Last Nizam (9781742626109) Page 6
All that was left was for the victors to share the spoils. Although his forces had played a minor role, the Nizam walked away with a large swathe of territory along his southern border running from Cuddapah in the east to the Tungabhadra River in the west. The Marathas received Koppal and the British the spice-bearing Malabar coast, the district of Coorg and territories adjacent to the Carnatic.
No sooner had the booty been dispersed, however, than the triple alliance Cornwallis hoped would become permanent began falling apart. This time it was the Marathas and the Nizam who would come to blows while Tipu and the British watched from the sidelines.
For more than a hundred years the Marathas had been a source of constant trouble for the various players competing for control of peninsular India. The Marathas were essentially predators whose main source of income was their practice of demanding chauth (one-fourth of all revenue) from their conquered subjects. One historian described the Maratha army as being ‘more indefatigable and destructive than myriads of locusts’. ‘The [Marathas] are total strangers to charity, and possess an insensibility of heart with which other nations are unacquainted.’36
In 1794 the Nizam decided to throw caution to the wind and attack the Marathas at Pune to eradicate the menace once and for all. The ‘motley crowd’ that had fought in the Mysore War was now a more polished war machine thanks to the Gascon adventurer and former French regular officer Michel Joachim Marie Raymond. A deserter from the Second Mysore War, Raymond arrived in Hyderabad in 1792 with just 300 men and armed with hired guns from a French merchant at the rate of a shilling a month. Promising the Nizam that under his command Hyderabad’s army could defeat any force, European or Indian, he steadily increased his troop numbers. By 1795 he had under his command 11,000 infantry and artillery officered by Frenchmen. Dressed in red jackets, black tricorn hats, white shirts and short shin-length boots, Raymond’s brigade was impressive to look at, but had yet to prove itself on the battlefield.
As his forces massed at Bidar, dancing girls sang the Nizam’s expected victory. His Diwan, Aristu Jah, predicted that the peshwa would be sent with a ‘brass pot in his hand’ and a ‘cloth round his loins’ to mutter mantras on the bank of the Ganges at Benares.37 The Nizam then sent Aristu Jah to ask the new British Resident, William Kirkpatrick, to enlist the support of the East India Company’s armies. But his appeals to the British for help were turned down on the grounds that the treaty of 1768 required them to remain neutral. John Shore, an equivocating evangelical Christian, who had succeeded Cornwallis as Governor-General, was reluctant to question the letter of the treaties. To him the Nizam was a defaulter trying to evade his obligations. ‘His record towards the company had long been one of duplicity,’ Shore later explained. Moreover he did not deserve to be helped as he was ‘incorrigibly depraved, devoid of energy . . . [and] consequently liable to sink into vassalage’.38 The more important reason was the perceived need to stay on good terms with the Marathas and isolate Tipu Sultan.
Fluent in Persian and possessing a knowledge of the workings of the native courts that was ‘unrivalled in the Company’s civil or military service’, Kirkpatrick as Resident of Hyderabad had unprecedented access to the Nizam and his coterie.39 He could also see that the Nizam’s army was not strong enough to take on the Marathas. Their leader, Nana Phadnavis, had a far larger pool of mercenaries to train his soldiers in the latest military techniques. Altogether the Marathas had four brigades of European-led troops under the command of Benoit de Boigne, a French soldier of fortune who had begun his military career with the King of Sardinia and went on to become one of the most important military figures in eighteenth-century India.
Kirkpatrick’s warnings were ignored, and in December the Nizam’s 110,000-strong army began its slow march towards Pune from where 130,000 Maratha soldiers had been dispatched. The two sides met on 14 March 1795 near the half-ruined fort of Khardla. Kirkpatrick, who accompanied the forces, was so meticulous about observing Britain’s neutrality that he refused to even comment on the strategy and tactics of the Nizam’s forces. On the side of the Marathas, Charles Malet, the Resident at the court of Pune, maintained a similar treaty-bound discretion.
The first day of battle was an extraordinary sight as Raymond’s corps, flying the tricolour, swept down on de Boigne’s forces, under the white cross of royalist Savoy. At the end of the first day of fighting, the Nizam’s forces had advanced several kilometres despite continuous firing from the Marathas. But whatever advantage the Nizam gained in this bewildering battle was short-lived. With what the late nineteenth-century historian Herbert Compton called ‘the imbecile infatuation of an Oriental Potentate’,40 the Nizam had brought with him his new favourite wife, Bakshi Begum, and the rest of his oversized zenana. According to one eyewitness, Bakshi Begum became so frightened by ‘the booming of the cannon and at the sight of men falling down dead’ that she blackmailed the Nizam by threatening to ‘expose herself to public gaze’ unless he took her and the rest of the zenana to shelter inside the fort.41
In the confusion a Maratha night patrol looking for water stumbled upon the Nizam, who was accompanied by a unit of female bodyguards. During the ensuing gun battle, the Nizam tried to escape but found himself trapped in the fort. Panicstricken, his troops also retreated to the fort, leaving all their weapons, ammunition and stores scattered on the battlefield. The Marathas quickly surrounded the fort and after a siege lasting 22 days forced the Nizam to sign a treaty ceding the territories of Daulatabad, Ahmadnagar and Sholapur as well as an indemnity of 30 million rupees. In addition, he had to hand over Aristu Jah as a hostage to Nana Phadnavis.
It was a humiliating defeat. Instead of pushing back the Marathas, Nizam Ali Khan surrendered more than half of his already diminished Dominions and most of his strongest forts, not to mention his hapless Prime Minister. For the British the campaign was also a disaster. Their policy of neutrality had backfired badly. Ignoring British protests that he was treaty-bound not to employ foreign troops, the Nizam ordered the Subsidiary Force to leave Hyderabad and gave approval for Raymond to increase the size of his contingent and set up arsenals and foundries to manufacture weapons.
By the end of 1795, after only three years in Hyderabad, Raymond’s force consisted of 15,000 men divided into 20 battalions under the command of 124 Europeans. Nizam Ali Khan was so fond of the Frenchman that he showered him with titles such as ‘Dragon of War’ and ‘Bravest in the State’ and ceded the newly acquired districts of Cumbum and Cuddapah to him to pay for the maintenance of the troops. Cuddapah was located beside the Company’s borders, making it possible for Raymond to menace British possessions in the Carnatic.
The growing influence of the French in Hyderabad alarmed the British. France was the dominant power in Pune, while in the south Tipu Sultan was wearing the cap of Liberty, calling himself ‘Citizen Tippoo’ and actively planning his revenge for his humiliating defeat at the hands of the British. The British also learned he was in communication with Napoleon Bonaparte, who was commencing his campaign in Egypt. Back in Europe, Britain and France were at war, yet again.
Complicating matters further, the Nizam suffered a stroke in February 1796 from which he never fully recovered. With the Nizam incapacitated, Aristu Jah deprived of his liberty in Pune, and the British still treaty-bound not to favour one group or another, rival factions within the Nizam’s court had free rein. The Paigah nobles favoured Feridun Jah, while pro-British factions supported the Nizam’s eldest son Sikander Jah, who also had the backing of Aristu Jah. Both rivals sought the support of Raymond, who the British feared would become the kingmaker and force the new Nizam to join forces with Tipu. Should Tipu be joined by French troops from Egypt it could have paved the way for France to become the predominant power on the peninsula.
Into this unfolding scenario stepped the new Governor-General, Richard Wellesley. In contrast to the timid and self-effacing Shore, Wellesley was an uncompromising empire-builder who between 1798 and 1804 expanded the Comp
any’s holdings from a few small pockets of territory to most of southern India, the entire eastern coastal strip, all of Bengal and parts of northern India. British troops would be in occupation in Hyderabad and Pune and Residents stationed at every native court. Wellesley’s first priority was to deal with Tipu Sultan. That meant getting rid of the French in Hyderabad, where British spies were reporting that Raymond might be planning a coup d’état. Wellesley instructed James Achilles Kirkpatrick, who had taken over the post of Resident from his ailing brother William, to open the negotiations with the Nizam on a new treaty under which the British Government would give him protection against the Marathas, provided he dismissed French officers from his service and agreed to an increase in the Subsidiary Force.
Kirkpatrick was on good terms with the ‘old Nizzy’ as he liked to call him. He grew so fond of the ailing monarch that he ordered a special quilt to keep him comfortable during the winter. The Nizam, in turn, adopted him as his own son and bestowed on him titles such as Hashmat Jung (Glorious in Battle). Nizam Ali Khan was also aided by the return of Aristu Jah, who while in captivity had managed to negotiate the return of most of the territory seized by the Marathas and a waiver of the indemnity. The only danger was that the Nizam would die or be overthrown before a new treaty could be signed. By now Nizam Ali Khan ‘was fast losing his strength, speech and appetite, and by his obstinacy, and the quackery to which he submitted, was hastening his own end’.42 The British had also uncovered a plot to kill off the Nizam using black magic. Kirkpatrick reported to his superiors in Calcutta that images made out of paste had been found in the palace with ‘powdered glass in their bodies & dog hair’.43
Kirkpatrick’s task of getting rid of the French was made easier by Raymond’s sudden death on 25 March 1798 in circumstances that suggested he had been poisoned. Raymond left behind 15,000 well-drilled and disciplined fighters under the command of his deputy, Jean-Pierre Peron, a native of Alsace. Peron was less sophisticated than his former commander and had less influence over the Nizam. Supported by the arguments of Aristu Jah, Kirkpatrick was finally able to convince the Nizam that a Subsidiary Alliance was the answer to all Hyderabad’s problems.
Today, Kirkpatrick is most often remembered for his scandalous alliance with Khair-un-Nissa, the great niece of Aristu Jah’s vakil (deputy), Mir Alam. Writing to his brother, Kirkpatrick said the affair started with ‘the fiery ordeal of a long nocturnal interview with the charming object of the present letter. It was this interview I alluded to as the one when I had a full and close survey of her lovely person.’44 The alliance eventually led to their marriage, Kirkpatrick’s conversion to Islam, his adoption of Hyderabadi dress and the birth of two children. When news of the affair reached Wellesley in Calcutta, it nearly ended Kirkpatrick’s career.
Khair-un-Nissa, however, did not distract him from concluding three treaties that changed the history of Hyderabad and its relationship with the British forever. The first of these was concluded by Kirkpatrick and Nizam Ali Khan on 1 September 1798. Under the Preliminary Treaty all French battalions were to be dismissed, and a 6000-strong Subsidiary Force, officered and controlled by the British, but paid for by the Nizam, was to be stationed in Hyderabad, in addition to two already existing battalions. The British also won the right to mediate in all disputes between the Nizam and Maratha peshwa. For his part, the Nizam agreed to raise the subsidy for the maintenance of the British troops from 57,713 rupees to 201,425 rupees a month.
The treaty, however, did not spell out how the French forces were to be disbanded. As the Subsidiary Force started its march from Guntur, Wellesley received the news that Napoleon had landed in Egypt. An invasion of India by the French, which had seemed fantastical just a few months previous, was now looking more real than ever. The news was a morale booster for Peron’s beleaguered forces, who had become mutinous as their pay fell further into arrears. After the arrival of the Subsidiary Force in early October, Kirkpatrick wrote to Aristu Jah demanding the execution of that part of the treaty which referred to the dismissal of the French. For several days there was no reply and Kirkpatrick suspected that the Nizam, on hearing of Napoleon’s successes, had changed his mind. Finally he gave the Nizam an ultimatum that if he hesitated any longer he would order an attack on the French lines. The ultimatum worked and one day later the Nizam issued the formal order dismissing the French officers and disbanding the troops.
The order sparked a mutiny in the French lines and Peron was taken prisoner. John Malcolm, who was the commander of the British forces and became Kirkpatrick’s deputy, surrounded the French cantonment with 2000 cavalry and 4000 infantry. After demanding that they end their mutiny and disband or be attacked, the French complied. Without a single shot being fired, or a single drop of blood being shed ‘the celebrated French corps of Hyderabad had passed into tradition’,45 and Napoleon’s designs for India suffered a severe blow. As Kirkpatrick wrote to Calcutta a day later: ‘It was at once a glorious and a piteous sight to see between eleven and twelve thousand of these French sepoys laying down their arms in heaps in presence of our line of troops drawn up in a most awing position, and moving off in crowds attended by their wives and chattels. Only three days ago matters wore a very dismal appearance.’46
Having dislodged the French from Hyderabad, Wellesley’s next move was to remove Tipu Sultan and establish Britain as the pre-eminent power on the sub-continent. Even though the Nizam had proved an unreliable ally in the past, Wellesley needed his forces to complete this ambitious task. Privately the Governor-General had a very low opinion of Nizam Ali Khan, remarking once that it was ‘impossible for persons to have behaved in a more shuffling manner’.47 Britain’s dealings with Hyderabad ‘ought to be a lesson to us to beware not to involve ourselves in engagements either with, or in concert with, or on behalf of, people who have no faith or no principle of honour or of honesty, or such as usually among us guide the conduct of gentlemen, unless duly and formally authorised by our government’.48
On 19 February, 6000 of Hyderabad’s best cavalry under Mir Alam, together with four battalions of Hyderabadi sepoys under the command of John Malcolm and six East India Company battalions under Lieutenant Colonel James Dalrymple, joined up with the main British force led by Major General Arthur Harris. This time the Nizam’s army performed admirably, and by April the combined force had taken several key forts and beaten Tipu back to Seringapatam. Harris was able to breach the north face of the fort after a siege lasting only a few weeks. On 4 May 1789 a storming party crossed the breach and after several hours of fierce hand-to-hand fighting captured Tipu’s capital. Amid a heap of dead and wounded soldiers Tipu’s corpse was found, still warm with its eyes open. It had three bayonet wounds to the body and a musket shot to the head.
Whatever satisfaction the Nizam felt at defeating Tipu dissipated when he learned that the lion’s share of the conquered territory would go to the Hindu Wadyar dynasty that had ruled Mysore before Haider Ali. Nizam Ali Khan was not amused, especially after learning that Mir Alam had agreed to the deal behind his back. So far his only gain from the whole campaign had been 100,000 gold pagodas, which he had to share with his 6000 troops. Wellesley saw it differently and wrote to Kirkpatrick asking him to impress upon the ageing leader that thanks to his alliance with the British, ‘his most formidable enemy has been destroyed’. Moreover, ‘from a weak, decaying and despised state, he has recovered substantial strength, secured the means of cultivating and extending his resources, with power and honour at home and abroad, and resumed a respectable posture among the princes of India’.49 Finally it was agreed that the Nizam would receive a slab of territory to the south of Hyderabad worth 600,000 pagodas.
With Mysore now neutralised, the triumphant Wellesley turned his attention again towards Hyderabad. Not satisfied with the terms of the Preliminary Treaty, he instructed Kirkpatrick to negotiate a new treaty that would give the British an even greater stranglehold over Hyderabad. The Treaty of Perpetual and General Defensive Alliance,
signed on 12 October 1800, was a masterstroke of British diplomacy. Though it spoke in glowing terms of how the Nizam and the East India Company ‘have in fact become one and the same in interest, policy, friendship and honour’,50 it gave the British complete control over the Nizam’s external affairs without imposing on them any stringent or matching obligation. By signing the treaty, the Nizam signed away his status as an independent ruler for the next 150 years.
The treaty guaranteed the integrity of the Nizam’s Dominions against all threats, but the Nizam was forbidden to enter into any negotiations with an external power without reference to the Company’s government. To pay for the maintenance of an enlarged Subsidiary Force, which was fixed at 8000 infantry, 1000 cavalry and the requisite number of guns, the Nizam gave up all the territories he had just gained from the British for helping win the war against Mysore. The purpose of the force was ostensibly to ‘overawe and chastise all rebels or exciters of disturbance in the dominions of the Nizams’.51 In case the two powers faced a common foe the Nizam agreed to put 6000 infantry and 9000 cavalry with artillery in the field and supply more troops if needed.
Wellesley was congratulated by the Company for planting British power ‘in the very centre of the mountains which hold India together’.52 Kirkpatrick, however, felt uneasy about what he saw as Wellesley’s grasping, bullying approach. When, in 1801, Wellesley demanded that he renegotiate the latest treaty despite the fact that not a single promised extra soldier had arrived, Kirkpatrick remarked that the British were cheating an ‘old and highly useful ally’.53