Indian History Notes # 13

Source: VIII NCERT History chapter 2

It was Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese explorer, who had discovered the sea route to India in 1498. 

Portuguese had established their presence in the western coast of India, and had their base in Goa. 

In 1600, the East India Company acquired a charter from the ruler of England, Queen Elizabeth I, granting it the sole right to trade with the East. 

The first English factory was set up on the banks of the river Hugli in 1651. 

Aurangzeb’s farman, for instance, had granted only the Company the right to trade duty free. 

But officials of the Company, who were carrying on private trade on the side, were expected to pay duty. 

This they refused to pay, causing an enormous loss of revenue for Bengal. 

After the death of Aurangzeb, the Bengal nawabs asserted their power and autonomy, as other regional powers were doing at that time. 

Murshid Quli Khan was followed by Alivardi Khan and then Sirajuddaulah as the Nawab of Bengal. 

They refused to grant the Company concessions, demanded large tributes for the Company’s right to trade, denied it any right to mint coins, and stopped it from extending its fortifications. 

Accusing the Company of deceit, they claimed that the Company was depriving the Bengal government of huge amounts of revenue and undermining the authority of the nawab. It was refusing to pay taxes, writing disrespectful letters, and trying to humiliate the nawab and his officials.

The Battle of Plassey:

• When Alivardi Khan died in 1756, Sirajuddaulah became the nawab of Bengal. 
• The Company was worried about his power and keen on a puppet ruler who would willingly give trade concessions and other privileges. 
• So it tried, though without success, to help one of Sirajuddaulah’s rivals become the nawab. 
• An infuriated Sirajuddaulah asked the Company to stop meddling in the political affairs of his dominion, stop fortification, and pay the revenues. 
• After negotiations failed, the Nawab marched with 30,000 soldiers to the English factory at Kassimbazar, captured the Company officials, locked the warehouse, disarmed all Englishmen, and blockaded English ships. 
• Then he marched to Calcutta to establish control over the Company’s fort there. 
• On hearing the news of the fall of Calcutta, Company officials in Madras sent forces under the command of Robert Clive, reinforced by naval fleets. 
• Prolonged negotiations with the Nawab followed. 
• Finally, in 1757, Robert Clive led the Company’s army against Sirajuddaulah at Plassey. 
• One of the main reasons for the defeat of the Nawab was that the forces led by Mir Jafar, one of Sirajuddaulah’s commanders, never fought the battle. 
• Clive had managed to secure his support by promising to make him nawab after crushing Sirajuddaulah.
• The Battle of Plassey became famous because it was the first major victory the Company won in India. 
• Plassey is an anglicised pronunciation of Palashi and the place derived its name from the palash tree known for its beautiful red flowers that yield gulal, the powder used in the festival of Holi. 
• After the defeat at Plassey, Sirajuddaulah was assassinated and Mir Jafar made the nawab. 
• The Company was still unwilling to take over the responsibility of administration. Its prime objective was the expansion of trade. 
• When Mir Jafar protested, the Company deposed him and installed Mir Qasim in his place. 
• When Mir Qasim complained, he in turn was defeated in a battle fought at Buxar (1764), driven out of Bengal, and Mir Jafar was reinstalled. 
• The Nawab had to pay Rs 500,000 every month but the Company wanted more money to finance its wars, and meet the demands of trade and its other expenses. It wanted more territories and more revenue. 
• Finally, in 1765 the Mughal emperor appointed the Company as the Diwan of the provinces of Bengal. 
• The Diwani allowed the Company to use the vast revenue resources of Bengal. 
• After the Battle of Buxar (1764), the Company appointed Residents in Indian states. They were political or commercial agents and their job was to serve and further the interests of the Company. 
• Through the Residents, the Company officials began interfering in the internal affairs of Indian states.
•  They tried to decide who was to be the successor to the throne, and who was to be appointed in administrative posts. 

 “subsidiary alliance”

• According to the terms of this alliance, Indian rulers were not allowed to have their independent armed forces. 
• They were to be protected by the Company, but had to pay for the “subsidiary forces” that the Company was supposed to maintain for the purpose of this protection. 
• If the Indian rulers failed to make the payment, then part of their territory was taken away as penalty. 
• For example, when Richard Wellesley was GovernorGeneral (1798-1805), the Nawab of Awadh was forced to give over half of his territory to the Company in 1801, as he failed to pay for the “subsidiary forces”. Hyderabad was also forced to cede territories on similargrounds. 

BRITISH AND MYSORE:

• Mysore had grown in strength under the leadership of powerful rulers like Haidar Ali (ruled from 1761 to 1782) and his famous son Tipu Sultan (ruled from 1782 to 1799). 
• Mysore controlled the profitable trade of the Malabar coast where the Company purchased pepper and cardamom. 
• In 1785 Tipu Sultan stopped the export of sandalwood, pepper and cardamom through the ports of his kingdom, and disallowed local merchants from trading with the Company. 
• He also established a close relationship with the French in India, and modernised his army with their help. 
• The British were furious. They saw Haidar and Tipu as ambitious, arrogant and dangerous – rulers who had to be controlled and crushed. Four wars were fought with Mysore (1767- 69, 1780-84, 1790-92 and 1799). 
• Only in the last – the Battle of Seringapatam – did the Company ultimately win a victory. Tipu Sultan was killed defending his capital Seringapatam, Mysore was placed under the former ruling dynasty of the Wodeyars and a subsidiary alliance was imposed on the state.
•  
• BRITISH AND THE MARATHAS:
• The Marathas were subdued in a series of wars. In the first war that ended in 1782 with the Treaty of Salbai, there was no clear victor. 
• The Second AngloMaratha War (1803-05) was fought on different fronts, resulting in the British gaining Orissa and the territories north of the Yamuna river including Agra and Delhi. 
• Finally, the Third Anglo-Maratha War of 1817-19 crushed Maratha power. 
• The Peshwa was removed and sent away to Bithur near Kanpur with a pension. 
• The Company now had complete control over the territories south of the Vindhyas. 

PARAMOUNTACY:

Under Lord Hastings (GovernorGeneral from 1813 to 1823) a new policy of “paramountcy” was initiated. Now the Company claimed that its authority was paramount or supreme, hence its power was greater than that of Indian states. In order to protect its interests it was justified in annexing or threatening to annex any Indian kingdom. 

when the British tried to annex the small state of Kitoor (in Karnataka today), Rani Channamma took to arms and led an anti-British resistance movement. She was arrested in 1824 and died in prison in 1829. 

But Rayanna, a poor chowkidarof Sangoli in Kitoor, carried on the resistance. With popular support he destroyed many British camps and records. 

He was caught and hanged by the British in 1830. 

The Doctrine of Lapse :

• The final wave of annexations occurred under Lord Dalhousie who was the Governor-General from 1848 to 1856. 
• He devised a policy that came to be known as the Doctrine of Lapse. 
• The doctrine declared that if an Indian ruler died without a male heir his kingdom would “lapse”, that is, become part of Company territory. 
• One kingdom after another was annexed simply by applying this doctrine: Satara (1848), Sambalpur (1850), Udaipur (1852), Nagpur (1853) and Jhansi (1854). Finally, in 1856, the Company also took over Awadh. This time the British had an added argument – they said they were “obliged by duty” to take over Awadh in order to free the people from the “misgovernment” of the Nawab! Enraged by the humiliating way in which the Nawab was deposed, the people of Awadh joined the great revolt that broke out in 1857.

JUDICIAL SYSTEM ESTABLISHMENT:

• From 1772 a new system of justice was established. 
• Each district was to have two courts – a criminal court (faujdari adalat) and a civil court (diwani adalat). Maulvis and Hindu pandits interpreted Indian laws for the European district collectors who presided over civil courts. 
• The criminal courts were still under a qaziand amuftibut under the supervision of the collectors. 
• A major problem was that the Brahman pundits gave different interpretations of local laws based on different schools of the dharmashastra. 
• To bring about uniformity, in 1775 eleven pandits were asked to compile a digest of Hindu laws. 
• N.B. Halhed translated this digest into English. 
• By 1778 a code of Muslim laws was also compiled for the benefit of European judges. 
• Under the Regulating Act of 1773, a new Supreme Court was established, while a court of appeal – the Sadar Nizamat Adalat – was also set up at Calcutta.