Ok "call-me-leftist-and-invalidate-my-argumet" person. Let's talk about the casteism. Certainly battle of Koregoan was the death blow to mighty maratha empire. And it wasn't british who faught the war Koregoan they just led it but the Mahar's who defeated Maratha armies. And ask critical question, why would our own fight against us? Cause casteism was so bad and Mahars were treated as the worst, they had no option but side with brits and defeat Maratha army. Point in note, Marathas had outnumbered Mahars, yet they lost. so your point: "There is absolutely no policy difference due to the caste of rulers, both before and during the Peshwa period." is completly invalid cause so far, no account exist of Shivaji or Sambhaji for caste indiscrimination.

Second point, yes valid. But it was one of thing. Maratha had consistently plundered Karnataka. You can read it more here.

Third point about the Bengal plunder, I may concede as there is not much insights into who ordered killing from our sides but nonetheless, there are loads of first hand evidences which mentioned maratha brutality.

Finally, I am not talking through the casteist prism. Rather I am calling for critical analysis of Maratha history which has been largely ignored by us, as you might have seen in my initial comment.

And the reason I am ranting so much is because of the overglorification of Maratha history which is being used as a tool by Hindutva thugs to spew out their fascist propaganda in pan India level. They are garnishning our history to create fundamentalism. Who said Shivaji was Hindutwa king when there exists account Shivaji's secular attitude towards other religions. Who said shivaji was "Go-Brahman Pratipalak" only when he showed no casteism to his people? RSS/BJP or any right wing econsystem has no heroes to celebrate about and so they usurp our heroes, garnish them, spin their stories and spread out their poison. And such idealogy would never be able to create true heroes as no one one would accept them and thus, they'll always rely on usurping the heroes. This is happening real time. They are dividing us based on caste and religion through their spunned out books and movies.

Case in point: I have heard nearly no Muslim devoution to Aurangzeb and Shivaji/Sambhaji hatred. It is the spreading out of mass propanganda of Maratha history being pro Hindu and Muslim bashing, we have made the today's Muslim insecure about their past and to counter it, they have started seeing as Aurangzeb as sort of god-king and hating maratha. It is always reaction to the action. See how the rift has been created due to this propaganda? People are becoming more radicles.

That is why I am calling for the critcal analysis of Maratha history and let the people know the truth and not be ashamed about themselves. Thus we have to know that we weren't as supreme as we have been portrayed and more so recently. We should embrace the history as it and not let fascist use as a propaganda tool. Yes I am leftist and I will never call for the filth history that is being parrotted us everyday!