The Anglo-Maratha Campaigns and the Contest for India: The Struggle for Control of the South Asian Military Economy

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Cambridge University Press, 2003 - Business & Economics - 437 pages
This is a cross-cultural study of the political economy of war in South Asia. Randolf G. S. Cooper combines an overview of Maratha military culture with a battle-by-battle analysis of the 1803 Anglo-Maratha Campaigns. Building on that foundation he challenges ethnocentric assumptions about British superiority in discipline, drill and technology. He argues that these campaigns, in which Arthur Wellesley served with distinction, represent the military high-water mark of the Marathas who posed the last serious opposition to the formation of the British Raj. Dr Cooper asserts that the real contest for India was never a single decisive battle for the subcontinent. Rather it turned on a complex social and political struggle for control of the South Asian military economy. The author shows that victory in 1803 hinged as much on finance, diplomacy, politics and intelligence as it did on battlefield manoeuvre and war itself.
 

Contents

Maratha military culture
15
British perceptions and the road to war in 1803
62
The Deccan Campaign of 1803
82
The Hindustan Campaign of 1803
141
Coming in
213
The anatomy of victory
284
the Hindustan and Deccan Campaigns 1803
315
Glossary
335
Bibliography
411
Index
430
Copyright

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About the author (2003)

Randolf G. S. Cooper is a Visiting Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge.

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