Summary

Modern Indian History Class 08

Mysore under Hyder Ali and Tipu (5:07 PM)

Remove intermediaries(Deshmukhs) and introduce a direct collection of taxes by the state through state officials who got salaries and not commissions.
This allowed more income for the state and low taxes for peasants as now no commission of intermediaries.
This increased the financial strength of the state immensely.
Did detailed field surveys to asses land revenue demand, therefore, preventing over-assessments.
To maximize the land revenue system tipu modernized the irrigation system, introduced sericulture, and promoted crash crops.
Land under Jagirdari was minimized.
Tipu protected peasants from corruption and oppression of officials via effective supervision.
Even Tipu's enemy accepted that his population was the most prosperous.
In 1793, Tipu set up a state commercial cooperation to set up factories in and outside Mysore.
The PSU set up 30 trading centres in and outside Mysore and even outside India, for example in Muscat(Oman), and Mysore began international trade in lucrative goods like sandalwood, Pepper, rice, silk, sulfur, cardamom, etc.
Tipu's revenue model and his fiscal policies are also called military fiscalism as a huge amount of wealth was generated by the state to build a strong military and in this respect, Mysore behaved like EIC.
Tipu sent ambassadors to France for importing foreign technology and to build an alliance against the British.
Tipu introduced rockets in the military and was used in 1799(4th Anglo-Mysore war) which EIC copied and developed in 1806.
However, dreams were bigger than resources, and constant warfare with Indian neighbours and EIC drained resources.
This was because Mysore wanted to dominate the whole of south India and its trade, therefore developing rivals with Indian neighbours and EIC respectively.
Tipu declared independence from the Mughals formally, For example, minted coins in his name and used his name in Khutba/Friday prayers.
Tipu requested Farman/decree from the ottoman empire's khalifa who was also a religious had of the Muslim world, declaring Tipu as a ruler independent from the Mughals.

Travancore (8:17 PM)

Always maintained independence from the Mughals.
Marthanda Varma:
The important ruler was Marthanda Varma who by 1740 setup a strong centralized state by subjugating the local chiefs, he did some territorial expansion and built a west-like military with modern weapons, and in 1741 removed the Dutch from Cochin, who were there since 1669.
He forced EIC to trade on his terms.
He established a state monopoly over the pepper trade of Malabar and later all trade on the Malabar coast.
Trade profits were utilized for military, agriculture, transport, and communication.
Under Rama Varma, Travancore became the centre of art and scholarship but declined militarily.
In 1766 Hyder Ali attacked and annexed Malabar and Calicut then Tipu attacked and this contributed to the 3rd Anglo-Mysore war as EIC was an ally of Travancore.
After Rama Verma, Travancore came under British influence.
In 1800, a British resident was stationed in the court.
In 1805 Travancore signed a subsidiary/subordinate alliance with EIC that led to EIC control over foreign policy and military, in return for help in suppressing a revolt in the army by Nair troops due to low salaries.
In 1809, PM/Devan Velu Thampi led a revolt by peasants and Nair troops against EIC, due to interference in the domestic affairs by British residents which was crushed by EIC.

The advent of Europeans (7:03 PM)

Colonialism was originally associated with settlement by foreigners, that is converting a newfound land into a colony.
These foreign settlers established their domination and exploited indigenous people in the economic, political, and cultural domains.
colonialism implies the domination of economic, political, social, and cultural by foreigners of indigenous people.
Foreigners may be in form of foreign settlers, businesses, and foreign states or foreign institutions.
For example post decolonization after WW2, neo-colonialism began ex-colonies now had political independence legally but they were still dominated and exploited by ex-colonial powers and international institutions like IMF and the world banks
As these newly independent nations were economically weak and therefore dependent on foreign aid and loans
Which were tied with conditionalities that prevented these nations from following independent policies, therefore this was colonialism in a new form, Hence the name neo-colonialism
Imperialism is when there is the use of the military or its threat
In imperialism, there is usually a loss of sovereignty and is usually done by a foreign state, therefore empire-building via territorial annexations is a feature of imperialism usually.
Colonialism and imperialism are used interchangeably.
Old colonialism/imperialism existed pre-industrialization of western Europe, that is pre-1870.
Pre-1817, it was motivated by Gold, Glory, and God.
God represented the motive of spreading Christianity.
Glory represented empire building.
Gold represented economic motives and led to economic exploitation via loot of wealth and resources, plantation systems, trade of lucrative crops from the colony to the rest of the world, and the lucrative slave trade.
Where Africans were sold as slaves in the Americas for cheap labour in the plantation system.

The topic of the next class: Advent of Europeans