The East India Company's Colonial Struggles

In the last years of the 18th century,... ...the East India Company had won the Battle of Buxar,... ...but was beginning to weaken. So weak that a takeover of India had become a remote dream,... ...but the company itself defaulted. On this occasion, the English emperor George V also got baffled and said... ...that if the company failed in India,... ...the wealth coming from India would also stop. If it stops, the British Empire will also default. So saving the Company became a problem of his life for the British Empire. On the other hand in India the Marathas, Sultan Tipu and the Nizam of Hyderabad joined hands and... ...began to get ready to fight the British. Just as in those years the 13 American states, led by George Washington, were fighting the British Empire. Why did the Indian alliance of three powers fail? Why did the famine of Bengal become death and life for the East India Company? I'm Faisal Warraich and in Dekho Suno Jano's series... ...East India Company's fourth episode, I will show you all this. The problems for the East India Company started in 1767 by... ...the emergence of a powerful state, the Maysore Empire in South India. Its ruler Hyder Ali was an ambitious leader... ...and wanted to make his empire very wide and powerful. His 17-year-old son Tipu Sultan also accompanied him on his mission. Both father and son wanted to build a modern army at that time. For this, they were getting help, especially from the French who were then enemies of the British. The French would aid British opponents in both the American and Indian colonies,... and In India, it was to Mysore. So with the help of French arms and military training, Sultan Hyder Ali soon... ...raised a powerful modern army of 50,000 men. This army matched the Indian Army of the East India Company. The Masysore army had better equipment. The Mysore army even had rockets that it would carry on camels... ...and could attack from a short distance. With this formidable fighting power, in 1767 Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan... ...declared war against the East India Company. The battles called the first 'Anglo-Mysore War' began from this point. Initially, in this series of battles, Mysore beat the British. Once Tipu Sultan with a large army reached the Madras fort of the British. He also burnt down the British bungalows on St. Thomas near Madras. The governor of Madras and his council who lived in these bungalows... ...could barely escape... ...by virtue of their timely arrival at the fort. However, the fort was not conquered in this battle. But the clashes between the two groups did not end. Attacks and defences continued from both sides,... ...but the Mysore empire continued to have an upper hand. In such a situation, for a decisive victory over the British, it was necessary... ...for Sultan Hyder Ali to capture the fort of the British in Madras and drive them away. Otherwise, the British would capture Seringapatam, the centre of Mysore, and... ...run the Mysore empire with their puppet ruler. So in 1769, Sultan Hyder Ali decided to make a surprise attack on Madras and give the British a decisive defeat. This attack was to take place at a time when the British in the fort were very few. Probably the Sultan had information that this was the best time to attack. The Sultan took with him a few thousand chosen braves... ...and suddenly arrived outside the walls of the Madras fort. When the British saw this, they lost their senses... ...because they did not have the military strength to fight. Seeing a certain defeat, they accepted the supremacy of the Sultan and offered peace. When the Sultan saw that his demands were being accepted without a fight, he did not occupy the fort. He agreed on peace. After which the First Anglo-Mysore War ended. The Treaty of Madras was signed on April 4, 1769. Both sides returned the territories taken from each other. An important provision of this treaty was... that if Mysore or the British got into a war with a third party, like the Marathas,... ...both would help each other. However, this provision could not be implemented. After some time when there were some skirmishes between Hyder Ali and the Marathas... ...the British did not come to the aid of Mysore. Consequently, the Treaty of Madras was terminated by both sides. Once again both had become rivals. Now it was just to be seen who would hit first. But before either of them could strike,... ...the mismanagement of Bengal under British control struck. A famine broke out in Bengal and millions died. When the First Anglo-Mysore War was ending,... ...Bengal was reeling under drought. Not a drop of water fell from the sky in 1769. Due to the lack of crops, a terrible hunger spread that devastated every house of the poor. Within a year, millions of people died of starvation. The mismanagement of the Company government... ...and the profiteering of the British merchants, had a big hand in this terrible disaster. The Company did not make any advance preparations to deal with a situation like famine. No surplus grain was stored anywhere,... ...although it had been the practice since the Mughal period... ...to keep a large stock of grain for just such a time. Godowns were filled with grains before time. But the Company continued plundering Bengal and sending the looted money to London,... ...without thinking it necessary to save the people from starvation. On the contrary, whatever the leftover grains were in the markets, the English merchants... ...bought them at a low price and stored them at the beginning of the drought. It was to sell them at higher prices when famine would strike. It goes that the British traders brought about 130 kilograms of modern-weight rice for one rupee. And then in the days of famine, they would sell the same amount of rice at nine to ten times the price. This is the reason that during the famine up to one million pounds in a year was transferred from Bengal to London. Some grain which was left in the government warehouses... ...was also allotted to the soldiers instead of giving it to the starving people. Nothing was done for the people. The Company further oppressed them charging the people of Bengal for not paying taxes due to famine. To save its stakeholders from a loss in London, the Company continued... ...to extort money from Bengalis. The Company's Indian soldiers would go from village to village and extort taxes from the people at gunpoint. Anyone who refused to pay taxes was hanged in public. Then the villages had rows of trees and poles with deadbodies hanging on. The Bengal Famine claimed the lives of up to three million people. So many dead bodies were in Murshidabad and Calcutta... ...that no one was left to bury them. The employees of the Company would throw them in the Hooghly river. In no time this river was also filled with dead bodies. Bengal was ruined by this atrocity,... ...but the Company stakeholders earned a profit of one million pounds. However, the East India Company also did not escape the effects of this famine. In such a way that London's print media, Gentleman's Magazine and London Post etc.,... ...published the news of looting and crimes of the East India Company. The news had the effect of making the Company's political rivals worry about their power. They worried that the Company would take control of the parliament with the help of ill-gotten wealth. That is, like a powerful lobby, it would buy the loyalties of the parliamentarians... ...and start winning the elections. In that case, the British Parliament would become a slave of the East India Company. Former British Prime Minister William Pitt raised the point in the House of Lords... ...that the Company was trying to corrupt the British Parliament with its wealth. It was bringing here the Asiatic ways of governing along with the wealth of Asia. White people who do not have roots in this country... ...are entering the Parliament on foreign gold. British newspapers also became concerned about their values and traditions. In April 1772, the Gentleman's Magazine wrote... ...that the East India Company, had shed the blood of innocent natives on Indian soil,... ...and it could do the same on our soil. Theatre plays were also produced with similar thematic concerns against the Company. In the power struggle of the elite for the British crown, a case was formulated against the Company. Similarly, the British King George III also got worried that if... ...the Company continued to loot and massacre like this... ...the people of India might revolt and drive the British out. His concern was because he believed... ...that the real greatness of the British nation depends on the wealth of India. Our country is sinking in debt,... ...could steer out only with the wealth of India. This is what the emperor used to say. At the time when this debate was going on against the Company in Britain,... ...the Company also faced the wrath of nature. Because of indiscriminate killings and famine, it became impossible for the Company to collect taxes by force. Obviously, people would pay taxes if they had anything to pay or were alive. It happened that due to famine in Behgal and loss in tea business, ...the Company went bankrupt or defaulted in 1772. When news of the default spread, its stock rate dropped by 60 points in just one month. Obviously, the Company was an international entity,... ...and when it defaulted, the banks that were associated with it,... ...and landed money or were holding its shares, also became insolvent and were forced to close down their business. This situation was not exclusive to London, but many European countries also fell victim to it and just in a month... ...30 European banks were among the defaulters. The Company, came to lick the dust. When this situation was threatening for the Company,... ...the same time the Crown of Great Britain, the British Empire, also faced the end if a heavy amount was not injected into the Company. Why and how it was so? The Company's trade monopoly over India greatly benefited the Crown. Because, before the default 50 percent of the British trade was due to the Company. It paid more than 886,000 pounds to England every year in customs duties alone. This amount made up over 93 million pounds in modern currency. That is, the East India Company and its rule over India... ...became a matter of life and death for the British Empire. For this reason, a member of the British Parliament said,... ..."Comrades! this is not a matter of the government or the opposition, but a problem of our empire. It will determine whether Great Britain will become the number one country in the world or will end up ruined." Given this, the British Parliament made two important decisions. Firstly, it approved a bailout package of 1.4 million pounds for the Company. This amount was to be given to the Company as a loan by the Bank of England. The second decision was that the Company's dominance over India would remain intact... ...but the Parliament would be a check and balance on it. It was to be done by appointing a governor-general of the British government to Calcutta. The whole of India, including the Company areas in Madras and Bombay, will be controlled by the governor-general. The subordinate officers to the governor-general would be from the Company. In June 1773, the Parliament passed the Regulating Act. Calcutta became the English capital of India under this Act. Warren Hastings was appointed Governor-General of India. This new arrangement by the British government somewhat controlled the East India Company's monopoly. The £1.4 million relief package was given to the Company under the 'Regulating Act'. It was the biggest bailout package of modern capitalism,... ...saving both the Company's wealth and political power. It stabilised its financial condition and also fortified the Company's power in India after it was falling down. It was because the Parliament-appointed Governor General... ...Warren Hastings, was also an employee of the Company... ...while the opinion of the Company was given primary importance in appointing and removing a Governor General. The Company stood on its feet once again. With the onset of rains in Bengal, the problem of famine and taxation was also solved. The value of the Company's shares again went skyrocket. At the time all these decisions were being made,... ...Britain had America as its second most important colony after India... ...which was actually a collection of 13 smaller colonies. These colonies were on the eastern side of the present-day map of the United States. When Britain decided to reduce the financial difficulties of the East India Company,... ...a part of was also related to these 13 colonies. Britain has so far not imposed even a single tax in these 13 colonies. But Britain was to pay millions of pounds to financially help the Company. Therefore, to meet this financial loss, the first tea tax was imposed on Americans. This tax was to be collected from the Americans living in these colonies and not from the East India Company. Because it aimed to help the Bank of England. East India also monopolised the sale of tea in America. So it happened that as soon as tea was taxed, the tea prices hiked. The people in the British American colonies got angry, united and rose up. They took up arms against the East India Company and the British Crown. Attacks on the Company and the English army began. On December 16, 1773, in the American city of Boston... ...the ships of the East India Company were looted... ...and the tea was thrown into the sea. This rebellion was named the "Boston Tea Party". In many other American cities, tea was thrown into the sea and rivers following Boston. Crown Britain tried to suppress the people in the American colonies by force, but it backfired. 13 American states united and rebelled against the British crown in 1776. They chose George Washington as their commander-in-chief... ...and started a war with Great Britain with the help of France. As France was Britain's global rival, therefore,... ...it provided aid to Britain's enemies both in America and India. America fought many wars with the British forces under the leadership of George Washington. In 1781, at Yorktown, Virginia, the central British commander, Lord Cornwallis,... ...surrendered to George Washington, the unified commander of the 13 American colonies. On that occasion, some generals of the French army were also present. Three years later in 1784, the American War of Independence was successfully concluded with the Treaty of Paris. That is, after India, Great Britain lost its most important colony i.e. America. But at the same time, it had an experience... ...in how to keep a large colony continuously enslaved. So who would have this experience more than Lord Cornwallis, who surrendered to the Americans? So it happens that five years later, Britain sent the same Lord Cornwallis to India as the Governor General. At that time, if there was political maturity and a spirit of unity in India,... ...the British could have been expelled from India with the help of the French like America. But then there were three major international changes,... ...due to which the Indian people, like the American colonies,... ...could not fight a war of independence with foreign masters. What were these three changes? The first change was the famous revolution in France in 1789... ...and the end of the monarchy that had been fighting Britain in the world wars. The second change related to the three major powers in India, ...the Maratha Empire, the largest in terms of area, the Mysore Empire... ...and the Nizam of Hyderabad, which all had forged a temporary alliance to fight the British, broke apart. Although for some time they made a temporary alliance and defeated the British in some battles... ...but this alliance could not turn into a permanent military campaign on the lines of... ...the rebels in the American states. The Nizam of Hyderabad did not show much interest in fighting the British. Then in 1782, the British made peace with the Marathas on certain terms and alienated it from the alliance. Now the kingdom of Mysore was left alone. When Sultan Hyder Ali died in 1782,... ...his successor son Tipu Sultan made peace with the British two years later. He made made, but his battles with the Marathas started. Fellows, it must be striking in your mind what the Mughal emperor of India was doing at that time? Then the so-called emperor of India Shah Alam II was... ...brought from Allahabad by the Marathas who placed him on the throne of Delhi. Shal Alam was no more than a puppet of the Marathas... ...because the Marathas defeated the Rohilla Pathans from Delhi and drove them out. So these emperors were in no way able to bring the three powers together to fight the British. After these two changes, the third was that... ...after the defeat in America and the French Revolution, the British now gave focus and... ...strength on keeping hold over India. Because now India was not just a colony for them, but a lifeline. If India slipped out of its hand, everyone was gone. Honour, wealth and world power could all be lost. To save all this, the British general Lord Cornwallis, who as defeated in America,... ...landed on the coast of Calcutta under a mission. His main mission was to end the power of Sultan Tipu in Mysore. Because he was the biggest obstacle in the way of occupation of India. How did the British defeat Tipu the Lion of Mysore? How far did the Marathas and the Sikh Empire of Punjab fight against the British after Sultan Tipu and why did they lose? Why did the British say that this toast is the name of the dead body of India? All this will be shown to you in the next and last episode of this mini-series. Guys, in this episode we have briefly talked about the War of Independence in America. We have shown the story of the discovery of America and the War of Independence till now in a great documentary. If you missed it, you can watch it here. Here's what was the French Revolution... ...and how did it change the world? And see here how the East India Company finally managed to establish a foothold in India?

In the last years of the 18th century,... ...the East India Company had won the Battle of Buxar,... ...but was beginning to weaken. So weak that a takeover of India had become a remote dream,... ...but the company itself defaulted. On this occasion, the English emperor George V also got baffled and said... ...that if the company failed in India,... ...the wealth coming from India would also stop. If it stops, the British Empire will also default. So saving the Company became a problem of his life for the British Empire. On the other hand in India the Marathas, Sultan Tipu and the Nizam of Hyderabad joined hands and... ...began to get ready to fight the British. Just as in those years the 13 American states, led by George Washington, were fighting the British Empire. Why did the Indian alliance of three powers fail? Why did the famine of Bengal become death and life for the East India Company? I'm Faisal Warraich and in Dekho Suno Jano's series...  ...East India Company's fourth episode, I will show you all this. The problems for the East India Company started in 1767 by... ...the emergence of a powerful state, the Maysore Empire in South India. Its ruler Hyder Ali was an ambitious leader... ...and wanted to make his empire very wide and powerful. His 17-year-old son Tipu Sultan also accompanied him on his mission. Both father and son wanted to build a modern army at that time. For this, they were getting help, especially from the French who were then enemies of the British. The French would aid British opponents in both the American and Indian colonies,... and In India, it was to Mysore. So with the help of French arms and military training, Sultan Hyder Ali soon... ...raised a powerful modern army of 50,000 men. This army matched the Indian Army of the East India Company. The Masysore army had better equipment. The Mysore army even had rockets that it would carry on camels... ...and could attack from a short distance. With this formidable fighting power, in 1767 Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan... ...declared war against the East India Company. The battles called the first 'Anglo-Mysore War' began from this point. Initially, in this series of battles, Mysore beat the British. Once Tipu Sultan with a large army reached the Madras fort of the British. He also burnt down the British bungalows on St. Thomas near Madras. The governor of Madras and his council who lived in these bungalows... ...could barely escape... ...by virtue of their timely arrival at the fort. However, the fort was not conquered in this battle. But the clashes between the two groups did not end. Attacks and defences continued from both sides,... ...but the Mysore empire continued to have an upper hand. In such a situation, for a decisive victory over the British, it was necessary... ...for Sultan Hyder Ali to capture the fort of the British
 in Madras and drive them away. Otherwise, the British would capture Seringapatam, the centre of Mysore, and... ...run the Mysore empire with their puppet ruler. So in 1769, Sultan Hyder Ali decided to make a surprise attack on Madras and give the British a decisive defeat. This attack was to take place at a time when the British in the fort were very few. Probably the Sultan had information that this was the best time to attack. The Sultan took with him a few thousand chosen braves... ...and suddenly arrived outside the walls of the Madras fort. When the British saw this, they lost their senses... ...because they did not have the military strength to fight. Seeing a certain defeat, they accepted the supremacy of
 the Sultan and offered peace. When the Sultan saw that his demands were being accepted without a fight, he did not occupy the fort. He agreed on peace. After which the First Anglo-Mysore War ended. The Treaty of Madras was signed on April 4, 1769. Both sides returned the territories taken from each other. An important provision of this treaty was... that if Mysore or the British got into a war with a third party, like the Marathas,... ...both would help each other. However, this provision could not be implemented. After some time when there were some skirmishes between
 Hyder Ali and the Marathas... ...the British did not come to the aid of Mysore. Consequently, the Treaty of Madras was terminated by both sides. Once again both had become rivals. Now it was just to be seen who would hit first. But before either of them could strike,... ...the mismanagement of Bengal under British control struck. A famine broke out in Bengal and millions died. When the First Anglo-Mysore War was ending,... ...Bengal was reeling under drought. Not a drop of water fell from the sky in 1769. Due to the lack of crops, a terrible hunger spread
 that devastated every house of the poor. Within a year, millions of people died of starvation. The mismanagement of the Company government... ...and the profiteering of the British merchants, had
 a big hand in this terrible disaster. The Company did not make any advance preparations to deal
 with a situation like famine. No surplus grain was stored anywhere,... ...although it had been the practice since the Mughal period... ...to keep a large stock of grain for just such a time. Godowns were filled with grains before time. But the Company continued plundering Bengal and sending
 the looted money to London,... ...without thinking it necessary to save the people from starvation. On the contrary, whatever the leftover grains were in the markets, the English merchants... ...bought them at a low price and stored them at the beginning of the drought. It was to sell them at higher prices when famine would strike. It goes that the British traders brought about 130 kilograms of
 modern-weight rice for one rupee. And then in the days of famine, they would sell the same
 amount of rice at nine to ten times the price. This is the reason that during the famine up to one million pounds in a year was transferred from Bengal to London. Some grain which was left in the government warehouses... ...was also allotted to the soldiers instead of giving it to the starving people. Nothing was done for the people. The Company further oppressed them charging the people of Bengal for not paying taxes due to famine. To save its stakeholders from a loss in London, the Company continued... ...to extort money from Bengalis. The Company's Indian soldiers would go from village to village and extort taxes from the people at gunpoint. Anyone who refused to pay taxes was hanged in public. Then the villages had rows of trees and poles with deadbodies hanging on. The Bengal Famine claimed the lives of up to three million people. So many dead bodies were in Murshidabad and Calcutta... ...that no one was left to bury them. The employees of the Company would throw them in the Hooghly river. In no time this river was also filled with dead bodies. Bengal was ruined by this atrocity,... ...but the Company stakeholders earned a profit of one million pounds. However, the East India Company also did not escape the effects of this famine. In such a way that London's print media, Gentleman's Magazine and London Post etc.,... ...published the news of looting and crimes of the East India Company. The news had the effect of making the Company's political rivals worry about their power. They worried that the Company would take control of the parliament with the help of ill-gotten wealth. That is, like a powerful lobby, it would buy the loyalties of the parliamentarians... ...and start winning the elections.  In that case, the British Parliament would become a slave of
 the East India Company. Former British Prime Minister William Pitt raised the point
 in the House of Lords... ...that the Company was trying to corrupt the British Parliament with its wealth. It was bringing here the Asiatic ways of governing along with the wealth of Asia. White people who do not have roots in this country... ...are entering the Parliament on foreign gold. British newspapers also became concerned about their values and traditions. In April 1772, the Gentleman's Magazine wrote... ...that the East India Company, had shed the blood of innocent natives on Indian soil,... ...and it could do the same on our soil. Theatre plays were also produced with similar thematic concerns against the Company. In the power struggle of the elite for the British crown, a case was formulated against the Company. Similarly, the British King George III also got worried that if... ...the Company continued to loot and massacre like this... ...the people of India might revolt and drive the British out. His concern was because he believed... ...that the real greatness of the British nation depends on the wealth of India. Our country is sinking in debt,... ...could steer out only with the wealth of India. This is what the emperor used to say. At the time when this debate was going on against the Company in Britain,... ...the Company also faced the wrath of nature. Because of indiscriminate killings and famine, it became impossible for the Company to collect taxes by force. Obviously, people would pay taxes if they had anything to pay or were alive. It happened that due to famine in Behgal and loss in tea business,  ...the Company went bankrupt or defaulted in 1772. When news of the default spread, its stock rate dropped
 by 60 points in just one month. Obviously, the Company was an international entity,... ...and when it defaulted, the banks that were associated with it,... ...and landed money or were holding its shares, also became insolvent and were forced to close down their business. This situation was not exclusive to London, but many European countries also fell victim to it and just in a month... ...30 European banks were among the defaulters. The Company, came to lick the dust. When this situation was threatening for the Company,... ...the same time the Crown of Great Britain, the British Empire, also faced the end if a heavy amount was not injected into the Company. Why and how it was so? The Company's trade monopoly over India greatly benefited the Crown. Because, before the default 50 percent of the British trade
 was due to the Company. It paid more than 886,000 pounds to England every year in customs duties alone. This amount made up over 93 million pounds in modern currency. That is, the East India Company and its rule over India... ...became a matter of life and death for the British Empire. For this reason, a member of the British Parliament said,... ..."Comrades! this is not a matter of the government or the opposition, but a problem of our empire. It will determine whether Great Britain will become the number one country in the world or will end up ruined." Given this, the British Parliament made two important decisions. Firstly, it approved a bailout package of 1.4 million pounds for the Company. This amount was to be given to the Company as a loan
 by the Bank of England. The second decision was that the Company's dominance over India would remain intact... ...but the Parliament would be a check and balance on it. It was to be done by appointing a governor-general
 of the British government to Calcutta.  The whole of India, including the Company areas in Madras and Bombay, will be controlled by the governor-general. The subordinate officers to the governor-general would be from the Company. In June 1773, the Parliament passed the Regulating Act. Calcutta became the English capital of India under this Act. Warren Hastings was appointed Governor-General of India. This new arrangement by the British government somewhat controlled the East India Company's monopoly. The £1.4 million relief package was given to the Company
 under the 'Regulating Act'. It was the biggest bailout package of modern capitalism,... ...saving both the Company's wealth and political power. It stabilised its financial condition and also fortified the Company's power in India after it was falling down. It was because the Parliament-appointed Governor General... ...Warren Hastings, was also an employee of the Company... ...while the opinion of the Company was given primary importance in appointing and removing a Governor General. The Company stood on its feet once again. With the onset of rains in Bengal, the problem of famine and
 taxation was also solved. The value of the Company's shares again went skyrocket. At the time all these decisions were being made,... ...Britain had America as its second most important colony after India... ...which was actually a collection of 13 smaller colonies. These colonies were on the eastern side of
 the present-day map of the United States. When Britain decided to reduce the financial difficulties of the East India Company,... ...a part of was also related to these 13 colonies. Britain has so far not imposed even a single tax
 in these 13 colonies.  But Britain was to pay millions of pounds to financially help the Company. Therefore, to meet this financial loss, the first tea tax was imposed on Americans. This tax was to be collected from the Americans living in these colonies and not from the East India Company. Because it aimed to help the Bank of England. East India also monopolised the sale of tea in America. So it happened that as soon as tea was taxed, the tea prices hiked. The people in the British American colonies got angry, united and rose up. They took up arms against the East India Company and the British Crown. Attacks on the Company and the English army began. On December 16, 1773, in the American city of Boston... ...the ships of the East India Company were looted... ...and the tea was thrown into the sea. This rebellion was named the "Boston Tea Party". In many other American cities, tea was thrown into the sea
 and rivers following Boston. Crown Britain tried to suppress the people in
 the American colonies by force, but it backfired. 13 American states united and rebelled against the British crown in 1776. They chose George Washington as their commander-in-chief... ...and started a war with Great Britain with the help of France. As France was Britain's global rival, therefore,... ...it provided aid to Britain's enemies both in America and India. America fought many wars with the British forces under
 the leadership of George Washington. In 1781, at Yorktown, Virginia, the central British commander, Lord Cornwallis,... ...surrendered to George Washington, the unified commander
 of the 13 American colonies. On that occasion, some generals of the French army were also present. Three years later in 1784, the American War of Independence was successfully concluded with the Treaty of Paris. That is, after India, Great Britain lost its most important colony i.e. America. But at the same time, it had an experience... ...in how to keep a large colony continuously enslaved. So who would have this experience more than Lord Cornwallis,
 who surrendered to the Americans? So it happens that five years later, Britain sent the same Lord Cornwallis to India as the Governor General. At that time, if there was political maturity and a spirit of unity in India,... ...the British could have been expelled from India with
 the help of the French like America. But then there were three major international changes,... ...due to which the Indian people, like the American colonies,... ...could not fight a war of independence with foreign masters. What were these three changes? The first change was the famous revolution in France in 1789... ...and the end of the monarchy that had been fighting Britain in the world wars. The second change related to the three major powers in India, ...the Maratha Empire, the largest in terms of area, the Mysore Empire... ...and the Nizam of Hyderabad, which all had forged a temporary alliance to fight the British, broke apart. Although for some time they made a temporary alliance and defeated the British in some battles... ...but this alliance could not turn into a permanent military campaign on the lines of... ...the rebels in the American states. The Nizam of Hyderabad did not show much interest in fighting the British. Then in 1782, the British made peace with the Marathas on certain terms and alienated it from the alliance. Now the kingdom of Mysore was left alone. When Sultan Hyder Ali died in 1782,... ...his successor son Tipu Sultan made peace with the British two years later. He made made, but his battles with the Marathas started. Fellows, it must be striking in your mind what the Mughal emperor of India was doing at that time? Then the so-called emperor of India Shah Alam II was... ...brought from Allahabad by the Marathas who placed him
 on the throne of Delhi. Shal Alam was no more than a puppet of the Marathas... ...because the Marathas defeated the Rohilla Pathans
 from Delhi and drove them out. So these emperors were in no way able to bring
 the three powers together to fight the British. After these two changes, the third was that... ...after the defeat in America and the French Revolution, the British now gave focus and... ...strength on keeping hold over India. Because now India was not just a colony for them, but a lifeline. If India slipped out of its hand, everyone was gone. Honour, wealth and world power could all be lost. To save all this, the British general Lord Cornwallis,
 who as defeated in America,... ...landed on the coast of Calcutta under a mission. His main mission was to end the power of Sultan Tipu in Mysore. Because he was the biggest obstacle in the way of occupation of India. How did the British defeat Tipu the Lion of Mysore? How far did the Marathas and the Sikh Empire of Punjab fight against the British after Sultan Tipu and why did they lose? Why did the British say that this toast is the name of the dead body of India? All this will be shown to you in the next and last episode of this mini-series. Guys, in this episode we have briefly talked about the War of Independence in America. We have shown the story of the discovery of America and the War of Independence till now in a great documentary. If you missed it, you can watch it here. Here's what was the French Revolution... ...and how did it change the world? And see here how the East India Company finally managed to establish a foothold in India?

Transcript for:The East India Company's Colonial Struggles

Transcript for:
The East India Company's Colonial Struggles