Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan are names that always remained as a threat to their enemies.

In a very short period (1761-1799) of their rule, these father and son have achieved a regard that was something more than the reputation of mere kings.

End of Vijayanagar Empire

Story begins in early 18th century when two ministers of – once a mighty but now rusted and weak – Vijayanagar Empire became conspirator against their own king. Nangjaraj, the Sarvadhikari and Devraj, the Dulwai  eventually seized the power in Mysore, reducing the king Chikka Krishna Raj to a mere puppet.

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Rise of Haider Ali

Haider Ali started his career in the Mysore Army as a petty officer, the Mysore was engaged in a lengthy war of more than twenty years. During the period he gradually rose in Mysore army cleverly using the opportunities that came in his way.

He was an uneducated but keen intellect, daring and determined. He understood the advantage of western military training and applied it to troops under his own command. He also established a modern arsenal with the help of French experts.

In 1791, Haider Ali overthrew Nanjaraj and established his authority over the Mysore state. Soon he turned Mysore into a leading Indian power.

He was always engaged in war with Maratha, Nizam and British. He repeatedly defeated British.

First Anglo Mysore War (1767-69)

In this war, Haider Ali faced the tripple alliance of the British, the Nizam and the Marathas. Haider Ali using his diplomatic skills bought off the Marathas and won over the Nizam and thus broke the alliance.

The war was brought to an end by signing of the Treaty of Madras in 1769.

In 1782, Haider Ali died in the course of the Second Anglo Mysore war and succeeded by his son.

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Tipu Sultan

In 1782, Tipu Sultan became the successor of Mysore Empire in the middle of a war. Tipu carried the Second Anglo Mysore War till 1784 when two side concluded peace by signing the Treaty of Mangalore.

In the Third Anglo Mysore War (1789-92), Tipu was defeated by the triple alliance of British, Nizam and Marathas and had to sign the Treaty of Srirangapatna.

In 1799, Tipu Sultan died at the gates of Srirangapatna in the last battle he fought with British.

Life of Tipu Sultan

He is also known as ‘Tiger of Mysore’ was in public opinion in England considered him a vicious tyrant, while modern Indian nationalists have hailed him as a freedom fighter, but both views are the products of wishful thinking.

Tipu Sultan introduced new calendar, new system of coinage, new scale and weight and measure. He had a keen interest in French Revolution. He planted a ‘Tree of Liberty” at Srirangapatna and he became a member of Jacobin Club.

His land revenue was as high as that of contemporary rulers – it ranged upto one third of the gross product.

He made an effort to build a modern navy after 1796.

He sent emissaries to France, Turkey, Iran and Pegu Myanmar to develop foreign trade. He also traded with China.

Some British historians have declared Tipu as a religious fanatic. But facts does not support this claim. Though he was an orthodox in his own religious views but he was tolerant and enlightened in his approach toward other religion. [reference – NCERT]

He gave money for construction of the image of goddess Sarda in the Sringeri Temple after the latter was looted by Maratha horsemen in 1791. He regularly gave gifts to this temple as well as several other temples. The famous temple of Sriranganath was situated barely a hundred yards from his palace. He never tried to change the name of Srirangapatna (like other rulers did in their area).

Even on his last morning (May 4th came, 1799) before the battle, Tipu was told that the omens were not propitious. He tried to ward off misfortune by presenting the Hindu priests and Brahmins with a purse of gold, an elephant, a black bullock and two buffalo, a black nanny goat and a black coat and hat, but in vain.

While he treated the vast majority of his Hindu and Christian subjects with consideration and tolerance, he was harsh on those Hindus and Christians who might directly or indirectly aid the British against Mysore Empire.

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History of India can be traced back to one of the earliest civilization of the world grew on the bank of the river Indus about 5000 years ago. Agriculture and craft were the main occupation of the people of this civilization. The entire area was divided into city states and the people of these city states constantly had differences with each other.

The first outside invaders were the Aryans. Dynastic rule however started with the coming of the Mauryan dynasty. During the reign of the Mauryas, Ashoka the Great rose to power as one of the greatest emperor of that time. He had expanded and consolidated the empire of the Mauryas and brought about peace and tranquility. During his reign Buddhism spread all over the country and to other countries as well.

When the Mauryan empire fell it was succeeded by the Guptas who gave a glorious period to History of India. The advent of the Huns weakened this empire and the ruler were overthrown. Soon the turks attacked India and the following year saw the advent of Muslim rulers like Tughlaks and the Lodhis.

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It was after downfall of the Lodhis that the next great dynasty, the Mughuls gained control over the most of India in the first quarter of the 16^th century. The Mughals were great conquerors, able administrators, magnificent builders, great philosopher, and lover of art. The generation of Mughal rulers included emperors like Babur, Akbar, Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb etc.

One of the wonders of the modern world, Taj Mahal, was built during this period. The most of the Mughal empire was in the Northern India.

In the south there were other Hindu Kingdoms like Cholas and the Satwahans. These kingdoms too contributed to the Indian heritage, they built some of the most magnificent temples, most of which even exist today.

The advent of Muslims in the north did have its effects on these southern states and as the number of non-Hindu rulers rose, these states were overthrown and the most of them eventually collapsed. On the southern coast Pondicherry, Calicut, Goa, etc. became major ports where large-scale trading was carried out with the Europeans. Soon the British too landed in India and established their trading centres, in the forms of The East India Trading Company, by extracting favors from the Mughal emperors over the years the British became strong and usurped powers from the Mughal rulers.

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In history of India in 1879, Queen Victoria of England became empress of the British domain in India. Close to end of 19^th century resentment grew among the Indian and various attempt were made to overthrow the British rule.

In 1885, the Indian National Congress was formed to campaign for freedom. Some of the greatest freedom fighters included Mahatma Gandhi, Dadabhai Naoroji, Annie Besant, Aurobindo Ghosh, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Lala Lajpat Rai, Maulana Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru etc.

Unfortunately religious force became active at this time and the Muslim league demanded the creation of a separate Muslim state. Despite the attempt of the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, India was divided into India, and Pakistan in 1947, In history of India, it attained its independence from the Britain on 15^th of August, 1947. Dr. Rajendra Prasad became the first President and the Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru became the first Prime Minister.

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The first leaders were followed by a chain of Prime Ministers and the Presidents 1968 when Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister and she dominated the Indian since till she was assassinated in 1984, she was succeeded by her son Rajiv Gandhi who was also assassinated in 1991.

In history of India it has progress very well as an economy in all sphere in a planned manner over the decades. There were a few setbacks to which included the loss of Tibet to China, the various wars fought with Pakistan, etc. Natural calamities like floods and droughts to played havoc on many occasions.

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On the graph of popularity, The Revolt of 1857 stands at the top because a vast variety of people from almost all classes within the nation (of course in the making- perhaps a process still going on) find some elements to emphasize with. This Revolt, by its sheer nature and density, has acquired its place in people’s history that represents the rational analysis of the storehouse of memory. People’s history includes in itself the history of an elite as well as folk, constructing a record of events that is handed over from one generation to another.

The Revolt 1857, the first major challenge to the might of the British power, did not begin abruptly. The sense of dissension among sepoys and to some extend among general people against designs of their colonial masters was taking root much before the real Revolt had broken out. The immediate cause of the Revolt was officially made public by a proclamation issued at Delhi by the band of sepoys from Meerut who reached Delhi on 11 May 1857 and appealed Bahadur Shah II to become their leader. These sepoys had, just the previous day (10 May 1857) defied and killed the European officers, and marched straight away to Delhi – the symbol of power. The proclamation issued by them read: “it is well known that in these days all the English have entertained the evil designs-first, to destroy the religion of the whole Hindustani Army and then to make the people by compulsion Christians. Therefore, we solely on account of our religion, have combined with the people, and have not spared alive one infidel, and have re-established the Delhi dynasty on these terms.”

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Although the Revolt stated with the Bengal Army Sepoys and the unhappiness of the sepoys first came to the fore in 1824 when the sepoys of 47^th regiment was ordered to go to Burma because to the religious Hindu, crossing the sea meant forfeiture of caste, the section of general population also revolted in towns and villages which were near the cantonments which were strewed from Bengal to the North West Frontier, Rajasthan, and Central India.

These uprisings intensified into terse mass wars of national freedom in 1857-58, particularly in the kingdom of Awadh which had been, in the recent past, annexed by the officers of the East India Company, and also in some areas like Jhansi and Bhojpur.

Reach of the Revolt of 1857

The Revolt at Meerut and the proclamation of Bahadur Shah II as the Shahenshah-e-Hindustan proved to be the precursor to a widespread rebellion almost all over North India as well as Central and Western India.

Within a month of the event of the capture of Delhi the Revolt expanded to different parts of the country; the major centres of the rebellion were: Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Benaras, Bareilly, Jagdishpur, and Jhansi.

The view that the Revolt of 1857 represents an entire range of legends in Indian national subconsciousness takes strength from the fact that the revolt was explicitly recorded. Authenticating the view K.M. Pannikar and Bipin Chandra pen down (in their Book: India’s Struggle for Independence), “The rebel activity was marked by intense anti-British feelings, and the administration was invariably toppled.”

The rebels as they did not have leaders, turned to the territorial aristocrats and feudal chiefs who had bitter experience of suffering at the hands of the British because, according to the understanding of the rebel sepoys, they were the traditional leaders of Indian society.

At Kanpur, Nana Saheb became the natural choice to lead the rebellion-Adopted son of the last Peshwa Baji Rao II, Nana Saheb, after refusing the family title and abandoning Poona, was living near Kanpur.

At Lucknow Begam Hazrat Mahal took over the reign as in Lucknow popular sympathy was immensely in favour of the deposed Nawab. A regular administration was organized in which important offices were shared equally by Hindus and Muslims.

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At Bareilly, Khan Bahadur was chosen to take command. Khan Bahadur, though in the beginning was reluctant to take this responsibility, took the charge of administration, once the Revolt broke up and spread, and organized an army of 40,000 soldiers and gave a tough fight to the British.

It was Kanwar Singh, the zamindar of Jagdishpur, at the age of 70 who took the charge of leading the Revolt in Bihar. He had a personal grudge against the British because they had deprived him of his estates.

Jhansi’s Rani Lakshmibai, the most outstanding leader of the Revolt and who took the leadership of sepoys, also had the personal grudge against the British as they had declined to allow her adopted son to succeed to the throne after the demise of her husband and annexed her state by using the Doctrine of Lapse. The emerged as one of the most formidable enemies the British had to confront.

All these events created enemies for Lord Dalhousie’s successor Lord Canning. The policies, which the British implemented, of modernization and progress at the cost of tradition created the fuel that was ignited by the cartridge controversy. The slogan emerged “customs and religion in danger”. Muslims and Hindus both felt threatened and endangered. Working people such as Muslim artisans and weavers, Hindu archers, popularly known as Pasis, who were traditionally village guards also participated, must more actively than it could have been anticipated at that time, in the Revolt, giving the Revolt a pan-Indian Character in which, in fact, all listened to the call of dharma of deen.

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Why the Revolt of 1857 failed

In the sense of bringing the immediate result of obtaining liberation from the British the Revolt, of course, failed. However, the Revolt boosted the confidence of India as a whole in the sense that they had realized their power to resist and fight for the greater cause.

It can be easily come to the conclusion that the Indian side cracked into countless fractured interests as the Indian aspect of the Revolt showed the lack of unity whereas colonialism presented a United front.

Significance of the Revolt of 1857

The real significance of the Revolt lies in highlighting ways in which colonialism had contracted different Indian regions since the battle of Plessey. The Revolt extended the heritage of resistance to British arrogance that was demonstrated by the Sikh Khalsa and Talpur Mirs of Sindh in the 1840s, by the Afghans, the Burmese, and the Marathas in the previous 50 years, and by Tipu Sultan and Hyder Ali in Mysore and the Policers in further South.

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