Editing Openai/691ef1a1-976c-800d-bd1d-06358880de2a (section)

==== - Mughal campaigns: Imperial conquests often targeted civilian populations. For example, Akbar’s siege of Chittorgarh (1567–68) resulted in the massacre of ~30,000 Hindu civilians (mostly peasants who sought refuge)en.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Chittorgarh_(1567%E2%80%931568|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>#:~:text=After%20capturing%20the%20fort%20on,23). After the mass slaughter, many women and children were enslaved and “many Hindu and Jain temples” were deliberately desecrated on Akbar’s ordersen.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Chittorgarh_(1567%E2%80%931568|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>#:~:text=After%20capturing%20the%20fort%20on,23).  Akbar’s victory proclamation even boasts of using a “bloodthirsty sword” to “erase…infidelity” and destroy temples “all over Hindustan”en.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Chittorgarh_(1567%E2%80%931568|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>#:~:text=,and%20have%20destroyed%20temples%20in).  (Scholars Rima Hooja and Satish Chandra independently estimate ~30,000 killed in Chittoren.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_India#:~:text=2.%20,course%20of%20which%20about%2030%2C000|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>en.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_India#:~:text=3.%20,Cambridge%20Economic%20History%20Of%20India|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>.)  Other Mughal campaigns – such as Aurangzeb’s Deccan wars and punitive raids – similarly featured large-scale slaughter and enslavement of defeated populations. ====
* Maratha campaigns: Maratha armies also committed brutal raids in their wars, but mainly as “punitive” or fiscal expeditions.  The best-known case is Raghuji Bhonsle’s raids on Bengal (1741–1751): the so‑called “Bargi” invasions devastated western Bengal and Bihar.  Contemporary sources describe systematic plunder and mass killings by Maratha cavalry.  A Bengali chronicle and British writers report that the Bargis “shouted, give us money… when they got no money, they filled peoples' nostrils with water… put the man to death” if tribute was not paidacademia.edu<ref>{{cite web|title=academia.edu|url=https://www.academia.edu/101844893/HISTORICAL_OVERVIEW_OF_BENGAL_AND_SOCIAL_EXCLUSION?uc-sb-sw=12311588#:~:text=Maharashtra%20Purana%3A7%20They%20repeatedly%20shouted%2C,in%20the%20Bargi%20raids%2C%20including|publisher=academia.edu|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>.  Historian K.M. Chaudhuri calculates that “close to 400,000 people were killed by the Bargis” during these campaignsacademia.edu<ref>{{cite web|title=academia.edu|url=https://www.academia.edu/101844893/HISTORICAL_OVERVIEW_OF_BENGAL_AND_SOCIAL_EXCLUSION?uc-sb-sw=12311588#:~:text=would%20put%20the%20man%20to,in%20the%20Bargi%20raids%2C%20including|publisher=academia.edu|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>.  Local and European accounts also note that the Marathas “demanded payments, and tortured or killed anyone who couldn’t pay” during their occupation of Bengalen.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maratha_Empire#:~:text=the%20Marathas%20perpetrated%20atrocities%20against,70|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>.  Similarly, Maratha detachments ravaged Rohilkhand in the 1750s, forcing villagers to flee and looting entire districtsen.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maratha_Empire#:~:text=the%20Marathas%20perpetrated%20atrocities%20against,70|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>en.wikipedia.org<ref>{{cite web|title=en.wikipedia.org|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maratha_Empire#:~:text=During%20the%20Maratha%20invasion%20of,Rohilkhand%20in%20the%201750s|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-20}}</ref>.  These actions were militarily brutal (with widespread killings and looting) but were driven by tribute and plunder, not by a stated religious crusade.