Lord Wellesley
The next large-scale expansion of British rule in India occurred during the Governor-Generalship of Lord Wellesly who came to India in 1798 when the British were locked in a life and death struggle with France all over the world.
Till then, the British had followed the policy of consolidating their gains and resources in India and making territorial gains only when it could be done safely. Lord Wellesley decided that the time was ripe for bringing as many Indian states as possible under British control. By 1797, the two strongest Indian powers, Mysore and the Marathas, had declined in power. Political conditions in India were favourable for expansion. Moreover, the trading and industrial classes of Britain desired further expansion in India as they had come to think that British goods would sell in India on a large scale only when the entire country came under British control. The Company too was in favour of such a policy provided it could be pursued successfully and without adversely affecting its profits. Lastly, the British in India were determined to check French influence in India and, therefore wanted to prevent Indian states from dealing with France.
To achieve his political aims, Wellesley relied on three methods: the system of Subsidiary Alliances, outright wars, and assumption of territories of previously subordinated rulers. While the practice of helping an Indian ruler with a paid British force was quite old, it was given a definite shape by Wellesley who used it to subordinate the Indian States to the Company. Under his Subsidiary Alliance system, the ruler of the allying Indian State was compelled to accept the stationing of a British force within his territory and to pay a subsidy for its maintenance.
The Subsidiary Treaty also provided that the Indian ruler would agree to the posting at his court of a British Resident, that he would not employ any European in his service without the approval of the British, and that he would not negotiate with any other Indian ruler without consulting the Governor-General. In return the British undertook to defend the ruler from his enemies. They also promised non-interference in the internal affairs of the allied state, a promise which they seldom kept.
In reality, by signing a Subsidiary Alliance, an Indian state virtually signed away all its independence and became subservient to the Company. In addition, the system tended to bring about the internal decay of the protected state. The cost of the subsidiary force provided by the British was very high and, in fact, much beyond the paying capacity of the state. The payment was arbitrarily fixed and the high subsidy invariably disrupted the economy of the state and impoverished its people. The system of Subsidiary Alliances also led to the disbandment of the armies of the protected states. Lakhs of soldiers were deprived of their hereditary livelihood and were reduced to starvation. They resorted to theft and dacoity which posed a serious threat to law and order in the country. Moreover, the rulers of the protected states tended to neglect the interests of their people and to oppress them as they no longer feared them. They had no incentive to be good rulers as they were fully protected by the British from domestic and foreign enemies.
The Nizam of Hyderabad was the first to sign the subsidiary alliance treaty in 1798 and the Nawab of Avadh in 1801, paying a hefty sum and ceding important territories to the British for the maintenance of its armies. But when Tipu refused to sign and sent missions to France, Turkey and Afghanistan asking for help, Lord Wellesly attacked Seringapatnam in 1799 and Tipu died, defending the fort. One of the main commanders of the British army was Arthur Wellesly, later known as the Duke of Wellington who defeated Napoleon at the historic battle of Waterloo in 1815. The territories of Tipu were divided between the British, the Nizam and a reduced kingdom of Mysore was created and the Hindu raja was forced to sign the subsidiary treaty.
In 1801, Lord Wellesley forced a new treaty upon the Nawab of Carnatic compelling him to cede his kingdom to the Company in return for a handsome pension. The Madras Presidency as it existed till 1947 was created, by attaching the Carnatic to the territories seized from Tipu Sultan. The estates of the rulers of Tanjore and Surat were taken over and they were pensioned off.
The Marathas were the only major Indian power left outside the sphere of British control. Wellesley now turned his attention towards them and began interfering in their internal affairs.
The Marathas were now a divided house.’ All the wise and experienced leaders like Mahadji Sindhia, Ahalyabai Holkar and Nana Phadnis, who held the confederacy together were dead by 1800. The Peshwa was Baji Rao II and the Maratha sardars, Holkar and Sindhia were locked in a combat for influence over the Peshwa. When Holkar defeated the combined armies of Sindhia and the Peshwa in 1802, the Peshwa ran to the British for help and signed the Treaty of Bassein, agreeing to all the terms of the Subsidiary Alliance. This betrayal greatly hurt the Maratha pride and Sindhia, Holkar and Bhonsle decided to fight the British. But poor coordination and mutual animoisty led to the British winning a series, of battles in Central India bringing Sindhia and Bhonsle to their knees. Delhi was also captured and the Mughal Emperor once again bécame a pensioner of the company.
The Maratha allies sued for peace and became subsidiary allies of the Company. They ceded part of their territories to the British, admitted British Residents to their courts and promised not to employ any Europeans without British approval. The Peshwa became a disgruntled puppet in the hands of the British.
Wellesley now turned his attention towards Holkar Yeshwant Rao Holkar, using traditional Maratha tactics of mobile warfare and in alliance with the Jats, fought British armies. to a standstill. Holkar’s ally, the Raja of Bharatpur, inflicted heavy losses on Lord Lake who unsuccessfully attempted to storm his fort. Meanwhile, the shareholders of the Company discovered that the policy of expansion through war was proving costly and was reducing their profits. British statesmen and the Directors of the Company felt that time had come to check further expansion and more attention should be paid to consolidation of Britain’s recent gains in India. Wellesley was therefore recalled from India and the Company made peace with Holkar in January 1806 by the Treaty of Rajghat giving back to the latter the greater part of his territories. Wellesley’s expansionist policy had resulted in the East India Company becoming the paramount power in India.
The Second Anglo-Maratha War had shattered the power of the Maratha chiefs but not their spirit. The loss of their freedom annoyed them and they made a desperate last attempt to regain their independence in 1817. The lead in organising a united front of the Maratha chiefs was taken by the Peshwa who was smarting under the rigid control of the British Resident.
The Peshwa attacked the British Residency at Poona in November 1817 while Appa Sahib Bhonsle of Nagpur attacked the Residency at Nagpur, and Madhav Rao Holkar made preparations for war.
The Governor-General, Lord Hastings, struck back with characteristic vigour. He compelled Sindhia to accept British suzerainty, and defeated the armies of the Peshwa, Bhonsle and Holkar. The Peshwa was dethroned and pensioned off at Bithur near Kanpur. His territories were annexed and the enlarged Presidency of Bombay brought into existence. Holkar and Bhonsle accepted subsidiary forces and ceded to the Company large tracts of their territories. To satisfy Maratha pride, the small kingdom of Satara was created and given to a descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji who ruled it as a complete dependent of the British.
The Rajputana states had been dominated for several decades by Sindhia and Holkar. After their downfall, they were too weak to rule independently and so readily accepted British supremacy.
Thus, by 1818, the entire Indian sub-continent excepting the Punjab and Sindh had been brought under British control. Part of it was ruled directly by the British and the rest by a host of Indian rulers over whom the British exercised paramount power.
The British completed the task of conquering the whole of India from 1818 to 1857. Sindh and the Punjab were conquered and Avadh, the Central Provinces and other petty states were annexed.
The conquest of Sindh occurred as a result of the growing Anglo-Russian rivalry in Europe and Asia and the consequent British fears that Russia might attack India through Afghanistan. To counter Russia, the British Government decided to increase its influence in Afghanistan. It further felt that this policy could be successfully pursued only if Sindh was brought under British control. The commercial possibilities of the river Indus were an additional attraction. The chiefs of Sindh, known as Amirs, were made to sign a Subsidiary Treaty in 1839. And finally, in spite of previous assurances that its territorial integrity would be respected, Sindh was annexed in 1843 after a brief campaign by Sir Charles Napier, who was sent there for this purpose.
The death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in June 1839 was followed by political instability in Punjab where selfish and corrupt leaders came to the front. Ultimately, power fell into the hands of the brave and patriotic but an undisciplined army. This led the British to look greedily across the Sutlej though they had signed a treaty of perpetual friendship with Ranjit Singh in 1809.
The British now assumed warlike postures like appointing an agent who was hostile to the Sikhs, at Ludhiana and building up additional troops on the border with Punjab. Peeved by these moves, the Punjab army declared war but were defeated due to treachery by the Prime Minister Lal Singh and the commander Tej Singh.
The Punjab Army was forced to sign the humiliating Treaty of Lahore in March, 1846. The British annexed the Jullundhar Doab and handed over Jammu and Kashmir to Raj Gulab Singh Dogra. Later, on 16 December 1846, another treaty was signed giving the British Resident at Lahore full authority over all matters in every department of the state which made him the real ruler of the Punjab which lost its independence and became a vassal state.
But the British were still unsatisfied, for they wanted to impose direct British rule over the Punjab. Their opportunity came in 1848 when the Punjabis rose up in numerous local revolts. Two of the prominent revolts were led by Mulraj at Multan and Chattar Singh near Lahore. The Punjabis were once again decisively defeated. Lord Dalhousie seized this opportunity to annex the Punjab and. the last independent state of India was absorbed in the British Empire of India.