Why were Indian kingdoms defensive against British?

[Simple_Guy]

Indian Kingdoms freely interfered in each others affairs. They even invited foreigners to their aid. But there was no question of the British inviting outsiders to intervene in their internal matters. For example, there was no way the governor of Madras would seek the aid of outsiders in his quarrel with the governor of Bombay. There was a clear separation of powers between the rulers and the fighters. In Indian Kingdoms the fighters were the rulers. And the personal interests of the fighters was considered the same as the interests of the state.

Basically Indian Kingdoms, whether Hindu or Muslim, were at that stage where the European monarchies had been before modernisation. As explained here in Sparknotes:

Prior to the 1500s, in Europe, the nation-state as we know it did not exist. Back then, most people did not consider themselves part of a nation; they rarely left their village and knew little of the larger world. If anything, people were more likely to identify themselves with their region or local lord. At the same time, the rulers of states frequently had little control over their countries. Instead, local feudal lords had a great deal of power, and kings often had to depend on the goodwill of their subordinates to rule.

This was exactly the situation prevailing in India before the British conquest.

 

[Julian]

Basically Indian Kingdoms, whether Hindu or Muslim, were at that stage where the European monarchies had been before modernisation. As explained here in Sparknotes:



This was exactly the situation prevailing in India before the British conquest.

One difference, our rulers had less developed ideas of ethnicity like Europeans had at any period of time. It does not matter what people think, if elites are bound by some common identity, the they can resist any foreign invader on that count alone, so there was call for united action against Mongols in thirteenth century or crusades against Turks in 11th century, nothing of that sort was there in India leaving us like a prey to invaders.
It did not require common public of Punjab and Maharashtra to feel as one only that elites recognize some common bond which could have prepared them to see British as foreigner. It did not happen, for Ranjit Singh Yashwant Holkar was more a menace than British and since British were recognised as yt another player in chaotic eighteenth century India, they had a field day.

 

[Virendra]

That's a positive spin on it. Indians are ideological but just haven't found the right ideology (namely nationalism) yet - is your claim. It seems plausible at first glance but does not hold much water on reflection. Truly ideological peoples are Europeans and West Asians. I consider hardcore Islam as an ideology in its own right. I don't think I need to show why I think Europeans are ideological - I think it's clear as day. West Asians are even more ideological. Broadly speaking, you see two types of West Asians : a) hardcore islamist types, and b) ultra secular ones. Type a will pray 5 times a day and not even listen to music while type b will have premarital sex, wear modern clothes (for girls) etc... You see a certain pattern where people become extremely loyal to their ideologies. They stay true to them and shun whatever cultural baggage gets in the way of said ideological fervour. You will never find type b muslim south asians and hardly any non muslim south asians who fit type b either.
It is the destiny of Indians to muddle along. We are secular but not really. We are hindus but not really. We are right wingers but not really (many examples of this on this forum ). We are against casteism ! (But how many such people will let their daughters marry a low caste?) Look at Indian politics. It has no clear ideological boundaries. BJP and Congress are not poles apart really. The ideological boundaries seem to blur quite a bit on a great many issue. Consider FDI in retail, for one and contrast BJP's ( a right wing party) vs Congress' (purportedly left wingers) stance. Only in India, communists fight elections and align themselves with a supposedly right wing party (BJP). Indians are not ideological; neither are the Africans. Both were colonized easily. Indians have been muddling along since independence too. Our national character is to muddle along. (Wrong) Ideology can send nations to the depths of hell but (right) ideology has the capacity to lift nations to unimaginable heights too. But this is true only if the subjects are ideological. People who muddle along will sometimes improve their lot and may even do well for a while but are stuck in a valley. They will never experience the peaks.

I'm not denying that. But as far as the modern Indians are concerned. They're children of colonial occupation that lasted over a millennia.
That much time is enough to dent a society severely. So it is not going to help expecting a clear nation wide approach. There is just too much diversity, all of which was not self chosen.
Now coming to the ancients - they were certainly ideologically superior. Their achievements speak for that.
We messed up in the middle somewhere. That is also where the problems of caste etc that you mention, came up.
That is where the ground was weakened for the future invasions.

Lastly, though Islam consists of a strong ideology (it is actually more than an ideology) and the adherence to it is quite visible.
I don't think premarital sex and wearing short clothes is called an ideology; least of all an encompassing and meaningful ideology that could drive people into doing great things.

Regards,
Virendra

 

[Julian]

I'm not denying that. But as far as the modern Indians are concerned. They're children of colonial occupation that lasted over a millennia.

Colonial occupation in fact was responsible for creating many identities which should have been there but our ancestors could not think . As someone put it brilliantly and yet briefly,'' It was as a result of Muslim shock that we became Hindus, and it was as a result of British shock that we became Indians".

That much time is enough to dent a society severely. So it is not going to help expecting a clear nation wide approach. There is just too much diversity, all of which was not self chosen.

Agree with diversity part but many of them was indeed chosen, ancient Indians respected local languages, local customs of conquered territories which meant that even if some area is conquered, resultant unity would not be there.

Now coming to the ancients - they were certainly ideologically superior. Their achievements speak for that.

I do not know in which sense you use ideology but our achievements are greater in abstract sciences , in rest we were a bit behind other Eurasian civilizations and we suffered foreign rule of centuries even in ancient period like occupation of Gujarat and parts of Madhya Pradesh by barbaric yet valiant scythians and subjugation of entire Pakistan and Gangetic plains by Kushans.

We messed up in the middle somewhere. That is also where the problems of caste etc that you mention, came up.
That is where the ground was weakened for the future invasions.

Is this a joke? Caste in ancient India was there and if you read some standard books you would find it as harsh as nineteenth century one. A jatak story set during opening centuries of common era, tells us how bad condition of chandals was there. When they approached city gates, some girls saw them and taking it as bad omen washed their eyes with rosewater, the crowd beat up the poor creatures( after I read this, I wished if I could go back through timemachine and beat those inhuman fellows). In another instance, two of them disguised themselves and went to Taxila for studies, their caste origin was found out, were mercilessly beaten and went to forests dying in due time.
Gautamiputra Satkarni after defeating many foreign armies boasted that he stopped inter mixing of various castes. Infact, if one reads literature of that time , one gets that it was under foreign rulers that caste was lax, those areas which did have it remained free so this gives a drubbing to claims of caste system and military decline. I oppose inhuman system as it was ethically wrong not because of its alleged contribution to foreign slavery.

I don't think premarital sex and wearing short clothes is called an ideology; least of all an encompassing and meaningful ideology that could drive people into doing great things.

Right, those who do it very quickly adopt Islamic codes like Angelina Jolie in Pakistan and very idea that it can make us strong is utter nonsense.

 

[Simple_Guy]

Rajput battles against British​

Something similar was seen in India. But it was a formation of cavalry, called "Gol" in Rajasthan. "When the gol is formed and the lances are couched, the signal of onset is the shout of ' Jai Brajnathji ! ' ' Victory to Brajnath ! ' and many a glorious victory and many a glorious death has he witnessed."

It was used in a battle against the British:

The British troops rapidly crossed the stream, and while the infantry made a movement to cut off retreat from the south, two squadrons were commanded to charge the Maharao, surrounded by a gol of about four hundred horse, all Hara Rajputs, his kinsmen. A British officer headed each troop ; they and those they led had been accustomed to see the foe fly from the shock like Pindaris, but these were Rajputs.

The band stood like a wall of adamant ; our squadrons rebounded from the shock, leaving two brave youths - dead on the spot. The whole was the work of an instant. True to the determination he expressed, the Maharao, satisfied with repelling the charge, slowly moved off ; nor was it till the horse-artillery again closed, and poured round and grape into the dense body, that they quickened their retreat ; while, as three fresh squadrons had formed for the charge, they reached the makkai fields, amongst the dense crops of which they were lost.

Battle of Fatehpur, Jaipur vs British, 1799:

Nearly the whole of the Jaipur mercenary and feudal army was embodied on this occasion, and although far superior in numbers to the confederation, yet the presence of Thomas and his regulars more than counterpoised their numerical inferiority. The attack of Thomas was irresistible ; the Jaipur lines led by Rora Ram gave way, and lost several pieces of artillery.

The chieftain of Chomu formed a gol or dense band of cavalry, which he led in person against Thomas's brigade, charging to the mouths of his guns. His object, the recovery of the guns, was attained with great slaughter on each side. The Chomu chief (Ranjit Singh) was desperately wounded, and Bahadur Singh, Pahar Singh, chiefs of the Khangarot clans, with many others, were slain by discharges of grape ; the guns were retrieved, and Thomas and his auxiliaries were deprived of a victory, and ultimately compelled to retreat.

 

[Simple_Guy]

How Arab mercenaries were expelled from Maharashtra​

When Bajee Row succeeded to the throne there were several nobles of rank holding estates in Candeish, but his own rapacity and the indifference with which for many years he look towards the maintenance of his, military chiefs induced him to resume most of the lands, and the successive independent military leaders such as Wahid Ally Khan, Dadam Khan, Jcwajee Yeswant, and several others who owed allegiance to no State but levied contributions and usurped the country as they had means to do so, first induced the remaining Jageerdars and subsequently the Government itself to entertain bands of Arabs for the defence of their citadels and towns.

These free-booters, the Arabs, being unconnected with the inhabitants, were incapacitated from heading rebellions, but their courage made them peculiarly estimable among those chiefs who iverc afraid even of trusting their own relations with power. Their importunities and their insolence to their employers compelled the latter to submit almost to any condition ....at
;ength the Arabs appear to have gained an ascendency which made their authority in many districts supreme.

Naro Shunkur Rajah Bahadur first introduced the practice of hiring Arab Soldiery. He held the strong castle of Malligaum and the town became at length the principal Depot of these mercenaries. They were accustomed to go and come there from the coast and from Arabia and whenever a band of one or two hundred of this description of Infantry were required they were to be found in that place. Here many of them settled and married and their boys became soldiers

But as far as Khandesh was concerned, Captain Briggs soon found that armed occupation would be necessary. The Arab mercenaries, estimated by him at 6,000 or 7,000 strong, all good marksmen and of known bravery, were without a leader and in arrears of pay. They were willing to attach themselves to any freebooter who could offer them good pay and plunder.

Malegaon was the headquarters of the Arabs, and the residence of the Rajabahadur, a jahagirdar of the Peshva. tho gates of Malegaon were closed, and a long siege ensued. It was not till the monsoon was actually breaking that the fort was carried. The Arab garrison was marched to Surat,' placed on ships and deposited on the Arabian coast. The same treatment was allotted to all parlies of Arabs found subsequently in Khandesh. The last important town held by them was Amalner, which surrendered in 1819. Thus one of the pests of the province was eradicated.

Khandesh Bhil Corps

 

[Simple_Guy]

Indian history books today, while recognising Buxar as a watershed moment in our national history, skip another important point: that it was at Buxar that the identity of the Indian sepoy as a match-winner for the British was established (though four years earlier at Plassey, Robert Clive was disappointed with Indian officers and made it a rule that Indian troops will only be officered by Europeans-a condition that stuck on until the end of First World War). And it was at Buxar that the foundation of the Indian Army of today was laid. From that point on, the sepoy would be the backbone of English armies conquering different Indian states one by one. The English would gradually develop a blind faith in the Indian sepoy: a phase that would last until 1857 and continue again towards the end of the 19th century.

Evolution of Indian military: From Panipat to Festubert - The Times of India

 

[Simple_Guy]

Expansion of the Madras Presidency

Over all this distracted country the Muhammadans gradually pressed downwards, securing the dominion of the countries south of the Tungabadra, and eastwards to the sea, and encroaching southwards till they had reached the southern confines of the Telugu country, by the middle of the seventeenth century, and by the beginning of the eighteenth were in power far south. The Mahrattas had established themselves in Tanjore in 1674 and remained there till the English supremacy. In 1736 the Musalmans obtained possession of Madura.

In the beginning of the century, the Moghul General Zulfikar Khan, who had command of the Payen Ghat or the country between the Krisna and the Cauvery rivers, was engaged in incessant and destructive wars for 19 years till the death of the Emperor Aurangzebe. The English, settled at Madras since 1639, now began to acquire more and more territory and power, and in the course of the century had conquered almost the whole of the south of India, the defeat of the Maisur Musalmans under Tipu Sultan in 1799 finally laying the peninsula at their feet.

when the Northern Circars were handed over by the Nizam to the English in 1766,- " the whole system of internal management had become disorganized. Not only the forms but even the remembrance of civil authority seemed to be wholly lost." Tanjore, which was in the possession of the Nabob of Arcot in the years 1774 and 1775, was almost ruined by "his inhuman exactions. ruined by the exactions of Hyder and Tippoo, and, more especially, by the attempt of the latter to convert all the inhabitants to Islamism. Most of the landholders in Malabar fled to Travancore and Tippoo carried away nearly 60,000 Christians of South Canara into captivity to Mysore.

Dr. Buchanan, who travelled from the East to the West Coast in 1800, mentions that the country was infested by gangs of marauders to such an extent that " the smallest village of 5 or 6 houses is fortified. Every petty poligar levied customs duty on goods passing through his estate. In the Salem district there were no less than 25 choukies on 206 miles of road or one for every 8 miles. There were no courts of justice, the settlement of disputes being left entirely to the villagers themselves and the heads of castes and clans. Even in the province of Tanjore, a court was established by the Rajah of Tanjore only about the close of the last century at the suggestion of Rev. Schwartz.

At the conclusion of the first war with Tippoo in 1792, the districts of Salem, Dindigul and Malabar were acquired. The second Mysore war in 1799 added Canara and Coimbatore. In 1800 the whole territory south of the Kistna and Tungabhadra rivers, comprising the districts of Cuddapah, Bellary and Anantapur and portions of Kurnool, were ceded by the Nizam. In 1799 the Rajah of Tanjore resigned his sovereign rights over that province to the English, and in 1801 the Nabob of the Carnatic made over to them the districts of Nellore, North Arcot, South Arcot, Trichinopoly, Madura and Tinnevelly.

It is impossible to draw out any history of the revenue management of the country during the time of the Nabobs. There were no laws between the governing and the governed, the taxer and the taxed, except the ruler's own will. The little that we can learn of the internal economy of the country, before the immediate rule of the British, shows us that the manner of imposition of the revenue was most arbitrary and the collection most iniquitous. The whole known history, with the honorable exception of Manauwar Khan's rule, is but a series of acts of oppression and violence on the part of the Nabob, and passive resistance or flight on the part of the people.

 

[Simple_Guy]

The Walajathi Dynasty Of The Carnatic

Nawab Anwarud-din Khan first rose to prominence in the court of Aurangzib. During the reign of Shah Alam, he got the title of Shahamat Jang and an increment in his mansab. In the reign of Muhammad Shah he attained to a high rank in the army, was granted the title of Siraj-ud-daula and was appointed to the post of Deputy Vazir. He joined Nawab Asaf Jah, Nizamul-Mulk, in the Deccan in 1724 and was appointed to the charge of the Sarkars of Chicacole, Rajahmundry and Masulipatam.

Masihu'z-Zaman Khan, a fellow townsman of the Nawab, was the paymaster of the whole army. Ghaxanf arAll Khan, who was a relative of the mother of Hadrat-i-Ala, was the risaladar of the horses. Muhammad Abrar Khan became the sardar of all the infantry. Suyyid Ali Khan was appointed secretary to the Nawab. Sayyid Nazir AK Khan, who was an old companion of AnwaruM-din, was entrusted with the charge of the bandars. Malik Aslttm Khan, a very good man of the Nawayat community, was made the head of the record office. Muhammad Tlusain Khan Tahir was put in charge of the office of the Peshkzish of the Jaghirdars. Rajah Sampat Rai, a Kayastha of G-opamau, who had considerabale experience of revenue and other duties, was raised to the exalted position of I)iwan of the Nizamat. Another Kayastha, Rai Mauulal, who had served the Nawab at Hyderabad, became Mir Munshi. The Nawab 's eldest son, Badru'l Islam Khan, was at Delhi, as his father's naib, at the court of the Emperor; the third son, Hazrat-i-Ala, who became later Nawab Muhammad Ali Walajah, was at Hyderabad at the court of Nawab Asaf Jah, as representing his father. The Nawab 's other sons, Mahfuz Khan (second), Alxlul Wa-hab Khan (fourth) and Najibullah Khan (fifth), stayed on with the Nawab and helped him in the administration.

The Afghan mercenaries who had settled in Arcot during the rule of Nawab Baud Khan had always been very disorderly. Nawab Anwaru'd-diu maintained strict order over them and expelled them altogether from Arcot and other towns of the Carnatic after they had disgraced themselves by bringing1 about the assassination of the boy prince in an open marriage assembly.

Anwaru'd-rlin Khan was, unlike the previous Nawabs, a stranger to the Europeans of the coast and did not know the exact conditions prevailing in the European settlements on the Coromandal. He first effected the subjugation of Mir Asadulla Khan of Ohetpaf, who remained refactory for some timo and recovered all arrears of tribute due from Rajah Pratap Singh of Tanjore. He entrusted to his second son, Mahfuz Klian, the administration of Conjcevaram nnd its dependencies. The third son, Muhammad Ali Khan, was granted the districts of Tiruvati and of Bhuvanagiri and their dependencies; and he governed these through his representative, Ananta Das. Abdul Wahab Khan got the administration of Nellore. The district of Villupuram was given over to Abdul Karim Khan.

We can get glimpses of the actual feudal organisation of the Carnatic and South India from two sources: (1) from Burhanu'd-din and (2) from a letter-order issued to Nawab Anwaru'd-din and to the killedars, the polligars and other influential men in South India, by Nizam of Hyderabad in 1746-47, after the Mussulman authorities knew that the French had to be openly resisted.