Tipu Sultan

Context:

Recently, naming a playground on Tipu Sultan in Mumbai sparked a controversy.
About Tipu Sultan:

• Tipu Sultan (born Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu, 1 December 1751),also known as the Tiger of Mysore,
• He was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India and a pioneer of rocket artillery.
• He introduced a number of administrative innovations during his rule, including a new coinage system and calendar, and a new land revenue system which initiated the growth of the Mysore silk industry.
• He expanded the iron-cased Mysorean rockets and commissioned the military manual Fathul Mujahidin.
• He deployed the rockets against advances of British forces and their allies during the Anglo-Mysore Wars, including the Battle of Pollilur and Siege of Srirangapatna.
• Tipu Sultan and his father used their French-trained army in alliance with the French in their struggle with the British, and in Mysore’s struggles with other surrounding powers, against the Marathas, Sira, and rulers of Malabar, Kodagu, Bednore, Carnatic, and Travancore.
• Tipu’s father, Hyder Ali, rose to power and Tipu succeeded him as the ruler of Mysore upon his father’s death in 1782.
• He won important victories against the British in the Second Anglo-Mysore War and negotiated the 1784 Treaty of Mangalore with them after his father died from cancer in December 1782 during the Second Anglo-Mysore War.
• Tipu’s conflicts with his neighbours included the Maratha–Mysore War which ended with the signing of the Treaty of Gajendragad.
• The treaty required that Tipu Sultan pay 4.8 million rupees as a one-time war cost to the Marathas, and an annual tribute of 1.2 million rupees in addition to returning all the territory captured by Hyder Ali.
• Tipu remained an implacable enemy of the British East India Company, sparking conflict with his attack on British-allied Travancore in 1789.
• In the Third Anglo-Mysore War, he was forced into the Treaty of Seringapatam, losing a number of previously conquered territories, including Malabar and Mangalore.
• He sent emissaries to foreign states, including the Ottoman Empire, Afghanistan, and France, in an attempt to rally opposition to the British.
• In the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, a combined force of British East India Company troops supported by the Marathas & the Nizam of Hyderabad defeated Tipu.
• He was killed on 4 May 1799 while defending his stronghold of Seringapatam.

Important Developments in Mysore Kingdom

• Mysore silk industry started growing due to the introduction of a new land revenue system.
• Administrative innovations were introduced during his rule.
• Calendar and a new coinage system were introduced.
• Fathul Mujahidin, a military manual, was commissioned during the rule of Tipu Sultan.
• Military weapon named Mysorean Rockets was successfully used against the British East India Company during the 1780s and 1790s. This technology came into the hands of the British which later on resulted in the development of Congreve rockets.

Wars and Battles

Tipu Sultan fought many battles and wars against the British East India Company, Marathas, rulers of Travancore, Carnatic, Malabar, Bednore, Kodagu.

• Tipu fought against the Marathas between 1775 and 1779.
• Tipu had signed a Peace treaty with the British in 1784.
• The British attacked Tipu Sultan, when the ruler of Travancore was attacked by the army of Tipu Sultan. The ruler of Travancore was the ally of the British.
• In 1792, Tipu signed the Treaty of Seringapatam (now known as Srirangapatna) and he lost half of his dominion to the British.
• Battle of Pollilur or Battle of Perambakam, took place on 10 September 1780 at Pollilur near Conjeevaram, the city of Kanchipuram in present-day Tamil Nadu state, India, as part of the Second Anglo-Mysore War.
• Tipu defeated Lt. Colonel William Baillie of the British East India Company in the Battle of Pollilur.

Anglo Mysore Wars

In the last three decades of the 18th century, a series of wars were fought between the Kingdom of Mysore under the rule of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan on one side and the British East India Company, Nizam of Hyderabad, Maratha Empire on the other side.

First Anglo Mysore War

• The first Anglo Mysore war was fought between the Kingdom of Mysore (under Hyder Ali) and the British East India Company, which also had the assistance of the Nizam of Hyderabad.
• First Anglo Mysore War was fought from 1767 to 1769.
• First Anglo Mysore War ended with the Treaty of Madras.

Second Anglo Mysore War

• The Second Anglo Mysore War was fought from 1780 to 1784.
• At the Battle of Porto Novo, Hyder Ali was defeated by British Commander Sir Eyre Coote. This war was part of the Second Anglo Mysore War.
• The Second Anglo Mysore War came to an end with the signing of the Treaty of Mangalore on 11th March 1784.

Third Anglo-Mysore War

• The Third Anglo Mysore War was fought from 1790 to 1792.
• This war started when the ally of the British, the ruler of Travancore, was attacked by Tipu Sultan.
• This war ended with the Treaty of Seringapatam (now Shrirangapattana) in 1792. Tipu was defeated.

Fourth Anglo-Mysore War

• The Kingdom of Mysore was attacked from four different sides.
• Northern part of Mysore saw the invasion of the Marathas and the Nizam of Hyderabad.
• The final battle, the Siege of Seringapatam, resulted in the complete defeat of Mysore Kingdom.
• Tipu Sultan died in the war.
• The Mysore kingdom was restored to the Wodeyar Dynasty by a way of the subsidiary alliance.

Subsidiary Alliance

• In 1798, it was introduced by Wellesley in India, the ruler of the allying Indian state was compelled to pay a subsidy for the maintenance of the British army in return for getting protection from the British against their enemies.
• Those native princes or rulers who would enter into the Subsidiary Alliance were not free to declare war against any other power or enter into negotiations without the con­sent of the British.
• The Subsidiary Alliance was a policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of the allied state, but this was a promise seldom kept by the British.
• The payment of the arbitrarily-fixed and artificially-bloated subsidy invariably disrupted the economy of the state and impoverished its people.
• On the other hand, the British could now maintain a large army at the cost of the Indian states.
  • They controlled the defence and foreign relations of the protected ally, and had a powerful force stationed at the very heart of his lands.
• Lord Wellesley signed his first Subsidiary Treaty with the Nizam of Hyderabad in 1798.
• The Nawab of Avadh was forced to sign a Subsidiary Treaty in 1801.
• Peshwa Baji Rao II (Maratha) signed the Subsidiary Treaty at Bassein in 1802

Source: Indian Express

Q. “Tipu Sultan Was Trying To Build In Mysore A Strong Centralised And Militarised State, With Ambitious Territorial Design.” Critically Examine. [UPSC, 2019]

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