Test: Expansion & Consolidation Of British Power In India - UPSC MCQ

A war broke out in May 1790 between the English and Tipu. It was fought in three phases.

The third phase of the war began when timely aid from the Marathas with plenty of provisions helped him resume his campaign and marched against Srirangapatnam again. Tipu Sultan concluded the Treaty of Srirangapatnam with the British.

• The terms of the treaty were as follows:

• Tipu had to give up half his dominions.

• He had to pay a war indemnity of three crore rupees and surrender two of his sons as hostages to the English.

• Both sides agreed to release the prisoners of war.

• The Treaty of Srirangapatnam is a significant event in the history of South India.

• The British secured a large territory on the Malabar Coast. Besides, they obtained the Baramahal district and Dindigul. After this war, although the strength of Mysore had been reduced, it was not extinguished. Tipu had been defeated but not destroyed.

• Mysore had grown in strength under powerful rulers like Haidar Ali (from 1761-1782) and his famous son Tipu Sultan (from 1782-1799).

• Mysore controlled the profitable trade of the Malabar Coast where the Company purchased pepper and cardamom.

• In 1785, Tipu Sultan stopped the export of sandalwood, pepper and cardamom through his kingdom's ports and disallowed local merchants from trading with the Company.

• He also established a close relationship with the French in India and modernised his army with their help. The British were furious.

• They saw Haidar and Tipu as ambitious, arrogant and dangerous—rulers who had to be controlled and crushed.

• Four wars were fought with Mysore (1767-1769, 1780-1784, 1790- 1792 and 1799). Only in the last—the Battle of Seringapatam—did the Company ultimately win a victory.

• Tipu Sultan was killed defending his capital Seringapatam, Mysore was placed under the former ruling dynasty of the Wodeyars, and a subsidiary alliance was imposed on the state.

• Lord William Bentinck was the first governor-general to visualize a Russian threat to India.

• Hence, he was eager to negotiate friendly relations with the ruler of Punjab, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, and the Amirs of Sind.

• His earnest desire was that Afghanistan should be made a buffer state between India and any possible invader. As an initial measure, an exchange of gifts took place between Lahore (capital of Punjab) and Calcutta (the governor's seat).

• It was then followed by the meeting of Bentinck and Ranjit Singh in 1831 at Rupar on the River Sutlej banks.

• The governor-general successfully won Ranjit Singh's friendship, and the Indus Navigation Treaty was concluded between them. This treaty opened up the Sutlej for navigation.

• Also, a commercial treaty was negotiated with Ranjit Singh. A similar treaty was also concluded with the Amirs of Sind.

• In 1816, the Treaty of Sagauli was concluded.

• The Gurkhas gave up their claim over the Terai region and ceded Kumaon and Garhwal areas to the British.

• The British now secured the area around Shimla, and their northwestern borders touched the Himalayas.

• The Gurkhas had to withdraw from Sikkim and also agreed to keep a British Resident at Kathmandu.

• It was also agreed that Nepal's kingdom would not employ any other foreigner in its services other than the English. The British had also obtained the sites of hill stations like Shimla, Mussoorie, Nainital and Ranikhet and developed them as tourist and health resorts.

• After this victory in the Gurkha War, Hastings was honoured with English peerage and became Marquis of Hastings.

• As per Article (1) of Convention of 1890, it was agreed that the boundary of Sikkim and Tibet should be the crest of the mountain range separating the waters flowing into the Sikkim Teesta, and its effluents from the waters flowing into the Tibetan Mochu and northwards into other rivers of Tibet.

• The line commences at Mount Gipmochi on the Bhutan frontier and follows the parting of water to the point where it meets Nepal territory. However, Tibet refused to recognize the validity of the Convention of 1890 and further refused to affect the provisions of the said Convention.

• In 1904, a treaty known as a Convention between Great Britain and Tibet was signed at Lhasa. In 1906, a treaty was signed between Great Britain and China at Peking, which confirmed 1904 between Great Britain and Tibet.

• A Russian invasion of British India through the North-West Frontier was considered real, and thus the government kept watch on the region.

• Recognizing its value to their empire, the British were tenacious in attempting to control the province, and civil resistance was met with severe repression and multiple punitive military expeditions.

• Fundamentally, the tribes of the North-West Frontier Province posed a danger not so much through their military capability but their potential, over time, to absorb scarce military and fiscal resources for little perceptible return in terms of control or adjustment of their behaviour.

• The model of British colonial rule on the North-West Frontier was based upon a strategic appreciation that allowed for a lighter administrative footprint and greater tribal autonomy.

• As time progressed, therefore, particularly post 1900, there developed an essential laissez-faire policy of the administration.

• The government became unwilling to expend resources on a barren and largely uninhabitable backwater-the reverse of today's strategic appreciation of the region because development policies were curtailed and the Indian army's role in tribal affairs was limited to coercion and little else.

• The Durand Line is the 2,430-kilometre international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. It was established in 1896 between Sir Mortimer Durand, a British diplomat and civil servant of the British Raj, and Abdur Rahman Khan, the Afghan Amir, to fix the limit of their respective spheres of influence and improve diplomatic relations and trade.

• Afghanistan was considered by the British as an independent state, although the British controlled its foreign affairs and diplomatic relations.

• The Durand Line cuts through the Pashtun tribal areas and further south through the Balochistan region, politically dividing ethnic Pashtuns and the Baloch and other ethnic groups, who live on both sides of the border.

• It demarcates Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan of northern and western Pakistan from Afghanistan's northeastern and southern provinces.

• From a geopolitical and geostrategic perspective, it has been described as one of the world's most dangerous borders.

• The British expedition to Tibet, also known as the British invasion of Tibet or the Younghusband expedition to Tibet began in December 1903 and lasted until September 1904.

• The expedition was effectively a temporary invasion by British Indian forces under the Tibet Frontier Commission's auspices, whose purported mission was to establish diplomatic relations and resolve the dispute over the border between Tibet and Sikkim.

• In the nineteenth century, the British conquered Burma and Sikkim, occupying Tibet's whole southern flank.

• The Tibetan Ganden Phodrang regime, which was then under the Qing dynasty's administrative rule, remained the only Himalayan state free of British influence.

• The expedition was intended to counter Russia's perceived ambitions in the East and was initiated largely by Lord Curzon, the British India government's head.

• Curzon had long obsessed over Russia's advance into Central Asia and now feared a Russian invasion of British India.

In April 1903, the British received clear assurances from the Russian government that it had no interest in Tibet. 'In spite, however, of the Russian assurances, Lord Curzon continued to press for the dispatch of a mission to Tibet', a high level British political officer noted.

• Paharis lived around the Rajmahal hills, subsisting on forest produce and practising shifting cultivation.

• With their base in the hills, the Paharis regularly raided the plains where settled agriculturalists lived. These raids were necessary for survival, particularly in years of scarcity.

• They were a way of asserting power over settled communities and means of negotiating political relations with outsiders. The zamindars on the plains had to often purchase peace by paying a regular tribute to the hill chiefs.

• Traders similarly gave a small amount to the hill folk to use the passes controlled by them.

• The Battle of Plassey was essentially due to the Bengal Nawab and the East India Company's conflicts.

• This is judged to be one of the pivotal battles for controlling the Indian subcontinent by colonial powers.

• The British now wielded enormous influence over the Nawab and consequently acquired significant concessions for previous losses and trade revenue.

• The British further used this revenue to increase their military might and push the other European colonial powers such as the Dutch and the French out of South Asia, thus expanding the British Empire.

• When Alivardi Khan died in 1756, Siraj udDaulah became the nawab of Bengal. The Company was worried about his power and keen on a puppet ruler who would willingly give trade concessions and other privileges.

• So it tried, though without success, to help one of Siraj ud-Daulah's rivals become the nawab.

• An infuriated Siraj ud-Daulah asked the Company to stop meddling in his dominion's political affairs, stop fortification, and pay the revenues.

• After negotiations failed, the Nawab marched with 30,000 soldiers to the English factory at Kasimbazar, captured the Company officials, locked the warehouse, disarmed all Englishmen and blockaded English ships.

• Then, he marched to Calcutta to establish control over the Company's fort there. On hearing the news of Calcutta's fall, Company officials in Madras sent forces under the command of Robert Clive, reinforced by naval fleets. Prolonged negotiations with the nawab followed. Finally, in 1757, Robert Clive led the Company's army against Siraj ud-Daulah at Plassey.

• Battle of Plassey was fought between the Company, and Siraj Ud Daulah asked the Company to stop meddling in his dominion's political affairs, stop fortification, and pay the revenues.

• Plassey is an anglicised pronunciation of Palashi, and the place derived its name from the Palash tree known for its beautiful red flowers that yield gulal, the powder used in the festival of Holi.