Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education
Tipu
Sultan’s Role in Forming India’s Independence Fields
Khadija Alemi1 & Seyyedeh Leila Mousavi Salem (Department of History, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran )
Correspondence: Khadija Alemi, Department of History, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. E-mail: alemi1900@ut.ac.ir
Abstract
British East India Company was a commercial company in London. Queen Elizabeth I with the aim of gaining commercial advantage in the Indian subcontinent granted a royal charter to this company. This advantage caused to Britain’s military and political presence in the subcontinent. East India Company was become to a major political-financial empire and Muslims of the Indian subcontinent, particularly in its southern regions began their campaigns against political domination of this company. Tipu Sultan chief and ruler of Mysore’s Muslim performed numerous efforts and campaigns to prevent the spread of British influence. This article tries to answer to this question that how was Tipu Sultan’s role in forming India’s independence fields? This research’s main claim is that Tipu Sultan got help from French troops against the company to reduce British influence in the subcontinent but because of sabotages of number of leaders and bitter experience that some new Muslim Hindus had from his actions he did not succeed. This research has been done in library and descriptive and analytical method.
Keywords:
the Indian subcontinent, the British East India Company, Tipu Sultan, Mysore,
Mala Bali battle 1. Introduction
Before the arrival of Europeans to the Indian subcontinent for centuries a Muslim Mongol Empire ruled the Indian subcontinent. When the Europeans entered to the Indian subcontinent by sea, their political and military opponent were mostly Mongolian princes and rulers of the Indian subcontinent, but they didn’t have their early unity and strength and they were changed to feudal and luxury and division state. The agents of English East India company by influence in the state of Bengal and participate in provocations and categories of officials and local rulers could break resistance of Siraj al-Dawla, the last Hindi ruler of Bengal and with the victory over him in War of Plassey (1757 AD), and applied their complete domination and influence on India (Bazargan, 2008, p. 103). British made India completely as a colony and India was become to a submissive and obedient and puppet country for the first time. But Britain, contrary to what assumed was not irrigated and uncontested in the Indian subcontinent, soon French established a company in the India too and became a competitor for complete domination of British. Local rulers of the Indian subcontinent, some of them served in favor of the British East India Company and some of them served in favor of French East India Company. Competition with French was intense so that British East India Company had forgotten other competitors. Tipu Sultan local ruler of Mysore who had come to this position after his father Hyder Ali and he was opposed to the presence of the British in the subcontinent like his father benefited from French advisers in his army. Both Tipu Sultan and his father Hyder from strained relations of Britain and France and they were trying to overthrow the domination and influence of Britain in the Indian subcontinent. Wellesley the army chief of the company made a great effort to satisfy Tipu to fire French advisers dismissed from his army and to terminate their service but Tipu continued to resist. In the eyes of British Tipu and Muslims in southern India will be a major obstacle on the way to meeting the goals of the company in India. Therefore they tried to achieve their goals by different ways such as lure fans of Tipu Sultan and threatened them. Finally British defeated Tipu in Malavalli battle and they occupied and engaged his capital, Seringapatam. One of the main reasons of the failure of Tipu Sultan was feud of him and his Muslim fans with Hindus because Tipu was a fanatical Muslim and had brought a large number of Hindus to Islam by force just after the Mangalore treaties that Tipu killed a lot of Hindus and caused to Martaha have bitter experience from his actions and during the crisis years of Tipu’s government and revenge for the massacres from him. Researchers and scholars, including English, Arabic and Persian have evaluated subject of British colonialism, British East India Company establishment and popular struggles of the subcontinent for independence and have discussed and studied on it. These researchers have mentioned campaigns and relations of Tipu Sultan with the British East India Company during their discussions and only a few of them in particular have evaluated the issue of relations of Tipu Sultan with the British East India Company. Including resources which have evaluated the subject of British colonialism in the Indian subcontinent and the establishment of the company in the subcontinent and Tipu Sultan relations with the company, British East India Company book authored by Brian Gardner can be noted. The author has evaluated information about the company establishment, preparation and the process of its formation, activities of chiefs and involvement of Britain’s government in the administration of the Indian subcontinent. Tipu Sultan, the emancipation ambassador of India is the title of another book that has been written about this topic. Saeed Abbas Zadeh is the author of this book that has started his discuss with the arrival of Islam in the Indian subcontinent, the establishment of Shiite governments and Mughal and Muslim Sultans in India and has ended his discussion with talk about the arrival of Europeans to the subcontinent and the establishment of the company there, Tipu Sultan’s life, his campaigns and reformations. The Muslims in the Indian Freedom Movement book, written by Abdel Moneim al-Nimr is another work that it can be noted in relation with this topic. This book is a report from time and way of the influence of Great Britain in the Indian subcontinent, the situation of Muslim rule in India on the eve of the formation of British colonization, the presence of various companies in India and their relations with each other and also with the government of India, the awakening of the people of India and their efforts to achieve independence, India’s freedom leaders and their beliefs.
2.
Tipu Sultan in Power in Mysore
Shiite
government of Mysore was formed when a large section of India involved in
colonial. Government of Great Britain
was achieved successes in the Indian; in central and northern India,
independent states had been created that
many rulers of them followed rules and policies of Great Britain and from a
hand they were in conflict with their
neighbors and certainly in this divisions and interstate wars, what was damaged
and destructed was India’s Muslims force
who were once homogeneous and united. At that time with the policy that
Great Britain had, there wasn’t unified
India anymore and the Indian subcontinent was mired in lethargy (Abbas
Zadeh, 2002, p. 77).
Local
governments were not independent and followed Britain. But with all these
dependencies all of them finally were
destroyed and among them only Hyder Ali ruled that was independent remained.
Hyder Ali was Shia and he was one of the
main enemies of Great Britain. Mysore that was one of important states and it
was in sensitive and a strategic region
in terms of the geographical location was in his territory. He Fought not
only with Britain, but also with their
neighbors that he suspected they wish presence of alien (Abbas Zadeh, 2002, p. 81).
When
Tipu in military school was passing high school, India was in chaos (Abbas
Zadeh, 2002, pp. 73-72). For the first
time in 1608 AD it was contacted between the Gurkani government of India and
Great Britain with the presence of
Captain Hawkins in the court of Jahangir and after that, British government in
1615 AD sent Thomas Rone as ambassador
to the Indian subcontinent and Britain activities was began as the business
from this date (Unknown, 1993, p. 110).
During
the reign of Aurangzeb, the Europeans could not obtain the rights and
privileges in the Indian subcontinent.
Aurangzeb died in Deccan in 1707 AD and after him, his son Shah Alam then his
other son Bahadur Shah I ruled (Abbas
Zadeh, 2002, p. 73). The two kings were involved in internal uprisings and widespread differences between religious and
ethnic minorities (Jalali, 1996, p. 58).
Tipu
Sultan during the reign of his father was like his minister and army obeied
him. After the death of Hyder Ali he
followed in his father’s anti-colonial politics. Hyder Ali and his son Tipu
Sultan had sworn on the Quran to hate
British forever, and destroy them (Bungardelvin, 1982, p. 38). British knew
Tipu Sultan well and they were aware of
anti-British goals and spirit of him.
Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan were difficult opponents that entered the hard failures to British and even it was close to destroy the British East India Company, but their scope was limited to the south and they did not have effect on the fate of the whole of India (Nehru, 1982, p. 1/455). Also the conditions had changed and Tipu Sultan was alone after death of his father. In the neighborhood of Mysore, people who hated Hyder Ali from old were not less and certainly these conditions made the influence of Britain more serious through neighbors (Abbas Zadeh, 2002, p. 87).
3.
The First Britain Mysore War
In
1780 AD Hyder Ali attacked at the head of an army to Carnatic. A part of this
army led by his son Tipu, besieged
Orkut. In Prambakam war this army involved with Britain army under the command
of Munro, Great Britain troops withdrew
and wealthy city of Porto-Novo and all of Carna occupied by Heyder Ali and
Tipu Sultan (Bungardelvin, 1982, p.
41).
The
war did not continued with the victory of Hyder until end, but the arrival of
assistance force from Bengal changed the
course of the war. Finally, a peace deal was signed between Great Britain and
the Nizam of Hyderabad and according
that Nizam of Hyderabad withdrew from his anti-British stand. In contrast,
the occupied area of Gunero by Great
Britain was returned to them (al-Nimr, 1980, p. 35).
Hyder
Ali died in December 1782 AD and what he had provided for his son was a
powerful and regular army and occupied
state by him (Mysore). Hyder Ali was a very powerful man and one of the
brightest figures in the history of
India. He understood the importance of sea power and growing threat of British
who relied on sea power long time before
others. He tried to organize an alliance of various forces of India to drive
out the British jointly but this effort
of him did not have result (Nehru, 1982, pp. 455-456).
4.
The Second War of Britain-Mysore
After
the death of Hyder Ali, Tipu Sultan took his father’s policy and set the
deportation of British from India as the
main purpose of him (al-Nimr, 1968, p. 42). One of those who were against Tipu
Sultan after the death of Hyder Ali was
Shaikh Ayaz. He gave up Behnur to Mumbai army that was under the command of
General Matthews without firing even a
shot in January 1783 AD (Bunggardelvin, 1361, p. 42).
Tipu
ended the presence of Great Britain’s force there in the short time. In this
war, Mangalore was occupied by Tipu, but
at that time it was betrayed to Tipu by his French allegiant commander called
Bussy. Thus a peace deal was signed
between Tipu and Britain’s allegiant in March 1784 AD.
4.1
Mangalore Convention: The Truce of War between Tipu Sultan and Britain
France
and Britain that were in conflict with each other to more dominate on India for
a long time signed a peace treaty named
Versailles in the July 20, 1783 AD (Bunngardlvinn, 1982, p. 42). This contract
placed Tipu in a difficult situation;
because after publishing the news of peace between Great Britain and France,
the French forces resident in India
refused the continuation of war against Great Britain, so the Mysore army tried
to continue the blockade alone (Abbas
Zadeh, 2002, pp. 90-91).
Tipu
continued blockade for long time with trust to himself and organization of his
forces that certainly were in the status
of low morale. Tipu who could keep the Mangalore Malabar Coast region in his
blockade in addition to occupation of
Bednur Castle; after this he failed and couldn’t continue; because there was a
risk that Sandia Army (United Great
Britain) to attack Mysore army. Tipu was forced to sign the Treaty of Mangalore
in the eleventh of March 1784 AD (Kulke
& Rutermond, 1990, pp. 222-220; Shirazi, 1985, p. 250). According to that he promised to withdraw all his forces from
Carnatic. Great Britain, for its part promised to leave the Malabar Coast. Both sides pledged to release
prisoners of war. Thus, the second war of Britain-Mysore, which deeply changed the status of both sides of the war,
was ended (Bungardelvin, 1982, p. 43).
British
and Tipu Sultan knew that their competition in South India eventually will lead
to another war, so both sides were
preparing themselves for this confrontation. Tipu started war against Martaha
and Hyderabad in the years 1786-1787 AD
and joined some Martaha emirates to his land with the victory in this war; but
Tipu despite the victory signed a peace
treaty favorable to them, because he feared to drive them into the arms of
Great Britain otherwise (Dulafooz, 1937,
p. 257).
Tipu
expected another war with Great Britain so asked France for help. He sent two
commissions to France, which one of them
did not go further than Constantinople and returned to India but the second
commission, went France in June 1788 AD.
Tipu wanted a defensive and offensive contract with France against Great
Britain. But France was on the eve of
the bourgeois revolution and was not in a position to send troops to far away
land as India. Already in 1784 and 1785
AD.
Tipu
had sent two commissions to Constantinople to Ottoman Sultan and had asked help
for Caliph of the Muslims. However, on
that time Ottoman Empire was fighting with Russia and hoped to support from
Great Britain; hence he didn’t showed
willingness to help Tipu (Bungardelvin, 1982, pp. 43-44).
In the first half of the seventeenth century Rajah Travancore occupied the southern part of the Malabar Coast and claimed the Malabar Coast, but he faced Hyder Ali’s anticipation. This led Rajah Travancore to know Mysore as his main enemy and sought to attract friendship of Great Britain. In the second war of Britain-Mysore, Rajah Travancore helped Great Britain’s army. He feared he might be attacked by Tipu, he signed a subsidiary contract with Great Britain in 1788 AD then he started to build fortifications at Kochi and vassal state of Mysore. Tipu’s forces attacked theses fortifications at the end of 1789 AD. At this time, Great Britain attacked Mysore under the pretext of supporting its confederate (Bungardelvin, 1982, p. 44).
5.
Tipu Sultan’s Reformations
5.1
Administrative and Political Reformations
Mesitenjer,
the British commander, returned to London and Cornwallis was stationed instead
of him in India in 1785 AD. He announced
that he would not interfere in disputes between states, but in practice it was
unlike this because he prepared Nizam of
Heyderabad again for war against Tipu (al-Nimr, 1980, p. 355). Tipu announced himself as the king in Seringapatam, his
capital, in 1787 AD. So he ended the formal power of Raja Hindu of Mysore too (Bungardelvin & Kotovski,
1982, p. 43).
Tipu
name was the most familiar name of that territory and he was known as an
anti-colonial hero in the late
eighteenth century in India. This sentence is famous by Tipu that said
living one day as a lion is better than
living a hundred years as fox (Abbas, 2002, p. 93). This slogan of Tipu
was in front of the states’ heads that were
one day with Tipu and another day against him. Tipu had made the country
stable and secure so he made another
reformation in the country in 1788 AD (Kermani, 1928, pp. 398-400), but
Tipu’s reformist movements did not last
long, because Great Britain had understood the power and talent of Tipu from
long time ago and knew relationships
that Tipu had with France and Zaman Shah, Afghanistanin ruler and Ottoman king
in the years. Great Britain knew that
finally Tipu’s efforts and extension of his relations with Islamic countries
and their confederates, would led to end
of Great Britain’s domination on India; hence it tried to start another war
and provoke small states and Tipu’s
neighbors against him and this was done by so many promises and even by enticement and alluring (Abbas, 2002, p.
93).
Tipu
Sultan very trusted Muslims in his court and tried to repose the hardest
responsibilities and authorities to
them, however, his efforts to place Muslim governors to supervise tax
affairs that were in the hands of Brahman
only led to more bribery. Even Mirsadegh, Tipu’s responsible for tax
administration was also partner in bribery.
Thus Tipu’s efforts to centralize tax collection work in a state
apparatus and to abolish extensive rights of
ownership of feudal lords faced rebellious resistance. Tipu made a city
to honor his name wherever he gained a major
success, and he settled forcibly some men and women there. Most of Tipu’s
reformations were careless and didn’t
solve the country’s problems (including forcing people to change clothes, etc.)
(Bungardelvin, 1982, pp. 46-47).
Tipu started strenuous efforts to attract help of other rulers who were his coreligionists. He resorted to Zaman Shah the ruler of Afghanistan and ensure and convinced him to easy conquest of India. Zaman Shah invaded Panjab, but he faced resistance of Sikhs and returned fatherland. Tipu also resorted for help to France. He sent the second secret commission to France at the beginning of 1793 AD, but it was not clear that the negotiations of commission were formed with whom and for what purposes. He decided to make closer relations with the French living in India and once again tried to attract the help of French and secretly dispatched two envoys by ship to abroad in 1797 AD. When the envoys arrived in Mauritius it was reported that the coup has been formed in French, so coming envoys to France was in vain (Bungardelvin, 1982, pp. 47-48).
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