Column | Tracing empires on paper

To the East India Company and the British Raj that adopted it, mapping was an obsession. The empires that got here earlier than them, such because the Mughal and the Marathas, didn’t interact in cartography in fairly the identical method.

The British wanted to review the topography of what was to them very overseas territory in an effort to assess revenues from rent-farming within the subcontinent. The consequence was survey maps, which have been among the many earliest efforts to doc the nation as a complete. Through these maps, for the primary time, India emerges as we recognise it right now. These give us an thought of how splintered we as soon as have been and the way we’ve moved forward, formed by many forces, to change into a unified complete.

South’s inflection level

A examine of a few of the historic maps within the Sarmaya assortment reveals how, as soon as, even a cohesive Deccan and the Coromandel appears to have been a distant risk. A map from 1758 by Jacques-Nicholas Bellin reveals the inflection level within the historical past of South India.

South India and Ceylon, 1758 (Jacques-Nicholas Bellin; print on paper)
| Photo Credit:
Courtesy of Sarmaya Arts Foundation

The map has nearly each empire represented: the Carnatic, with its Nawab, is a large presence, and huddled towards the coast are the colonial powers stretching from the current Andhra border all the way in which to Kanyakumari. What is right now only one state, particularly Tamil Nadu, has the Dutch (Pulicat, Sadras, Nagapattinam), the British (Madras, Fort St David at Cuddalore), the remnants of the Portuguese (San Thome is listed individually), and the Danes (Tharangampadi). At this stage, although the sport was nonetheless vast open, the British had begun to emerge because the strongest contenders to the seat of energy in south India.

British obsession with Tipu Sultan

Soon, nonetheless, British ascendancy was challenged by Hyder Ali, the de facto ruler of Mysore. By the 1760s, all consideration was centred on how you can deal with him. What adopted was a sequence of 4 wars, spanning three a long time. The first Anglo-Mysore War was decisively gained by Hyder Ali however his loss of life in 1782 meant the second was inconclusive.

He was succeeded to the throne by his son Tipu Sultan, who commanded even larger concern among the many British. In Madras, English merchants hardly ever ventured out of Fort St George, such being the phobia that Tipu struck. In 1782, he had come as much as the Fort and threatened the Governor’s bungalow on Mount Road.

East view of seringapatam (John William and Robert H Colebrook, 1793; monochrome engraving on paper)
| Photo Credit:
Courtesy of Sarmaya Arts Foundation

Several maps present the British obsession with Tipu Sultan. In 1792, within the third Anglo Mysore warfare, the Governor-General of India Charles Cornwallis defeated him and imposed warfare damages. Tipu’s sons have been taken hostage, delivered to Madras and saved there until the cash was paid. Given their respect for Tipu Sultan as an adversary, this victory was crucial for the British to commemorate. In work and sculpture, artists of the time recreated the second. The scene when Lord Cornwallis took the 2 sons from Tipu Sultan is carved into the frieze beneath the statue of Cornwallis on the Fort Museum in Madras.

A brand new and correct map of the Southern Provinces of Hindoostan displaying the territories ceded by Tippoo Sultan to the totally different powers, 1800 (Robert Wilkinson, T. Foot; print on paper)
| Photo Credit:
Courtesy of Sarmaya Arts Foundation

In time, Tipu repaid damages and took again his sons. But he and the dominion of Mysore have been now a lot weakened and in no place to take on the British. Then the battle got here to his doorstep.

Art of battle

The final stand of Tipu Sultan, the storming of Seringapatam and the invention of his physique are all gripping motion work, recreated by artists from first-hand accounts of eyewitnesses. The most adorned amongst these was Colonel Arthur Wellesley, who was despatched in 1798 by his brother after which Governor-General Richard Wellesley to fire up warfare with Mysore.

A triptuch of the storming of Seringapatanam, 1802-1803 (Giovanni Vendramini, Tinted Mezzotint)
| Photo Credit:
Courtesy of Sarmaya Arts Foundation

It was claimed that Tipu had sought assist from Napoleon, who had by then reached Egypt, and urged the French to assault the British in Madras. To forestall this, the British, the Marathas and the Nizam of Hyderabad fashioned an alliance towards Tipu. The fourth and remaining Anglo-Mysore warfare ended with the siege of Seringapatam (Srirangapatna), which lasted via April and May in 1799. Tipu might not have needed to struggle however ultimately, he emerged. And perished.

Defeat of Tippoo Saib earlier than Seringapatnam (Marquis Cornwallis, 1795)
| Photo Credit:
Courtesy of Sarmaya Arts Foundation

The fall of Tipu marked the rise of Arthur Wellesley, who went on to larger glories in his profession. He distinguished himself on the Battle of Assaye towards the Marathas, defeated Napoleon at Waterloo and have become the Prime Minister of England twice. He was made Duke of Wellington, and Wellington cantonment within the Nilgiris is known as for him. One final map makes for poignant viewing. It exhibits us how the Nizam, the Marathas and the East India Company carved up Tipu’s territory. An period had ended, and the British have been all set for a long-lasting tenure as overlords.

The columnist is a author and historian.

The final within the sequence of columns by sarmaya.in, a digital archive of India’s numerous histories and inventive traditions.