1752, the Maratha were asked by Safdarjung, the Nawab of Oudh, to help him defeat Pashtun Rohilla. The Maratha forces and Awadh forces besieged the Rohillas, who had sought refuge in Kumaon but had to retreat when Ahmad Shah Abdali invaded India. After the Third Battle of Panipat, thousands of Pashtun and Baloch soldiers settled in northern India. These diverse ethnic, cultural, and linguistic groups merged over time to form the Urdu-speaking Muslims of South Asia. In 1772, Marathas defeated Rohilla chieftain Zabita Khan. They destroyed the Rohilla tribal chief Najib-ul-Daula's grave, scattering his bones. In 1772–73, Mahadji captured Najibabad. After plundering Rohillakhand, the Maratha advanced on Oudh. Foreseeing the same fate as Rohilla, Safdarjung made frantic calls to British troops in Bengal. The Viceroy of British India dispatched 20,000 British troops to free Rohillakhand from the Maratha Empire and give it to Safdarjung. The Maratha and British armies fought in Ram Ghat, but the sudden demise of the Peshwa and the civil war in Pune to choose the next Peshwa forced the Maratha to retreat. Rohilla decided not to pay, absent a war between the two states. The British made Oudh a buffer state in order to protect it from the Maratha, and protected Oudh. The subsidy of one British brigade to provide protection to Safdarjung and Oudh from Maratha was Rs 2,10,000. Rohilkhand was under the rule of Rohillas with their capital in Bareilly until the First Rohilla War. The Rohillas were defeated and driven from Bareilly by Safdarjung and EEIC troops, and the state of Rampur was established under Safdarjung. In 1803, the British annexed Rohilkhand in Upper Doab. Rulers Notes References See also Sarai Rohilla Railway Station Jewan Khutar Pawayan Historical Indian regions Rohilla Pashtun diaspora in India