- Mughal lose their power
·
Aurangzeb was the last powerful Mughal ruler.
·
After his death in 1707 ‘many Mughal governors (subadar) and
big zamindar began claim their authority and establishing regional kingdom .
East India Company Comes East
·
In 1600, the East India Company acquired a charter
from the ruler of England Queen Elizabeth.
·
With this charter the company could venture (travel) across
the ocean looking for new land from which it could buy good at a cheap price,
and carry them back to Europe to sell at higher price.
·
Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese explorer, who had
discovered this sea route to India in 1498.
· In 17 century Dutch and French trader too were exploring the possibility
of trade in the Indian 
ocean.
·
The problem was that all companies were interested in
buying same thing.
·
Fine quality of cotton and silk produced in India had
big market in Europe. Pepper, cardamon, and cinnamon too.
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·
·
To secure market therefore
they lead to fierce battles between the trading company.
East India Company Begins
Trade in Bengal
·
The first English factory was
set up on the bank of the river Hugli in 1651.
·
The factory had a warehouse where
good official set.
·
As Trade expanded, the
company persuaded merchants and traders to come and settle near the factory.
·
1696 it began building a fort
around the settlement.
·
Aurangzeb to issue a Farman granting the company
the right to trade duty free.
·
Farman had granted only the
company the right to duty free but officials of the company, who were carrying on
private trade on the side, were expected to pay duty they refused to pay.
·
This cause an enormous loss
of Bengal.
HOW TRADE LED TO BATTLES
Porat of sirajuddulah
After the death of Aurangzeb,
the Bengal nawabs asserting their power and autonomy.
§ Murshid Quli Khan was followed by Alaverdi khan
and then Sirajuddaulah. They refused to grant the company concession, demanded
large tributes for the company’s right to trade, denied it any right to mint
coins (reflecting the political and economic conditions of
the time) and stopped it from extending its fortification.
The Battle of Plassey
§ Alivardi khan died in 1756, sirajuddaulah
become the nawab of Bengal.
§ the company
was worried about his powers and company want a puppet ruler.
§ Sirajuddaulah asked the company to stop meddling
in the political affairs of his dominion, stop fortification
§ After negotiation failed, the Nawab marched with 30,000 soldiers to the
English factory at Kassim bazar, captured the Company officials, locked the
warehouse, disarmed all Englishmen, and
blockaded English ships.
§ As the news of the fall of Calcutta reached, Company officials in Madras
sent forces under the command of Robert Clive.
§ In 1757 Robert Clive led the company army against sirajuddaulah
at Plassey.
§ And nawab sirajuddaulah defeat in fight one of the
reasons is the force led by Mir Jafar, one of the sirajuddaulah’s commander, never
fought in battle.
§ Clive
had managed to secure his support by promising to make him nawab after death of
sirajuddaulah .
§ After
the defeat at Plassey, Sirajuddaulah was assassinated and Mir Jafar made the
nawab.
§ Company
was still unwilling to take over the responsibility of administration. Its
prime objective was the expansion of trade.
§ 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)
§ Mir
Jafar died in 1765, the mood of the Company had changed. Having failed to work
with puppet nawabs, Clive declared: “We must indeed become nawabs ourselves”.
§ n
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.
Company officials become “nabobs”
(nawabs)
·
After the Battle of Plassey, the actual
nawabs of Bengal were forced to give land and vast sums of money as personal
gifts to Company officials.
·
Not all Company officials succeeded in making
money like Clive. Many died an early death in India due to disease and war.
·
Those who managed to return with wealth led
flashy lives and flaunted their riches. They were called nabobs.
Company
Rule Expands
·
The Company rarely launched a direct military
attack on an unknown territory. Instead it used a variety of political,
economic and diplomatic methods to extend its influence before annexing an
Indian kingdom.
·
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 .
·
Sometimes, the Company forced the states into
a “subsidiary alliance”.
Ø subsidiary alliance : terms of this
alliance, Indian rulers were not allowed to have their independent armed
forces.
·
They were to be protected by the
Company, buthad 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.
Tipu
Sultan – The “Tiger of Mysore
Ø
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
Ø
1785, stopped the export of sandalwood,
pepper and cardamom through the ports of his kingdom, and disallowed local
merchants from trading with the Company.
Ø
He is also established close relationship
with the French in India, and modernised his army .
Ø
Britisher, They saw Haidar and Tipu as
ambitious, arrogant and dangerous – rulers who had to be controlled .
Ø
. Four wars were fought with Mysore (1767–69,
1780–84, 1790–92 and 1799).
Ø
e Battle of Shrirangapatnam – did the Company
ultimately win a victory. Tipu Sultan was killed defending his capital
Shrirangapatnam .
War with the Marathas
Ø
Third Battle of Panipat in 1761, the
Marathas’ dream of ruling from Delhi was shattered.
Ø
They were divided into many states under
different chiefs (sardars) belonging to dynasties, These chiefs were
held together in a confederacy under a Peshwa (Principal Minister) who became
its effective military and administrative head based in Pune.
Ø
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
Ø
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 .
Ø
, the Maratha power came to end with the
Third Anglo-Maratha War of 1817–19. The Peshwa was removed and sent away to
Bithur near Kanpur with a pension .
THE CLAIM TO PARAMOUNTCY
§
Under Lord Hastings (Governor-General from
1813 to 1823), a new policy of “paramountcy” was initiated.
§
The
Company claimed that its authority was paramount or supreme, hence its power
was greater than that of Indian states.
§
justified in annexing or threatening to annex
any Indian kingdom.
§
In the late 1830s, the East India Company
became worried about Russia. It imagined that Russia might expand across Asia
and enter India from the north-west.
§
They fought a prolonged war with Afghanistan
between 1838 and 1842, and established indirect Company rule there.
§
Sind was taken over in 1843. Next in line was
Punjab. But the presence of Maharaja Ranjit Singh held back the Company .
§
After his death in 1839, two prolonged wars
were fought with the Sikh kingdom. Ultimately, in 1849, Punjab was annexed .
THE DOCTRINE OF LAPSE
·
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.
·
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)
·
Jhansi
(1854) Finally, in 1856, the Company also took over Awadh .
Setting
up a New Administration
·
Warren Hastings (Governor-General from 1773
to 1785)
·
his time the Company had acquired power not
only in Bengal, but also in Bombay and Madras .
·
territories were broadly divided into
administrative units called Presidencies.
·
three Presidencies: Bengal, Madras and
Bombay.
·
Each was ruled by a Governor. The supreme
head of the administration was the Governor-General. Warren Hastings,
·
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 qazi and a mufti but under the supervision
of the collectors.
·
A major problem was that the Brahman pandits
gave different interpretations of local laws based on different schools of the
dharmashastra .
·
N.B. Halhed translated this digest into
English.
·
Collector main job was to collect revenue and
taxes and maintain law and order in his district with the help of judges,
police officers and darogas .
THE COMPANY ARMY
The Mughal army was mainly
composed of cavalry (sawars: trained soldiers on horseback) and infantry, that
is, paidal (foot) soldiers .
East India Company adopted the
same method when it began recruitment for its own army, which came to be known
as the sepoy army (from the Indian word sipahi, meaning soldier).
warfare technology changed
from the 1820s, the cavalry requirements of the Company’s army declined. This
is because the British empire was fighting in Burma, Afghanistan and Egypt
where soldiers were armed with muskets and matchlocks.
nineteenth century the British
began to develop a uniform military culture.
CONCLUSION
East India Company was
transformed from a trading company to a territorial colonial power.
By 1857 the Company came to exercise direct rule over about 63 per cent of the territory and 78 per cent of the population of the Indian subcontinent .