Anand Rao Gaekwad ruled Baroda under British protection following the Treaty of Bassein framework that reshaped Maratha politics in the early nineteenth century. Coins struck during his tenure continued to invoke the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II as nominal suzerain — a legal fiction the Gaekwads maintained long after Mughal authority had effectively collapsed. The British found this arrangement convenient; it preserved a veneer of indigenous legitimacy while real power shifted decisively toward the East India Company.
Shah Alam II had been blind since 1788, having lost his sight when Ghulam Qadir seized Delhi and gouged out the emperor's eyes.
Anand Rao Gaekwad ruled Baroda under British protection following the Treaty of Bassein framework that reshaped Maratha politics in the early nineteenth century. Coins struck during his tenure continued to invoke the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II as nominal suzerain — a legal fiction the Gaekwads maintained long after Mughal authority had effectively collapsed. The British found this arrangement convenient; it preserved a veneer of indigenous legitimacy while real power shifted decisively toward the East India Company.
Shah Alam II had been blind since 1788, having lost his sight when Ghulam Qadir seized Delhi and gouged out the emperor's eyes.