European Interests

Portuguese

As we have seen in the last Chapter, the Portuguese were the first to arrive through new sea route around Africa. They established trading settlements at Calicut, Cochin and Cannanore in the south. They also brought tobacco cultivation and the printing press at Goa. ‘Indian Medicinal Plants’ was the first scientific work to be published from Goa in 1563 AD. The Portuguese general, admiral, and viceroy, Alfonzo de Albuquerque, significantly expanded their influence. However, subsequent Portuguese governors were weak and incompetent which eventually led to their decline. They were intolerant and fanatical in religious matters, indulging in forcible conversion of the native people to Christianity. 

The Dutch

The Dutch set foot as traders in India and established their first factory in India at Masulipatnam in 1605 AD. The Dutch East India Company set up trade on the Coromandel coast, notably at Pulicat, looking to exchange textiles for spices. The other major commodities they traded in were cotton, indigo, silk, rice and opium. They then expanded by putting up trading centres at Surat and Bengal in 1616 AD and 1627 AD respectively.  The Dutch also conquered Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1656 AD and forts on the Malabar Coast in 1671 AD from the Portuguese, and Pondicherry from the French in 1693 AD. By the middle of the 18th century, they had the strongest trading presence, with major outposts in Calcutta, Bombay, and Bengal. They could even trade with their own coinage from mints at Pondicherry, Pulicat, Cochin, Nagapatam, and Masulipatnam. They were eventually defeated by the British traders at the Battle of Bedera in 1759 AD, and by 1825 AD, all Dutch possessions were transferred to their rivals.

The French

The French were the last Europeans to arrive in India in the 16th century when expeditions were sent to India for trade. The first French factory was established at Surat in 1668 AD while the French settlement began in 1673 AD when they purchased Chandernagore from the Mughal Governor of Bengal.  The next year they acquired Pondicherry from the Sultan of Bijapur. Both became rich centres of French commercial activities. Joseph François Dupleix arrived in India in 1741 AD, as the governor of the French territories, and his ambition marked the beginning of the Anglo-French conflict which resulted in the famous Carnatic wars. 

The British

The British first landed in 1608 AD at Surat for trade and a group of merchants known as the ‘Merchant Adventures’ set up the English East India Company, which founded one of the biggest empires the subcontinent has had. It started its first in 1613 AD at Surat in the west, and the second in 1616 AD at Masulipatnam in the east. A year earlier, King James I had instructed Sir Thomas Roe to visit the Mughal Emperor Jahangir to arrange for a commercial treaty that would give the company exclusive rights to reside and establish factories in India. In exchange the company offered to provide the emperor with goods and rarities from the European market. This mission was highly successful compared to similar efforts in the seventeenth century which had been rejected by Aurangzeb. 

The Company got Bombay, a marshy island, on a lease of 10 pounds a year from King Charles ll who had got it as dowry when he had married the sister of the king of Portugal. Madras and Calcutta were villages which the Company acquired. The Company then built fortresses around Bombay, Madras and Calcutta, creating the first hubs for the British settlements grew up around them. 

Anglo-French rivalry

The British and the French both came to India to trade but their traditional European rivalry drew them into the politics of power over the region. As the Mughal empire declined, a war between France and England in Europe sparked a war in 1745 AD in Karnataka, which was then ruled by a Nawab, Dost Ali, who was an independent noble of the Hyderabad court with his capital in Arcot. The Marathas, in their expansionist campaigns, killed the Nawab and captured his son-in-law. In return for a large sum of money they recognised his son as ruler but he was also killed. The Nizam of Hyderabad tried to get the region back under his control and made a trusted official, Anwaruddin, the Nawab.

The First War

It was then that the first war between the French and English forces began, known as the Battle of San Thome. The French governor Dupleix occupied Madras where the Company had built Fort St. George. The Company asked Anwaruddin for help as Madras was in his territory. The nawab sent an army of 10,000. The small force of 230 French and 700 trained Indian soldiers defeated the large army at San Thome on the banks of river Adyar. The war ended in1748 AD with a peace treaty that ensured Madras was returned to the Company.

The Second War

The conflict between the British and French unfolded against the background of the decay of the Mughal Empire and the subsequent infighting between the multitude of Indian kingdoms and their rulers whom the empire had held together. The Europeans used these conflicts to further their own interests. Dupleix, for instance, signed a treaty with the son-in-law of the Nawab of Arcot, who had been captured by the Marathas. When the Nizam of Hyderabad, Asaf Jah, died in 1748 AD, the Company helped his son in his contest with the grandson to occupy the throne. But the French combined with both the son and the grandson to defeat and kill Anwaruddin of Arcot. After which the French killed the son and installed the grandson as the Nizam, who was also later killed and replaced by his uncle. The French captured Mohammad Ali, the son of Anwaruddin, whom the Company was supporting. Through these manoeuvres the French acquired more territory including Masulipatnam and Trichinopoly.

The Company responded by declaring war and recapturing Trichinopoly and Arcot by forces under the command of Robert Clive. Dupleix was called back to France and a treaty was signed at Pondicherry in 1754 AD whereby the French agreed to maintain peace and let the British keep the territories they had retained. 

The Third War

In 1756 AD, a third war, also known as the Seven Year’s war, between the French and Britain started in Europe which had its repercussions in India. The Company took over Bengal by defeating Siraj-Ud-Daulah’s army with 50,000 soldiers, 40 cannons and 10 war elephants by 3,000 soldiers under Robert Clive. The Nizam of Hyderabad changed sides and joined the Company. The Treaty of Paris ending the Seven Year War was signed in 1763 AD whereby the French factories in India were returned to the French with the proviso that they would not be fortified. The French lost all their power. The British had by now defeated all their European rivals and were looking to expand their territory.

Bengal

Farrukhsiyar, one of the later Mughal emperors, had allowed the Company the freedom to trade in Bengal without paying taxes. Thereafter the Company started to fortify Calcutta and impose taxes on Indian goods entering the city. This was without the permission of the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daula, who was losing revenue and asked that the taxes be stopped. When the Company refused, he captured its factory at Kasimbazar and occupied Fort William at Calcutta in 1756 AD. This led to a major turning point in Indian history that led to the consolidation of British rule in India. The East India Company forces headed by Robert Clive attacked Siraj-Ud-Daulah and his French troop. The crucial Battle of Plassey was fought at Palashi, near Murshidabad, on the banks of River Bhagirathi near Calcutta in 1757 AD. 

The Company won the battle and replaced Siraj-ud-Daula with Mir Jafar, a powerful noble at the court, on the throne of Bengal. He was replaced by his father-in-law Mir Qasim in 1760 AD. Through these Nawabs and by paying large sums of money in bribes, the Company obtained the right to free trade, not only in Bengal, but also in Bihar and Orissa. It won the right to collect revenue in the Twenty-four Parganas and the zamindari of three more districts around Calcutta. Robert Clive received two million rupees for himself while the Company and its employees made about thirty million. 

The Company became greedier. It forced the zamindars to extract money and gifts and from the peasants and artisans. Mir Qasim decided to fight but he was defeated a few times then went to Avadh (Uttar Pradesh) in 1763 AD.  He allied with Shuja-ud-Daula, the nawab of Avadh, and the Mughal emperor Shah Alam ll to fight the British. They were defeated in the Battle of Buxar. Clive was promoted as the first British Governor of the Bengal Presidency. The Bengal nawab was forced to disband his army and administer Bengal through an official appointed by the Company. Shuja-ud-Daula had to pay five million rupees as penalty. The Company gave Shah Alam ll the districts of Kora and Allahabad and money as pension while he had to shift to the Allahabad fort. 

Robert Clive was a premier architect of Company power in Bengal. He did not want to rule Bengal directly which would have required the permission of the British government and lead to more hostility among the people. But all were interested in making money. Accordingly, he designed the policies through a system known as Dual Government, whereby officials could be appointed only with the approval of the Company. He has himself written that the famine in Bengal of 1770 AD was caused by excess revenue extraction at a time of unparallelled anarchy, confusion, bribery, corruption and extortion. He left India in 1767 AD and became a member of the British parliament.  Accused of corruption in 1773 AD, he killed himself by cutting his throat with a penknife.

Mysore

The many tussles between the European powers for supremacy in the three Carnatic wars had their consequences. From Mysore, Haider Ali took the fight back to the Company in 1780 AD.  He was victorious many times but eventually defeated in 1781 AD at what was then called Porto Novo. After his death in 1782 AD his son Tipu Sultan continued the fight. The Company signed a treaty with him in 1784 AD which specified that both sides return the territories they had conquered. Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan were capable soldiers and excellent generals. However, the Company used diplomacy and bribery to isolate Mysore by making peace with the Marathas and winning over the Nizam of Hyderabad.  

Warren Hastings

The British Parliament had come to know of the corruption of the Company and other such activities and passed the Regulating Act in 1773 AD which allowed the Company to be administered and supervised by the Government. Warren Hastings, an employee of the East India Company, was appointed Governor of Bengal in 1772 AD and given the designation of Governor General in 1774 AD. He retained that position until 1785 AD, during which time he also tried to extend the power of the British. He forced local rajas and nawabs, such as the Begum of Avadh and the Raja of Benares to give him money. He also helped the nawab of Avadh, Shuja-ud-Daulah, to defeat the Rohillas of Rohilkhand.

Subsidiary Alliance and Wellesley

In 1798 AD, Lord Wellesley came to India as Governor General. His effort was to bring as many territories as possible under Company rule. He did this using the Subsidiary Alliance. By this the ruler of an Indian state allowed British troops to be kept in the state and they were paid a subsidy (remuneration). A British Resident stayed in the state seeing to it that the ruler abided by the British policies at the cost of losing his freedom. Thus, the Company maintained a large army at no cost. 

The first Subsidiary Alliance treaty was signed in 1798 AD by the Nizam of Hyderabad. The Nawab of Avadh was forced to sign a treaty in 1801 AD.  The British took over Rohilkhand that included more than half of his territory. In 1801 AD Lord Wellesley also forced the Nawab of Karnataka (Arcot) to give the Company the rights over his territory in return for a subsidy. The Company took over the Surat and Thanjavur territories in the same way. Tipu Sultan, however, refused to sign and died fighting at Srirangapatnam in 1799 AD. His capital was then plundered and the territory divided between the Nizam and the British.

Marathas

In the meantime, there was a struggle for power within the Maratha Confederacy - which had been formed in 1674 AD when Shivaji of the House of Bhonsle was crowned as the Chhatrapati. There were five main Maratha clans in the Confederacy - the Peshwa at Poona and the heads of four families: the Gaikwad of Baroda, the Scindia of Gwalior, the Holkar of Indore, and the Bhonsle of Nagpur. Madhav Rao had become the Peshwa in 1761 AD, when he was only seventeen, after the Third Battle of Panipat. He had declared that his brother, Narayan Rao, should be made Peshwa after him. But when Madhav Rao died in 1772 AD, Narayan Rao also died, and their uncle, Raghunatha Rao, became Peshwa. Nana Phadnavis, a Maratha leader, opposed Raghunatha Rao and the Marathas united in support of Nana Phadnavis. 

In 1783 AD, the Marathas and the British had signed the Treaty of Salbai.  When the then Peshwa, Baji Rao ll, was defeated by Holkar in 1802 AD, he signed the Subsidiary Alliance treaty at Bassein. Scindia and Bhonsle were defeated by the Company forces and also signed the Subsidiary Alliance and gave over Delhi, Agra and Aligarh which had been under their control. Yashwant Rao Holkar was the only one to defeat the British many times. At this juncture the British were fighting the French elsewhere and the directors of the East India Company felt that too much had been spent on wars and Lord Wellesley was recalled to England in 1805 AD. Holkar got back most of his territories in 1806 AD by the treaty of Rajghat.

This emboldened the Marathas who tried once again to assert their independence. Together they attacked the British Residency in Poona.  Wellesley’s successor, Lord Warren Hastings, defeated them and the Company took over some territories, forcing Holkar and Bhosle to sign Subsidiary Alliance Treaties. The Peshwa was pensioned off and Scindia too was forced to accept Company supremacy. A small kingdom of Satara was carved out and given to a dependent of Shivaji’s. Rajput states that had been under the control of Scindia and Holkar were taken over by the British.

Punjab and Sindh

At this time, the British wanted to prevent the Russians from invading India from Afghanistan and expanding their territories in Asia. They took control over Punjab from the Marathas in 1818 AD. They further secured the north-western border by taking over Sindh in 1843 AD to make it a part of the British Empire. After the death of Ranjit Singh, in 1845 AD, the Company fought a war against Punjab and won. It stationed troops in the Punjab with a British Resident to supervise. Eventually, it annexed Punjab. 

Doctrine of Lapse

The British by now controlled the whole of India directly or indirectly. Lord Dalhousie, the Governor General in 1848 AD wanted to bring more states under British control and he reintroduced the Doctrine of Lapse. According to this doctrine, if a ruler died without a natural son the state would lapse or be taken over by the British. This law had been used many times before. Dalhousie did not recognise the pensions and titles that had been passed earlier. Dalhousie wanted to take over Avadh but this state did not come under the Doctrine of Lapse and the Nawab had been an ally of the British since the Battle of Buxar (1764 AD). Hence, Avadh was taken over in 1856 AD with the excuse that it was not being governed well. Dalhousie took over Berar from the Nizam of Hyderabad in similar fashion. 

Administrative Changes

The British came to India as traders of the East India Company. Thereafter the Company became a military force that fought wars to conquer principalities. In the process, as seen above, it brought in a series of Treaties and Doctrines to legitimise its control, reforms, and other social and economic changes. The story of Robert Clive, who came to India as a clerk but returned to England as a wealthy landed gentry, represents the growth of the Company. The Government, in turn, felt threatened by the power of the Company’s Directors. The British Parliament passed an Act to compel the Company to pay 400,000 pounds annually to the government –an amount drawn from India. The Pitts India Act of 1784 AD set up a Board of Control to supervise all the Company’s affairs as well as the Indian administration. 

In 1790 AD Lord Cornwallis organised a civil service to stop corruption and improve administration. The army was reorganised so that there were no Indians in the higher ranks. While the police force consisted mainly of Indians, it was headed by British officers. A justice system with criminal and civil courts was put in place and new laws passed based on British legislation. India was ruled by the British, for the benefit of the British.

However, after 1828 AD, Lord Bentinck argued that the Provincial Courts of appeal and circuit had been largely responsible for the huge arrears of cases. He abolished these courts and established different grades of courts to avoid delay in the trial of cases. A separate Sadar Diwani Adalat and Sadar Nizamat Adalat were set up at Allahabad for the convenience of the people of Delhi and Upper Provinces He then set up a Supreme Court in Agra. In higher courts Persian was replaced by English as the court language. The system of beating a man with whips was abolished.

The Industrial Revolution 

The Industrial Revolution had changed the way of life in Britain from 1750 AD. Manufacturing changed from individual production by artisans to mass production by machines in factories. It used steam power to drive the machines, and machines for making machines, for ever more production. Britain even controlled the manufacture and distribution of goods in its colonies in different parts of the world. It used the money received from trade to manufacture more goods and then sell those goods to make more money. 

From 1600 to 1757 AD India benefitted by getting goods, gold and silver from the Company in exchange for textiles and spices. Indian exports were so popular that, in 1720 AD, the British government banned Indian textiles. After 1757 AD, the Company used its economic heft to buy up all the raw cotton in Bengal and forced the weavers to buy it back at high rates while selling the finished goods at low prices. Then the British manufacturers prevailed upon the East India Company to purchase the best raw cotton and transport their own cotton goods for sale in India. The Indian textile industry declined and was slowly ruined by high taxes. Artisans lost their jobs. This was also true of British artisans and craftsmen. 

Agriculture

Lord Cornwallis enacted the Permanent Settlement whereby the land revenue was raised and fixed permanently. The Zamindars were made owners of their land mainly in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. In the South and South-west, the Ryotwari system was set up where the ryot or peasant had to pay directly to the British government. The peasants could not pay such high rents so they borrowed money from money lenders. This led to peasants becoming poorer and poorer as they could not repay their debts and lost their land. The British did not improve the agriculture or irrigation and so they suffered even more. 

Opium was produced in Central India and sent to China from Karachi. Lord Bentinck changed the route of the trade from Karachi to Bombay which gave the company a share in the profits in the form of duties. The Government then resumed the management of the rent-free lands in Bengal and Bombay. While the British benefitted by the building of an infrastructure of roadways and railways and modernising the post and telegraph systems, the land revenue settlement of the North Western Provinces yielded more revenue. Consequently, India became poorer. This was known as the Drain of Wealth.

Social Changes

Lord Bentinck abolished Sati and human sacrifice, prohibited female infanticide, and stopped the system of Thugee. He supported educational reforms introduced by Macaulay for the promotion of European literature and science through English medium in India. This was spelt out as “a group of people Indian in colour and blood but English in taste, opinion, morals and intellect”. The Government Resolution in 1835 AD made English the official and literary language of India. He also began the practice of appointing Indians in the Company’s service, even as Deputy Magistrates and Deputy Collectors.