Guerrilla warfare is basically used by smaller armies to fight larger and less mobile armies. This type of war has a long history. In fact, already in the year 500 a. You can find references to guerrilla warfare in Roman history around 100 BC, where the Lusitanian and Viriatus fought an impossible battle against the mighty Roman Empire and achieved great victories. The insurgencies against the established government used mainly guerrilla warfare techniques to counteract inequalities. The most recent and well-known example of a successful guerrilla war is that of the Vietcong making life difficult for the mighty US military for several years. They are said to have been inspired by a Maratha king named Shivaji Bhosale who ruled western Maharashtra in the 17th century.
Shivaji Bhosale was born in 1630 and ruled western Maharashtra for many years. He used these Guerrilla tactics to keep the mighty Mughal and other armies at bay during his lifetime. In fact, the Maratha warriors kept the Mughals away even after Shivaji’s death for several years. Aurangzeb was never able to win this small western Maharashtra state in its entirety, even after Shivaji’s death. Marathas kept Aurangzeb and his great army away by using guerrilla warfare techniques for more than 2 decades until the death of the Mughal emperor.
There were many tactics used by Shivaji for battle, such as the ones he used to spread rumors that he disappears into thin air or there are 5-6 Shivajis and they come out of nowhere to attack and ambush an army. His secret service man, Bahirji Naik, was primarily responsible for this. Here’s a story about these little forts that I heard from my mother, who was a former Indian history teacher. Shivaji had around 300 forts during his regime. Before he died, he said that if each of my forts fought for a year, it would take Aurangzeb 300 years to capture my kingdom. Some Maratha soldiers had a unique way of fighting the mighty Mughal. Mughal always carried with him a large army which, in addition to the army personnel, included his cooks, servants, etc. By using this powerful army, they would surround a mountain fort and cut off the food supply and then wait. So would the handful of soldiers in the fort. If someone tried to climb, he threw rocks and hot oil at them to discourage efforts. Now, when it was around May 25-26, the fort in charge would begin negotiations with the Mughal counterparts by sending a lawyer. He spent some time in discussions and finally, between June 3-4, the fort in charge would accept a defeat and demand the lives of the soldiers on top of the fort in exchange for the fort. The Mughal generals would be delighted with the victory and with the ease with which they captured the fort. Then they agreed.
Then, as agreed, the Maratha soldiers at the top of the fort would come down with a white cloth on a pole and the mighty Mughal army watched in awe that only a handful of people had kept them away for almost a year. When the Marathas left, it was time for the Mughal army to celebrate after scaling the fort. Whenever possible, they even carried their elephants with them. Around June 6, the monsoon reaches Konkan which is the western coastal area of Maharashtra and the rains would hit the forts hard. Now this great army that received its training on flat terrain had no idea how to survive in these conditions. The water entered their homes, food and everything. As a result, after a few days of fighting, they would be forced to go down and leave the fort. Maratha soldiers who saw all this up close would climb to the top of the fort again and be in command again in less than a week. These strategies used to fight the mighty armies of Aurangzeb were given a name. It was called ganimi kawa (guerilla warfare) in the local Marathi language.
Most historians who understand military tactics regard Shivaji as a genius in warfare. But he was more of a guerilla warfare genius and a brilliant tactician to begin with. He never got carried away by what Aurangzeb called him and did something silly. He was very aware of his strength and that was the terrain of the Sahyadri Mountain. If you visit the forts of Shivaji, you will realize why he could not be defeated at that time. Aurangzeb spent the last 27 years of his life here and died without a clear victory.
There are many guerilla warfare tactics that Shivaji used to achieve great victories and narrow escapes. This has made him a popular hero to the people of Maharashtra and among many Indians. He was the inventor of several of these tactics and the victories at Pratapgadh over Afzal Khan, against Shaista Khan and the brilliant tactical defeat of Rustam Zaman at Kolhapur are among several strategic warfare achievements credited to him. He once had to tactically surrender to a Mughal general, Mirzha Raje Jaising. He was later arrested by Aurangzeb, but how he escaped from Agra with his son Sambhaji is a proud story for the Marathas. It indicates the brilliance of his tactical and practical head as well as the obvious courage to carry out such operations.
After Shivaji’s death in 1680, the Marathas did not surrender to the Mughals and continued to fight despite lacking their true leader and several other heartbreaking events. Shivaji’s son Sambhaji and later Maratha generals Santaji Ghorpade and Dhanaji Jadhav kept flying the flag of Hindavi Swaraj (Hindu Independent State) for a long time. In fact, Santaji with a handful of men came to Aurangzeb’s tent one night and was unlucky enough to find the emperor there. So instead he took the top of his tent to let him know that they were there and that it was the head of the emperor that they were really looking for. All this was in the midst of many incidents of betrayals and painful defeats in some battles for the Marathas. Many people, even in India, think that the Maratha state was very small and therefore Shivaji’s achievements are not up to par. But that’s a really poor interpretation of the situation at the time. He was a very, very smart strategist, he was Shivaji. And with various brilliant arrangements, he and his army of common men held off the largest empire in this part of the world for decades. He never got mad at being called a rat and never got carried away trying to fight outdoor battles on flat terrain. That was probably the reason for its success. For the larger armies, fighting in the open was the advantage and he never got carried away and tried his hand at it. The guerilla warfare techniques he used were all original at that time and were designed for the war on Sahyadri Mountain. If you visit the mountains today to see the remnants of Shivaji’s empire, you will find that Aurangzeb and other invaders always fought for a lost cause.
