Hyder Ali and Tipu

The British encountered no stouter resistance in India than Mysore’s gifted commmander Hyder Ali and his son, Tipu.

1778-1799

Introduction

The Princely State of Mysore was for many years one of the most prosperous and pro-British kingdoms of the Raj, but in the late eighteenth century it was briefly dominated by two of Britain’s most bitter and successful opponents, Hyder Ali (?1722-1782) and his son Tipu (1750-1799).

by Clay Lane

IN 1778, King Louis XVI of France declared war on Britain, and London responded by driving the colonial French out of the port of Mahé in Mysore, a kingdom in southwest India dating back to the turn of the fifteenth century.

This trespass incensed Hyder Ali, Mysore’s brilliant military commander whose hero status had already relegated King Krishnaraja Wodeyar II to a mere figurehead. Hyder’s army swept east towards Madras, the city founded by the British in 1639, abducting thousands of children and ensuring years of famine by torching fields and granaries – Tanjore did not fully recover for over a century* – and a series of British commanders was barely able to contain him.

After Hyder died in 1782, his son Tipu, egged on by Britain’s colonial rivals in France and Holland, continued Hyder’s military campaigns and brutal policies. The brunt of them was borne by the people of Kodagu, who were hunted down, forcibly converted to Islam, and conscripted into Tipu’s army.*

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Tanjore is known today as Thanjavur.

The Kodagu or Haleri Kingdom became the Coorg Province in 1834, then the Coorg State in 1950, and was merged with Mysore in 1956. It lies today in the Kodagu administrative region of India.

Précis

Hyder Ali was a military commander in the Indian state of Mysore, who in 1778 launched a campaign against Britain’s colonial presence and those Indian rulers who supported it. Hyder died undefeated in 1782, and his son Tipu followed his father’s example with ruthless gusto, ensuring loyalty by forcible conversion to Islam, and a steady supply of soldiers by conscription.

Sevens

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

What prompted Hyder Ali to attack the British?

Suggestion

They brought their European quarrel into Mysore.

Jigsaws

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

Krishnaraja Wodeyar II was King of Mysore. He was not really in charge. Hyder Ali was in charge.

Clay Lane The Copybook