The Anglo-Maratha campaigns and the contest for India : the struggle for control of the South Asian military economy
"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 campaign. 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."--Jacket
xvii, 437 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780521824446, 0521824443
52178625
Maratha military culture
British perceptions and the road to war in 1803
The Deccan campaign of 1803
The Hindustan campaign of 1803
'Coming in'
The anatomy of victory