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Hyder Ali, Tipu Sultan and the Anglo-Mysore Wars
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The third battle of Panipat in 1761 had considerably weakened the Maratha Power and gave a fillip to the British. By 1772 The East India Company had become an important Indian power. The directors in England and the officials in India became more ambitious and set out to consolidate their control over Bengal before beginning a new round of conquests. However, their habit of interfering in the internal affairs of the Indian states and their lust for territory and money soon involved them in a series of wars. In the south they came up against the valorous Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan.
2.0 HYDER ALI - THE BEGINNINGS
Hyder Ali was born in about 1721-'22 AD in Budhikote. In the beginning of his career he served the Hindu Dynasty of the Wodeyars in Mysore. Gradually, he seized the throne of Mysore and became the king by the year 1766. Hyder is credited with having been the first Indian who formed a corps of sepoys armed with fire locks and bayonets and who had a train of artillery served by Europeans.
As early as 1755-'56 he is said to have obtained the services of Frenchmen to organize his artillery and his arsenal. Hyder Ali, with a combination of the mobile cavalry organized on the Mughal pattern with his increasingly disciplined musket-using infantry, increased his military power greatly. He centralized the revenue collection system which was earlier in the hands of local chiefs like 'deshmukhs' and 'palegars' ('palaiyak-karars'), and subordinate holders ('goudas', 'patels', etc.). Hyder Ali took the standard Mughal view that the local chiefs were 'zamindars' and as such their entitlements were not revered. He dispensed with their intermediation and imposed the land tax directly on the peasants.
2.1 Wars with the British
In 1766 the British joined the Nizam of Hyderabad in attacking Hyder Ali. But Hyder Ali forced the Madras Council to sign a peace-treaty on his terms. This treaty was called Treaty of Madras signed in 1769. As per the treaty, both sides agreed to return the prisoners and the territories captured during the war. Both sides also agreed to help each other in case any other kingdom attacked either of them.
Later, when the British were fighting the Marathas in the Anglo-Maratha war (1775-1782), Hyder Ali invaded some small kingdoms on the Malabar Coast. The Nizam of Hyderabad also chose this moment to declare war against the Company. Thus the British were faced with the powerful combination of the Marathas, Mysore and Hyderabad. Moreover, abroad they were waging a losing war in their colonies in America where the people had rebelled in 1776. They had also to counter the determined design of the French to exploit the difficulties of their old rival.
The treaty of Salbai signed between the British and the Marathas in 1782 gave the British 20 years of peace. The British utilized this period to consolidate their rule over the Bengal Presidency, while the Maratha chiefs frittered away their energy in bitter mutual squabbles. Moreover, the Treaty enabled the British to exert pressure on Mysore, as the Marathas promised to help them in recovering their territories from Hyder Ali.
The Marathas attacked Hyder Ali in 1771. As per the Treaty of Madras, the English should have come to his help but they did not. Moreover, the English also captured the French port of Mahe on the western coast of India. The kingdom of Mysore was using the port of Mahe. When the English refused to vacate Mahe, Hyder Ali declared war on them in 1780. Historians call this war the Second Mysore War. Repeating his earlier exploits, Hyder Ali inflicted one defeat after another on the British armies in the Carnatic and forced them to surrender in large numbers. He soon occupied almost the whole of the Carnatic.
But once again British arms and diplomacy saved the day. Warren Hastings bribed the Nizam with the cession of Guntur district and gained his withdrawal from the anti-British alliance. During 1781-'82 he made peace with the Marathas (Treaty of Salbai) and thus freed a large part of his army for use against Mysore. In July 1781 the British army under Eyre Coote defeated Hyder Ali at Porto Novo (Parangipettai) and saved Madras. After Hyder Ali's death on 7th December 1782, his son Tipu Sultan continued the war. Hyder was buried at Seringapatam (Srirangapatnam) near Mysore.
The death of Nawab Hyder Ali Khan was an important event in the history of South India. Nearly all contemporary authorities agree that it occurred on 7 December 1782, at Narsingh Rayanapet, near Chittoor. There is, however, some confusion regarding this date as the news of the Nawab's death was kept secret for military reasons. It was a great opportunity for the British to strike the Mysorean army at a time when its leader was dead and his successor was far away. General Stuart, who alone was in a position to take such a step, was reluctant to believe the news received by him two days after Hyder Ali's death.
The passing away of Hyder Ali had huge political implications also. He was looked upon as a pillar of strength against the British. Indian princes of that time, though notoriously devoid of patriotism, could count upon him as a sure ally whenever they could combine to form an alliance against the British. It is said that such an alliance was being canvassed at the courts of the Peshwa and the Nizam just before Hyder Ali's death. Nana had not yet signed the Treaty of Salbai and delayed it after he had received intelligence of the death of Hyder Ali.
3.0 TIPU SULTAN- THE BEGINNINGS
Tipu Sultan was born on November 20, 1750. He was named Fateh Ali, but also called Tipu Sultan after a local Muslim saint, Tipu Mastan Aulia.
While his father rose to fame and prominence, young Tipu Sultan was receiving an education from the finest tutors available. He studied such subjects as riding, swordsmanship, shooting, Koranic studies, Islamic jurisprudence, and languages such as Urdu, Persian, and Arabic. Tipu Sultan also studied military strategy and tactics under French officers from an early age, since his father was allied with the French in southern India.
In 1766, when Tipu Sultan was just 15 years old, he got the chance to apply his military training in battle for the first time, when he accompanied his father on an invasion of Malabar. The youngster took charge of a force of two to three thousand, and cleverly managed to capture the Malabar chief's family, which had taken refuge in a fort under heavy guard. Fearful for his family, the chief surrendered, and other local leaders soon followed his example.
Hyder Ali was so proud of his son that he gave him command of 500 cavalry, and assigned him rule of five districts within Mysore. It was the start of an illustrious military career for the young man.
3.1 Participation in the First Anglo-Mysore war
During the First Anglo-Mysore War, 17-year-old son Tipu Sultan was sent to negotiate with the Nizam. The young diplomat arrived in the Nizam camp with gifts including cash, jewels, ten horses, and five trained elephants. In just one week, Tipu charmed the ruler of the Nizam into switching sides, and joining the Mysore's fight against the British.
Tipu Sultan then led a cavalry raid on Madras (now Chennai) itself, but his father suffered a defeat by the British at Tiruvannamalai and had to call his son back. Hyder Ali decided to take the unusual step of continuing to fight during the monsoon rains, and together with Tipu captured two British forts. The Mysore army was besieging a third fort when British reinforcements arrived; Tipu and his cavalry held off the British long enough to allow Hyder Ali's troops to retreat in good order.
Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan then went on a tear up the coast, capturing forts and British-held cities. The Mysoreans were threatening to dislodge the British from their key east coast port of Madras when the British sued for peace in March of 1769.
This was the humiliating defeat that led to the 1769 peace agreement with Hyder Ali called the Treaty of Madras. Both sides agreed to return to their pre-war boundaries, and to come to each others' aid in case of attack by any other power. Under the circumstances, the British East India Company got off easy, but still it would not honour the treaty terms.
3.2 Participation in the Maratha war
In 1771, during the war with the Marathas, Tipu Sultan played a key role as Mysore fought off the Marathas.
Later that decade, Britain and France came to blows over the 1776 rebellion in Britain's North American colonies; France, of course, supported the rebels. In retaliation, and to draw off French support from America, Britain had decided to push the French entirely out of India. It began to capture key French holdings in India such as Pondicherry, on the southeastern coast, in 1778. The following year, the British grabbed the French-occupied port of Mahe on the Mysorean coast, and Hyder Ali declared war.
3.3 Second Anglo-Mysore war
The Second Anglo-Mysore War (1780-1784), began when Hyder Ali led an army of 90,000 in an attack on the Carnatic, which was allied with Britain. The British governor at Madras decided to send the bulk of his army under Sir Hector Munro against the Mysoreans, and also called for a second British force under Colonel William Baillie to leave Guntur and meet up with the main force. Hyder got word of this, and sent Tipu Sultan with 10,000 troops to intercept Baillie.
In September of 1780, Tipu and his 10,000 cavalry and infantry surrounded Baillie's combined British East India Company and Indian force, and inflicted on them the worst defeat the British had suffered in India. Most of the 4,000 Anglo-Indian troops surrendered and were taken prisoner; 336 had been killed. Colonel Munro refused to march to Baillie's aid, for fear of losing the heavy guns and other material he had stored. By the time he finally set out, it was too late.
Hyder Ali did not realize just how disorganized the British force was. Had he attacked Madras itself at that time, he likely could have taken the British base. However, he only sent Tipu Sultan and some cavalry to harass Munro's retreating columns; the Mysoreans did capture all of the British stores and baggage, and killed or wounded about 500 troops, but did not attempt to seize Madras.
The Second Anglo-Mysore War settled down into a series of sieges. The next significant event was Tipu's February 18, 1782 defeat of East India Company troops under Colonel Braithwaite at Tanjore. Braithwaite was completely surprised by Tipu and his French ally Lallee, and after twenty-six hours of fighting, the British and their Indian sepoys surrendered.
3.4 Tipu's succession to the throne
After the death of Hyder Ali, Tipu Sultan assumed the title of Sultan and took his father's throne on December 29, 1782.
The British hoped that this transition of power would not be peaceful and that they would gain an advantage. However, Tipu's immediate acceptance by the army, and the smooth transition, thwarted them. In addition, incompetent British officers had failed to secure enough rice during the harvest, and some of their sepoys were literally starving to death. They were in no condition to launch an attack against the new sultan during the height of the monsoon season.
3.5 End of the second Anglo Mysore war
The second Anglo-Mysore war went on until early 1784, but Tipu Sultan maintained the upper hand throughout most of that time. Finally, on March 11, 1784, the British East India Company formally signed the Treaty of Mangalore. Under the terms of the treaty, the two sides once again returned to the status quo in terms of territory. Tipu Sultan agreed to release all of the British and Indian prisoners of war he had captured.
3.6 The reign of Tipu Sultan
The British East India Company remained a serious threat to Tipu's independent kingdom though they had been defeated twice. Hence Tipu funded continuous military advances, including further development of the famous Mysore rockets - iron tubes that could fire missiles up to two kilometers, terrifying British troops and their allies.
Tipu also built roads, created a new form of coinage, and encouraged silk production for international trade. He was particularly fascinated and delighted with new technologies, and had always been an avid student of science and mathematics. Famed as warrior-king, the "Tiger of Mysore," Tipu Sultan proved an able ruler in times of relative peace as well.
3.7 Third Anglo-Mysore war
Tipu Sultan had to face the British for a third time between 1789 and 1792. This time, Mysore did not receive any aid from its usual ally, France, which was in the throes of the French Revolution. The British were led on this occasion by Lord Cornwallis, also famed as one of the major British commanders during the American Revolution.
Unfortunately for Tipu Sultan and his people, the British had more attention and resources to invest in southern India this go around. Although the war lasted for several years, unlike in the previous engagements, the British gained more ground than they gave. At the end of the war, when the British surrounded Tipu's capital city of Seringapatam, he had to come to the negotiating table.
In the 1793 Treaty of Seringapatam, the British and their allies, the Maratha Empire, took half of the territory of Mysore. The British also demanded that Tipu turn over two of his sons, ages seven and eleven, as hostages to ensure that the Mysorean ruler would pay war indemnities. Cornwallis held the boys captive to ensure that their father would comply with the treaty terms. Tipu quickly paid the ransom and recovered his children. Nonetheless, it was a shocking reversal for the Tiger of Mysore.
3.8 Fourth Anglo-Mysore war
By 1798, the British had recovered from the Third Anglo-Mysore War. They also had a new commander of British forces at Madras, Richard Wellesley, Earl of Mornington, who was committed to a policy of "aggression and aggrandizement." Although the British had taken half of his country and a large sum of money, Tipu Sultan meanwhile had rebuilt significantly and Mysore was once more a prosperous place. The British East India Company knew that Mysore was the only thing standing between it and total domination of India.
A British-led coalition of nearly 50,000 troops marched toward Tipu Sultan's capital city of Seringapatam in February of 1799. This was no typical colonial army of a handful of European officers and a rabble of ill-trained local recruits; this army was made up of the best and brightest from all of the British East India Company's client states. Its single goal was the destruction of Mysore.
Although the British sought to enclose Mysore state in a giant pincer movement, Tipu Sultan was able to sally out and stage a surprise attack early in March that nearly destroyed one of the British contingents before reinforcements showed up. Throughout the spring, the British pressed closer to the Mysorean capital. Tipu wrote to the British commander Wellesley, trying to arrange for a peace, but Wellesley deliberately offered completely unacceptable terms. His mission was to destroy Tipu Sultan, not to negotiate with him.
At the beginning of May, 1799, the British and their allies surrounded Seringapatam, the capital of Mysore. Tipu Sultan had just 30,000 defenders matched against 50,000 attackers. On May 4, the British broke through the city walls. Tipu Sultan rushed to the breach, and was killed defending his city. After the battle, his body was discovered beneath a pile of defenders. Seringapatam was overrun. Tipu was a hero, even in death.
3.9 Tipu Sultan's legacy
With Tipu Sultan's death, Mysore became another princely state under the jurisdiction of the British Raj. His sons were sent into exile, and a different family became puppet rulers of Mysore under the British. In fact, Tipu Sultan's family was reduced to poverty, and was only restored to princely status in 2009.
Tipu Sultan fought long and hard, although ultimately unsuccessfully, to preserve his country's independence. Today, Tipu is remembered as a heroic freedom fighter who taught many in India, the virtues of a head held high. His legacy also bears marks of reported hatred against Hindus, a very emotional issue indeed.
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