Raja Shivaji and First Sack of Surat.

Dear Readers,

Topic of today's discussion is why Shivaji Raja attacked Surat town. And the reason to choose this is subject is that, there is still some sect of historians or even few common people who still believe that Shivaji was a "Plunderer" and they use episode of "Sack of Surat by Shivaji" to support their stand. Before we reach to any such conclusion, it is essential to a go deeper into it and have a broader view. And we will be doing that in this post.

 In order to achieve it, we will break this topic into three sections: 1 - What Shivaji Raja was trying to achieve...His ultimate goal. 2 - What happened before 1st sack of Surat and 3 - Was Shivaji Raja the only one of its kind who carried out such kind of attacks.

• What Shivaji Raja was trying to achieve...His ultimate goal.

It is now clear from many a documents what Shivaji Raja was upto. What does it actually meant when he said "हे राज्य व्हावे हि तो श्रींची इच्छा". and there is no reason why we should be doubting his intentions.
Shivaji wanted a kingdom which will be just and secular in nature and no particular religion to be under treated. And to create a kingdom or Swarajya in the era where there are already established, powerful kingdom was not an easy task. Creating a kingdom directly equates to wars, maintaining professional army, cultivation of land, building new and maintaining existing forts etc. and what all one can think which is required to run a country. And all this could not have been achieved without money. No ruler would have given even a piece a of land by his own will to someone to establish the empire. Taking it by Force was the only option.

• What happened before 1st sack of Surat.

Shaistakhan and his (Mogul) troops were in Shivajis kingdom from more than 3 years and because of this massive damage was done (including Economic). All the land revenue which use to go in in Empire treasury was stopped for these three years, so it was difficult to maintain salaries of the army, defense budget had gone for a toss and even maintaining the other infrastructure became big challenge. Before going any further, just for the readers who may not be knowing, Surat was under the control of Mogul Empire.

• Was Shivaji Raja the only one of its kind who carried out such kind of attacks.

It is essential to discuss this topic to understand was such kind of attacks an unusual practice back then or was Shivaji the one who invented this. Lets have a look -

1. India and China has witnessed one of the first civilizations know to the mankind and because of this, India came under attack from other established empires, troop of wanderers like Greece, Shaks, Huns, Persia, Mogul etc. "The Great Wall of China" was built to prevent constant attacks from "Huns".
2. The Emperor of Persia, Darius I has attacked and plundered the city state of Greece like Athens, Sparta etc. around 330 B.C. in a want of expansion of Persian Empire.
3. After the death of Phillip II of Macedon, his son "Alexander" has attacked and looted Persia and declared himself as a king of Persia.
4. He continued his expedition and attacked Punjab, defeated King Porus. It is needless to mention that "attack" also include plundering of the region as well.
5. In the year 1656, Aurangazeb who was viceroy of the Deccan then has raided the wealthy city of Hyderabad which was under the Govalconda. It was one of the richest city back then and this is one of the reason Aurangazeb wanted to loot it. Akil Khan who was officer at Aurangazeb's court wrote - "Most of the valuable documents and precious things like Gold, Diamonds etc and massive portion of wealth of Kutub-Ul-Mulk has been looted by Shahjada Muhammad Sultan (Son of Aurangazeb) and very rare collection of other valuable has been taken away by Aurangazeb in this raid.
6. In 1657, Aurangazeb looted Bidar which was under Adilshahi where he got 12 L rupees cash, ammunition worth rupees 8L.
7. Mohommad Gazni looted India 17 times in 21 years of  his tenure. He not only looted Gold, silver, etc but he also enslaved Women and sold them in Middle East.
8. Alberuni, a writer during Ghazni's time wrote " Mahmud of Ghazni" has completely destroyed the prosperity of India.

By law of equality of justice shouldn't we be calling all these leaders/rulers as plunderers? If not then, tag of Plunderer should be removed from Shivaji's character.