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

Notes • 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 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.
• 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 second phase of the struggle was intimately connected with the circumstances created by
the French menace to India. Wellesley who came to India as Governor-General in 1798 was an
imperialist to the backbone and believed that the only possible way to safeguard India against
French danger was to reduce the whole of India to a position of military dependence on the
Company. He relentlessly pursued that objective by the infamous Subsidiary System of alliances.

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