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Unit 1: British Expansion

scheme of Dual Government in Bengal Clive’s paramount consideration was establishment of English Notes
power and not welfare of the people. The whole of Bengal was reduced to the position of an estate of
the East India Company. Sardar K. M. Pannikar very aptly remarks that during 1765-1772 the Company
eastablished a ‘robber state’ in Bengal and plundered and looted Bengal indiscriminately. During
this period British Imperialism showed its worst side in India and the people of Bengal suffered
greatly.
Clive failed to rise to the heights of a statesman. He proved to be a man of insight rather than foresight
and his administrative settlement bequeathed a crop of difficulties to his successors. If the main
justification of British rule in India was, as we are often told, the establishment of peace and order in
this distracted land, then Clive can claim no share in this lofty work, for his various expedients only
added to disorders in India.

1.5 Mysore and Its Resistance to the British Expansion

Eighteenth century India provided very favourable circumstances for the rise of military adventurers
both in the north and the south. One such soldier of fortune, Haidar Ali (born 1721) started his career
as a horseman and rose to the position of the ruler of Mysore. The process of usurpation of royal
authority of the Wodeyar ruler Chik Krishnaraj started during 1731-34 when two brothers. Devraj
(the Commander-in-chief) and Nanjaraj (the Controller of Revenue and Finance) controlled real power
in the state. The quadrangular conflict for supremacy in the Deccan among the Marathas, the Nizam,
the English and the French East India Companies dragged Mysore in the game of adventurous politics.
The repeated incursions into Mysorean territories of the Marathas in 1753, 1754, 1757 and 1759 and of
the Nizam in 1755 and the heavy financial demands made by the invaders rendered the Mysore state
financially bankrupt and politically a fertile ground for military exploits at the hands of powerful
neighbouring states. Devraj and Nanjaraj unable to rise to the occasion had to give place to a man of
superior military talent, sound diplomatic skill and unquestioned qualities of leadership. By 1761
Haider Ali was the de facto ruler of Mysore.
Haider Ali prepared himself to meet the challenges of the time. A well-disciplined army with a strong
and swift cavalry wing was necessary to meet the challenges of the Marathas, an effective artillery wing
along could counter the French-trained Nizami armies. He was also aware of the superior Western
know-how in arms manufactures. With French help Haidar Ali set up an arsenal at Dinajgul and also
profited from the Western methods of training an army. Above all, he learnt the art of permutation-
combination at the diplomatic chessboard and tried to out-manoeuvre his adversaries in the game.
During 1761-63 Haider Ali conquered Hoskote, Dod Bellapur, Sera, Bednur etc. and subjugated the
poligars of south India.
The Marathas who had recovered fast from the Panipat debacle (1761) under Peshwa Madhav Rao
frequently raided Mysore territory and defeated Haidar Ali in 1764, in 1766 and again in 1771
compelling Haidar to buy off the Marathas as also to surrender some important territories to them.
Quick to take advantage of political confusion at Poona after the death of Peshwa Madhav Rao in
1772, Haidar Ali during 1774-76 not only recovered all the territories earlier surrendered to the
Marathas but acquired Bellary, Cuddapah, Gooty, Kurnool and important territories in the Krishna-
Tungabhadra Doab.
The First Angle-Mysore War (1767-69): Blinded by their easy successes in Bengal the English
concluded a treaty with Nizam Ali of Hyderabad (1766) and in return for the surrender of Northern
Circars committed the Company to help the Nizam with troops in his war against Haidar Ali. Haidar
already had territorial disputes with the ruler of Arcot and differences with the Marathas. Suddenly
Haidar found a common front of the Nizam, the Marathas and the Nawab of Carnatic operating
against him. Undaunted, Haidar played the diplomatic game, bought the Marathas, allured the Nizam
with territoral gains and together with the latter launched an attack on Arcot. After a see-saw struggle
for a year and a half, Haidar suddenly turned the tables on the English and appeared at the gates of
Madras. The panic-stricken Madras Government concluded the humiliating treaty on 4 April 1769
on the basis of mutual restitution of each other’s territories and a defensive alliance between the two
parties committing the English to help Haidar in case he was attacked by another power.

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