⚔️ Celebrating 350 Years Since Shivaji Maharaj's Coronation ⚔️

Dear reader,

When Shivaji Maharaj was crowned the Chhatrapati in June 1674, historians say that no one living had memory of a Hindu coronation.

Indeed, it was taken as natural that the ultimate political authority, Mughal, or of the Deccan Sultanates, would be Islamic. Valiant and brave Hindus could be high-ranking courtiers and jagirdars and mansabdars, but they could not be king. At best, the state was indifferent to Hindus. At worst, it harassed them.

In the centuries preceding Shivaji Maharaj, various intellectual responses to Islamic colonisation had emerged. Many heroic military victories had also been won. But it was only Shivaji who combined the intellectual with the material and established a robust Hindu state in the teeth of Islamic imperialism.

Indeed, one can say that India’s freedom struggle didn’t begin in the 19th Century but in the 17th. With his Hindavi Swarajya, Shivaji Maharaj was ‘decolonising’ his people a full two centuries before the first recorded usage of the word “decolonisation”.

And this month, at Swarajya, we are celebrating 350 years of Swarajya.

We have brought out a special issue to commemorate three-and-half-centuries since Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s coronation.

If you want your copy, click here. For 490 Rupees, we will send you the special print issue FREE along with a 6-month, uninterrupted digital access to Swarajya and its digital app.

There is no better time than now to get this limited edition print issue - Swarajya is celebrating Swarajya.

Don’t miss out on this special number. Subscribe and get your copy by clicking here.

Thank you,

Team Swarajya