1.
Princely state
–
A princely state, also called native state or Indian state, was a nominally sovereign monarchy under a local or regional ruler in a subsidiary alliance with a greater power. At the time of the British withdrawal,565 princely states were recognised in the Indian subcontinent, apart from thousands of zamindaris. Rulers of salute states entitled to a gun salute of eleven guns and above received from the British the style of Highness, while the Nizam of Hyderabad had the unique style of Exalted Highness. At the other end of the scale, the principality of Lawa covered an area of 49 km2, or smaller than Bermuda. Some two hundred of the states had an area of less than 25 km2. The era of the princely states effectively ended with Indian independence in 1947, by 1950, almost all of the principalities had acceded to either India or Pakistan – thirteen to Pakistan and the rest to India. During this time, the princely states were merged into unions, each of which was headed by a former ruling prince with the title of Rajpramukh. In 1956, the position of Rajpramukh was abolished and the federations dissolved, the Indian Government formally derecognised the princely families in 1971, followed by the Government of Pakistan in 1972. The widespread expansion of Islam during this time brought many principalities into tributary relations with Islamic sultanates, notably the Delhi Sultanate, in the south, however, the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire remained dominant until the mid-17th century, among its tributaries was the future Mysore Kingdom. The Turco-Mongol Mughal Empire brought a majority of the existing Indian kingdoms and principalities under its suzerainty by the 17th century, beginning with its foundation in the early 16th century. The advent of Sikhism resulted in the creation of the Sikh Empire in the north by the early 18th century, at the same time, the Marathas carved out their own states to form the Maratha Empire. Through the 18th century, former Mughal governors formed their own independent states, India under the British Raj consisted of two types of territory, British India and the Native states or Princely states. In general the term British India had been used also to refer to the regions under the rule of the East India Company in India from 1774 to 1858, the term has also been used to refer to the British in India. More prestigious Hindu rulers often used the title Raja, Raje or a variant such as Rana, Rao, also in this class were several Thakurs or Thakores and a few particular titles, such as Sardar, Mankari, Deshmukh, Sar Desai, Raja Inamdar, Saranjamdar. The most prestigious Hindu rulers usually had the prefix maha in their titles, as in Maharaja, Maharana, Maharao, etc. The states of Travancore and Cochin had queens regnant styled Maharani, generally the female forms applied only to sisters, spouses and widows, there were also compound titles, such as rajadhiraj, Raj-i-rajgan, often relics from an elaborate system of hierarchical titles under the Mughal emperors. For example, the addition of the adjective Bahadur raised the status of the one level. Furthermore, most dynasties used a variety of titles, such as Varma in South India
2.
French India
–
French India, formally the Établissements français dans lInde, was a French colony comprising geographically separate enclaves on the Indian subcontinent. The possessions were acquired by the French East India Company beginning in the second half of the 17th century. The French establishments included Pondichéry, Karikal and Yanaon on the Coromandel Coast, Mahé on the Malabar Coast and Chandernagor in Bengal. French India also included several loges in other towns, but after 1816, the loges had little commercial importance, by 1950, the total area measured 510 km2, of which 293 km2 belonged to the territory of Pondichéry. In 1936, the population of the colony totalled 298,851 inhabitants, France was the last of the major European maritime powers of the 17th century to enter the East India trade. Historians have sought to explain Frances late entrance in the East India trade, in 1604 a company was granted letters patent by King Henry IV, but the project failed. Fresh letters patent were issued in 1615, and two went to India, only one returning. From 1658, François Bernier, a French physician and traveller, was for years the personal physician at the court of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. La Compagnie française des Indes orientales was formed under the auspices of Cardinal Richelieu and reconstructed under Jean-Baptiste Colbert, in 1667 the French India Company sent out another expedition, under the command of François Caron, which reached Surat in 1668 and established the first French factory in India. In 1669, Marcara succeeded in establishing another French factory at Masulipatam, in 1672, Saint Thomas was taken but the French were driven out by the Dutch. Chandernagore was established in 1692, with the permission of Nawab Shaista Khan, in 1673, the French acquired the area of Pondicherry from the qiladar of Valikondapuram under the Sultan of Bijapur, and thus the foundation of Pondichéry was laid. By 1720, the French had lost their factories at Surat, on 4 February 1673, Bellanger, a French officer, took up residence in the Danish Lodge in Pondichéry, thereby commencing the French administration of Pondichéry. In 1674 François Martin, the first Governor, initiated ambitious projects to transform Pondichéry from a fishing village into a flourishing port-town. The French, though, found themselves in conflict with the Dutch. In 1693 the Dutch captured Pondichéry and augmented the fortifications, the French regained the town in 1699 through the Treaty of Ryswick, signed on 20 September 1697. From their arrival until 1741, the objectives of the French, during this period, the French East India Company peacefully acquired Yanam in 1723, Mahe on Malabar Coast in 1725 and Karaikal in 1739. In the early 18th century, the town of Pondichéry was laid out on a grid pattern, able governors like Pierre Christophe Le Noir and Pierre Benoît Dumas expanded the Pondichéry area and made it a large and rich town. Under the command of the Marquis de Bussy-Castelnau, Dupleixs army successfully controlled the area between Hyderabad and Cape Comorin, but then Robert Clive arrived in India in 1744, a British officer who dashed the hopes of Dupleix to create a French empire India
3.
East India Company
–
The company also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India. The company received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600, wealthy merchants and aristocrats owned the Companys shares. Initially the government owned no shares and had only indirect control, during its first century of operation the focus of the Company was trade, not the building of an empire in India. The company eventually came to rule large areas of India with its own armies, exercising military power. Despite frequent government intervention, the company had recurring problems with its finances, the official government machinery of British India had assumed its governmental functions and absorbed its armies. Soon after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, London merchants presented a petition to Queen Elizabeth I for permission to sail to the Indian Ocean, one of them, Edward Bonventure, then sailed around Cape Comorin to the Malay Peninsula and returned to England in 1594. In 1596, three ships sailed east, however, these were all lost at sea. Two days later, on 24 September, the Adventurers reconvened and resolved to apply to the Queen for support of the project, the Adventurers convened again a year later. For a period of fifteen years the charter awarded the newly formed company a monopoly on trade with all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan. Anybody who traded in breach of the charter without a licence from the Company was liable to forfeiture of their ships and cargo, the governance of the company was in the hands of one governor and 24 directors or committees, who made up the Court of Directors. They, in turn, reported to the Court of Proprietors, ten committees reported to the Court of Directors. According to tradition, business was transacted at the Nags Head Inn, opposite St Botolphs church in Bishopsgate. Sir James Lancaster commanded the first East India Company voyage in 1601, in March 1604 Sir Henry Middleton commanded the second voyage. Early in 1608 Alexander Sharpeigh was appointed captain of the Companys Ascension, thereafter two ships, Ascension and Union sailed from Woolwich on 14 March 1607–8. Initially, the company struggled in the trade because of the competition from the already well-established Dutch East India Company. The company opened a factory in Bantam on the first voyage, the factory in Bantam was closed in 1683. During this time belonging to the company arriving in India docked at Surat. In the next two years, the company established its first factory in south India in the town of Machilipatnam on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal
4.
Nizam of Hyderabad
–
The Asaf Jah Dynasty was founded by Mir Qamar-ud-Din Siddiqi, a viceroy of the Deccan under the Mughal Empire from 1713 to 1721. He intermittently ruled after Aurangzebs death in 1707, in 1724, Mughal control lapsed, and Asaf Jah declared himself independent in Hyderabad. Following the decline of the Mughal power, the region of Deccan saw the rise of Maratha Empire, the Nizam himself saw many invasions by the Marathas in the 1720s, which resulted in the Nizam paying a regular tax to the Marathas. The major battles fought between the Marathas and the Nizam include Palkhed, Bhopal, Rakshasbhuvan, and Kharda, in all of which the Nizam lost. Following the conquest of Deccan by Bajirao I and the imposition of chauth by him, Nizam remained a tributary of the Marathas for all intent and purposes. In 1805, after the British victory in the Second Anglo-Maratha War, in 1903 the Berar region of the state was separated and merged into the Central Provinces of British India, to form the Central Provinces and Berar. In 1947, at the time of the partition of India, Britain offered the 566 princely states in the sub-continent the option of acceding to either India or Pakistan, Hyderabad was the largest and most prosperous state of all princely states in India. It covered 82,698 square miles of fairly homogeneous territory and had a population of roughly 16.34 million people, Hyderabad State had its own army, airline, telecommunication system, railway network, postal system, currency and radio broadcasting service. In spite of the overwhelming Hindu majority, Hindus were severely under-represented in government, police, of 1765 officers in the State Army,1268 were Muslims,421 were Hindus, and 121 others were Christians, Parsis and Sikhs. Of the officials drawing a salary between Rs. 600-1200 per month,59 were Muslims,5 were Hindus and 38 were of other religions, the Nizam and his nobles, who were mostly Muslims, owned 40% of the total land in the state. The Nizam decided to keep Hyderabad independent, unlike the other princely states, in September 1948, in Operation Polo, the Indian Army marched into Hyderabad, deposed the Nizam, and annexed the state into the Indian Union. Seven Nizams ruled Hyderabad for two centuries until 1947, the Asaf Jahi rulers were great patrons of literature, art, architecture, and culture, and rich food. The Nizams patronized aspects of a Persianate society, copied from their Turco-Mongol Mughal overlords, the last Nizam had been the richest man in the world in his time. He pushed education, science, and establishment of Osmania University, nizām-ul-mulk was a title first used in Urdu around 1600 to mean Governor of the realm or Deputy for the Whole Empire. The word is derived from the Arabic language, as in Abu Ali Hasan ibn Ali Tusi, better known by his title of Nizam al-Mulk, Nizām, meaning order. The Nizam was referred to as Ala Hadrat / Ala Hazrat or Nizam Sarkar, the first Nizam ruled on behalf of the Mughal emperors. After the death of Aurangzeb, the Nizams split from the Mughals to form an independent kingdom, when the British achieved paramountcy over India, the Nizams were allowed to continue to rule their princely states as client kings. The Nizams retained internal power over Hyderabad State until 17 September 1948 when Hyderabad was integrated into the new Indian Union
5.
Robert Clive
–
He is credited with securing a large swath of South Asia and the wealth that followed, for the British crown. Together with Warren Hastings he was one of the key figures in the creation of British India, with all his attention focused on one prize. He also sat as a Tory Member of Parliament in London, Clive was one of the most controversial figures in all British military history. His achievements included establishing control over much of India, and laying the foundation of the entire British Raj, for that he was vilified by his contemporaries in England, and put on trial before Parliament. Of special concern was that he amassed a fortune in India. Modern historians have criticised him for atrocities, for high taxes, Robert Clive was born at Styche, the Clive family estate, near Market Drayton in Shropshire, on 29 September 1725 to Richard Clive and Rebecca Gaskell Clive. The family had held the estate since the time of Henry VII. The family had a history of public service, members of the family included an Irish chancellor of the exchequer under Henry VIII. Roberts father, who supplemented the estates modest income as a lawyer, also served in Parliament for many years, Robert was their eldest son of thirteen children, he had seven sisters and five brothers, six of whom died in infancy. Clives father was known to have a temper, which the boy apparently inherited, for reasons that have not been documented, Clive was sent to live with his mothers sister in Manchester while still a toddler. Biographer Robert Harvey suggests that this move was made because Clives father was busy in London trying to provide for the family, daniel Bayley, the sisters husband, reported that the boy was out of measure addicted to fighting. He was a troublemaker in the schools he was sent to. When he was older he and a gang of teenagers established a protection racket that vandalised the shops of merchants in Market Drayton. Clive also exhibited fearlessness at an early age and he is reputed to have climbed the tower of St Marys Parish Church in Market Drayton and perched on a gargoyle, frightening those down below. He was said to have been a pupil at Stand Grammar School in Whitefield and he climbed the tower there and threw slates at passers by. When Clive was nine his aunt died, and, after a stint in his fathers cramped London quarters. There he attended the Market Drayton Grammar School, where his unruly behaviour prompted his father to him to Merchant Taylors School in London. His bad behaviour continued, and he was sent to a trade school in Hertfordshire to complete a basic education
6.
Mir Jafar
–
Mir Jafar Ali Khan Bahadur was the first Nawab of Bengal with support from the British East India Company. He was the son of Sayyid Ahmad Najafi. His rule is considered the start of British imperialism in India and was a key step in the eventual British domination of vast areas of the subcontinent. Thus after helping the British defeat Siraj ud-Daulah he became the new Nawab of Bengal in 1757 with military support from the British East India Company as a reward for his betrayal, however, Jafar failed to satisfy constant British demands for money. In 1758, Robert Clive discovered that through his agent Khoja Wajid, Dutch ships of war were also seen in the River Hooghly. Circumstances led to the Battle of Chinsurah, British company official Henry Vansittart proposed that since Jafar was unable to cope with the difficulties, Mir Qasim, Jafars son-in-law, should act as Deputy Subahdar. In October 1760, the company forced him to abdicate in favor of Qasim. However, Qasims independent spirit and plan to force the East India company out of his led to his overthrow. Mir Qasim however refused to accept this and went to war against the company, Jafar ruled until his death on January 17,1765 and lies buried at the Jafarganj Cemetery in Murshidabad, West Bengal, India. In 1747 the Marathas led by Raghoji I Bhonsle, began to raid, pillage and annex the territories of the Alivardi Khan, the enraged Alivardi Khan then dismissed the shamed Mir Jafar. Mir Jafar pretended loyalty to Alivardi Khans successor Siraj Ud Daulah, after Siraj Ud Daulah’s defeat and subsequent execution, Jafar achieved his long-pursued dream of gaining the throne, and was propped up by the British East India company as puppet Nawab. Jafar paid Rs.17,700,000 as compensation for the attack on Calcutta to the company, in addition, he gave bribes to the officials of the company. However, the British defeated the Dutch at the Battle of Chinsurah in November 1759, however, Qasim proved to be both able and independent, strongly condemned the interference of East India company in the governing of his domain. Mir Qasim formed an alliance to force the British East India company out of East India, the Company soon went to war with him and his allies. With the defeat in Buxar, Mir Qasim was eventually overthrown, Mir Jafar managed to regain the good graces of the British, he was again installed Nawab in 1763 and held the position until his death in 1765. But the conflict involved the assertive British East India Company. The Mughals were led by Prince Ali Gauhar, who was accompanied by Muhammad Quli Khan, Hidayat Ali, Mir Afzal and their forces were reinforced by the forces of Shuja-ud-Daula and Najib-ud-Daula. The Mughals were also joined by Jean Law and 200 Frenchmen, the breakup of the centralized Mughal empire by 1750, led to creation of a large number of independent kingdoms
7.
Battle of Plassey
–
The Battle of Plassey was a decisive victory of the British East India Company over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies on 23 June 1757. The battle consolidated the Companys presence in Bengal, which expanded to cover much of India over the next hundred years. The battle took place at Palashi on the banks of the Bhagirathi River, about 150 kilometres north of Calcutta and south of Murshidabad, the belligerents were the Nawab Siraj-ud-daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, and the British East India Company. Siraj-ud-daulah had become the Nawab of Bengal the year before, Robert Clive bribed Mir Jafar, the commander in chief of the nawabs army, and also promised him to make him Nawab of Bengal. He defeated the Nawab at Plassey in 1757 and captured Calcutta, the battle was preceded by the attack on British-controlled Calcutta by Nawab Siraj-ud-daulah and the Black Hole massacre. The British sent reinforcements under Colonel Robert Clive and Admiral Charles Watson from Madras to Bengal, Clive then seized the initiative to capture the French fort of Chandernagar. Tensions and suspicions between Siraj-ud-daulah and the British culminated in the Battle of Plassey, the battle was waged during the Seven Years War, and, in a mirror of their European rivalry, the French East India Company sent a small contingent to fight against the British. Siraj-ud-Daulah had a superior force and made his stand at Plassey. The British, worried about being outnumbered, formed a conspiracy with Siraj-ud-Daulahs demoted army chief Mir Jafar, along with such as Yar Lutuf Khan, Jagat Seths, Omichund. Mir Jafar, Rai Durlabh and Yar Lutuf Khan thus assembled their troops near the battlefield, the battle was ended in 11 hours. This is judged to be one of the battles in the control of Indian subcontinent by the colonial powers. The British now wielded enormous influence over the Nawab and consequently acquired significant concessions for previous losses and revenue from trade. The British East India Company had a presence in India with the three main stations of Fort St. George in Madras, Fort William in Calcutta and Bombay Castle in western India. These stations were independent presidencies governed by a president and a council, the British adopted a policy of allying themselves with various princes and Nawabs, promising security against usurpers and rebels. The Nawabs often gave them concessions in return for the security, by then, all rivalry had ceased between the British East India Company and the Dutch or Portuguese. The French were a late comer in India trade, but they established themselves in India and were poised to overtake Britain for control. The War of the Austrian Succession marked the beginning of the struggle between Britain and France and of European military ascendancy and political intervention in the Indian subcontinent. In September 1746, Mahé de La Bourdonnais landed off Madras with a naval squadron, the defences of Madras were weak and the garrison sustained a bombardment of three days before surrendering
