DAWN
In 1883, an Englishman, James Douglas pointed out in his Book of Bombay, that the Samadhi of Shivaji at Rajgarh, the capital of his kingdom, was being neglected and in a pathetic condition.
Douglas expressed his disappointment at the apathy of the Maratha people who seemed to have forgotten their hero and his memorial. This prompted Tilak, a prominent politician, to use the image of Shivaji for mobilization of Maharashtrian nationalism.
Consequently by 1900, Shivaji emerged as the hero of Maharashtra and a number of books were written eulogizing his achievements. Some historians raised his status from a local to a national hero.
Different groups owned him by interpreting his person according to their point of view. For example, the Dalit leader Mahatama Jotirao Phule proved that he was a shudra by caste who played an important role to carve an independent kingdom. On other hand; Eknath Annaji Joshi argued that he was a defender of the Hindu religion who revolted against the Muslim hegemony, struggled for freedom during the medieval period hence changing the course of Indian history.
Jadunath Sarkar in his book Shivaji and His Times argued that he should be recognized as a national hero because he was the man who had elevated the Marathas from the lowest status to a nation. In his opinion, without him there would have been no Maratha nation and its history.
In case of Shivaji, we could easily discern the process of myth making. From a caste hero he became defender of the Hindu faith and then converted to great national figure whose military expeditions shattered the Mughal Empire. Tilak started to celebrate Shivaji ‘s festival in 1896-97 and as a show of respect took his portrait with elaborate ceremony to Rajgarh where he spoke on the career of his hero justifying all his actions including the murder of Afzal Khan who was killed by Shivaji in violation of his promise. Tilak’s argument was that great men were above moral values and if they committed violence it should be accepted in the greater interest of society because their personal interest remained uninvolved.
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