Carnatic Wars - English and French - 1746-1763 AD
In Madras the long wars between the British and the French were at last concluded by the Peace of Paris in 1763. The eventful history of these wars has been often told. It was a momentous struggle for the possession of Southern India. It was a contest between Dupleix, who began the construction of a French empire, and Robert Clive, who demolished that unfinished structure. Later on, it was a patriotic and persevering endeavour made by the talented Bussy and the impetuous Lally for saving the power of France in the East, which was finally destroyed by Eyre Coote. The Treaty of Paris finally recognised the success of England; France was never after her rival in India.
Nizam ul Mulk, originally viceroy of the Dekkan and Carnatic provinces of the empire, had since 1723 become practically independent, though, even while waging war against the emperor, he professed obedienoe to him. He claimed sovereignty over the states and principalities south of the rivers Tungabhadra and Kistna, while the Mahrattas demanded tribute from the same. Many of these states were almost independent, and their chiefs assumed the title "nawab".
The territory of the nawab of Arcot consisted of Haidarabad Payeen Ghaut, and extended, after the acquisition of Trichinopoli and Madura (1732), down to Cape Comorin. The whole of Haidarabad Carnatic Bala Ghaut enlarged to the south, formed the principality of the nawab of Kurpa (Cuddapah). In 1743 Nizam ul Mulk recognised Morari Eao, the Mahratta, as chief of Guti. The Patan chiefs of Karnul and Savanur also claimed the title nawab.
The rana of Bednor seems to have been in possession of a considerable portion of the western Ghauts and the west coast. South of Bednor were the rajas of Coorg, Travancore, Cochin, and the chiefs of Malabar, all independent. In Mysore sham rajas were nominated by Hindu and Muhammadan usurpers.7 Dindigul was acquired by this state in 1745.
The boundaries of the possessions of the Patan nawab of Savanur and the raja of Sonda, cannot be clearly ascertained. The country between Bednor, Kurpa, Mysore, Savanur, and Guti was probably subject to the chief of Sira.
The Mahrattas were continually encroaching from the north and west on the dominions of the Nizam. The frontier line to the west was ill defined. Northwards the Painganga formed (in 1751) the boundary. The districts along the east coast from the Chilka lake to the Gundakamma were called the Northern Circars. From this time the province designated Arcot on the map, begins to be called "the Carnatic," and its ruler nawab of the Carnatic or of Arcot.
This was the group of states among which the English and French competed for supremacy in India. Except for two intervals of peace, each lasting three years, the contest was carried on without intermission from 1746 to 1763.
The twenty years' struggle between the French and the English ended in 1763. The settlement of Pondicherry and a few other places were restored to the French, but the English remained supreme in Southern India. Mahomed Ali, a creature of the British, was recognised as Nawab of the Karnatic, while the immediate possessions of the British extended over some territory round Madras, and over the whole of the eastern seaboard stretching northwards to Bengal.
The character of Mahomed Ali, Nawab of the Karnatic, was the very opposite of that of his contemporary, Mir Kasim, Nawab of Bengal. Mir Kasim was a determined man and a strong ruler; Mahomed Ali was a feeble man and a luxurious prince. Mir Kasim removed his seat of government to Monghyr in order to organise his own administration away from British influence; Mahomed Ali left his own capital, Arcot, to live amidst the luxuries of the British town of Madras. Mir Kasim was a stern economist, and paid off all his pecuniary obligations to the British in two years after ho had ascended the throne; Mahomed Ali never could liquidate the claims of the Company, and drifted more and more into debt. Mir Kasim fought with the British in order to keep the inland trade of Bengal in the hands of his own subjects; Mahomed Ali made assignments of his land revenues to his British money-lenders, until virtually the whole of his territories passed into the hands of his creditors. Mir Kasim was driven out of his dominions and died an exile; Mahomed Ali lived in inglorious dependence, luxury, and debt, and died in ripe old age. A strong ruler had no place in the scheme of British dominion in the East; a weak ruler was permitted to live and to borrow, and to pay the interest out of the revenues of his kingdom.
Under the administration of this feeble potentate the Company found it easy to extend its influence and power. The Company did not stand forth as the Dewan of the Karnatic, as they had done in Bengal in 1765. On the contrary, Mahomed Ali remained nominally the Dewan or revenue administrator, as well as the Nizam or military governor, while the Company virtually enjoyed all real power. The military defence of the country was undertaken by the Company, and a part of the Nawab's revenues was assigned for this purpose. The demands of the Company increased with their wars, and the Nawab came to adopt the strange method of borrowing from the servants of the Company in order to meet the demands of the Company.
What was still more significant and fatal was the security which the Nawab offered for these private debts. Unable or unwilling to draw from his own hoards, he readily delivered up to his private creditors the revenues of his territories. The cultivators of the Karnatic passed from the rule of the Nawab's agents to the rule of British money-lenders. The crops that grew in the fields were subject to the inalienable claims of British creditors. The collections which were made by the Nawab's servants, often under coercion and the use of the whip, were handed over to the British servants of the Company in order to be remitted to Europe. The whole of the Karnatic resembled an egg-shell with its contents taken out. The fields and villages of Southern India were converted into a vast farm, and the tillers tilled and the labourers toiled in order that all the value of the produce might bo annually exported to Europe.
A double injury was thus done to the country and to the people. The Nawab's methods of collodion, though always harsh and severe, were elastic; and his demands were suited to the produce of the soil from year to year. But when his creditors appeared on the scene, the harshness of the Nawab's method was combined with the strictness and in-elasticity of the British procedure. The claims of the Nawab's creditors were strictly enforced, and the agriculturists felt a pressure which they had seldom known before. In the second place, so long as the revenues were enjoyed by the Nawab, they were spent in the country and flowed back to the people in one shape or another; but when the entire revenues of the assigned districts were claimed and obtained by the British money-lenders, they left the country once and for ever. The country became poorer, industries and trades declined.
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