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Unit 1: British Expansion

As an administrator and ruler Tipu was successful and earned the praise of his adversaries. Lieutenant Notes
Moore noted, “When a person travelling through a strange country finds it well cultivated, populous
with industrious inhabitants, cities newly founded, commerce extending, towns increasing and
everything flourishing so as to indicate happiness he will naturally conclude it to be under a form of
government congenial to the minds of the people. This is a picture of Tippoo’s country. Even Sir John
Shore commented that the peasantry of Tipu’s dominions were well protected andtheir labours
encouraged and rewarded. Tipu also won the confidence and loyalty of his soldiers. In times when
desertions by military commanders was not uncommon. Tipu’s troops displayed discipline and fidelity
that earned the notice of his contemporary European observers also.
Wilks remarks that “Haidar was born to create an empire, Tipu to lose one” seems correct in retrospect
of history but does scant justice to the capabilities of Tipu and does not take into full account the
heavy odds he faced. Tipu’s boldness and spirit of innovations have been described as great negative
points. While Haidar had maintained the fiction of the sovereignty of the Wodeyar dynasty till he
lived, Tipu assumed the title of the Padshah in 1787, issued coins in his name, had Arabic names
substituted for Hindu ones in the cyclic years and months and issued a new calendar. Tipu’s
innovations were not merely changes but improvements introduced by a mentally alert monarch.
The imperialist writers’ depiction of Tipu as a ‘monster pure and simple’ and a bigoted monarch is
obviously biased. Tipu’s fanaticism has been over-played. It is true he crushed the Hindu Coorgs and
the Nairs but he did not spare the Muslim Moplahs when they defied his authority. The discovery of
Sringeri Letters reveals that in response to a request from the chief priest of the Sringeri temple, Tipu
sanctioned funds for repair of the temple and installation of the image of goddess Sarada (after it had
been damaged in a Maratha raid of 1791). The Sultan never interfered with worship in the
Sri Ranganatha, the Narasimha and the Ganga-dharesvara temples situated within the Sernigapatam
fort.
Tipu Sultan stands out as a fascinating personality in the history of South India. Brave and daring he
stuck to his self-respect and spurned Wellesley’s offer of a Subsidiary Alliance. He preferred a hero’s
death to the tame existence of a band-wagon of Western imperialism. His great misfortune was that
he was pitted against the imperial giants who had both the will and capacity to buldoze the whole of
India. His life and darings enthuse more the modern Indian mind than the host of other Indian
princelings.
Self-Assessment
2. Fill in the blanks:
(i) The Quadrangular conflict for supremacy in the Deccan among the Marathas, the Nizam,
the English and ............... dragged Mysore in the game of adventurous politics.
(ii) By ............... Haider Ali was the defacto ruler of Mysore.
(iii) With French help Haider Ali set up an arsenal at ............... and profited the western methods
of training an army.
(iv) Haider played the diplomatic game, bought the Marathas, allured the ............... with territorial
gains and together with the latter launched an attack on ............... .
(v) The Second Anglo Mysore War was ended in 1784 by the ............... .
1.6 The Three Anglo-Maratha Wars

The First Anglo-Maratha War, 1775-82: The first phase of the Anglo-Maratha struggle was brought
about by the inordinate ambition of the English and accentuated by the internal dissensions of the
Marathas. The Bombay Government hoped to set up in Maharashtra the type of Dual Government
Clive had set up in Bengal, Bihar and Orrisa. The mutual differences of the Maratha leaders gave to
the Company the much sought for opportunity. The fourth Peshwa Madhav Rao died in 1772, the
fifth (Narayan Rao) succumbed to the intrigues of his uncle Raghunath Rao, another claimant for the
gaddi. The birth of a posthumous son to Narayan Rao drove Raghunath Rao to the point of desperation
and he signed with the Bombay Government the Treaty of Surat (1775) hoping to gain the coveted

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