The Mahars switched allegiance from Maratha rulers to the British Army.

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. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 291

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader theme of how colonized subjects used imperial armies as escape routes from local caste oppression — parallels other subaltern histories of the Indian army.