British Quest for Commercial Dominance

• Commercial gain was the primary reason for British intervention in the Mysore and Maratha states. The government of Britain needed finance and favoured a more aggressive expansionist policy to protect its commercial interest.
• The existing rivalry among the local powers and the volatile political situation in the region provided a favourable ground for political intervention by the British.
• The British fought several wars against the local rulers. Ultimately, they defeated Mysore and the Marathas, laying the foundation of British rule in India.
• Other reasons for British interventions in Mysore:
  • Haidar and Tipu’s control over the trade of the Malabar coast was a threat to the British trade.
  • Mysore rulers were seen as a threat to the British control over Madras.
  • Mysore rulers’ alliance with the French was seen as a threat to the British dominance in this
    region.
  • After 1784, there was a sudden increase in the cotton trade between the English EIC and China through Bombay from Gujarat. This prompted the British authorities to take a more active role in the region.

Arguments by the British to Legitimise the Conquest

• The British contended that many Indian rulers of their time were oppressive leaders who had seized power from legitimate dynasties and rightful owners. Therefore, these rulers could be replaced to restore the Indian people to their full religious and civil rights.
  • In the case of Mysore, the British argued that their policy aimed to restore the Hindu Wodeyar house, which Haidar Ali overthrew.
• Such an argument was born more out of the willingness to legitimise their political intervention in India, rather than anything else.

Rise of Haider Ali

Details

• When Krishnaraja died, Haider Ali became the de facto ruler of Mysore in 1761, Mysore had territorial threats from both the Marathas and the Nizam of Hyderabad.
• By the time Haider Ali took complete control of Mysore, he had been able to successfully drive out Marathas from Bangalore where they had laid a siege (1758).
• In 1761, in the Battle of Panipat, the Marathas got defeated and due to this they drew their forces from Mysore. Haider Ali was able to increase his influence after this battle. He established a modern arsenal in Dindigul in 1755 with the help of French experts. In 1761 he overthrew Nanjaraj and established his authority over the Mysore state. He extended full control over the rebellious poligars (zamindars) and conquered the territories of Bidnur, Sunda, Sera, Canara and Malabar.
• After capturing the throne of Mysore, Haider Ali looked down over the Deccan for expansion of territories. The aggressive designs of Haidar alarmed the English, the Marathas and the Nizam who thus declared him as their common enemy.
• This tripartite struggle for power between English, the Marathas and the Nizam against Mysore opened the front for the first Anglo Mysore War.

First Anglo-Mysore War (1767-69)

Details

• Hyder Ali’s friendship with the French is considered as one reason for the Anglo-Mysore war. Another important reason was the Mysore border dispute between the Madras government and the Nawab of Carnatic.
• The immediate context for war was provided by the rivalry over control of Northern Circars. The
  English Company was seeking an overland connection between its territories in Madras and Bengal, and Northern Circars (held by the French until 1758) was a series of coastal territories that lay in between.
• Robert Clive demanded access to this area from the Nizam of Hyderabad (a French protege), which the Nizam initially rejected. Thereafter, Robert Clive took his application to Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II who in 1765 issued a decree granting the rights of that territory to Clive.
• In 1766, the English Company began expanding in the Northern Circars and the Nizam
  objected and considered going to war with the English, but later signed a treaty with the Company in view of his poor financial condition. As per this treaty, the Company got the Northern Circars and in return promised to give military support to the Nizam in his endeavours against Hyder Ali.
• At the same time, the Nizam had formed an alliance with the Marathas as both felt threatened by the expansionist attitude of Hyder.
• Hyder himself was annoyed with the English as they had set up a fortified outpost at Vellore.
• In this way, the Marathas, the Nizam and the English entered into tripartite treaty against Hyder
  Ali and attacked Mysore in 1766.
• But Hyder successfully persuaded the Nizam and the Marathas to join hands with him against the English. He then launched an attack against the Company and reached up to the gates of Madras. He forced the Madras Council to sign peace on his terms in April 1769, known as the Treaty of Madras.

Treaty of Madras

• Signed in April 1769. As per the Treaty of Madras:
  • (a) Both the Parties returned the areas won by each other.
  • (b) The District of Arcot was given to Nawab of Arcot.
  • (c) British & Haider Ali promised that they would support each other if there is any foreign invasion.

Second Anglo-Mysore War (1780-84)

Details

• The British had no intention of sticking to the treaty of Madras. When Marathas invaded Hyder’s territory in 1771, the English Company did not come to his help. So, it was now a question of time before a second round of war between the Company and the Mysore state started.
• On the other hand, the French proved more helpful to Hyder with his military demands as saltpeter, lead, guns and other military hardware naturally found their way into Mysore through Mahe (a French settlement on the Malabar coast within Hyder’s jurisdiction).
• Further, the American War of Independence had broken out in 1775 and the French help to American colonists made Governor-General Warren Hastings extremely anxious of Hyder’s relations with the French.
• Under these circumstances, the Company attempted to capture Mahe, which was a direct challenge to Hyder Ali. The English had also offended Hyder Ali when an English force trespassed on Hyder’s territory in order to take over Guntur in the Northern Circars.
• The English capture of Mahe provided the immediate pretext for the second Mysore war.
• Haider Ali defeated Colonel Baillie and captured Arcot in 1780. Haidar Ali inflicted defeat after defeat on the British armies in the Carnatic and forced them to surrender in larger numbers. He soon occupied almost the whole of the Carnatic.
• But once again, British arms and diplomacy saved the day. They detached both Maratha and Nizam from Haider’s side.
  • Warren Hastings bribed the Nizam with the cession of the Guntur district and gained his withdrawal from the anti-British alliance.
  • Through the Treaty of Salbai (1782), the British made peace with the Marathas, which allowed them to free up a large portion of their army to be used against Mysore.
  • Consequently, Haider was isolated without any alliance.
• In July 1781, the English army under Sir Eyre Coote defeated Hyder Ali at Porto-Novo. The French help under Admiral Baillie de Suffren reached India in 1782. Skirmishes continued but later in December 1782, Hyder died of cancer during the course of the second Mysore war.
• Tipu, son and successor of Hyder, continued the war against the British. However, in 1783, the
  American War of Independence ended. Thereafter, Suffren sailed back for Europe leaving Tipu to fight his own battles. The Madras government also desired peace due to lack of resource and uncertainty of the Maratha attitude. Tipu also needed time to strengthen his own administration. Thus, the war ended with the Treaty of Mangalore (March 1784) signed on the basis of mutual restitution of each others territories.
  • This was the last British treaty with an Indian ruler on an equal footing.

Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790-92)

Details

• The Treaty of Mangalore (1784) exhibited the military strength of Mysore, exposed English weaknesses and increased Tipu’s strength. Like his father he wanted to eliminate the English from India. His other designs were to wreak vengeance on the Nizam and on the Marathas as they had betrayed his father during the hour of need.
• The chief causes for the Third Mysore War were:
  • Rise of Tipu Sultan: Tipu Sultan strengthened his position by undertaking various internal reforms. This caused worries to the British, the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Marathas.
  • Moreover, Tipu made attempts to seek the help of France sending envoys to those countries.
  • He also expanded his territories at the cost of his neighbours, particularly the Raja of Travancore, who was an ally of the British.
  • Tipu did not honour the article regarding transfer of the prisoners contained in Mangalore Treaty of 1784 and kept the British prisoners with him. This was one of the reasons of the hostility.
  • In 1790, the British concluded a tripartite alliance with the Nizam and the Marathas against Tipu.
• The immediate reason of the war which commenced in 1790 was that the local Dharamaraja of Travancore made some fortifications into the territories which were claimed by Tipu. Travancore Raja also purchased two forts (Jaikottai and Cranganore) from the Dutch in Cochin, and since Cochin was a tributary state of Mysore, Tipu considered this as a violation of his sovereign rights. Thus, in April 1790, Tipu attacked Travancore.
  • Travancore was an ally of the British. So when Tipu attacked Travancore, the British attacked Tipu.
• War broke out in May 1790 between the English and Tipu. It was fought in three phases.
• The first phase commenced when Medows, the Governor of Madras, initially directed the campaign to invade Mysore but Tipu’s rapid movements halted the progress of the English troops and inflicted heavy losses on them. In the meantime, Cornwallis himself assumed command in December 1790.
• This was the beginning of the second phase of the war. Marching from Vellore, he captured Bangalore in March 1791, but Tipu’s brilliant strategies prolonged the war and Cornwallis was forced to retreat to Mangalore due to lack of provisions.
• The third phase of the war began when timely aid from the Marathas with plenty of provisions helped him to resume his campaign and marched against Srirangapattinam again. This time Tipu was at a disadvantage. Swiftly the English forces occupied the hill forts near Srirangapattinam and seized it in February 1792. Tipu Sultan concluded the Treaty of Srirangapattinam with the British.
• The terms of the Treaty of Srirangapattinam:
  • Tipu had to surrender half of his territory to the Company and its allies. While the Company acquired Baramahal, Dindigul and Malabar, the Marathas gained territory on the Tungabhadra side and the Nizam acquired territories from the Krishna to beyond the Pennar.
  • Tipu was also required to pay war indemnity of Rs 3 crore, but as he was unable to pay this sum immediately, his two sons were kept as prisoners with Cornwallis.
  • Both sides agreed to release the prisoners of war.
• After Cornwallis, Sir John Shore became the Governor-General but he adopted the policy of nonintervention towards Mysore. For this reason, John Shore is known as the father of the policy of non-intervention. Later, Sir John Lawrence also adopted the policy of non-interference towards Afghanistan.

Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (1798-99)

Details

• Tipu fulfilled all the terms of the Treaty of Seringapatam and got his sons released. He decided to avenge his humiliating defeat and the terms put forth by the Treaty of Seringapatam. He aimed at making Mysore a strong state. Tipu worked continuously to secure help to fight British imperialism. He took efforts to seek the help of the France, Arabia, Kabul and Turkey. He corresponded with the Revolutionary French Government in July 1798.
• Lord Wellesley sailed for India in 1797, probably the toughest year in English history when England was struggling for its survival against France all over the world. Napoleon Bonaparte had conquered Egypt and Syria and he now turned towards India. In 1801, he made an alliance with Czar Paul of Russia and drew up a serious plan to invade India via Herat and Kandahar. The English well realised the consequences of a defeat at the hands of Napoleon; it would mean an end to its commerce that had brought it immense financial and political gains. To us, Napoleons plans may appear fanciful today but the contemporaries did not regard them as such. To them they posed a very real danger and Wellesley could ill afford to take any risks.
• In Napoleons plans, Tipu Sultan of Mysore saw the right opportunity to oust the English from India. He entered into negotiations with the French and started making elaborate preparations for war with the Company. At Srirangapattinam, a Jacobian Club was started. He planted a ‘flag of Liberty’ at Seringapatam, styled himself ‘Citizen Tipu’. He employed the French Commandant Monsieur Raymond and raised a corps of 14,000 men with his help.
• Wellesley concluded that it was urgently needed to bring the Indian states under the English sphere of influence and tame not only the actual allies but even the potential allies of France. For this purpose, he tried to convert as many Indian states into the subsidiary allies of the Company, either by persuasion or by force.
• As a part of his strategy, Wellesley tried to revive the Triple Alliance of 1790 with the Marathas. Though his proposal was not accepted by the Marathas, they promised to remain neutral. However, a Subsidiary Alliance with the Nizam was concluded by the British and as a consequence, the French force at Hyderabad was disbanded.
• After he successfully forced the treaty of subsidiary alliance upon the Nizam, he turned his attention to Tipu Sultan. Wellesley estimated that a French invasion via the Red Sea could only be possible after mid-1799 and he decided to deal with Tipu before that time. After Tipu refused all offers of the Governor-General for acceptance of the subsidiary alliance, war began in February 1799. The war was short and decisive. As planned, the British Bombay army invaded Mysore from the west. The Madras army, forced Tipu to retreat to his capital Srirangapattinam.
• The English Company won a decisive victory at the Battle of Seringapatam (1799). Tipu was killed during the defence of the city, before French help could reach him. He died a hero’s death defending his capital.
• Much of the remaining Mysorean territory was annexed by the Company, the Nizam and the Marathas, giving the Company the command over the sea coast of the Lower Peninsula. Any French mischief from the Malabar Coast was now rendered impossible. The remaining core, around Mysore and Seringapatam, was restored to the minor Indian prince, two-year-old Krishnaraja of the Wadiyar Dynasty, whose forefathers had been the actual rulers before Hyder Ali became the de facto ruler. A special Treaty of Subsidiary Alliance was imposed on the Wadiyar King and Mysore virtually became a dependency of the British. The Wadiyars ruled the remnant state of Mysore until 1947, when it joined the Union of India. Tipu’s family members were imprisoned in Vellore and his two sons pensioned.
  • After the success in the fourth Anglo-Mysore war, Wellesley arrogantly pronounced, ‘Now the kingdom of the east is under our feet’.

Significance of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War

• The rule of Tipu’s dynasty came to an end, and the Wodeyars were restored to Mysore Kingdom.
• Mysore became the dependency of the English.
• Tipu had used the iron cased rockets in the Third and Fourth Mysore wars. It led the British to develop their own versions of the Rockets.
• It eliminated the French threat to British Supremacy in India.

Mysore under the British

• In 1799, by the treaty of Subsidiary Alliance, Mysore became the complete dependency of the
  Company.
• In 1831, William Bentinck took control of Mysore on grounds of misgovernance.
• In 1881, Lord Ripon restored the kingdom to its ruler.

Anglo-Mysore Wars

Associated Treaties

First Anglo-Mysore War (1767-69)

Treaty of Madras (1769)

Second Anglo-Mysore War (1780-84)

Treaty of Mangalore (1784)

Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790-92)

Treaty of Seringapatam (1792)