The Anglo-french Struggle In South India

Because of the visible decline of Mughal power, the English East India Company's schemes of territorial conquests and political dominance, which had been thwarted by Aurangzeb at the end of the 17th century, were revived during the 1740s. 

 

•    The invasion of Nadir Shah revealed the central authority's decay. However, conditions in Western India, where the powerful Marathas ruled, and in Eastern India, where Alivardi Khan maintained strict control, were gradually becoming more favourable to foreign adventurers. 

 

•    In Southern India, however, conditions were gradually becoming more favourable to foreign adventurers. While central authority had vanished after Aurangzeb's death, Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah's strong hand had also been withdrawn by his death in 1748.

 

•    Furthermore, the Maratha chiefs invaded Hyderabad and the rest of the South on a regular basis to collect chauth. These raids left the country in a state of political unrest and administrative chaos. The Carnatic was engulfed in successional fratricidal wars.

 

•    Foreigners were able to expand their political influence and control over the affairs of the South Indian states as a result of these circumstances. 

 

•    However, the English were not the only ones who made commercial and political claims. While they had defeated their Portuguese and Dutch rivals by the end of the 17th century, France had emerged as a new adversary. From 1744 to 1763, the French and the English were locked in a bitter battle for control of India's trade, wealth, and territory.

 

•    In 1664, the French East India Company was established. After being reorganised in the 1720s, it made rapid progress and soon caught up to the English Company. It took root in Chandernagore, near Calcutta, and Pondicherry, on the East Coast. 

 

•    The latter had been fully bolstered. The French Company operated factories in a number of ports along the East and West coasts. It had also taken control of the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and Reunion.

 

•    The French East India Company was heavily reliant on the French government, which aided it in a variety of ways, including treasury grants, subsidies, and bans. As a result, after 1723, it was largely controlled by the government, which appointed its directors.

 

•    Furthermore, the nobles owned large shares in the company, and others were more concerned with quick dividends than with making the company a long-term commercial success. 

 

•    The directors were unconcerned about the success or soundness of the company's commercial ventures as long as the government provided loans and subsidies that allowed them to declare dividends. 

 

•    In another way, the Company's state control was detrimental to it. The autocratic, semi-feudal, and unpopular French state of the time was plagued by corruption, inefficiency, and instability.

 

•    It was decadent, bound by tradition, and in general unsuited to the times, rather than being forward-thinking.

 

•    In 1742, a war between France and England erupted in Europe. Rivalry over American colonies was one of the major causes of the war. Another point of contention was their trade rivalry in India. The knowledge that the Mughal Empire was disintegrating heightened the rivalry, as the prize of trade or territory was likely to be much larger than in the past. 

 

•    The conflict between the British and the French in India lasted nearly 20 years and resulted in the establishment of British power in India. Because of its superiority in trade, the English Company was the wealthier of the two. It also had superior naval capabilities. Furthermore, its Indian possessions had been held for a longer period of time and were better fortified and prosperous. As a result, the British had a material advantage.

 

•    The war between England and France in Europe quickly spread to India, where the two East India Companies clashed. The English navy captured French ships off the coast of India's south-east coast in 1745, posing a threat to Pondicherry. 

 

•    Dupleix, the French Governor-General of Pondicherry at the time, was a brilliant and imaginative statesman. The French retaliated and occupied Madras in 1746 under his brilliant leadership. This resulted in a pivotal moment in the war. The British pleaded with the Nawab of Carnatic, whose territory included Madras, to save their colony from the French. 

 

•    The Nawab agreed to intervene because he wanted to show foreign merchants that he was still in charge of his lands. He dispatched an army against the French to prevent the two foreign trading companies from fighting on his territory. 

 

•    At St. Thome on the banks of the Adyar River, the Nawab's 10,000-strong army clashed with a small French force of 230 Europeans and 700 Indian soldiers trained along Western lines. The Nawab was soundly beaten. Because of their superior equipment and organisation, Western armies had a huge advantage over Indian armies in this battle. 

 

•    The Indian pike, like the Western musket and bayonet, was no match for the Western artillery, nor was the Indian cavalry. The large but poorly disciplined and unwieldy Indian armies were no match for the smaller but more disciplined Western armies.

 

•    The general war between England and France ended in 1748, and Madras was returned to the English as part of the peace settlement. Even though the war was over, the rivalry in trade and over India's possessions persisted and had to be resolved one way or the other. 

 

•    Furthermore, the war had exposed the Indian government's and armies' weaknesses, and thus fully aroused the cupidity of both companies for territorial expansion in India.

 

•    Dupleix decided to put what he had learned in the recent war with the Nawab of Carnatic to good use. He devised a strategy of intervening in the mutual quarrels of the Indian princes with the well-trained, modern French army and, by supporting one against the other, securing monetary, commercial, or territorial favours from the victor.

 

•    As a result, he planned to use the local rajas, nawabs, and chiefs' resources and armies to serve the French Company's interests and drive the English out of India. 

 

•    The only roadblock to this strategy's success could have been Indian rulers' refusal to allow such foreign intervention. The Indian rulers, on the other hand, were guided by a narrow-minded pursuit of personal ambition and gain, rather than patriotism. They had no qualms about inviting foreigners to assist them in settling accounts with their internal rivals.

 

•    In 1748, a situation arose in the Carnatic and Hyderabad that allowed Dupleix's intrigue skills to shine. Chanda Sahib began plotting against the Nawab, Anwaruddin, in the Carnatic, while Asaf Jah, Nizam-ul-Mulk, died in Hyderabad, sparking civil war between his son Nasir Jang and his grandson Muzaffar Jang. 

 

•    Dupleix took advantage of the situation and signed a secret treaty with Chanda Sahib and Muzaffar Jang, offering his well-trained French and Indian forces to assist them. In a battle at Ambur in 1749, the three allies defeated and killed Anwaruddin. 

 

•    Muhammad Ali, the latter's son, fled to Trichinopoly. The rest of the Carnatic was ruled by Chanda Sahib, who rewarded the French by granting them 80 villages in the Pondicherry area.

 

•    The French were also successful in Hyderabad. Nasir Jang was assassinated, and Muzaffar Jang was named Viceroy of the Deccan. The new Nizam rewarded the French Company with lands near Pondicherry as well as the famous town of Masulipatam. 

 

•    He gave the Company Rs. 500,000 and the Company's troops another Rs. 500,000. Dupleix was given Rs. 2,000,000 and a yearly jagir of Rs. 100,000. He was also appointed honorary Governor of Mughal dominions on the East coast, from the Krishna River to Kanyakumari. 

 

•    Dupleix stationed his best officer, Bussy, with a French army in Hyderabad. “While the ostensible goal of this arrangement was to protect the Nizam from enemies, the true goal was to keep French influence at his court. Muzaffar Jang was killed inadvertently while marching towards his capital. Salabat Jang, Nizam-ul-third Mulk's son, was immediately elevated to the throne by Bussy. 

 

•    In exchange, the new Nizam gave the French the Northern Circars region of Andhra Pradesh, which included the four districts of Mustafanagar, Ellore, Rajahmundry, and Chicacole.

 

•    The French power in South India had reached its pinnacle, and Dupleix's plans had come to fruition beyond his wildest dreams. The French began by attempting to win Indian states as friends; they eventually turned them into clients or satellites.

 

•    The English, on the other hand, had not been silent spectators of their rivals' successes in order to counter French influence and increase their own; Nasir Jang and Muhammad Ali had piqued their interest. They decided to put all of their weight behind Muhammad Ali in 1750. 

 

•    A young clerk in the Company's service proposed attacking Arcot, the Carnatic capital, to relieve French pressure on Muhammad Ali, who was besieged at Trichinopoly. Clive assaulted and occupied Arcot with only 200 English and 300 Indian soldiers after the proposal was accepted. Chanda Sahib and the French were forced to raise the siege of Trichinopoly, as was expected; however, the French forces were repeatedly defeated. 

 

•    Chanda Sahib was quickly apprehended and killed. The French fortunes were at an all-time low, as their army and generals had proven to be inept in comparison to their English counterparts.

 

•    Dupleix tried valiantly to turn the tide of French misfortunes. However, he received little support from the French government or even the French East India Company's higher authorities. 

 

•    Furthermore, high-ranking French officials, military and naval commanders, and Dupleix were constantly at odds. Finally, weary of the high cost of the war in India and fearful of losing its American colonies, the French government began peace negotiations and agreed in 1754 to the English demand for the recall of Dupleix from India. The French Company's fortunes in India were to be severely harmed as a result of this.

 

•    When another war between England and France broke out in 1756, the temporary peace between the two Companies came to an end. The English were able to gain control of Bengal right at the start of the war.

 

•    Following this event, the French cause in India seemed doomed. Bengal's vast resources tipped the scales decisively in the English's favour. Even though the French government made a determined effort to drive the English out of India this time, sending a large force led by Count de Lally, it was in vain. 

 

•    The French fleet was chased out of Indian waters, and the Carnatic forces were defeated. Furthermore, the English took over as Nizam's protectors from the French, securing Masulipatam and the Northern Circars for him. On 22 January 1760, at Wandiwash, the English General Eyre Coot defeated Lally in the decisive battle. The French had lost all their possessions in India within a year.

 

•    With the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the war came to an end. The French factories in India were rebuilt, but they could no longer be fortified or garrisoned adequately. They could only function as trade hubs, and the French were now residing in India under British protection. 

 

•    Their dream of establishing an empire in India had come to an end. The Indian Ocean, on the other hand, was ruled by the English. They could now begin the task of conquering India, free of all European rivals.

 

 

1.    First, they could advance their political schemes by exploiting the Indian rulers' mutual quarrels in the absence of nationalism in the country. 

 

2.    Second, it was demonstrated that Western trained infantry, whether European or Indian, armed with modern weapons and supported by artillery could easily defeat old style Indian armies in pitched battles

 

3.    Third, it was demonstrated that Indian soldiers trained and armed in the European manner made as good soldiers as European soldiers. And, because the Indian soldier lacked a sense of national identity, he could be hired and employed by anyone willing to pay him well. The English set out to build a powerful army made up of Indian soldiers known as sepoys and led by English officers.

 

4.    The English East India Company entered an era of wars and territorial expansion with this army as its main weapon and the vast resources of Indian trade and territories under its command.