1757- East of the Cape of Good Hope

by Narendra Mehra

  After the battle of Plassey, the political scenario changed in favor of EIC and they went after the wealth of India with a beastly passion and an orgy of greed unimaginable. EIC was after the gold reserves in India; to them gold was the ultimate currency of wealth, the currency of God, the currency that cannot be printed and the currency that can never be duplicated or forged. After looting the Murshidabad treasury, the next target was the native bankers, Jagat Seths in Bengal and similar bodies in Bombay and Madras presidencies of EIC. The wealth of Jagat Seth was estimated at well over seven crore rupees (£ seven million) and their wealth became a target of EIC. The two partners of Jagat Seths, Mahtab Rai and Maharaja Swarup Chand were killed by the Nawab Mir Kassim, because of his differences with them during the Plassey operation and their family members were held hostage. After the battle of Buxar in 1764, where the British forces prevailed over the Nawab militia, the capital of Jagat Seths estimated at over £ seven million became war booty and vanished. Bengal’s moneyed aristocracy disappeared and the gold holdings in the Province were denuded. By 1770, there was a monumental traffic of ships sailing for Britain, an average of fifteen EIC ships and many other ships belonging to other European East India companies sailed a year transporting to Britain the wealth and treasures of India.

  Britain did not limit itself to the ready treasure or the gold holdings in Bengal. Political power was use to restrict the freedom of trade so that EIC could raise maximum revenue. The specter of confiscatory land and crop taxes haunted the zamindars (land owners) and they threw up their land holdings and left. The British introduced endless multiplication of inland custom tariffs on some 235 articles of daily use and introduced a new permanent land revenue system but the rates were so high that the zamindars became tenant-at- will and their lands were auctioned. To top it all, there was no rain for about six months and the lush green country side of Bengal totally dried up and there was complete failure of crops and yet the Court of Directors of EIC demanded increased revenue collection. The zamindars were not given any remission but were asked to enter into bonds at 12 percent per annum for the amount of the short fall. About ten million people perished in the famine that followed, but the revenue collection was kept up to its former standard. Many spinners, weavers and cocoon growers and indigo farmers perished in the famine, their produce was in demand but there were fewer hands left for the skilled jobs. Bengal was the richest & most fertile province of India. Its population was very thrifty, they lived simple lives and saved and the thirty million strong populations yielded the honey pot that the British overweening greed swallowed.

  With the success in Bengal, the British got greedy. They saw the prize possessions, the princely states and their rich treasuries, as the next target. They salivated at the sight of huge tax base, crop revenues, land taxes, custom duties and tropical plantations. The melt down of the Mughal dynasty had created a sudden breach and people were defenseless and there was little opposition to the British expansion. There were only three major hurdles to their ambition, the Deccan rulers in the south, the Rajputs in the center and the West and a formidable ruler in the Punjab State along with remnants of the decadent Mughals. The British decided to focus their attention to the southern states first as they were lured by the territory and revenues granted to the French by the southern states of Hyderabad, Mysore, Travancore and Cochin. The British were eyeing the southern territories for quick gains after the defeat of the French in the Seven Year War, which was fought in India as well, as a mirror image of their European wars. Lust for gold and treasure became a blood sport for the British and they found India a fertile territory to expand their influence at a minimum cost. The British were schemers, unnecessarily cruel and despotic at the opportunity to usurp huge stock piles of gold and treasure in the Princely states.

  In the South of India, the four chief powers were Haider Ali, the Marathas, the Nizam of Hyderabad and the British. Nizam Ali was the weakest and did not matter much in swaying the power balance one way or the other. Hyderabad was essentially an extension of the Mughal rule. In 1713, the Mughal Emperor, Faruqsair, appointed Qasim-ud-Din as the Subedar (governor) of the Deccan territory and he set up the rule in Hyderabad. In 1724, they set up the Asif Ali Dynasty and until 1756; they were an ally of the French whom they had granted revenue and territory in the Northern Sirkars (territories). Haider Ali in Mysore State presented a real threat to the British and even occupied some British territories as described below. The Maratha State was a kingdom in western India along the Western Ghats, spilling into the coastal plains of the Konkan and across the Deccan towards Central India. The Marathas was a loose confederacy incapable of making a uniform consistent policy against the British, but their central location made them a threat to the British at Bengal, Madras and Bombay. The British tried to enlist the passions of each of those powers at one time or the other depending how the political and military winds blew. They were too astute for the local princes who took them at face value, never suspected their sincerity, not understanding the cultural differences, their geo-political ambitions and their deeper lust for gold, treasure and territories.

  The South of India is a peninsular land flanked by Western and Eastern Ghats, skirting the west and East Coast and Vindya Hills at the base. The equator passes south of India and the North provides the majesty of the Himalayas range, rising to 28000 feet and the Kashmir valley with its lakes and waterfalls completes the majestic mountain scenery. Agriculture was the principle mainstay of the economy and geography and climate determined the crop choices at different times in the year. In South, they produced rice, cotton and sugar cane. From the Portuguese writings, who were already there in the seventeenth century, it appears that there was wide spread cultivation of rice, cotton, jowar (some kind of miniature corn), pulses, coca nut, ground nut, pepper and coffee. In the sixteenth century when Babur conquered Northern India, he wrote the revenues of various sarkars ( ruling provinces) in ‘Babur Nama’ ( Memoirs of Babur) translated by Annette Susannah Beverage, Luzc & Co. London 1922, and he tabulated the revenue collection as Five hundred and twenty million rupees or £52 million. The revenue projection of South India based on land revenue alone would be close to what was collected in the North (Babur did not conquer South India).

  Foreseeing the huge potential for loot in the south of India, in 1778, Warren Hasting focused his attention to the south of India, soon after EIC had established its hold in Bengal. The French were already vanquished and EIC had equipped itself with reinforcements from Britain for the siege of the south. All that Armada of ships that took the Indian gold and treasures to Britain brought on the outbound journey, the resources for the further expansion of British influence in India. Hastings needed time for his ambitious plan, so he sent envoys to the Marathas, first Elliot and then Weatherston to bargain and stall for time. Then in 1780, he dispatched the British envoy Grey, to the court of Haider Ali. Haider Ali was astute, he had dealt with the French and he understood the deceptive moves by the Europeans. He received Grey with contempt and decided to test the British might in the battlefield where the British met their first major reverse and set back in India. The British had 2000 soldiers under Col. Cosby at Trichinopoly, 1500 men under Col. Braithwaite at Pondicherry, 2800 men under Col. Baillie at Guntur and 5000 under Sir Hector Munro at Madras. This was a trading company!. Unfortunately, the Indian sepoys (militias) in the service of the British at their factories while ostensibly hired for security purposes were used by the British for waging wars against the Indians. Sounds bizarre, but the fact remains the British were able to exploit the regional differences of language and culture amongst the sepoys to their advantage. Under attack, Baillie’s troops lost all formations; Baillie was among the prisoners of war. Out of the British force of 3,820 men, 336 were killed who were mostly Indian. The defeat was considered to be the East India Company’s most crushing loss in India at that time. Munro reacted to the defeat by retreating to Madras, abandoned his baggage and dumped his cannons in a small
town some 30 miles south of Madras. Tipu Sultan, son of Haider Ali, also defeated Colonel Braithwaite at Tanjore on 18 Feb 1782. His army consisted of 100 Europeans, 300 cavalry, 1400 sepoys and 10 field pieces. Tipu seized all the guns and took the entire detachment as prisoners. In December 1781 Tipu also successfully seized Chittur from the British hands.

  Warren Hastings then sent from Bengal, Eyre Coote who was repulsed too. The moral effect of that victory was great and Haider Ali decided to form a joint force against the British in South India. In September 1782, Haider Ali sent his Vakil (lawyer or political agent) Sibha Ram to the Court of Nizam. Haider Ali also sent his Vakil Narasingh Roa to Sindhia (Marathas) to form an alliance. But fate intervened and like Alivardi Khan in Bengal, Haider Ali suddenly died on 8th December and the British fortunes suddenly changed from defeat to jubilation. (There will be other sudden deaths as the narrative unfolds). The Marathas found them defenseless and promptly signed the treaty with the British and the rout of the British from India was once again prevented. The British however had to wait until the end of the century to grab the riches of the South of India which included the great diamond mines of Golconda.

  By the end of the eighteenth century, by 1786, by virtue of a series of treaties between EIC and the Nawab of Bengal, the British sovereignty in Bengal was fully established. EIC thus consolidated its dominion in the eastern part of India, but it had an eye for the rest of the country and the neighboring sovereign territories. It set up a political office in Calcutta and the British government participated in the expansion of the Empire. The reader may acquaint himself with the map of India as it will be necessary to understand the various power centers and the regional powers that will face the onward march of the British from the East to the West. Historically, the various raiders came for India’s treasures from the West, through the Persian and Afghanistan plateau or from the North West through the Hindu Kush Mountains and the local defenses in India were concentrated in the north western territories of the sub- continent. The British on the other hand, established its dominion on the farthest Eastern part of India, a thousand miles away from the central power center, where they landed by the sea route and the long coast line became a bane of India.

  North India was the prize possession and the British were eager to expand their influence. The Mughals had mainly ruled the northern part of India and there were other clashing regional interests who wasted a lot of military energy fighting each other which paved the way for the British to expand its influence over the rest of the country. The decadent Mughals, wanted to keep the other two adjoining powers, the Marathas and the Sikh divided. The Sikhs considered the Marathas intruders. The Afghan Durranis continued to attack the Mughal territories from the West. The British were in the far eastern part in Bengal and their plan was to let every one keep fighting, so that they could rake up the spoils. The British had occupied the ringside seat near Oudh, by tricking the Nawab of Oudh and this became the western most part of their influence and salivated. In 1773, Hastings accepted an offer of 40 million rupees (£4.0 million) from the Nawab of Oudh, to provide mercenary services and fight the Afghan Rohillas and they marched out of Bengal to the west and never returned after the clashes with the Afghan Rohillas were over. No wonder, the British called the Indians imbecile.

  Other players in this mix were the foreign raiders, the Persians and the Afghanis and they gave rise to the emergence of the Sikhs. Aurangzeb executed the Sikh guru Teg Bahadur in 1675 thus transforming the sect into a militant body. Both the Sikhs and the Mughals kept the restless Afghans in check and each other used the alliance with the Rajputs in their political schemes.

  The Maratha as before in Mysore, felt the need for a regional treaty against the British and Mahadji Scindia, concluded a treaty with the Sikhs in the name of Mughal Emperor Roi faineant. The British by now had stationed political agents at the frontiers of their region of influence and Lt. Anderson, the British resident Skinnier, made last minute changes & scuttled the treaty. It was the policy of the British to prevent the union of Sikhs and Marathas. Sir John Cumming, the commander of the company troops in Oudh, played this game very ably. The Indians regarded the British as the “source of evil to all God’s creatures.” The Marartha- Sikh struggles in the face of insurmountable odds was a remarkable effort on the part of ordinary people, who rose up to defend the honor and dignity of their land and its people. By that time, all regional powers had come to realize that on account of poor foresight, the rulers in India had compromised the sovereignty of the land by leasing commercial outposts to the British all long the coast of India. The British particularly, had seized upon this opportunity to set up multitude of military outposts in the disguise of commercial factories which provided the British the unassailable position to attack and seize the subcontinent. The local regional powers were therefore unable to completely defeat the British as they had acquired command of the sea and the British naval support was contributing to their victories. The rulers in India could have learnt something from Philip II of France when in 1592; he declined the English monarch the concession of a port in Brittany. Britain wanted to fortify and use it as a base of operation. The concession was denied on the suspicion of her good faith. Nor would Phillip II sanction the dismemberment of his country regardless of the difficulties with his ally. Indians were too trusting, they still are, and did not learn the Lesson of history.

  Though the name so suggested, British EIC was not a mercantile entity, but it was a political and military entity, overseen in London by a minister known as the President of the Board of Control. British India was therefore under the control of the British government. In 1809, the Court of Directors of the British East India Company established a separate, stand alone military academy to train its cadets. The company acquired the 5.7-acre estate of the Earl of Liverpool in Croydon, England and all artillery, cavalry and the engineers were trained there. This seminary was known as Addiscombe and paralleled the functions of Sandhurst Royal Military Academy. After the mutiny, the company’s armies were taken over by the Crown and the Addiscombe Academy was shut down. The EIC essentially operated a separate war office under the supervision of the British government probably to circumvent future claims. No wonder, the British ever wrote a comprehensive account of the history of their rule in India.

  It was also the first time that the British invaders came by the sea and landed at the remotest eastern part of the country with the minimum defenses. That effort obviously required a lot of planning and shows that the British had prepared to attack India and loot its rich treasures and it was a deliberate attempt. Britain stayed in India for two hundred years till they sapped all that could be sapped and finally when they were forced out, India was reduced to a back water of the third world. Technically peaking, Britain is probably still at war with India as there never was an armistice agreement when they were forced out by non violent means by the Indian masses.

  What was the British motive in going towards the western part of India? They were spooked that Russia will steal their golden goose. Along India’s northwestern frontier lay Afghanistan and Afghanistan became a bloody pawn in the great game Britain played for supremacy in the region. The Mughal territorial control extended up to Afghanistan and India and Afghanistan were one entity under their rule. The British therefore assumed that Afghanistan was in its sphere of influence and domination over Afghanistan was necessary to have control over India. They however feared that Russia would one day encroach upon it and cease control over its dominion in India, probably a total hypocrisy and without merit. Anti Russian feelings therefore were drummed up in England for its expansionary goals. The Times of London declared, “From the frontiers of Hungry to the heart of Burma and Nepal, the Russian fiend has been haunting and troubling the human race and diligently perpetrating his malignant frauds to the vexation of this industrious and essentially pacific empire.” The only fiend haunting India was Britain not Russia. England was trying to add bit by bit to its Empire, and it
had made up its mind to annex Afghanistan. This fraud was perpetrated by using Indian money and Indian manpower.

  To march to Afghanistan, the British had to pass through the territory of Punjab which was ruled by a formidable ruler. The Punjab was a buffer state and its population was hounded from all sides. On the British western line of control, the Sikh forces had total control on the territories of Punjab, Sind, Kashmir, and Cis-Sutlej region and that region was the gate way to Afghanistan. It was the source of many conflicts as the narrative unfolds. The British in the East were in the rear and enjoyed the protection provided by the Punjabis (Sikhs). In 1756, the Sikhs and the Mughals struck an alliance against the Afghan Durranis and the Mughals approached Marathas too, but the Durrani Afghans crossed in to their territory in Central India and they had to retrace their steps, went back and the alliance did not provide any additional protection. The Chronicler bewailed, “It was not God’s desire that the people of Hindusthan (India) should spend their days in happiness and content.” The Sikhs approached the British too for alliance against the Afghans but they kept both of them guessing because they were being provided free protection by the Sikhs. The British reply was vague; “the custom of the English is to maintain friendship with every person and especially with the powers of this country with which friendship is particularly desired.” Their rhetoric did not match their actions, because they tried to double cross the Sikhs. They fished in troubled waters. In 1780, Hastings sent Major Brown to Delhi, the seat of the Mughal central authority, with a view to organize a confederacy against the Sikhs. The Sikhs had crossed the Ganges and penetrated Chandausi and became a threat to the British. That part of the story is separately narrated below under the heading, ‘The Punjab Wars.’