The Second Anglo-Mysore War
The terms of the treaty of 1769 were not fulfilled by the Madras Government. When the Marathas invaded Hyder’s territories in 1771, the English did not help him. This naturally offended the Mysore ruler, who remained on the look-out for an opportunity to strike once again. In 1779 he joined in a grand confederacy against the English, which was organized by the discontented Nizam and to which the Marathas, already at war with the Bombay Government, were a party. The British capture of Mahe, a small French settlement within the jurisdiction of Hyder, added to his resentment. He held that the neutrality of his kingdom had thus been violated, and declared war. Thus, as Hustings said, there was a war actual or impending in every quarter and with every power in Hindustan”. Outside India, also, France, Spain, Holland and the revolted American colonies had combined against England, and France sought to utilize this opportunity to regain her lost position in India. The Dutch in the Coromandel concluded a treaty with Hyder on the 29th July, 1781, which was ratified on the 4th September.
In July, 1780, Hyder, with about 80,000 men and 100 guns, came down upon the plains of the Carnatic “like an avalanche, carrying destruction with him”. He defeated an English detachment under Colonel Baillie and in October, 1780, seized Arcot. The situation was indeed a critical one for the Company. In the words used by Sir Alfred Lyall, “the fortunes of the English in India had fallen to their lowest water-mark “. But Warren Hustings soon sent to the south Sir Eyre Coote, the victor of Wandiwash and then Commander-in-chief in India and a member of the Supreme Council, “to stand forth and vindicate in his own person the rights and honour of British arms”. He also detached the Raja of Berar, Mahadaji Sindhia and the Nizam from alliance with Hyder. Nothing daunted by -these desertions, Hyder continued the war with his usual firmness and vigour, but Sir Eyre Coote defeated him severely at Porto Novo in 1781. The English captured Trincomali, the best harbour in Ceylon, from the Dutch in January, 1782, and their settlements in India, such as Negapatam (in November 1781), Sadras and Pulicat in South India and those in Bengal and Bihar by the end of 1781. An English force under Colonel Braithwaite was. however, defeated by the Mysore troops. Early in 1782 a French squadron under the command of Admiral Suffren appeared in Indian waters, and in the month of February next Du Chemin came with 2,000 men under his command. After some indecisive engagements of the English with the French and the Mysore troops, active hostilities ceased with the commencement of the rainy season. Hyder was not destined to fight any longer. The fatal effects of cancer resulted in his exit from this world at an advanced age on the 7th December, 1782. On the English side, Coote had retired owing to ill-health, leaving General Stuart in command of the Company’s troops. He died at Madras in April. 1783.
Hyder was one of the ablest personalities in the history of India, who rose from obscurity to power during the distractions of the eighteenth century. A completely self-made man, he was endowed with strong determination, admirable courage, a keen intellect and a retentive memory, which more than counterbalanced his lack of the ability to read and write. Cool, sagacious, and intrepid in the field, he was remarkably tactful and vigorous in matters of administration, and had all business of the State transacted before his eyes with regularity and quickness. Easily accessible to all, he had the wonderful capacity of giving attention to various subjects at the same time without being distracted by any one of these. It would be unfair to describe him as an “absolutely un- scrupulous” man, who “had no religion, no morals, and no com- passion”, as Dr. Smith has done. Though he did not strictly follow the external observances of his religion, he had a sincere religious conscience, and Wilks has described him as the “most tolerant” of all Muhammadan princes. Bowring gives a fair estimate of him in the following words: “. . . he was a bold, an original, and an enterprising commander, skilful in tactics and fertile ‘in resources, full of energy and never desponding in defeat. He was singularly faithful to his engagements, and straight-forward in his policy towards the British. Notwithstanding the severity of his – internal rule, and the terror which he inspired, his name is always mentioned in Mysore with respect if not with admiration. While the cruelties which he sometimes practised are forgotten, his prowess and success have an abiding place in the memory of the people.” Hyder’s modern India biographer justly remarks that”an ALLtocratic soldier-ruler”, he “was a very successful administrators.
Tipu, as brave and warlike as his father, continued the war against the English. Brigadier Mathews, appointed by the Bombay Government to the supreme command, was captured with all his men by Tipu in 1783. On the 23rd June of the same year news of a peace between the English and the French reached India Colonel Fullarton captured Coimbatore in November, 1783, and intended to fall upon Tipu’s capital, Seringapatam, but he was recalled by the Authorities at Madras, where Lord Macartney had been eager for a peace with Tipu since his arrival as Governor and had sent envoys to his camp. Thus the Treaty of Mangalore was concluded in March, 1784, on the basis of mutual restitution of conquests and liberation of the prisoners. Warren Hastings did not like the terms of the treaty in the least and exclaimed, “What a man is this Lord Macartney! I yet believe that, in spite of the peace, he will effect the loss of the Carnatic.”
The Third Anglo-Mysore War
Lord Cornwallis (1786-1793) came to India bound by Pitts India Act to refrain from following a policy of war and conquest, except for purely defensive purposes. But he soon came to realise that it was not possible to follow strictly the injunctions of the said Act, which, as he expressed it, was “attended with the un-‘ avoidable inconvenience of our (the Company’s) being constantly exposed to the necessity of commencing a war without having previously secured the assistance of efficient allies”.’ Taking into consideration the facts of international politics, he rightly believed that Anglo-French hostility in Europe was bound to have its repercussions in India and that Tipu, allying himself with the French, would surely strike once more against the English. “I look upon a rupture with Tipu”, he wrote to Malet, Resident at Poona, in March, 1789, “as a certain and immediate consequence of a war with France, and in that event a vigorous co-operation of the Marathas would certain be of the utmost importance to our interests in the country.
As a matter of fact, the Treaty of Mangalore was nothing but a “hollow truce”. Tipu also knew that the renewal of hostilities with the English %,aa inevitable, because both were aiming at political supremacy over the Deccan. A ruler like Tipu could hardly remain satisfied with the arrangement of 1784. He tried to enlist for him.,;elf the support of France and of Constantinople, and sent envoys to both places in 1787; but he received only “promises of future help and no active assistance for the present”.
1Letter to Malet, 28th February.90, Forest, State Papers about cornwallis, Vol III, p.101
