8.1Rise to power
Hyder Ali (c. 1720/21–1782) entered Mysore service as a soldier, distinguished himself in the Carnatic campaigns, and used control of the army and the Dindigul revenues to displace the dalavayi faction. By 1761 he was the effective ruler of Mysore, governing in the name of the Wadiyar king.[1]
He reorganised the army on European lines with French assistance, developing disciplined infantry, an effective artillery arm, and the rocket corps for which Mysore became internationally known.[2]
8.2Wars with the Company
In the First Anglo-Mysore War (1767–1769) Hyder outmanoeuvred the East India Company and dictated peace at the gates of Madras with the Treaty of Madras. In 1780 he invaded the Carnatic again, and his forces under his son Tipu destroyed a British detachment at Pollilur — one of the Company's worst defeats in India — opening the Second Anglo-Mysore War.[1]
Hyder died of cancer at Chittoor in December 1782 while the war continued; Tipu succeeded him and concluded the Treaty of Mangalore in 1784.
8.3Administration and assessment
Hyder expanded state control over revenue, promoted irrigation and commerce, and maintained a religiously plural administration in which Hindu officials such as Purnaiah held senior office.[3] Contemporary British writing cast him as an usurper and tyrant; modern historians emphasise his state-building capacity and the fiscal-military modernisation that made Mysore the Company's most formidable Indian opponent.[4]
References and footnotes
- [1]"Hyder Ali", Wikipedia. Link
- [2]"Mysorean rockets", Wikipedia. Link
- [3]Mark Wilks, Historical Sketches of the South of India, in an Attempt to Trace the History of Mysoor, London, 1810–1817 (a partisan but foundational source).
- [4]Burton Stein, "State Formation and Economy Reconsidered", Modern Asian Studies 19 (1985); and A History of India, Blackwell, 1998.