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Indian Freedom Struggle (1707–1947 A.D.)

Notes The Second Anglo-Mysore War (1780-84): The treaty of 1769 between Haider Ali and the English
Company proved more in the nature of a truce and Haidar Ali accused the Company of not observing
the terms of the defensive treaty by refusing to help him when the Marathas attacked Mysore in 1771.
Further, Haider found the French more helpful in meeting his military demands for guns, saltpetre
and lead than the English. Some French military hardware naturally found its way to Mysore through
Mahe, a French port on the Malabar coast. The outbreak of the American War of Independence and
French alliance with the American colonists made Warren Hastings extremely suspicious of Haidar
Ali’s relations with the French. Under the circumstances the English attempt to caputure Mahe which
Haidar considered to be under his protection, was a direct challenge to Haidar Ali.
Haidar Ali arranged a joint front with the Nizam and the Marathas against the common enemy— the
English East India Company. In July 1780 Haidar attacked Carnatic and captured Arcot, defeating an
English army under Colonel Baillie. Meanwhile the English detached the Marathas and the Nizam
from the side of Haidar. Undaunted, Haidar boldly faced the English but suffered a defeat at Porto
Novo (Nov. 1781). The following year Haidar inflicted a humiliating defeat on the English army
under Col. Braithwaite; Braithwaite was taken a prisoner. Haidar died on 7 December 1782, leaving
the task unfinished to his son, Tipu. Tipu continued the war for another year, but absolute success
eluded both sides. Tired of war, the two sides concluded peace by the Treaty of Mangalore (March
1784) on the basis of mutual restitution of each other’s territories. The second round of the struggle
too proved inconclusive.
The Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790-92): British imperialism, true to its very nature, considered
every peace treaty as a breathing time for another offensive against Tipu. Acting against the letter
and spirit of the policy of peace and non-expansion loudly proclaimed in Pitt’s India. Act (1784),
Lord Cornwallis worked on the anti-Tipu suspicions of the Nizam and the Marathas and arranged a
Triple Alliance (1790) with them against Tipu. Convinced of the inevitability of a war with the English,
Tipu had sought the help of the Turks by sending an embassy to Constantinople in 1784 and again in
1785 and on to the French king in 1787.
Tipu’s differences with the Raja of Travancore arose over the latter’s purchase of Jaikottai and
Cranganore from the Dutch in Cochin state; Tipu considered the Cochin state as his tributary state
and thus considered the act of the Travancore Raja as violation of his sovereign rights. He decided to
attack Travancore in April 1790. The English, itching for a war, sided with the ruler of Travancore
(vide their earlier treaty of 1784) and declared war against Tipu. At the head of a large army Cornwallis
himself marched through Vellore and Ambur to Bangalore (captured in March 1791) and approached
Seringapatam. The English captured Coimbatore only to lose it later. Supported by the Maratha and
Nizam’s troops the English made a second advance towards Seringapatam. Tipu offered tough
resistance but realised the impossibility of carrying further the struggle. The Treaty of Seringapatam
(March 1792) resulted in the surrender of nearly half of Mysorean territory to the victorious allies.
The British acquired Baramahal, Dindigul and Malabar while the Marathas got territory on the
Tungabhadra side and the Nizam acquired territories from the Krishna to beyond the Pennar. Tipu
had also to pay a war indemnity of over three crores of rupees. Tipu lost heavily in this round of
strength and could only save his kingdom from total extinction by preparation and planning which
seemed beyond his resources. Cornwallis summed up the Company’s gain: “We have effectively
crippled our enemy without making our friends too formidable”.
The Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (1799): The East India company’s policy in India alternated wars
with spells of peace for recuperation of their resources. The arrival of imperialist Lord Wellesley as
Governor-General in 1798 in the backdrop of Napoleonic danger to India augured ill for the
maintenance of status quo. Wellesley was determined to either tame Tipu to submission or wipe out
his independence altogether. The modus operandi was the Subsidiary Alliance System. The charge
against Tipu Sultan of planning intrigues with the Nizam and the Marathas or sending emissaries to
Arabia, Zaman Shah of Afghanistan or Constantinople or the French in the Isle of France (Mauritius)
or the Directory at Versailles were convenient excuses to force down the desired end. Tipu’s explanation
that only “40 persons, French and of a dark colour, of whom 10 or 12 were artificers and the rest
servants paid the hire of the ship, came here in search of employment” did not satisfy Wellesley. The
operations against Tipu began on 17 April and with the fall of Seringapatam on 4 May 1799 brought

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