Modern history quiz: India in the Late Eighteenth Century | 21st Dec, 2020

Haider’s father Fateh Muhammad was the Faujdar (garrison commander) of Kolar. After his death Haider’s soldierly qualities helped him to rise through the military ranks. By 1755 he had secured a powerful position, commanding 100 horsemen and 2000 infantry men.
Haider suppressed an army mutiny in Mysore and restored the places of the Mysore kingdom occupied by Marathas. He received the title of “Fateh Haider Bahadur” or “the brave and victorious Lion”.
In 1760 Haider allied himself with the French at Pondicherry against the English, but his position at home was endangered by the plot engineered by the Marathas.
In 1770 the Mysore king Nanjaraja was poisoned to death and Haider’s hand was suspected. Thereafter Wodeyar kings functioned only as nominal rulers. The real royal authority vested in Haider.
Source: Tamil Nadu state board class 11, part 2, page 127.

After the American War of Independence, France had signed a treaty of friendship with America (1778) and so Britain declared war against France. In a similar context of Spain reaching an agreement with America, and thereby being dragged into the war against England (1779) England remained isolated. In India the coming together of the Nizam and the Marathas, supported by the French aggravated the situation further. Haider Ali wanted to turn England’s difficulty to its advantage and marched on Karnataka.
The Treaty of Mangalore was signed in March 1784, according to which both parties agreed to give up their conquests and release the prisoners.
Third Mysore War took place in 1790-92.
Source: Tamil Nadu state board class 11, part 2, page 128.

Tipu sent an embassy to Constantinople and another in 1787 to Paris. These diplomatic efforts of Tipu were intended to strengthen him against the English. The French Monarch Louis XVI was hospitable, but could give only vague promises of support to the Sultan.
Tipu’s attack on Travancore which was an ally of the British and his capture of Cranganore was treated as a declaration of war on the Company government. Hence the third Anglo-Mysore War broke out.
According to the treaty of Srirangapatnam, the Tipu was to give up half of his dominions, pay three crores of rupees as indemnity, and pledge two of his sons as hostages. The allies were given equal shares of the indemnity and of the ceded territories. The English got Malabar, Dindigul and Barmahal. Tipu lost Coorg (Kudagu), whose raja became a feudatory to the Company. Tipu’s power was greatly reduced. And after their stay at Madras as hostages the boys returned to Srirangapatnam on 29 May 1794 when their father had paid all the dues to the English. Tipu could hardly forget his humiliation and the heavy territorial and monetary losses suffered.
Source: Tamil Nadu state board class 11, part 2, page 129.

The origin of the Palayakkarar (poligari) system dates back to the 1530s. It is believed that this system was practiced earlier in Kakatiya kingdom of Warangal.
The literal meaning of Palayakkarar is the holder of a camp as well as the holder of an estate on military tenure.
Prior to the enforcement of this system Servaikarars and Talayaris collected fees for police work. After the creation of palayams, the Servaikarars turned Palayakkarars and subordinated Talayaris to their authority.
Source: Tamil Nadu state board class 11, part 2, page 130.

The Battle of Plassey: The officials of the Company made rampant misuse of its trade privileges that adversely affected the nawab’s finances. The English fortified Calcutta without the nawab’s permission.
The Company further tried to mislead him, and compounded their sin by giving asylum to a political fugitive, Krishna Das, son of Raj Ballabh who had fled with immense treasures against the nawab’s will. The Company, on its part, suspected that Siraj would drastically reduce its trade privileges in collusion with the French in Bengal. Thus, when Siraj attacked and seized the English fort at Calcutta, it brought their hostility into the open.
Mention may be made here of the much propagated ‘Black Hole Tragedy’. Siraj-ud-daula is believed to have imprisoned 146 English persons who were lodged in a very tiny room due to which 123 of them died of suffocation. However, historians either do not believe this story, or say that the number of victims must have been much smaller.
Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India, Page 89.

The Treaty of Allahabad: Robert Clive concluded two important treaties at Allahabad in August 1765—one with the Nawab of Awadh and the other with the Mughal Emperor, Shah Alam II.
Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula agreed to:
(i)surrender Allahabad and Kara to Emperor Shah Alam II;
(ii)pay Rs 50 lakh to the Company as war indemnity; and
(iii)give Balwant Singh, Zamindar of Banaras, full possession of his estate.
Shah Alam II agreed to:
(i)reside at Allahabad, to be ceded to him by the Nawab of Awadh, under the Company’s protection;
(ii)issue a farman granting the diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa to the East India Company in lieu of an annual payment of Rs 26 lakh; and
(iii)a provision of Rs 53 lakh to the Company in return for nizamat functions (military defence, police, and administration of justice) of the said provinces.
Clive did not want to annex Awadh because it would have placed the Company under an obligation to protect an extensive land frontier from the Afghan and the Maratha invasions. The treaty made the Nawab a firm friend of the Company, and turned Awadh into a buffer state. Similarly, Clive’s arrangement with Shah Alam II was inspired by practical considerations. It made the emperor a useful ‘rubber stamp’ of the Company. Besides, the emperor’s farman legalised the political gains of the Company in Bengal.
Mir Kasim, the dethroned Nawab of Bengal, spent the rest of his life in abject misery as a homeless wanderer and died in June 1777.
Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India, Page 93, 94.

On April 1, 1801 the Peshwa brutally murdered the brother of Jaswantrao (also called Yashwantrao by some historians) Holkar, Vithuji. A furious Jaswant arrayed his forces against the combined armies of Sindhia and Bajirao II. The turmoil continued and on October 25, 1802, Jaswant defeated the armies of the Peshwa and Sindhia decisively at Hadapsar near Poona and placed Vinayakrao, son of Amritrao, on the Peshwa’s seat. A terrified Bajirao II fled to Bassein where, on December 31, 1802, he signed a treaty with the English.
The Marathas were defeated, reduced to British vassalage and isolated from one another.
(i)Defeat of Bhonsle (December 17, 1803, Treaty of Devgaon);
(ii)Defeat of Sindhia (December 30, 1803, Treaty of Surajianjangaon); and
(iii)Defeat of Holkar (1806, Treaty of Rajpurghat).
Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India, Page 106 and 107.

The First Carnatic War ended in 1748 when the Treaty of Aix-La Chapelle was signed bringing the Austrian War of Succession to a conclusion. Under the terms of this treaty, Madras was handed back to the English, and the French, in turn, got their territories in North America.
Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India, Page 45.

One of the weak ruler after Aurangzeb, Ahmad Shah (1748-1754): Ahmad Shah was an incompetent ruler who left the state affairs in the hands of Udham Bai, the ‘Queen Mother’. Udham Bai, given the title of Qibla-i-Alam, was a lady of poor intellect who ruled with the help of her paramour, Javid Khan (a notorious eunuch).
Source: Spectrum’s A Brief History of Modern India, Page 64.

The problem, however, lay in identifying individuals who could both improve agriculture and contract to pay the fixed revenue to the state. After a prolonged debate amongst Company officials, the Permanent Settlement was made with the rajas and taluqdars of Bengal.
They were now classified as zamindars, and they had to pay the revenue demand that was fixed in perpetuity. In terms of this definition, the zamindar was not a landowner in the village, but a revenue Collector of the state.
Source: NCERT Themes in Indian History Part 3, Page 259.