The following dates are very
important in the Indian history, for how British subdued India lies somewhere
around the events that took place around them.
1757: Battle of Plassey- Clive defeats Siraj –ud-Dawla,
gains control of Bengal.
1760: Battle of Wandiwash- French lost their control of Deccan to British.
1761: Third Battle of Panipat- Marathas were defeated by Ahmad Shah Abdali. This does not wipe out the Maratha influence, but seriously cripples their reputation as an unconquerable force, who once ruled India, even beyond Punjab, to Attock in Pakhtoonistan. This war was an eye opener for the British, who were no longer scared of the Marathas.
1764: Battle of Buxar- British defeated Mir Qasim, Shuja-ud- Daula the Nawab of Awadh, Shah Alam II the Mughal Emperor. Treaty of Allahabad was signed, which gave Diwani Rights to the British East India company, to collect and manage revenues from the vast estate, that forms today’s West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Bangladesh.
1799: Fourth Anglo-Mysore war- British Defeated Tipu sultan. Having fought four wars with the Mysore rulers since 1767, British finally defeated Tipu Sultan in Srirangapattam, and gained control over the Empire of Mysore. Somewhere around 1790, British also succeeded in making the Nizam of Hyderabad, their puppet, leaving him and his descendants to rule Hyderabad till 1947 and to toe the British line.
1817-19: Third Anglo-Maratha war- British fought the first war with the Marathas in 1775-82
1848-49: Second Anglo-Sikh-war- British defeated the Sikhs and Annexed Punjab. The first Anglo-Sikh war was fought in 1845-46
1857: First war of Indian independence- British had already established themselves comfortably in India, North to South and East to the West. This war brought the country under the crown, bailing the East India Company out (I wonder if this was the first ever act of bailouts!).
1760: Battle of Wandiwash- French lost their control of Deccan to British.
1761: Third Battle of Panipat- Marathas were defeated by Ahmad Shah Abdali. This does not wipe out the Maratha influence, but seriously cripples their reputation as an unconquerable force, who once ruled India, even beyond Punjab, to Attock in Pakhtoonistan. This war was an eye opener for the British, who were no longer scared of the Marathas.
1764: Battle of Buxar- British defeated Mir Qasim, Shuja-ud- Daula the Nawab of Awadh, Shah Alam II the Mughal Emperor. Treaty of Allahabad was signed, which gave Diwani Rights to the British East India company, to collect and manage revenues from the vast estate, that forms today’s West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Bangladesh.
1799: Fourth Anglo-Mysore war- British Defeated Tipu sultan. Having fought four wars with the Mysore rulers since 1767, British finally defeated Tipu Sultan in Srirangapattam, and gained control over the Empire of Mysore. Somewhere around 1790, British also succeeded in making the Nizam of Hyderabad, their puppet, leaving him and his descendants to rule Hyderabad till 1947 and to toe the British line.
1817-19: Third Anglo-Maratha war- British fought the first war with the Marathas in 1775-82
1848-49: Second Anglo-Sikh-war- British defeated the Sikhs and Annexed Punjab. The first Anglo-Sikh war was fought in 1845-46
1857: First war of Indian independence- British had already established themselves comfortably in India, North to South and East to the West. This war brought the country under the crown, bailing the East India Company out (I wonder if this was the first ever act of bailouts!).
I must say, there is
something that has bothered me for a long time. Why is it that the British
found it suitable to fight the rulers of Punjab so late? Look at the gap between the two major wars –
almost 30 years (1817 – 1845). Annexation of Punjab would have given a complete
control to the British long ago, as they could have well fought the Sikhs, two to
three years after defeating the Marathas in 1819. Why did they take so long? In
fact, British never had a conflict with the Sikhs in the 18th
century, whereas they had a major conflict with all the other major players,
whether it was Marahas, Tipu or Nawabs, around the mid 18th
century.
The answer to this, I think, can be
found in the interview of William Dalrymple – ‘A dress rehearsal for 1857’ by Mukund
Padmanabhan, published in The Hindu
Magazine on 16th December 2012, that I have just finished reading.
William Dalrymple in his latest work – ‘Return
of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan 1839- 1843’ Bloomsbury India, has highlighted the concern of the British on the
growing influence of the Tsarist Russia in Afghanistan. According to him the
British had exaggerated concerns that Russia, by backing Dost Mohammad Khan, would later on look forward to form an alliance
with the Sikhs in Punjab to uproot the British from India. This may sound farfetched
today. Russians, Afghans, Sikhs, who else Eskimos?! But British had reasons to
feel sceptic. In 1799 they did intercept a letter from Napoleon to Tipu Sultan, in which Napoleon expressed his desire to help‘Tippu Sahib’
to ‘deliver you from the yoke of England’. Napoleon was stranded in Egypt at that time and was frantically looking for allainces. This letter of course never reached Tipu.
The British supported Shah Shuja against Dost Mohammad, and
hoped he would act as their puppet, and Afghanistan will remain a buffer zone
between Russia and British India (of 1830s). They did succeed in making Shah
Shuja take over the throne for some time, but it did not last long. The first
Anglo-Afghan war was fought in 1839-1843.
In 1838, the British approached Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab, to
assist Shah Shuja to regain his throne in Afghanistan. He agreed, and a tripartite
alliance was formed. However the Maharaja died in 1839. The British lost the war in 1843. Now is when the nightmare for the British would have begun.
The rulers of Punjab were not their puppets, unlike Nizam of Hyderabad. In Nizam’s
case the British had a complete control of his army, and he was content living a
life of a debauch. This was not the case with the Sikh rulers of Punjab. And
remember the gyan that Machiavelli
gave long ago ‘...no permanent friends and
...No permanent enemies...’ Good rulers know the Machiavellian sutra
instinctively and too well. It was now imperative for the British to fight and
defeat the rulers of Punjab, for they could have formed a Russian- Afghan-Sikh
alliance at their own convenience. So just within two years of their defeat in
the first Afghan war, the British attacked Punjab in 1845, and finally defeated them in 1849 in the second Anglo-Sikh war, taking over the entire Punjab.
The British had territorial
interests in Punjab. In 1831 they
signed a treaty with Maharaja Ranjit Singh that would allow the British traders
to use the waters of Sutlej River. So annexation of Punjab benefitted British in
at least three different ways. First, now they can protect their interest in
India on their own. Second they got a very fertile area which they could now
use the way they wanted. And third, they got a very formidable human resource
of the Punjabi-Sikh warriors, whom they deployed strategically in the second
Anglo- Afghan war in 1878, along with Gurkhas. The glory
earned by the Sikh warriors in the Battle of Saragarhi of 1897 draws parallels with the 300 Spartans of Thermopylae. Their
valour is still celebrated by the Indian Army and their descendants are
honoured till date.
However I must say in the end that Dalrymple doesn’t say this directly, but it’s just my strong hunch. I have another strong hunch however, that it may just be true!
