Ibrahim Gardi

In our childhood, in seventh standard Hindi textbook, we had read a story about slaughtering of a man named Ibrahim Gardi (इब्राहिम गार्दी). Today on the day of 26th January I made a google search for the man who had so much of love for his motherland . . . actually its the story of the third war of Panipat . . . and here are the informations . . .


Ibrahim Khan "Gardi" was a 18th century Dakhani (Dakhni (Urdu: دکنی ;Hindi: दक्खिनी dakkʰinī), also known as Dakkhani, Deccani (Urdu: دکنی), is a dialect of the Urdu language,spoken in the Deccan region of southern India) Muslim general whose forefathers were from some Bhil or allied tribe living in the Deccan or peninsular India and may have embraced Islam during Aurangzeb's military campaign in the Deccan. He was soldier of fortune who commanded a force of 10,000 men, infantry and artillery, under the leadership of the Marathas.


The Gardi community is a group of sub castes such as Bhils, Laman, Vanzara, Pardhi, Mahadeo Koli, Masan Jogi and other Maratha subcastes living in the Deccan between Burhanpur on banks of Tapi up to Hyderabad in Telangana region. Some castes in the Pardhi especially takankar community of Burhanpur worship Ibrahim Khan Gardi as well as Suleiman Khan Gardi in their rituals & ballads. Their forefathers, the Gardhis, were essentially musketeers serving as personal guards of the Peshwas with an extreme sense of loyalty to their masters. The same trend continues with the Pardhi community.


Trained to the French discipline as commandant de la qarde to Bussy, Ibrahim Gardi bore the title, or nickname, of "Khan," a souvenir of his professional origin or title. Originally part of the Hyderabad Nizam's army, consisting of a number of Telegusor telangis. His troops' military prowess and artillery tactics were considered a great advantage in various campaigns. Captured in the Third Battle of Panipat, he is alleged to have been tortured horribly before his death by his Afghan captors. His extreme sense of loyalty to his master Sadashivrao Bhau even when some of the Maratha generals deserted Sadashivraobhau's army during the thick of battle and escaped unhurt to their Jahagirs in Deccan, Ibrahim Khan Gardi fought to his end and was captured only when all his famed Maratha Gardi musketeers laid down their lives, one by one, or simply vanished during the night of 14 January 1761 when darkness fell on the battlefield. Some of Ibrahim Khan Gardi's artillery detachment with infantry and musketeers kept on fighting while defending their positions until sunset to escape in the darkness of night. To this date, some of the Pardhi communities' folklore have various songs in praise of Ibrahim Khan Gardi as well as Suleiman Khan Gardhi.

The battle pitted the French-supplied artillery and cavalry of the Marathas against the heavy cavalry and mounted artillery (zamburak and jizail) of the Afghans led by Ahmad Shah Durrani, an ethnic Pashtun, also known as Ahmad Shah Abdali. The battle is considered one of the largest battles fought in the 18th century.


The Marathas, under the command of Sadashivrao Bhau, responded by gathering an army of between 70,000-100,000 people with which they ransacked the Mughal capital of Delhi. There followed a series of skirmishes along the banks of the river Yamuna at Karnal and Kunjpura which eventually turned into a two-month-long siege led by Abdali against the Marathas.

“ Lahore, Multan, Kashmir and other subahs on this side of Attack under our rule for the most part, and places which have not come under our rule we shall soon bring under us. Ahmad Khan Abdali's son Taimur Sultan and Jahan Khan have been pursued by our troops, and their troops completely looted. Both of them have now reached Peshawar with a few broken troops...we have decided to extend our rule up to Kandahar.
-- Raghoba's letter to the Peshwa, 4 May 1758

Ahmad Shah Durrani (Ahmad Shah Abdali) angered by the news from his son and his allies was unwilling to allow the Marathas spread go unchecked. By the end of 1759, Abdali with his Afghan (Pashtun) tribes, and his Rohilla ally Najib Khan had reached Lahore as well as Delhi and defeated the smaller enemy garrisons. Ahmed Shah, at this point, withdrew his army to Anupshahr, on the frontier of the Rohilla country, where he successfully (convinced?) arrested the Nawab of Oudh Shuja-ud-Daula to join his alliance against the Marathas!
Marathas time and again had been helping and showing sympathy towards Shuja-ud-daula. The Marathas had helped Safdarjung (father of Shuja) in defeating Rohillas in Farrukhabad. The Nawab’s mother was of the opinion that he should join the Marathas.

Shuja was very much ill-treated in the Abdali camp. Abdali was a Sunni Muslim and Shuja was a Shia Muslim !!!!


The Marathas under Sadashivrao Bhau (referred to as the Bhau or Bhao) responded to the news of the Afghans' return to North India by raising a big army, and they marched North. Bhau's force was bolstered by some Maratha forces under Holkar, Scindia, Gaikwad and Govind Pant Bundela. Suraj Mal of Bharatpur also had joined Bhausaheb but then left midway. This combined army of over 100,000 regular troops captured the Mughal capital, Delhi, from an Afghan garrison in December 1759. As Delhi was reduced to ashes due to many invasions and there being acute shortage of supplies in the Maratha camp, Bhau ordered the sacking of the already depopulated city. He sold the silver blocks of red fort (!) to pay the army! He is said to have planned to place his nephew and the Peshwa's son, Vishwasrao, on the Mughal throne. The Jats did not support the Marathas. Their withdrawal from the ensuing battle was to play a crucial role in its result. The Sikhs, did not support either side and decided to sitback and see what would happen. The exception was Ala Singh of Patiala (controversial), who sided with the afghans and was actually being granted and crowned the first Sikh Maharajah at the Sikh holy temple which was commissioned through land grant by Mughal emperor Akbar.


The battle lasted for several days and involved over 125,000 men.



The detail is interesting but you may not like it. Few interesting facts are -

Govind Pant Bundela, with 10,000 light cavalry who weren’t formally trained as soldiers was on a foraging mission. He was surprised when he was with about 500 of his men and slain by an Afghan force near Meerut.


With supplies and stores dwindling, tensions also rose in the Maratha camp as the mercenaries in the Maratha army were complaining of lack of pay. Initially the Marathas then moved in almost 150 pieces of modern long-range French-made artillery. With a range of several kilometres, these guns were some of the best of the times. Their plan was to lure the Afghan army to confront them while they had close artillery support.


However, Bhausaheb sheltered and let go 4,000 injured Rohillas who were taken as prisoners by the Marathas in their win in Kunjpura.

In the final phase of the war, Abdali had given a part of his army the task to surround and kill the Gardis under Ibrahim Gardi, who were at the leftmost part of the Maratha army. Bhausaheb had ordered Vitthal Vinchurkar (with 1500 cavalry) and Damaji Gaikwad (with 2500 cavalry) to protect the Gardi’s. But seeing the Gardi’s fight, they lost their patience, became over enthusiastic and decided to fight the Rohillas themselves. Thus, they broke the round (circle) i.e. they didn’t follow the idea of round battle and went all out on the Rohillas and the Rohillas then started accurately shooting the rifleless Maratha cavalry which was equipped with swords. This gave opportunity to the Rohillas to encircle the Gardis and outflank the Maratha centre while, Shah Wali pressed on attacking the front. Thus, the Gardis were left defenceless and started falling down one by one.



His extreme sense of loyalty to his master Sadashivrao Bhau even when some of the Maratha generals deserted Sadashivraobhau's army during the thick of battle and escaped unhurt to their Jahagirs in Deccan, Ibrahim Khan Gardi fought to his end and was captured only when all his famed Maratha Gardi musketeers laid down their lives, one by one, or simply vanished during the night of 14 January 1761 when darkness fell on the battlefield. Some of Ibrahim Khan Gardi's artillery detachment with infantry and musketeers kept on fighting while defending their positions until sunset to escape in the darkness of night. To this date, some of the Pardhi communities' folklore have various songs in praise of Ibrahim Khan Gardi as well as Suleiman Khan Gardhi.



Ibrahim Khan Gardi was tortured and executed at the hands of enraged Afghan soldiers. They were unhappy over his French and Hindu connections . . .

On this day . . . I remember the patriot - the sign of our nationalism and secular living . . .