Mahar military service under Shivaji then defection to the British secured them comparative advantages

Evidence

The Mahars were considered Untouchables and, though they were landless agricultural labourers, they were comparatively better off than the other Untouchable castes. In the seventeenth century, they served in the army of Shivaji, the Maratha king of western India. After Shivaji’s death, they served the Peshwas, an oppressive Brahminical regime that treated them horribly. (It was the Peshwas who forced Mahars to hang pots around their necks and tie brooms to their hips.) Unwilling to enter into a ‘trusteeship’ of this sort, the Mahars shifted their loyalty to the British. In 1818, in the Battle of Koregaon, a small British regiment of Mahar soldiers defeated the massive army of the last Peshwa ruler, Bajirao II. The British subsequently raised a Mahar Regiment, which is still part of the Indian Army. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 291

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s caste-annihilation focus: shows how Mahar historical grievances against Brahminical Peshwa rule prefigure Ambedkar’s politics.