So what did Shivaji do in Surat? This is what history speaks about Marathas..
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Source:
The Oxford history of India, from the earliest times to the end of 1911
Are you trying to see reasoning and authenticity in bollywood movies?
This author seems to be really biased against Shivaji. It isn't surprising since Britishers always hated the Marathas. They showed a tendency to like Rajputs, Sikhs, Gurkhas, Jats, etc.
So the Surat raid happened but it was merely a response to Shaista Khan plundering Maratha territories.
This is a response I found on Quora on the reasons behind Shivaji plundering Surat:
"When all other Deccan rulers ( Adilshah of Vijapur, Nizams of Ahmadnagar, Kutubshah of Golconda, etc) were helpless against powerful invaders, Shivaji took upon them to save this land. During initial period, Shivaji was assumed to be a very lesser threat to Mughal.
However he acted very furiously against this invading army. Marathas taken over Junnar, a important location in Mughal territory with a massive massacre of Mughal army. This siege gave Marathas a stable full of high breed of war horses, gold and other precious metals and later on the Maratha army moved towards Ahmadnagar , the seat of Nizamshahi which was taken into control by Mughal , and further they ravaged the Mughal districts without mercy. They plundered Khandesh, the Deccan Mughal territory up to Aurangabad –it’s capital city, moved rapidly from place to place, and spread terror in all directions that made Muazzam , the viceroy of Deccan ( and son of Aurangjeb) very anxious .
It was a beginning of a new rivalry.
His constant and successful attacks against the Mughal territory made Aurangzeb so furious as many of the Mughal Generals indicated to him (to save their face due to consistent failure against Shivaji) that real threat to the Mughal Empire is that of Shivaji. He therefore appointed Shaista Khan, to succeed Muazzam as Viceroy of the Deccan and ordered him to punish Shivaji in any possible way. He marched from Aurangabad with a great force at the end of January 1660 and took the route by Ahmadnagar and Pedgaon to Pune. He established his hold on Pune. During his long stay at Pune, he has almost ruined the fertile land, plundered the entire Mawal region very badly. Cunningly, he didn’t want to move from Pune to avoid his posting on northern frontier by Aurangjeb and finally Shivaji himself made a daring attack on him at one night in which he somehow saved his life and ran away from Deccan.
Shaista khan was in Pune for more than three years fighting the Marathas and looted most of the part of Shivaji’s kingdom. Due to this long stayed and unwanted guest, the financial condition of the Maratha state was terrible. So to improve his finances, Shivaji planned to attack Surat, a key Mughal power centre, and a wealthy commercial centre which was used to generate more than a million rupees in taxes during that period.
Strategy and Planning:
Surat was selected because of its wealth and more commercial value due to the repute of international trade port compared to any other city in enemy’s territory. But this time, it was completely different from the sudden raids on Junnar or Ahmadnagar. It was a very well planned and perfectly executed raid. Possibly, a detail survey and scrutinized mapping of Surat was done by intelligence officers (Bahirji Naik and his team) for more than six months about arrangement for defense of the city, Capacity of its resident army and commanders, richest businessmen and agents, Foreigners (British, Portuguese, Dutch etc) and their warehouses, Christian missionaries-churches and other rich places and also about the generous and noble personalities of the city.
After the brief presentation by the intelligence team about the opulence and defense of the city, Shivaji decided on his plan of action.
But as the road to Surat was not straightforward but through Mughal territories and also the another main point was that, although Shaista Khan ran away from Pune but Jaswant Singh , his deputy was very much active in the region. Hence Marathas decided to create confusion in the minds of Mughal officers in the region. Thus Shivaji along with his army marched towards Cheul and Bhassin ( Portuguese area) in such way that there was a high-air rumor of raids on these places.
One of the regiment at this time was already encamped near Kalyan which spread the news about their march towards Janjira (a sea fort in Siddhi area).
Thus, these actions created a false atmosphere that Marathas had left behind the history of Shaista Khan incident and busy in their expedition in south.
But as soon as Jaswant Singh and his large patrolling army went back to Aurangabad, Shivaji started secretly from Cheul towards Surat and spread the news to divert attention that this convoy was going to Nashik for pilgrimage but the army marched straight towards Surat.
The remainder party at Bhassin ensured with regular drumming and blowing trumpets that everybody should believe on the rumors and none of Mughal Generals could notice what was happening under his nose.
The marching party was consisting of more than five thousand riders and as many unmanned horses (many riders with these horses joined later on the way) to carry the loot later on. King was leading the expedition himself accompanied by senior generals like Moropant Pingle, Prataprao Gujar and many others. The army marched incredibly fast towards Surat and camped a few miles away from city of Surat.
In Surat:
On the morning of January 05, 1664, the news came to Surat city about this unexpected visitor and citizens got the impression of coming storm and many of them started to flee from the city.
Mughal, British and other Merchant companies sent their agents to keep watch on Shivaji’s movement outside the city. However the vigilance of Marathas was such that all of them were captured.
Inayat Khan, was already in shock as he was unprepared for such situation with only thousand men in the service .He tried to play a trick on Shivaji. He sent his envoy (basically an assassin) to Shivaji for discussion. The Envoy
tried to attack Shivaji with a dragger but killed himself in the attack. The attack was so sudden that, for a moment Marathas felt that Shivaji was killed by the murderer.
This treachery made him very furious.
The King sent his messenger to the Governor of Surat , Inayat Khan about his intentions of this visit and asked him to come to the camp along with the delegation of Merchants of the city. The merchants summoned were, Virji Vohra (Probably the richest merchant in the world during that period with net worth close to 80 Million Rupees),Haji Sayyed Beg, Haji Sayyed Kasim ( both very reach merchants and agents of western merchants). The Demand was put to settle a ransom and failing to receive will have serious consequences like plundering the entire city.
Inayat Khan neither had gut to reply nor to fight with Marathas hence he only pretended to safeguard the city and secretly ran away to inner castle for shelter along with few richest people of the city. Entire city was left on mercy. With no answer for the demand, Marathas entered the city and their presence was felt immediately. The palaces of the rich people were taken over and raided deeply. Merchants and their workers were showing their hidden treasure because of the fear of death. The houses of all above mentioned businessmen and other rich citizens were looted for almost three days. A large number of precious metals and cash were taken out by Marathas. Main area (almost two third) of the city was set on fire. The plundering and burning was on for almost three –four days.
The loot was enormous to be worth millions in cash, jewelry, gold, silver, rubies, pearls and other precious metals. The loot was taken to Raigad to be used in building the fortune of a new nation.
Four prisoners were killed and twenty-four were laid off after cutting their hands as punishment. The way Inayat Khan sent an assassin , it could have been led to a massacre at Surat but Shivaji avoided such thing. (Mughal, wherever they went, they butchered people).
Who were safe (or spared):
Ordinary citizens of Surat were not attacked or looted.
The house of Mohandas Parekh (deceased broker of Dutch East India Company), another richest business house in Surat was not touched as he was known to be a very charitable person. His family was not even asked for any kind of ransom.
Roman Catholic Church was very rich place but spared from the attack. Shivaji reported to have said (As per Francois Bernier’s travel records described Shivaji as ‘the Holy Shivaji’) that these Fathers (padres) of the churches are kind people (people of mercy).
During the exploit, a British worker (misunderstood as a rich businessman or East India company officer) was caught by Marathas and demand note for ransom sent to British warehouse for his release but British refused. However when it was confirmed that the person was a poor laborer working in the factory, Shivaji set him free.
British warehouse was safe during this attack as already the loot of three days was quite huge to carry ( hence Shivaji took more riders and logistic things during his second attack) and another reason that British got sufficient time for preparation during the attack as they were mostly on sea side and they stood to resist. Also the news was reached in all direction of the Mughal territories by this time and hence spending more time in Surat was like inviting trouble.
Portuguese were also succeeded to save their ships.
The smoke remained in the air for many days. Even a thin rumor about Marathas could led to very serious panic.
Aftermath:
This raid came as very rude shock (a gift from Shivaji) to the new Mughal Emperor. The smoke of Surat fire had smeared face of Aurangjeb. It was a big insult to him as the news was spread across the world by the foreign merchants.
Aurangjeb did not even think that Shivaji would settle the record of Pune like this. Shivaji had given a message to the invading Mughal that he is the new authority of this land and every action by Mughal will be retaliated with an equivalent reaction.
Aurangjeb was so furious that he sent Mirza Jaisingh to Deccan with a huge army to finish Shivaji."
You have to keep in mind that Shivaji had both Hindu and Muslims gurus. He dreamt of a 'Hindavi Swarajya' (Self-Rule). He noticed that all kings were outsiders. The local people were just serving these outsiders. So he sought to carve out his own territory. Shivaji didn't discriminate on the basis of religion. He didn't order destruction of mosques unlike the Mughals who routinely destroyed temples. He was also known for respecting women.
