Battles fought in India between 1700-1800

1707:          Battle of Khed was a one of the historically significant battles fought in India in which Tara Bai defeated by Shahu

1739:          Battle of Karnal. The Mughal army defeated by Nadir Shah

1740:          Battle of Gharia. notable among Battles fought in India between Sarfaraz Khan, Nawab of Bengal, and Alivardi Khan yvas killed.

1746-48:    First Carnatic War. One of the important battles fought in India was between French and British forces. Madras was captured by French but returned to the English by he Treaty of Aix-la-Chappalle. It is famous for the battle of St. Thome, in which a small French army defeated the Nawab’s large force

1749-54:    Second Carnatic War. Initially the French under Dupleix had some successes but at last the English got a hold

1758-63:    Third Carnatic War. French captured Fort St. David in 1758, but suffered badly at Wandiwash (1760)

1757:          Battle of Plassey. The Englhish forces under Robert Clive defeated the army of Siraj-ud-daula

1761:          Third battle of Panipat. Marathas were defeated by Ahmad shah Abdali

1764:          Battle of Buxar, The English under Munro defeated Mir Qasim, the Nawab of Bengal, Shuja-ud-daula, Nawab of Avadh, and Shah Alam II, the Mughal emperor

1767-69:    First Anglo-Mysore War. Contested between Haider Ali and the British

1770:          Battle of Udgir. The Nizam was defeated by the Marathas

1775:          Battle of Sindkhed, among battles fought in India between the Marathas and the Nizam. The Nizam was forced to surrender some territories

1752-82:    First Anglo-Maratha War. The British army was defeated. The humiliating convention of Wadgoan (1779) was concluded. Peace was at last restored by the Treaty of Salbai (1782)

1780-84:    Second Anglo-Mysore War. Haider Ali died in the battle (1782) and the field was taken by his son Tipu sultan. The war was concluded by the Treaty of Mangalore (1784)

1789-92:    Third Anglo-Mysore War. Tipu Sultan was defeated (1792). The war came to a close with the Treaty of Seringa patam

1799:          Fourth Anglo-Mysore War. Tipu died fighting

Battles fought in India between 1800-1900

1803-06:    Second Anglo-Maratha war. The Marathas were defeated by the British

1814-16:    Nepalese War. Between the English and the Gurkhas. The war came to an end with the Treaty of Sagauli

1817-19:    Third Anglo-Maratha war. The Marathas were badly defeated by the British

1824-26:    First Anglo-Burmese War. The British defeated the Burmese. Peace was restored by the Treaty of Yandahboo

1839-42:    First Anglo-Afghan War. The Afghan ruler Dost Muhammad was defeated by the English

1845-46:    First Anglo-Sikh War. The Sikhs were defeated by the English. The war was ended by the Treaty of Lahore

1848-49:    Second Anglo-Sikh War. Sikhs were defeated and Punjab was annexed by the British

1852:          Second Anglo-Burmese War. The English were successful

1865:          Third Anglo-Burmese War. The English annexed Burma

1878-80:    Second Anglo-Afghan war. The English suffered losses

Battle fought in India after 1900

1919-21:    Third Anglo-Afghan War. The English though victorious did not benefit from the war.

On May 17, 1498, Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese voyager reached Calicut (now known as Kozhikode) on Malabar coast. Zamorin was the king of Calicut at that time. Vasco da Gama was appointed by Portuguese King Manuel I.

This Historic voyage successfully established a sea route from Europe to India. This sea route became major trade route as it gave European a safer alternative to reach far east without through the costly and unsafe silk road caravan routes of Middle East and Central Asia.

First Portuguese Governor in India was Fancisco Almeida. Alfonso d’ Albuquerque became second Governor in 1503. In 1510, Albaquerque captured Goa from Muslim ruler of Bijapur Ismail Adil Shah. He abolished the practice of Sati Pratha. He gave a new height Portuguese rule in India.

Read More: Major Ports in India

The Capital of Portuguese empire in India was cochin in their early years. In 1530, Nino-da-Chuna transferred the Portuguese capital in India from Cochin to Goa, now Goa became center of Portuguese rule in India which lasted till 1961. In 1535, he acquired Diu and Daman in 1559.

Portuguese had various other territorial possessions in Indian ocean and their Governor in Goa had authority over all these territories like Mozambique, Macau, Solar, Timor etc.

During the reign of Shahjahan Portuguese lost Hugly in 1631. In 1661, Portuguese king gave Bombay to Charles II of England as dowry for marrying his sister. Gradually they lost many of their territories.

Take a Quiz: Quiz 419 – Practice Paper (History)

A courageous soldier and a successful commander Mahmud of Ghazni ranks among those successful generals of the world who have been regarded as born commanders. He was an expert in assigning works and responsibilities to others according to their capacities, proving the fact that he was a good judge of human nature.

Under Mahmud’s command his army became a unified powerful force as his army consisted of the people of different nationalities such as Arabs, the Turks, the Afghans and even Hindus. As an ambitious commander, Mahmud always tried to win glory and expend his empire. He converted his small inheritance, from his father he inherited only the provinces of Ghazni and Khurasane into a mighty empire that stretched from Iraq and Caspian Sea in the West to the river Gange’s in the east and that was definitely more extensive than the empire of Khalifa of Baghdad at that time. Therefore, it can be asserted that Mahmud ranks among the greatest commanders and empire-builders of Asia.

Also Read: The Delhi Sultanate (1206 – 1290)

Mahmud of Ghazni: A patron of art and culture

Mahmud, an educated and cultured person, was a patron of scholarship and fine arts. Scholars of repute gathered at his court. Scholars of great repute such as Al Beruni, Utbi, Farabi, Baihaki, Tusi, Farrukhi and Firdausi were all at his court.

How much Mahmud of Ghazni  loved to acquire wealth evident from an ancient involving his court poet Firdausi. Once he agreed to pay Firdausi a gold dinar for every verse composed by him. But when Firdausi brought to him his Shahnama that consisted of one thousand verse, Mahmud offered him one thousand dinars of silver that Firdausi refused to accept. Mahmud, of course, sent one thousand gold diners to Firdausi afterwards, but, by then, Firdausi had died. Mahmud established a university, a good library and a mosque at Ghazni.

He also patronized the artists; he invited all kinds of artists from all parts of his empire and even from foreign countries and engaged them in beautifying Ghazni. It is due to his unceasing efforts that Ghazni became not only a beautiful city of the East but also the Centre of Islamic scholarship, fine arts and culture.

Must Read: Administrative Structure under the Mughals

Mahmud of Ghazni as a ruler

Mahmud of Ghazni  was such a just ruler that when he found his nephew guilty of having sexual relations with the wife of another person, he killed him with his own hands. Many similar stories are known about his sense of justice. He was successful in maintaining peace and order, protecting trade and agriculture and safeguarding the property and honour of his subjects within the boundaries of his empire.

Being a fanatic Sunni Musalman, Mahmud of Ghazni  was intolerant not only to Hindus but even to Shias also. Al Beruni has criticized his intolerant religious acts. The contemporary Muslims considered him as the champion of Islam and he was titled as Ghazi meaning slayer of infidels and destroyer of images. The contemporary Islamic world regarded Mahmud as the destroyer of infidels and the one who established the glory of Islam at distant places like India.

Instead having all these personal characteristics, Mahmudof Ghazni was considered a great Muslim ruler. In fact, he in the history of Islam, was the first ruler who justly deserved the title of Sultan. He has been listed among the great rulers of Central Asia. He established an extensive empire, brought peace and prosperity within its boundaries, assisted in its cultural development and established the glory of Islam at distant places.

But, in the history of India, Mahmud of Ghazni was a barbaric foreign bandit, a fanatic Sunni Muslim, a plunderer and a destroyer of fine arts. He, in fact, was the ruler of Ghazni, and not of India. The parts of his empire such as Punjab, Sindh and Multan, in fact, served the purpose of bases for his invasions deeper in India. He did not pay attention to administer them well. In the course of penetrating deep in India, Mahmud of Ghazni  simply desired loot, plunder and conversions. Thus to the Indians of his days he was a devil incarnate.

Also Read: Impact of Religious Policy of Aurangzeb on Mughal Empire

Weakness of Mahmud of Ghazni

His greatest weakness was that he was unable to rule as an administrator. Apart from maintaining peace and order in his dominions he did nothing to make it a stable Empire; his empire existed only during his own lifetime. As soon as he died, the empire was shattered to pieces under his successors.

According to Lane-Poole, “Mahmud of Ghazni was a great soldier and possessed tremendous courage and untiring mental and physical capacity. But he was not a constructive and far-signed statesman.” He did hardly anything to consolidate his Indian conquests as well.

It has been said by many scholar writers that Mahmud of Ghazni, who left no permanent impact on India, came like a great storm and destroyed everything and then passed off. However, it would be improper to assume, rather accept, that Mahmud of Ghazni  left no permanent mark on Indians and Indian history. Mahmud of Ghazni broke up not only the military strength of the Indians but also their morale to resist Turk invaders. He never confronted a serious challenge in India and his constant success against Indians created a defeatist attitude among the Indians that Turks were invincible. And above all, the most significant achievement of Mahmud of Ghazni was the destruction of the Hindushahi Kingdom of Afghanistan that facilitated the way for the conquest of India by Turks.

Don’t Miss: Administrative Structure under the Mughals

• Mangal Pandey, whose name is often preceded by Shaheed meaning a martyr in Hindi, was an Indian soldier during the pre-independence era. A member of the 34th Regiment of the Bengal native infantry of the East India Company, Mangal Pandey is counted among the most popular figures associated with India’s freedom struggle in present times.
• He was born on 19 July 1827 in the Nagwa village in the Ballia district of the Uttar Pradesh state. There still exist families in this village who claim to the descendants of Mangal Pandey.
• Mangal Pandey, who joined the sepoy force of the British East India Company in the year 1849, at the age of 22.
• A sepoy working under the British East India Company, Mangal Pandey’s name got etched into the pages of the Indian history after he attacked his senior British officers in an incident, which is today remembered as the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 or the India’s First War of Independence.
• The reason behind this was the rumor that the cartridges used by Indian sepoys were greased with the fat of cow and pig. Due to this, he was later captured and hung till death on 8 April in 1857.
• Mangal Pandey, who was a devout Hindu and practiced his religion strictly. It was rumoured that the cartridge used in the Enfield P-53 rifle which was being used by the Indian sepoys was greased with the fat of pig and cow fat.
• These cartridges had to be bitten off in order to remove the cover prior use and this went against the religious beliefs of the Muslims and Hindus.
• The general opinion was that the Britishers had deliberately done this to hurt the sentiments of Indians. And this was the main reason behind the outburst of Pandey’s anger.
• It was due to the conglomeration sparked off by Mangal Pandey that the East India Company finally lost all the confidence of the British Empire and the colony of India went under the direct rule of Queen Victoria.
• The place where Mangal Pandey had attacked the British officers, and where he was later hanged, has been turned into a park now, and is known as “Shahid Mangal Pandey Maha Udyan”.
• Designed by the artist C.R. Pakrashi, the Government of India, finally in 5^th October 1984, issued postage stamps which bore the image of Mangal Pandey.
• Pandey’s so-called treachery made him quite famous among the British, so much so that he gave birth to a new English word! “Pandy” is a word in the English Language which has been derived from his surname, and it means “Traitor”.

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The Arya Samaj was founded by Swami Dayanand Saraswati at Bombay in 1875. Born in Kathiawar in Gujarat, Swami Dayanand Saraswati (1824-83) was a scholar, a patriot, a social reformer and a revivalist. He believed the Vedas were the source of true knowledge.

His motto was “Back to the Vedas”. He was against idol worship, child marriage and the caste system based on birth. He encouraged intercaste marriages and widow remarriage. He started the Suddhi movement to bring back those Hindus who had converted to other religions to its fold. He wrote the book Satyartha Prakash which contains his ideas.   Read Also: Dayananda Saraswati

 The Arya Samaj, though founded in Bombay, became very powerful in Punjab and spread its influence to other parts of India. It has contributed very much to the spread of education. The first Dayanand Anglo-Vedic (DAV) School was founded in 1886 at Lahore. Many more schools came up in other parts of India in later years.

The Arya Samaj had also spread nationalism. Hundreds of Arya Samaj patriots, including Lala Lajpat Rai, took part in the Indian freedom struggle.   Swami Dayanand Saraswati was named Mul Shankara by his parents. He left home at an early age and wandered across the country in search of knowledge and answers to his spiritual questions.

Swami Dayanand Saraswati believed in the existence of only One Supreme Reality which should be worshipped in spirit not form. He said that all knowledge was contained in the Vedas and the social problems of India could be solved but studying the Vedas. He also started the Shuddhi Movement to reconvert those Hindus who had been converted to other religions.  

The good work of Swami Dayanand Saraswati was carried on by his followers. Lala Hansraj set up the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic School at Lahore. Soon, this school developed into a famous college. Children were taught in English and Hindi by modern methods. Some disciple founded the Gurukul at Hardwar. A number of DAV educational institutions were established to provide modern education. Thus, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries AD, the Arya Samaj became an important organization for religious and social reforms.  

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