Journal articles on the topic 'India Mysore War, 1799'

This article examines the interaction between British colonial officials and indigenous military labour markets during the Anglo-Mysore Wars. When faced with a severe foreign threat the Company did not totally opt for fiscal-military methods of mobilization as is argued in the conventional historiography, but instead resorted to a policy of supporting warrior groups and local dealers who could service the Company’s military requirements. The British patronised a variety of military service groups rather than forcibly subordinated them to their control. War resulted in the diffusion of resources to non-state actors who organised the means of violence.

The purpose of this paper is to find out the historical aspects of Revenue Administration and its experiment in Baramahal had great important in the revenue history of Madras Presidency. Revenue is the backbone of any administration. Hence the Tipu Sultan had aimed to collect the land revenue through different systems.Old English Mysore war (1790-1792) reached a conclusion after the deficiency of a large portion of Tipu Sultan's domains. The Treaty of Srirangapatnam was endorsed on March 17, 1792. By that the British acquired Dindigul, Baramahal and Malabar. The lost Baramahal was not in the least recuperated by the Mysore King. At any rate after the fall of Srirangapatnam on May 4, 1799, it fell under the control of the alliance of the British, the Maratha and the Nizam of Hyderabad. After the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War 1799, Baramahal was added with the British domain alongside Kanara, Coimbatore, Wynad, Dharapuram and the waterfront area of the Mysore realm. With this short recorded sketch it will be adept to have an examination about the exercises of Tipu Sultan in Baramahal. Keywords: Revenue Administration, Baramahal, Amildars, Kotwals, Tallatits, Inam, Devadhanam, Lebbais Thanadar, Kotwals Talaiyaris

During the First World War period, despite the best efforts by the Government of Mysore it was difficult to start and run many industries which required large -scale import of machineries. The First World War had broken the regular commercial traffic between Europe, the Mediterranean and India. On the one hand, the state escaped from the reckless floatation of companies that characterized the boom that followed the war, but some capital was invested in shares in outside companies. However as far as the investment in the new industries was concerned, capital was certainly shy in Mysore during the warperiod1. This situation continued even in the early twenties. Even during 1921-22, business conditions continued to be unfavorable throughout the year. Heavy losses were sustained by per-sons engaged in the business of piece-goods, timber, hides and skins and to a certain extent in food grains.

<p>India, because of including a collection of religions and religious minorities altogether in itself, especially in this modern era, is a remarkable case of study and consideration. This study also, as an anthropological research and in order to get familiar with the religious identity of Muslims and Shias of Mysore in particular, has played its role. This project is a case study about the Shia Muslims in Mysore; it has also a historical look upon formation of cultural identity of Shias in India. During the reign of the Arab traders, they brought Islam into the South Indian state of Karnataka almost as soon as the faith was initiated in Arabia. Along with their faith, Muslims brought many products to the region. The Islamic presence and power in the state reached its greatest heights during the reigns of Hyder Ali and his son Tippu Sultan. Though killed by the British in 1799, Tippu Sultan was one of the only national leaders to defeat the British in battle and is still considered a hero for many Indians. The internal structure of Indian Muslims as a religio-ethnic group was quite complex. Shias Islam has deep-rooted influence in present and history of India from North to South with various Shia Muslim dynasties ruling Indian provinces from time to time.</p>

To facilitate & promote all enquiries which may be calculated to enlarge the boundaries of General Science is a Duty imposed on the British Government in India by its present exalted situation & the discharge of that Duty is in a more especial manner required from us when any material addition can be made to the Public Stock of useful knowledge without involving considerable expence.… [T]his desirable object will never be attained unless it shall be made the Duty of some Public Officer properly qualified for this Service to collect information & to digest & publish the results of his researches.

In 1790 the Dutch East India Company was in a bad way. The Fourth Anglo-Dutch war had had disastrous consequences for the Company, and it had not been able to recover from them. At the end of the accounting year 1789–90 debts in the Netherlands amounted already to f 91.1 million. The deficit in that year alone had been f 11.3 million. In Asia the capital was still f 23.5 million, but the losses nevertheless amounted to nearly f 13 million.1 In 1788 the States of Holland had given f 21 million in aid, on the basis of a plan for reform, but it was clear to everyone that this situation could not continue.

AbstractThe consolidation of numerous regional polities in the aftermath of Mughal imperial decline presented favourable socioeconomic opportunities for South Asian service communities. Protracted armed conflicts in southern India allowed a variety of mercenaries, soldiers, and war bands to accumulate resources in exchange for mobilizing manpower on behalf of states with weak standing armies. This article focuses on British imperial efforts to obtain sufficient quantities of military labour during its struggle with the Mysore sultanate. As the sultanate assumed an increasingly hostile attitude towards independent warrior power, local strongmen sought more amenable arrangements with alternate entities. The British East India Company received crucial support from autonomous warrior groups during its southern wars of conquest. Warriors in turn utilized British resources to consolidate local sovereignties. Thus, the initial British intrusion into peninsular Indian society further fragmented the political landscape by patronizing petty military entrepreneurs.

Abstract A forgotten archive at Oxford, the working library of Mark Wilks (1759–1831), sometime Resident of Madras who wrote the influential Historical Sketches of the South of India (1810), offers evidence of Anglo-Indian collaboration in the early colonial period following the 1799 defeat of Tipu Sultan. Examining new manuscript evidence, this article shows how Wilks, a friend of Colin Mackenzie, the surveyor of Mysore, used texts from the vast Mackenzie Collection to compose his history, abstracting selected translations for his own library. Wilks had the help of Mackenzie’s assistants, in particular Kavali Venkata Lakshmayya. Lakshmayya (and others) provided Wilks with translations of land grants and genealogical narratives, both of which were used to establish historical chronology. Because the British saw themselves as restorers of ancient Indian practices, chronology was as important for public policy as for historiography. Working with Wilks, Lakshmayya compiled a large manuscript folio that was at once a table to convert dates among western, Islamic, and Indian calendars, and a historical abstract giving a timeline of key events. This and other manuscripts show Wilks’s use of the Mackenzie Collection beyond only inscriptions. Historical chronology was established through a mix of sources: inscriptions, narrative accounts, and published works. Moreover, Wilks incorporated narratives written by native interpreters into Historical Sketches. Indian history was the result of Anglo-Indian collaboration. Native interpreters contributed significant intellectual labour, and their historiographical work laid the foundation for the writing of the early history of South India.

A figure who walks larger than life through the pages of eighteenthcentury south-Indian history is Tipu Sultan Fath Ali Khan, who held power in Mysore from 1782 until his death at the hands of the British in 1799. In general, scholars of his reign have taken a mainly Eurocentric approach, essentially concentrating on his external relationships and activities, particularly with regard to the French and the British, while more recently there has been some examination of his economy and administration. Recent research into both kingship and religion in south India raises issues which suggest that it is time this ruler was reassessed in his own terms, from the point of view of the cultural environment in which he was operating.3 Little attempt so far has been made to do this.4 One matter which merits closer attention is his use of symbols, particularly in connection with the symbolic expression of kingship. Given Tipu's somewhat ambiguous status as a parvenu, whose legitimacy as ruler was questionable, this would appear to be a fruitful area for research.5 His most famous symbol was the tiger, yet while it has captured the imagination of scholars in other disciplines,6 it has not exercised the minds of historians to any extent.7 It is the aim of this paper to restore the balance by looking at this symbol in the light of the work of Susan Bayly, who has underlined the strongly syncretic nature of religion in south India. Drawing upon both written and oral material, Bayly has described the interaction which has taken place between Muslim, Hindu and Christian traditions, the result of which is a borrowing of symbols and ideas, a frequently shared vocabulary, and an interweaving of motifs within a common sacred landscape, at the centre of which is the imagery associated with the ammans or goddesses of the region.8 It is my contention that an examination of Tipu's tiger symbol will reveal that it is firmly rooted in this syncretic religious environment and that this should emphasize to us the importance of placing the Mysore ruler within his cultural context in order to understand his actions, particularly from the point of view of kingship.

One of the more famous episodes in the narrative of British colonial expansion in India, and one that has been extensively mythologized, is the death in 1799 of Tipu Sultan and the fall of his capital, Srirangapattana. British troops, supported by their Indian allies—in particular, the forces of Hyderabad—stormed the island fortress on 4 May, bringing to an end the Mysore kingdom's role as the last significant indigenous power in the south. The old Hindu Wodeyar dynasty was reinstated and the kingdom itself was reduced to a landlocked state, with much of its territory redistributed among the victors. It is not the purpose of this article to attempt an analysis of why Tipu was defeated. Rather its aim is to underline the importance of returning to sources and re-examining evidence, even, or perhaps especially, if beliefs about a certain event have been held for so long. This is particularly true in the case of such an evocative and contentious figure as Tipu Sultan, whose life and legacy have been appropriated by interests in polemical debates over at least the last 150 years. As the following discussion will show, if one is to achieve a better understanding of an event such as the fall of Srirangapattana and its aftermath, a return to the sources is imperative.

Abstract The subject of unification is as vibrant as national movement even after 58 years of a fractured verdict. More than to achieve a physical conjugation it was an attempt for cultural fusion. The aspiration for linguistic unification was a part of the national discourse. The movement, which began with mystic originations, later on turned out to become communal. Political changes during 1799 A.D. and 1857 A.D. changed the fortunes of Mysore state and ultimately led to its disintegration and became the reason for this movement. The concept of unification is akin to the spirit of nationalism, against the background of colonial regime assigning parts of land to different administrative units without taking into consideration the historical or cultural aspects of that place. Kannadigas marooned in multi lingual states experient an orphaned situation got aroused with the turn of nineteenth century. The problem precipitated by the company was diluted by British when they introduced English education. Though the positive aspect like emergence of middle class is pragmatic, rise of communalism on the other hand is not idealistic. This research paper is designed to examine the polarization of castes during unification movement of Mysore State (Presently called as State of Karnataka, since 1973, which was termed Mysore when integrated) which came into being in 1956 A.D. Most of the previous studies concentrate on two aspects viz ideological discourse and organizational strategies adopted to gain Unification. The course of the unifi cation movement and role of Congress party dominates such studies while some of them concentrate on the leaders of the movement. Other studies are ethnographical in nature. ‘Community Dominance and Political Modernisation: The Lingayats’ written by Shankaragouda Hanamantagouda Patil is a classic example. Mention may be made here of an recent attempt by Harish Ramaswamy in his ‘Karnataka Government and Politics’ which has covered almost all aspects of emergence of Karnataka as a state but communal politics during unification movement has found no place. ‘Rethinking State Politics in India: Regions within Regions’ is an edited book by Ashutosh Kumar which has articles on ‘Castes and Politics of Marginality’ where a reference is made to caste associations and identity politics of Lingayats, but the area of study is neighboring Maharashtra and not Karnataka. Though it contains two articles on Karnataka its subject matter doesn’t pertain to this topic. One more important effort is by ‘Imagining Unimaginable Communities: Political and Social Discourse in Modern Karnataka’ where the author Raghavendra Rao thinks Karnataka and India as two unimaginable communities and discuss primarily the founding moments of negotiation between the discourses of Indian nationalism and Kannada linguistic nationalism. It is more an intellectual history and throws light on nationalism in a colonial context. Mostly studies concentrate on either the course or the leaders of the movement. Invariably congress as an organization finds place in all studies. But the blemish of such studies is a lesser concentration on activities of major socio cultural groups. The role of socio cultural groups assumes importance because of the milieu at the beginning of 20th century which annunciated a wave of social changes in the state. It is a known fact that the movement for linguistic state was successful in bringing a political integration of five separate sub regions but failed to unite people culturally. This concept of unification which is akin to the spirit of nationalism got expressed at the regional level in the sense of respect for once own culture, language and people. In case of Karnataka this expression had political overtones too which is expressed by some who fought for it (Srinivas & Narayan, 1946 ). Most of the early leaders of unification movement (and for that matter even movement for independence too can be cited here) belonged to one particular caste, and with passing of time has led to the notion of domination of that caste over the movement. This paper tries to give justice in a limited way by giving legitimate and adequate recognition for those castes which deserves it and do away with misconceptions. Two concepts political modernization and social mobility are used. The later derives its existence from the former in this case. The data used here is primarily gained from news papers and secondary sources like books and interviews given by participants. No hypothesis is tested nor any theory is developed in this attempt but historical materials are examined in the light of modernity. The key problem discussed here is emergence of communal politics and the role of social groups in unification. Biases of regionalism, caste and class have been overcome by rational thinking.

The business records of a major taxidermist in India reveal extraordinary numbers of large carnivores being processed, particularly in the 1930s. Leopards and tigers were predominant and also showed marked seasonal changes in the numbers passing through the factory in response to strong seasonality in the Indian climate affecting both animals and people. The number of jobs done each year reflects changing levels of activity in the business in response to the Second World War and later social and legislative pressures on big-game hunting. The meticulous records of Van Ingen & Van Ingen make it possible to trace individual specimens and establish whether or not they may be legally traded today within the provisions of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Kamala Markandaya is one of the best known contemporary Indian novelists. Her novels are remarkable for their range of experience. Her first novel Nectar in a Sieve is set in a village and it examines the hard agricultural life of the south Indian village where industry and modern technology played havoc. Kamala Markandaya occupies a very important position among the women novelist who have made substantial contribution to Indian fiction after the Second World War. Markandaya had not always lived abroad. She was born as Kamala Purnaiya in 1924 in Mysore and she was also a journalist. At some point, she decided to spend 18 months in a village “out of curiosity”. This inspired the setting of her first novel, centred on Rukmani and her husband Nathan. Nectar in a Sieve is remarkable for its portrayal of rustics who live in fear, hunger and despair. It is of the dark future; fear of the sharpness of hunger; fear of blackness of death. Almost all the characters in this novel lead miserable life and most of them fail to survive. There are at least a couple of them who were not successfully struggle and have the concept of survival. This novel tells the story of landless peasants of India who face starvation, oppression, breakup of family, home and death. Yet they retain their compassion, love, the strength to face their life and take delight in the little pleasures of the daily existence.

Abstract This article looks at all the known seals of Tipu Sultan of Mysore (r. 1782-1799) particularly those found in the manuscripts which formed his Library collection, disbanded in 1799 after the fall of Seringapatam and subsequently divided between the East India Company London (now in the British Library), and the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Kolkata. By focussing on the British Library collections certain patterns of usage have come to light, possibly indicating Tipu Sultan's linguistic and literary preferences. It gives me great pleasure to dedicate this article to Barbara Brend as a mark of appreciation for her patience and help, whose knowledge and advice has been of such benefit to a non-art historian. At the end of this article I highlight an important manuscript from the Royal Asiatic Society's collection which thanks to her sponsorship has now been digitised and is available on the web as part of the RAS digital collections.

Abstract After the Fourth Mysore War, when the British were dismantling Tipu Sultan's establishment, the East India Company unexpectedly took charge of 601 women who resided permanently inside Srirangapatnam Palace. Along with Tipu's sons, they were moved 200 miles east, to Vellore Fort, in the Company-controlled territory of Madras Presidency. Documentation about these court women held in colonial archives describes moments when they behaved in unexpectedly difficult ways. Because historians have traditionally cast the women of Tipu Sultan's court as voiceless victims, their actions, as described in these colonial sources, have been overlooked. When examined, the descriptions show that they were using the domestic powers granted to them under Tipu Sultan's establishment to influence their treatment by the East India Company. By placing these accounts alongside the broader context of the Company's military history, it becomes apparent that the women of Tipu Sultan's female entourage fomented the events that led to the Vellore Mutiny of 1806.