C P Brown: India in 1800s

5. INDIA IN 1800-1900

Even the strongest and fastest animals approach their prey stealthily, what to adding cunning, and deceit to their hunting technique.

Britain’s ideas to deal with India took shape as in the mind of a jackal, which stealthily approaches its prey, makes a plan and deftly executes it. Thus first Bengal, then Andhra, then Mysore, and then Marathas, and finally Delhi stealthily with “the book in a hand, and the sword in the other.” as Eliot said. They knew, that a gigantic nation like ours cannot be ruled indefinitely, hence the deception. The missionaries had direct access to the governors, could boss over the collectors. They were EVERYWHERE. Free schools were the breeding grounds of Christian conversion germs. A fifth column so to say.

India could fight the Muslims gallantly all the time. But the British Dr. Jekylls, masked their Hydes and the criminal duplicity, deception, dishonest dealings, till it was too late for us to fight.
Thus they groom a Mirjafer and kill him; they befriend the Nizam and grab his territory, they pose as saviours of a language buy off thousands of manuscripts, talk of dead languages and claim to have resurrected theme. These are the techniques of onslaught on a culture we were not even aware of – not even today. Finally they tell us that we were a pack of quarrelling children who cannot even rule ourselves, and leave us after a destructive – division with a “deja vue” smirk on their face.

Sultanates - 1200 to 1526
Let us see the events, leading to the British changing their role as Traders to Owners of the shop, so beautifully expressed by Holland Carter.

GHORI in 1200 A.D. was the first to establish some sort of hegemony in Hindostan NOT Ghazni IN 1066. This was followed by Sultanates. .

But the Mongols continually threatened northern India, harassing the Sultanate, and the Khiljis in power in 1290. In 1296 Alauddin Khilji attacked Devagiri and in 1306 Khilji mounted an expedition to the southeast, which had been unsuccessful. Gujarat, Chitor, and Devagiri broke away from the Sultanate in Ala-Ud-din’s time itself. MALIK KAFIR reached up to Madura, Tanjore but returned without establishing himself. The dream of empire by Khiljis had come to and end with small pockets of power.

Centres of Sufism started already and The Sultanate was suspicious of them, as they were Hinduism based.

The peninsula then awoke to the existence of a new power in northern India.

In 1334 The Pandyan kingdom (Madurai) rejected finally the authority of the Sultanate. Similar moves by Warangal resulted in the coastal regions of the south becoming independent more or less till the advent of the British.

In 1336 the kingdom of Vijayanagara was founded, and for the next two centuries it became the dominant power in the south.

MOGHULS 1526 – 1727
In 1509, Rana Sanga of Mewar began to defy the power of Delhi. Sanga contemplated an attack on Delhi and allied with Babur against Ibrahim Lodi. Sanga believed that this would enable him to take the capital, and later dispense with Babur and inherit the Sultanate. [This fact of history shows not only how insignificant the LODI’s power was and how well aware the Rajputs were of events around besides their desire to put the MUSLIM rule to an end] Trouble from Gujarat, however, prevented Sanga from keeping his part of the agreement, and the battle at Panipat ended in a victory for Babur. What was worse for Sanga was the realization that Babur intended to stay in India and rule from Delhi. The alliance broke on this, and in 1527 Sanga was defeated. And after his death Mewar gradually sank to a minor state.

The kingdom of Kashmir remained independent of the Sultanate until it was annexed by the Mughuls. Sind retained independence, the desert of Thar being a barrier to communications with Rajasthan and Delhi. The Arabs who conquered Sind in the eighth century, after the reverses they met with, lost interest in enlarging their Indian possessions. During the Sultanate Sind was ruled by obscure tribes, until it came under Mughul control in the sixteenth century.
[The picture that emerges from above shows unambiguously that the rule of Delhi established around 1200 by Ghory was never effective any where in the North beyond Ravi, and South of Narmada, or East of Ghogra or West into Afghanistan. To talk of whole of India under Moslem rule is therefore a British creation. In other words not even 25% of India was under the Sultanate or the Lodis, or the Slave dynasty.]

Moghul Advances
Defeat of Lodi, in 1526 by Babur started afresh movements into the South and it is around 1560’s they had hegemony but Shivaji had 200000 men and gave no rest to Moghuls from 1623 itself Aurangazeb died in 1707 and Delhi was itself surrounded by Marathas and allies. Thus the Moghul power was only from 1566 to 1727, 200 years with no rest to Aurangazeb from 1680’s. Why then do we write of 1000 years of Muslim rule? Who wrote it first? Is it not a move to denigrate the valiant Indians?

Nizam – Maratha pact, in 1719 signifies nullification of Bahamanis. Gujarat, Malwa, Aurangabad, Berar, Khandesh, Bidar, Golconda and Bijapur were under the Holkar from 1719-1820’s. Ultimately it is Fall of Maratha Empire laid the Foundation of the British in India in 1808.
The Marathas dominate the Indian political scene through out the century. 1710 to 1808. Viswanath was called the second founder of the Maratha state. India, which was one of the wealthiest countries in the world, sank to the position of one of the poorest in the world soon after the advent of the British, directly attributable to their greed.

Field Marshal Montgomery; extolling the superior acumen of the Marathas in warfare, writes in “A History of Warfare.1968,” discusses the Battle of Palkhed as an action which was fought in the style of Mongols and the original Turkish invaders of India – as a master piece of strategic mobility. Hyder Ali’s movement from MADRAS to VANDAVAS, was described in detail by Maj BRAHMA in a use journal. For “Surprise”, “a Mobility” and concentration it was a unique operation reminding one of Napoleonic brilliance.

In the 16th century Moghuls wrested the sovereignty from the Afghans {before entering India} but in 18th century Moghuls themselves got dismembered.

Balaji Rao (1740 - 1761). Sindias, Holkers, Pawars and Jadhavs. Zenith of Maratha power, aimed to bring all India under Maratha influence or Paramountcy, to free the sacred Hindu places in North from Muslims.

Sadashiv Rao Bhau’s ideal was India for the Indians. {Who taught India had no idea of a nation?} The country up to Attack or the Indus was to be governed by Indians themselves, not by Turks or Moghuls. Persians or Afghans. Representing the Peshwa, he wanted to defend the Mughul Empire from the internal and external enemies from 1752. He received authority from the emperors and Vazirs for this purpose throughout India.

1782: As a result of the agreement, Sindia obtained the executive authority of the Mughul Empire such as it was, the command of the imperial army and of the two provinces of Delhi and Agra. The Marathas realized their long-cherished dream of ruling from Delhi and Mahadji Sindia after reducing Chitorgarh and restoring it to its rightful owner marched to the Deccan. He was now the master of Hindustan and he wanted to draw full support for himself from his master the Peshwa and put an end to the sniping of the minister.

“From Gujarat to Jammu, and from Attack to Rohilkhand, there is no power but Sindhia and the Sikhs, everything else is but a name. If they should dispute, the contest will be serious and important: should they unite, their strength will be irresistible”. (This should be noted by those who want to present the British as a dominant power from 1700 or earlier.)

Mahadji’s death brought all powers into the hands of Nana Phadnis, which he directed, against the Nizam, the festering ulcer of the Maratha state. The Nizam was defeated and lost half his kingdom. Later it is this Nizam who ceded a lot of his area and got the British in.

Unfortunately at this juncture the PESHWA requested British help and the English determined to be the dominant power on the Indian continent were too willing to give such help to the Peshwa. They took the Peshwa under their protective wings and asked the Maratha confederates to abide by the treaty they made with the Peshwa. Sindia understood that the treaty spelt an end of his supremacy and evaded reply to gain time to build an alliance with Bhosle and Holkar against the English.

The British would not put up with the delay and declared war on him. At the same time, they issued a proclamation asking Sindia’s European officers (about 300) to leave him. (Namak Harami and treachery starts!) In two sanguinary battles fought at Assaye (23 September, 1803) and at Argaon (28 November), Sindia’s French-trained campoos in the Deccan were soundly beaten.

In the northern theatre his general Perron (another traitor) abandoned the army at the eleventh hour and the leaderless host was almost annihilated by the English C-in-C, Lord Lake, in the battles of Aligarh (4 September), Delhi (11 September) and Laswari (1st November 1803). In twelve weeks’ fighting Sindia’s army numbering 43,000 infantry, 35,000 cavalry and 464 guns were destroyed. (One has to imagine the bravery of the soldiery, mostly of the sudras, led by the Brahmins, Kshatras, so where are the inter caste feuds?) By the treaty of Sarje Anjangaon concluded on 30 December, 1803, Sindia “ceded to the Company all his forts, territories and rights in the country situated between the Jamuna and the Ganga, also his territories with forts in the countries to the northward of those of the Rajas of Jaipur and Jodhpur. What Scindia ceded is about equal to half of Europe.

Typical Maratha administration
The success of Ahalya Bai Holkar in the internal administration of her domains was altogether remarkable for the Maharashtra Dharma in a wider perspective. If only all Marathas emulated Ahalya Bai and succeeded in evolving good and just administration in their northern conquests the people of Hindustan might have gladly accepted their rule. So efficient were the relations, which Ahalya Bai established with foreign powers (Muslims?) that her territories were rarely invaded during her lifetime. {What is to be noted is that a unity of the Sikhs, Afghans, and the Marathas, was planned and who talks of inter religious feuds?}

It is in this century, 1700 – 1800, when in the Bengal famine of 1770 nearly a third of the population was swept away. The tragic signs of the British rule who were in Bengal, ruining it from day one after, the Plassey in 1757 were becoming evident.

The outbreak of the First Anglo-Maratha War effected a radical change in the policy of the Marathas who projected a rapprochement with Haidar in the beginning of February 1780. {Where is Hindu/Muslim religious feud?} Nana’s diplomatic genius brought about a coalition of Indian powers consisting of the Peshwa. Bhosle, the Nizam and Haidar ‘Ali, which threatened to shake the very foundations of British power in India. (Look at the biographers of CPB talking of Religious bigotry, feuds, caste ridden, superstitious moribund society etc.)

Though the British neutrality seemed to be threatened by the reported move of a coalition between Tipu and the Marathas to be directed against the Nizam, the British, who were with Nizam realised, that carrying on a war against the united forces of the Marathas and Tipu, will be a disaster. Their paramount object was to preserve inviolate the British dominion.

After the defeat of Sindia and Bhosle, Yashwant Rao Holkar tried to raise a coalition of Indian rulers and entered into secret correspondence with the Rajas of Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur, Begam Samru, the Punjab chiefs Rao Singh, Mir Singh, Gurpal Singh, Banga Singh and Jadu Singh. Yashwant sent an envoy to Daulat Rao on 5 February 1804, in order to persuade him to withdraw from the British alliance. {Indians had no vision, the history teaches}

‘Little flickers of sympathetic revolt burned in Indore’. Young Malhar Rao Holdar III, his brave widowed sister Bhima Bai, Vithoji Holkar’s son Hari Rao Holkar, and Ramdin fought with desperate courage at Mahidpur on 21 December 1817, and suffered a decisive defeat. Their artillerymen stood to their guns till they were bayoneted. Malhar Rao, seated on an elephant shed tears on seeing his troops routed.

Negotiations for peace were opened by Malcolm with Tantia Jog. By the subsidiary treaty of Mandasor (6 January, 1818), Malhar Rao Holkar III agreed to accept the British suzerainty, limit his troops to three thousand, maintain a British subsidiary force, submit all his foreign affairs to the arbitration of the Company, renounce all rights to the territories of Mir Khan and to all of Holkar’s territory north to Bundi (shows the extraordinary extant) and South of the Satpura range. {1818 thus is the date of British supremacy and their greed generated Famines.}
The Ceded Districts: acquired by the British in 1800 by treaty with the Nizam south of the Krishna and the Tungabhadra. Sir Thomas (then Major) Munro was their first Principal Collector, now constitute the Anantapur district and of the Rayadurg taluk of Bellary district and the two Collectorates of Bellary and Cuddapah. In 1800, there were scattered throughout the area, exclusive of the Nizam’s troops, about 30,000 armed persons all of whom were under the command of about eighty pale gars, subsisting normally by rapine and excesses. True? Or a British view?)

The Northern Sircars Ganjam, Vizagapatam, Godavari and Guntur (acquired from the Nizam in 1766, as Chicacole, Rajahmundry, Ellore and Mustafanagar and Murtizanagar (Sarkars); Krishna had been acquired in 1793 (as Masulipatam Sarkar); and Palnad from the Nawab of the Karnatak in 1801. (One most important issue which is not spelt out in the Indian history is that the British came as traders, were allowed to have armed forces against their fellow whites the French, Portuguese etc. It is not like their wars with France, in Europe these wars therefore were not called for illegal, and are the greatest treachery in the history of Mankind) Some were employed as mercenaries, as colonels or Generals and yet they stabbed their own employers, a namak harami which is the greatest crime in Indian Dharma. This is another mode of corruption imported by them besides bribery, wine and women.

It is therefore clear that the British rule was from 1820to 1935, a period of just a hundred years. After 1935, with the provincial governments, and 536-swadeshi rulers degure controlling 35% of India, none can say we were under British hegemony. The Second World War, and the process of Independence followed in quick succession.

In those 115 years they wrote and rewrote Indian history, which we teach even today resisting to change an iota of it even when we know it is blatantly one sided. We continue to teach that we were enslaved for three centuries {instead of 115 years} by the British, 1000 years {as against 200 years} under the Muslims .It is never taught that man to man we, the Muslim as well as the Hindu soldiery was far superior to the Englishman who had not even one operation of bravery in all their History. Even in the II World War in MOWGONG in BURMA 326 Gorkhas died. Even 200 Magi not line is another story or Napoleons melting of his Grand Army is another event.

They are not of bravery but this judged affairs.