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Guerrilla warfare is used basically by smaller armies to fight against larger and lesser mobile armies. This kind of warfare has a long history. In fact, as far back as 500 BC. You can find references to Guerrilla war in Roman history around 100 BC where Lusitanian and Viriatus fought an impossible battle against the mighty Roman Empire and achieved great victories. Insurgencies against the established government mostly used Guerrilla warfare techniques to counter the uneven odds. The most recent and well-known example of successful guerrilla warfare is that of Vietcong making life difficult for the mighty US army for several years. It is said that they took inspiration from a Maratha king called Shivaji Bhosale who ruled in the 17th century in Western Maharashtra.
Shivaji Bhosale was born in 1630 and he ruled in Western Maharashtra for many years. He used these Guerrilla tactics to keep away the mighty Mughal and other armies during his lifetime. In fact, the Maratha warriors kept the Mughal away even after the death of Shivaji for several years. Aurangzeb could never win this small state of western Maharashtra in its entirety even after Shivaji’s death. Marathas kept Aurangzeb and his great army away by using the guerrilla warfare techniques for more than 2 decades until the death of the Mughal emperor.
There were many tactics used by Shivaji for the battle such as he used to spread rumors that he disappears in 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 mainly responsible for this. Here is a story about these small forts I heard from my mother who was an ancient Indian history teacher. Shivaji had around 300 forts during his regime. Before he passed away, he said that if each of my forts fought for one year, Aurangzeb will need 300 years to capture my kingdom. Some Maratha soldiers had a unique way to fight the mighty Mughal. Mughal always carried a huge army with them which apart from the army personnel included their cooks, servants etc. By using this mighty army they would surround a mountain fort and cut the food supply and then wait. So would the handful of soldiers on the fort. If somebody tried to climb up, they would throw stones and hot oil at them to dissuade the efforts. Now when it was around 25th-26th May, the fort in-charge would start negotiations with the Mughal counterparts by sending a lawyer in. Some time passed in the discussions and finally, by 3rd-4th June, the fort in-charge would agree to a defeat and would ask for lives of the soldiers on top of the fort in exchange for the fort. The Mughal generals would get ecstatic with the victory and at the ease with which they captured the fort. So they agreed.
So, as agreed, the Maratha soldiers on top of the fort would come down with a white cloth on a stick and the mighty Mughal army watched with awe because only a handful of people had kept them away for almost a year. As the Marathas left, it was celebration time for the Mughal army after climbing the fort. Wherever possible they even took their elephants on top. Around 6th of June, the monsoon arrives in Konkan which is the coastal area of Western Maharashtra and the rains would hit the forts with a vengeance. Now, this big army which received its training on plain grounds didn’t have a clue about how to survive in these conditions. Water entered their living quarters, food and everything. As a result, after a few days of struggle, they would be forced to come down and leave the fort. The Maratha soldiers watching all this from close by would climb back on top of the fort again and be back in charge in less than a week. There was a name given to these strategies used to fight the mighty armies of Aurangzeb. It was called ganimi kawa (Guerrilla warfare) in the local language Marathi.
Most historians who understand military tactics regard Shivaji as a genius in warfare. But he was more of a genius of Guerrilla warfare and a brilliant tactician to boot. He never got carried away by what Aurangzeb called him and did anything foolish. He was well aware of his strength and that was the terrain of Sahyadri Mountain. If you visit the Shivaji forts you will realize why he just could not be defeated at the time. Aurangzeb spent the last 27 years of his life here and died without a clear victory.
There are many Guerrilla warfare tactics Shivaji used to achieve several great victories and narrow escapes. This has made him a folk hero for Maharashtrians and among lots of Indians. He was the inventor of several of these tactics and 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 accredited to him. Once he had to make a tactical surrender to a Mughal general Mirzha Raje Jaising. He was later arrested by Aurangzeb but how he later escaped from Agra with his son Sambhaji is a story of pride for the Marathas. It indicates the brilliance of his tactical and practical head apart from the obvious courage to carry out such operations.
After Shivaji’s death in 1680, the Marathas did not give in to the Mughal and kept fighting despite lacking their true leader and several other heartbreaking events. Shivaji’s son Sambhaji and later the Maratha generals Santaji Ghorpade and Dhanaji Jadhav kept the flag of hindavi swaraj (Hindu Independent State) flying for a long time. In fact, Santaji with a handful of men one night reached the Aurangzeb tent and was unlucky to find the emperor there. So instead took the acme of his tent letting him know that they were there and it was the emperor’s head they were actually looking for. This was all in the middle of lots of incidences of treacheries and painful defeats in some battles for the Marathas. Many people, even in India think that the Maratha state was very small and so the achievements of Shivaji are not at par. But that is a really poor interpretation of the situation at the time. He was a very very clever strategist was Shivaji. And with several brilliant arrangements, he and his army of ordinary men kept the largest empire in this part of the world at bay for decades. He never got angry at being called a rat and never got carried away to try and fight battles in the open on plain grounds. That probably was the reason for his success. For the larger armies, fighting in the open was the advantage and he never ever got carried away and tried his hand out at that. The Guerrilla warfare techniques he used were all original at the time and were designed for warfare in Sahyadri Mountain. If you visit the mountains today to see the remnants of Shivaji’s empire, you will realize that Aurangzeb and other invaders were always fighting a losing cause.
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Source by Chirag Naiknavare