British Expansion: Mysore, Marathas, Sikhs and the Policies of Annexation

From Bengal to the subcontinent

After 1765 the Company had a secure revenue base in Bengal. Over the next ninety years it expanded through war, diplomacy and legal devices until, by 1856, almost the whole subcontinent was under direct British rule or controlled through dependent princely states. The main rivals were Mysore, the Marathas and the Sikhs. UPSC asks about the treaties that ended each war, the Subsidiary Alliance of Wellesley and the Doctrine of Lapse of Dalhousie. Learn them as a table of war – governor-general – treaty – outcome.

Mysore under Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan

Hyder Ali, a soldier in the service of the Wodeyar rulers, became the real ruler of Mysore around 1761. He built a modern army with French help, set up an arsenal at Dindigul, and expanded his territory. His son Tipu Sultan (ruled 1782–99) continued the struggle.

Tipu Sultan was a modernising ruler:

• He introduced a new calendar, coinage and system of weights and measures.
• He planted a "Tree of Liberty" at Srirangapatna and is said to have become a member of the Jacobin Club, showing interest in the French Revolution.
• He sent embassies to France, Turkey and Afghanistan.
• He developed iron-cased rockets (the Mysorean rockets), which influenced British rocket design.
• He tried to build a navy and set up state trading factories.

Historians debate his religious policy: he gave grants to temples such as Sringeri, while some campaigns in Malabar and Coorg were harsh.

The Marathas

After the Third Battle of Panipat (1761), in which Ahmad Shah Abdali defeated the Marathas, Maratha power revived under Peshwa Madhav Rao I and Mahadji Scindia, who controlled Delhi and the Mughal emperor in the 1780s. But the confederacy (Peshwa at Pune, Scindia of Gwalior, Holkar of Indore, Gaikwad of Baroda, Bhonsle of Nagpur) was divided by rivalries.

After 1818 the British became the paramount power in India.

The Sikhs and Punjab

Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780–1839) united the Sikh misls and captured Lahore (1799). He signed the Treaty of Amritsar (1809) with the British, accepting the Sutlej as the boundary of his kingdom. He built the modern Khalsa army with European officers, conquered Multan (1818), Kashmir (1819) and Peshawar (1834), and owned the Koh-i-Noor diamond. After his death, Punjab fell into instability.

The Subsidiary Alliance (Lord Wellesley, 1798)

Wellesley (1798–1805) used the Subsidiary Alliance to bring Indian states under control without the cost of war. An allied state had to:

1. Accept a British force stationed in its territory and pay for it (in cash or by ceding territory).
2. Keep a British Resident at its court.
3. Not employ any other European without British approval.
4. Not make war or alliances with other states without British consent.

In return the British promised to protect the state from external attack and not interfere in internal matters (a promise often broken).

The first state to accept was Hyderabad (1798). Others included Mysore (1799), Tanjore (1799), Awadh (1801), the Peshwa (1802), the Bhonsle (1803) and the Scindia (1804). The Indian state lost its independence and army, became financially drained, and its ruler often became careless about administration, knowing he was protected. The British gained a large army paid for by Indian rulers and control of foreign policy.

The Doctrine of Lapse (Lord Dalhousie, 1848–56)

Under the Doctrine of Lapse, if the ruler of a dependent state died without a natural male heir, the state "lapsed" to the British. An adopted son could inherit the ruler's personal property but not the kingdom. States annexed under it:

Dalhousie also annexed Awadh (1856) on the ground of misgovernment, not lapse, deposing Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. He refused to continue the pension of Nana Sahib, the adopted son of Baji Rao II, and abolished titles such as that of the Nawab of the Carnatic. These steps created deep resentment and became important causes of the Revolt of 1857.

Other methods: Ring Fence and Paramountcy

• Ring Fence policy (Warren Hastings): defend the frontiers of neighbours (such as Awadh) to protect Bengal, creating buffer zones.
• Policy of Subordinate Isolation (Lord Hastings, after 1813): states treated as subordinate, with the Company as paramount power.
• Wars beyond the frontier: Anglo-Nepal War (1814–16, Treaty of Sugauli), Anglo-Burmese wars (1824–26, 1852, 1885), First Afghan War (1839–42), and the annexation of Sindh (1843) under Ellenborough.

Why Indian powers lost

Indian states were not weak in courage or numbers. They lost because of disunity (the Nizam and Marathas joined the British against Tipu, and Maratha chiefs fought each other), outdated military organisation compared with the Company's disciplined, regularly paid infantry and artillery, financial strength of the Company drawn from Bengal's revenue and from Indian bankers, superior diplomacy and intelligence, and the lack of a shared idea of India as one political unit. Rulers who modernised, like Tipu and Ranjit Singh, could not build institutions that outlived them.

Mains practice question

Q. "The Subsidiary Alliance was a Trojan horse." Examine with examples. (150 words)

Framework: terms; benefit to British (army at Indian cost, control of foreign policy); impact on states (loss of sovereignty, financial ruin, misrule); examples Hyderabad, Awadh, Peshwa; leads to later annexations.

Quick self-test

1. Which treaty ended the Third Anglo-Mysore War? *(Seringapatam, 1792)*
2. Which treaty brought the Peshwa under the Subsidiary Alliance? *(Bassein, 1802)*
3. First state annexed under the Doctrine of Lapse? *(Satara, 1848)*
4. On what ground was Awadh annexed? *(Misgovernment, 1856)*