section_path: Legacy/Nineteenth century
section_name: Nineteenth century
paragraph_text: Nineteenth century
  
  In the mid–19th century, Marathi social reformer Jyotirao Phule wrote his interpretation of the Shivaji legend, portraying him as a hero of the shudras and dalits. Phule's 1869 ballad-form story of Shivaji was met with great hostility by the Brahmin-dominated media.
  
  In 1895, the Indian nationalist leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak organised what was to be an annual festival to mark the birthday of Shivaji. He portrayed Shivaji as the "opponent of the oppressor", with possible negative implications concerning the colonial government. Tilak denied any suggestion that his festival was anti-Muslim or disloyal to the government, but simply a celebration of a hero. These celebrations prompted a British commentator in 1906 to note: "Cannot the annals of the Hindu race point to a single hero whom even the tongue of slander will not dare call a chief of dacoits...?"
  
  One of the first commentators to reappraise the critical British view of Shivaji was M. G. Ranade, whose Rise of the Maratha Power (1900) declared Shivaji's achievements as the beginning of modern nation-building. Ranade criticised earlier British portrayals of Shivaji's state as "a freebooting power, which thrived by plunder and adventure, and succeeded only because it was the most cunning and adventurous... This is a very common feeling with the readers, who derive their knowledge of these events solely from the works of English historians."
  
  In 1919, Sarkar published the seminal Shivaji and His Times. Sarkar was able to read primary sources in Persian, Marathi, and Arabic, but was challenged for his criticism of the "chauvinism" of Marathi historians' views of Shivaji. Likewise, although supporters cheered his depiction of the killing of Afzal Khan as justified, they decried Sarkar's terming as "murder" the killing of the Hindu raja Chandrao More and his clan.
  
  In 1937, Dennis Kincaid, a British civil servant in India, published The Grand Rebel. This book portrays Shivaji as a heroic rebel and a master strategist fighting a much larger Mughal army.
  
  In the mid–19th century, Marathi social reformer Jyotirao Phule wrote his interpretation of the Shivaji legend, portraying him as a hero of the shudras and dalits. Phule's 1869 ballad-form story of Shivaji was met with great hostility by the Brahmin-dominated media.
  
  In 1895, the Indian nationalist leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak organised what was to be an annual festival to mark the birthday of Shivaji. He portrayed Shivaji as the "opponent of the oppressor", with possible negative implications concerning the colonial government. Tilak denied any suggestion that his festival was anti-Muslim or disloyal to the government, but simply a celebration of a hero. These celebrations prompted a British commentator in 1906 to note: "Cannot the annals of the Hindu race point to a single hero whom even the tongue of slander will not dare call a chief of dacoits...?"
  
  One of the first commentators to reappraise the critical British view of Shivaji was M. G. Ranade, whose Rise of the Maratha Power (1900) declared Shivaji's achievements as the beginning of modern nation-building. Ranade criticised earlier British portrayals of Shivaji's state as "a freebooting power, which thrived by plunder and adventure, and succeeded only because it was the most cunning and adventurous... This is a very common feeling with the readers, who derive their knowledge of these events solely from the works of English historians."
  
  In 1919, Sarkar published the seminal Shivaji and His Times. Sarkar was able to read primary sources in Persian, Marathi, and Arabic, but was challenged for his criticism of the "chauvinism" of Marathi historians' views of Shivaji. Likewise, although supporters cheered his depiction of the killing of Afzal Khan as justified, they decried Sarkar's terming as "murder" the killing of the Hindu raja Chandrao More and his clan.
  
  In 1937, Dennis Kincaid, a British civil servant in India, published The Grand Rebel. This book portrays Shivaji as a heroic rebel and a master strategist fighting a much larger Mughal army.