A Shameful defeat for Nizam Ali Khan.

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 crowd that fought in Mysore war was now a more polished machine thanks to the former French 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 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. Dressed in red jackets, black tricorn hats, white shirt and short shin-length boots, Raymond's brigade was impressive to look at; but had yet to prove itself on the battlefield.

William Kirkpatrick

Enter William Kirkpatrick; he would become the new resident in Hyderabad. Nizam had sent Aristu Jah to ask the support of the East India Company's armies. But his appeals were turned down on the grounds that the treaty of 1768 required them to be neutral.
Enter John Shore, an equivocating evangelical Christian, who succeed Cornwallis as the Governor- General, was reluctant to question the letter of the treaties.

To him, the Nizam was a defaulter trying to evade obligations. 
Meanwhile, Kirkpatrick as the resident of Hyderabad had unprecedented access to the Nizam and his court. He could see that the Nizam's army was not strong enough to take on the Marathas.
The leader of the Marathas Nana Phandavis, had a far larger pool of mercenaries to train his soldiers in his latest military techniques. 
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.

The first day of battle was an extraordinary sight as Raymond's corps, flying the tricolor, swept down on de Boigne's forces. At the end of the day, Nizam's forces had advanced several kilometers ahead despite continuous firing from the Marathas.
 But whatever advantage the Nizam gained in this battle was short lived.

As expected the Nizam had brought with him his new favorite wife, Bakshi Begum, and the rest of the oversized zanana. According to one eyewitness, Bakshi begum became so frightened by the ‘booming of the cannons and 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 zanana inside the fort.

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.

The Marathas quickly surrounded the fort and after a siege lasting 22 days forced the Nizam to sign a treaty. The treaty concluded the territories of Daulatabad, Ahamadnagar, 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 Phandavis.

It was a humiliating defeat for Nizam Ali Khan.

The Third Anglo Mysore War

With Haider Ali's troops now marching towards the Karnataka and the Nizam threatening to join him the British had to act fast. Through the skillful mix of military force, diplomacy and a little bit of bribery Hasting manage to avert the disaster. Pune was brought to its heels by the arrival of six sepoy battalions. Nagpur's leader has been brought off.  Hasting also sacked the controversial governor of madras, Sir Thomas Rumbold. He then appointed the British resident John Holland in Hyderabad.  

Lord Cornwallis

Hasting was replaced as the Governor-general in 1786 by Lord Cornwallis, who arrived in India fresh from his surrender to George Washington at Yorktown during the American war of Independence. Although Hasting restored the fortunes of the East India Company, he left some unfinished business. Cornwallis first intentions were to go to war against Tipu Sultan. But first, he had to build up an alliance with Hyderabad and the Marathas.

Cornwallis reacted by instructing his residents in Pune and Hyderabad to bring to Marathas and the Nizams into a tripartite alliance against Mysore and assemble the strongest possible armies to press an attack.

Under the terms of the treaty concluded with the Nizam in July 1790. It was agreed that Hyderabad would wage war separately against Tipu Sultan. The treaty contained clauses that the Nizam to each sends on demand 10,000 cavalries to operate with the British. In return, the British would supply them with two detachments of battalion strength. Each party would receive a third of the share of any territory captured during the campaign.

This time Nizam kept to his side of the bargain, but his forces moved so slowly that it was April before they finally joined Cornwalli's at Kottapalli.   
They were successful in the siege. Instead on attacking Mysore head-on they swing into the district of Kuddapah, where they became bogged down in another time-consuming attack on the hill fortress of GurramKonda. The war itself took a year to finish.

Tipu Sultan

Tipu Sultan finally called for a negotiated settlement in February 1793. Tipu was to pay an indemnity of 33 million rupees, surrender half of his territories and hand over to the British custody of two of his children, both eight at the time, as surety. 

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 swath of territory.
No sooner had the booty dispersed, however than the triple alliance Cornwallis hoped for would become a permanent began falling apart. This time it was the Marathas.

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THE REVENGE OF NIZAM ALI

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The Nizam was planning his revenge. In 1778 he opened a secret correspondence with Nana Phadnavis, the Maratha Prime Minister, on creating a grand alliance against the British.

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“We shall manage the English with the means of French whose Vakeel is with us, with whom we have entered into a treaty.” Nana wrote to Nizam in August 1778.

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Unfortunately for both men, the letter has been intercepted by the British. As was the Nizam’s reply a few months later which said.
“I will repair in person to you, and rose that bad race from their dream of security, and overthrow their ambitions and designs”

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The contents of these letters and other intelligence that the Governor General Warren Hasting collected made for a disturbing reading. The ‘Vakeel’ Nana was talking about was the French agent Chevalier de St Lubin. He immediately began to consider plans to ‘avert those dreadful consequences’ of their designs.

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Those designs were complicated by the formations in 1780. A powerful confederacy comprised of the Nizams, the Marathas, and Haider Ali. All three hold a strong grudge against the British. They conspired to attack all three presidencies- Bombay, Madras, and Bengal- simultaneously. Nana Phadnavis and Maratha military chieftains were to attack Bombay, the Nizam and Haider Ali would march on Madras. Bhonsle, the Maratha ruler would take on Bengal.

The depth of Nizam’s hatred towards the British at this time was apparent in a letter he wrote to the Mughal Emir Najaf Khan in September 1780
“The world is now involved in calamities through the turbulence of the English; the deceits of this wicked nation are spread over the whole empire…A handful of people without a head of a foundation have possessed themselves of the three richest provinces in the empire, every one of which is equal to a kingdom, a set of merchants without a name and scarcely known have engrossed and disposed of as they please.”

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Nizam Ali Khan was now at the height of his power. Successfully playing off the British against the French. Through the confederacy, he was threatening the very future of the East India Company’s presence on the Indian Sub-continent.

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In the next episode, we shall find out did Nizam Ali Khan succeed in his attempt on taking revenge. Till then, stay classy!.

A LESSON FOR NIZAM ALI KHAN.

With the help of the French mercenaries, Haider Ali had built up a formidable army. And was looking to expand his territories.

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Fear of the rising Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan the Nizam and the British were ready to bring him down. Securing the support of the Marathas, the Nizam also called on the British to join the alliance to attack Mysore. Alarmed of Haider Ali’s conquest the British agreed to send forces. The plan Nizam hatched was entirely based on self-interest and self-preservation. He needed the strength of Marathas but also wanted to keep British on his side. This was in order to ensure a favorable division of the spoils of the battle.

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When Nizam Ali Khan set out from Hyderabad with 17,000 of his own troops and 10,000 Maratha soldiers paid out of his pocket in Jan 1767. Haider Ali decided that his best defense was bribery. The Maratha leader was brought off for 3.5 million rupees plus land. He tried to offer Nizam Ali as well, but the Nizam proved harder to sway. The Nizam wanted 5 million rupees, but Haider Ali was prepared to give only 2 million rupees.

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It was already March and the troops promised by the British in December had yet to arrive. The Nizam felt he had been cheated into by the East India Company into ceding the Northern Circars. When the Madras army finally reached the Nizam’s encampment on 13 April 1767, they were shocked to find the Marathas were nowhere to be seen. The Nizam had changed sides.
In the end of all this confusion, Haider Ali had been able to buy off the Nizam quite cheaply. So defective was the Nizam’s forces in arms, discipline, that Haider Ali secured a deal for a mere 600,000 rupees a month.

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In August 1767 their combined forces swept across the Ghats in what was to be the first of four wars against the British. Mysore forces were soon at the gates of Madras and by the end of September, they were ‘scampering about’ in the gardens of the company’s villas. The British, however, gave Haider Ali a severe beating. The Nizam had proved to be a useless ally.

Determined to teach Nizam a lesson, the British decides to send a military to invade a largely undefended city of Hyderabad. Fearful of losing his capital city, the Nizam again switched sides and sent his representatives to Madras to negotiate a new treaty. This time the British would not be so generous.

The British made Nizam Ali khan sign the treaty of ‘Perpetual Friendship and Alliance’ signed on 26 February 1768, Nizam Ali Khan was made to pay war expenses of 2.5 million rupees. Which was to be deducted from the annual tribute of 700,000 rupees over six years. Nizam was made to pay for the privilege of having British troops in his territory. Whether he needed them or not. He was made to declare Haider Ali a ‘Usurper, a rebel, and troublesome man’ and revoked all treaties with him.

In the next episode, we shall see the revenge of Nizam Ali khan. Stay tuned.