A Maratha victory at Panipat (1761)?

[Mayukh]

My logic is simple, if British East India company can conquer India, Marathas can do the same, like British East India company didn't do something special, they just continued mostly the policy of the predecessor empires. Serious reforms began only after 1870s just look at old indian statute they all date to 1870s, prior to that was a complex patchwork of regulations and customs.
EIC just played politics really well, in any other timeline this may not happen, say a incompetent governor general, the whole thing would come crashing down.
Problem with most people including people in India is that they view period of expansion and conquest from 1700-1880s from the pov of 1890s when British rule was firmly established and they have for a few decades engaged in social engineering, even i was guilty of the same the more i learnt the more i felt, it was stupid luck and happenstance, it wasn't predestined for south Asia to be colonized that too by the British.

We are forgetting the Chaatrapati- Peshwa Relationship issue in the discussion. Most likely instead of Peshwa's son, the Chaatrapaati would replace the Mughal Empire.

 

[MagicalPhantom345]

If the Marathas win the Third Battle of Panipat, the Durranis limp home to Afghanistan in defeat and are likely deposed by a rival Afghan dynasty. In India itself, the Marathas are now supreme - they will depose the Mughal Emperor, abolish the Timurid Mughal dynasty and drop even the pretence of Mughal sovereignty, thus ending the Mughal Empire on paper as well as in fact. The Marathas will then crown the Peshwa's son as ruler of Delhi, making the Peshwa the overlord of most of India and cementing the Maratha Empire as the largest Indian state. However, this will induce the remaining Muslim nawabs like in Hyderabad, Awadh, Lahore, etc, as well as rival Hindu states like Mysore and some Rajputs, to resist the Marathas, fuelling conflict throughout India. The Afghans will also continue raiding the borders of India and fighting the Sikhs. Additionally, the British will continue encroaching from Madras and Bengal. The internal strife and disunity that plagued the Maratha Empire IOTL will now also spread across its pan-Indian territory ITTL. I don't believe the Maratha Empire has the administrative capacity, internal unity or military-diplomatic capability to rule all of India for long amid these conditions, so the Subcontinent likely collapses into a war-torn chaotic mess, making it easier than IOTL for the British to then conquer and colonise all of India.

Your prediction actually got me wondering if the Sikh could carve out an empire in the imploding Maratha Empire. Would they create a more politically and economically stable state?