Last Nizam (9781742626109) (7 page)

In the confusion a Maratha night patrol looking for water stumbled upon the Nizam, who was accompanied by a unit of
female bodyguards. During the ensuing gun battle, the Nizam tried to escape but found himself trapped in the fort. Panicstricken, his troops also retreated to the fort, leaving all their weapons, ammunition and stores scattered on the battlefield. The Marathas quickly surrounded the fort and after a siege lasting 22 days forced the Nizam to sign a treaty ceding the territories of Daulatabad, Ahmadnagar and Sholapur as well as an indemnity of 30 million rupees. In addition, he had to hand over Aristu Jah as a hostage to Nana Phadnavis.

It was a humiliating defeat. Instead of pushing back the Marathas, Nizam Ali Khan surrendered more than half of his already diminished Dominions and most of his strongest forts, not to mention his hapless Prime Minister. For the British the campaign was also a disaster. Their policy of neutrality had backfired badly. Ignoring British protests that he was treaty-bound not to employ foreign troops, the Nizam ordered the Subsidiary Force to leave Hyderabad and gave approval for Raymond to increase the size of his contingent and set up arsenals and foundries to manufacture weapons.

By the end of 1795, after only three years in Hyderabad, Raymond's force consisted of 15,000 men divided into 20 battalions under the command of 124 Europeans. Nizam Ali Khan was so fond of the Frenchman that he showered him with titles such as ‘Dragon of War' and ‘Bravest in the State' and ceded the newly acquired districts of Cumbum and Cuddapah to him to pay for the maintenance of the troops. Cuddapah was located beside the Company's borders, making it possible for Raymond to menace British possessions in the Carnatic.

The growing influence of the French in Hyderabad alarmed the British. France was the dominant power in Pune, while in the south Tipu Sultan was wearing the cap of Liberty, calling himself ‘Citizen Tippoo' and actively planning his revenge for his humiliating defeat at the hands of the British. The British
also learned he was in communication with Napoleon Bonaparte, who was commencing his campaign in Egypt. Back in Europe, Britain and France were at war, yet again.

Complicating matters further, the Nizam suffered a stroke in February 1796 from which he never fully recovered. With the Nizam incapacitated, Aristu Jah deprived of his liberty in Pune, and the British still treaty-bound not to favour one group or another, rival factions within the Nizam's court had free rein. The Paigah nobles favoured Feridun Jah, while pro-British factions supported the Nizam's eldest son Sikander Jah, who also had the backing of Aristu Jah. Both rivals sought the support of Raymond, who the British feared would become the kingmaker and force the new Nizam to join forces with Tipu. Should Tipu be joined by French troops from Egypt it could have paved the way for France to become the predominant power on the peninsula.

Into this unfolding scenario stepped the new Governor-General, Richard Wellesley. In contrast to the timid and self-effacing Shore, Wellesley was an uncompromising empire-builder who between 1798 and 1804 expanded the Company's holdings from a few small pockets of territory to most of southern India, the entire eastern coastal strip, all of Bengal and parts of northern India. British troops would be in occupation in Hyderabad and Pune and Residents stationed at every native court. Wellesley's first priority was to deal with Tipu Sultan. That meant getting rid of the French in Hyderabad, where British spies were reporting that Raymond might be planning a
coup d'état
. Wellesley instructed James Achilles Kirkpatrick, who had taken over the post of Resident from his ailing brother William, to open the negotiations with the Nizam on a new treaty under which the British Government would give him protection against the Marathas, provided he dismissed French officers from his service and agreed to an increase in the Subsidiary Force.

Kirkpatrick was on good terms with the ‘old Nizzy' as he liked to call him. He grew so fond of the ailing monarch that he ordered a special quilt to keep him comfortable during the winter. The Nizam, in turn, adopted him as his own son and bestowed on him titles such as Hashmat Jung (Glorious in Battle). Nizam Ali Khan was also aided by the return of Aristu Jah, who while in captivity had managed to negotiate the return of most of the territory seized by the Marathas and a waiver of the indemnity. The only danger was that the Nizam would die or be overthrown before a new treaty could be signed. By now Nizam Ali Khan ‘was fast losing his strength, speech and appetite, and by his obstinacy, and the quackery to which he submitted, was hastening his own end'.
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The British had also uncovered a plot to kill off the Nizam using black magic. Kirkpatrick reported to his superiors in Calcutta that images made out of paste had been found in the palace with ‘powdered glass in their bodies & dog hair'.
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Kirkpatrick's task of getting rid of the French was made easier by Raymond's sudden death on 25 March 1798 in circumstances that suggested he had been poisoned. Raymond left behind 15,000 well-drilled and disciplined fighters under the command of his deputy, Jean-Pierre Peron, a native of Alsace. Peron was less sophisticated than his former commander and had less influence over the Nizam. Supported by the arguments of Aristu Jah, Kirkpatrick was finally able to convince the Nizam that a Subsidiary Alliance was the answer to all Hyderabad's problems.

Today, Kirkpatrick is most often remembered for his scandalous alliance with Khair-un-Nissa, the great niece of Aristu Jah's
vakil
(deputy), Mir Alam. Writing to his brother, Kirkpatrick said the affair started with ‘the fiery ordeal of a long nocturnal interview with the charming object of the present letter. It was this interview I alluded to as the one when I had a full and close survey of her lovely person.'
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The alliance eventually
led to their marriage, Kirkpatrick's conversion to Islam, his adoption of Hyderabadi dress and the birth of two children. When news of the affair reached Wellesley in Calcutta, it nearly ended Kirkpatrick's career.

Khair-un-Nissa, however, did not distract him from concluding three treaties that changed the history of Hyderabad and its relationship with the British forever. The first of these was concluded by Kirkpatrick and Nizam Ali Khan on 1 September 1798. Under the Preliminary Treaty all French battalions were to be dismissed, and a 6000-strong Subsidiary Force, officered and controlled by the British, but paid for by the Nizam, was to be stationed in Hyderabad, in addition to two already existing battalions. The British also won the right to mediate in all disputes between the Nizam and Maratha
peshwa
. For his part, the Nizam agreed to raise the subsidy for the maintenance of the British troops from 57,713 rupees to 201,425 rupees a month.

The treaty, however, did not spell out how the French forces were to be disbanded. As the Subsidiary Force started its march from Guntur, Wellesley received the news that Napoleon had landed in Egypt. An invasion of India by the French, which had seemed fantastical just a few months previous, was now looking more real than ever. The news was a morale booster for Peron's beleaguered forces, who had become mutinous as their pay fell further into arrears. After the arrival of the Subsidiary Force in early October, Kirkpatrick wrote to Aristu Jah demanding the execution of that part of the treaty which referred to the dismissal of the French. For several days there was no reply and Kirkpatrick suspected that the Nizam, on hearing of Napoleon's successes, had changed his mind. Finally he gave the Nizam an ultimatum that if he hesitated any longer he would order an attack on the French lines. The ultimatum worked and one day later the Nizam issued the formal order dismissing the French officers and disbanding the troops.

The order sparked a mutiny in the French lines and Peron was taken prisoner. John Malcolm, who was the commander of the British forces and became Kirkpatrick's deputy, surrounded the French cantonment with 2000 cavalry and 4000 infantry. After demanding that they end their mutiny and disband or be attacked, the French complied. Without a single shot being fired, or a single drop of blood being shed ‘the celebrated French corps of Hyderabad had passed into tradition',
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and Napoleon's designs for India suffered a severe blow. As Kirkpatrick wrote to Calcutta a day later: ‘It was at once a glorious and a piteous sight to see between eleven and twelve thousand of these French sepoys laying down their arms in heaps in presence of our line of troops drawn up in a most awing position, and moving off in crowds attended by their wives and chattels. Only three days ago matters wore a very dismal appearance.'
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Having dislodged the French from Hyderabad, Wellesley's next move was to remove Tipu Sultan and establish Britain as the pre-eminent power on the sub-continent. Even though the Nizam had proved an unreliable ally in the past, Wellesley needed his forces to complete this ambitious task. Privately the Governor-General had a very low opinion of Nizam Ali Khan, remarking once that it was ‘impossible for persons to have behaved in a more shuffling manner'.
⁴⁷
Britain's dealings with Hyderabad ‘ought to be a lesson to us to beware not to involve ourselves in engagements either with, or in concert with, or on behalf of, people who have no faith or no principle of honour or of honesty, or such as usually among us guide the conduct of gentlemen, unless duly and formally authorised by our government'.
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On 19 February, 6000 of Hyderabad's best cavalry under Mir Alam, together with four battalions of Hyderabadi sepoys under the command of John Malcolm and six East India Company battalions under Lieutenant Colonel James Dalrymple, joined up with the main British force led by Major General Arthur Harris.
This time the Nizam's army performed admirably, and by April the combined force had taken several key forts and beaten Tipu back to Seringapatam. Harris was able to breach the north face of the fort after a siege lasting only a few weeks. On 4 May 1789 a storming party crossed the breach and after several hours of fierce hand-to-hand fighting captured Tipu's capital. Amid a heap of dead and wounded soldiers Tipu's corpse was found, still warm with its eyes open. It had three bayonet wounds to the body and a musket shot to the head.

Whatever satisfaction the Nizam felt at defeating Tipu dissipated when he learned that the lion's share of the conquered territory would go to the Hindu Wadyar dynasty that had ruled Mysore before Haider Ali. Nizam Ali Khan was not amused, especially after learning that Mir Alam had agreed to the deal behind his back. So far his only gain from the whole campaign had been 100,000 gold
pagodas
, which he had to share with his 6000 troops. Wellesley saw it differently and wrote to Kirkpatrick asking him to impress upon the ageing leader that thanks to his alliance with the British, ‘his most formidable enemy has been destroyed'. Moreover, ‘from a weak, decaying and despised state, he has recovered substantial strength, secured the means of cultivating and extending his resources, with power and honour at home and abroad, and resumed a respectable posture among the princes of India'.
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Finally it was agreed that the Nizam would receive a slab of territory to the south of Hyderabad worth 600,000
pagodas
.

With Mysore now neutralised, the triumphant Wellesley turned his attention again towards Hyderabad. Not satisfied with the terms of the Preliminary Treaty, he instructed Kirkpatrick to negotiate a new treaty that would give the British an even greater stranglehold over Hyderabad. The Treaty of Perpetual and General Defensive Alliance, signed on 12 October 1800, was a masterstroke of British diplomacy. Though it spoke in glowing
terms of how the Nizam and the East India Company ‘have in fact become one and the same in interest, policy, friendship and honour',
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it gave the British complete control over the Nizam's external affairs without imposing on them any stringent or matching obligation. By signing the treaty, the Nizam signed away his status as an independent ruler for the next 150 years.

The treaty guaranteed the integrity of the Nizam's Dominions against all threats, but the Nizam was forbidden to enter into any negotiations with an external power without reference to the Company's government. To pay for the maintenance of an enlarged Subsidiary Force, which was fixed at 8000 infantry, 1000 cavalry and the requisite number of guns, the Nizam gave up all the territories he had just gained from the British for helping win the war against Mysore. The purpose of the force was ostensibly to ‘overawe and chastise all rebels or exciters of disturbance in the dominions of the Nizams'.
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In case the two powers faced a common foe the Nizam agreed to put 6000 infantry and 9000 cavalry with artillery in the field and supply more troops if needed.

Wellesley was congratulated by the Company for planting British power ‘in the very centre of the mountains which hold India together'.
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Kirkpatrick, however, felt uneasy about what he saw as Wellesley's grasping, bullying approach. When, in 1801, Wellesley demanded that he renegotiate the latest treaty despite the fact that not a single promised extra soldier had arrived, Kirkpatrick remarked that the British were cheating an ‘old and highly useful ally'.
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As it turned out, the Nizam's usefulness as an ally was short-lived. In June 1803 he suffered another stroke, which Kirkpatrick said left him ‘emaciated in the extreme, his eyesight dim and drowsy, his countenance worn, his speech feeble and inarticulate and his faculties greatly impaired'.
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Two months later, on 6 August, he died at the Chowmahalla palace and was buried on the same day at the Mecca Masjid, Hyderabad's main mosque.

‘So passed an eastern monarch, evincing great promise in early years, relapsed into that apathetic life which seems peculiar to an oriental climate,' wrote Briggs in a fitting epitaph to the Second Nizam's remarkable reign. ‘He is the first of his family who sought the English; and that he did not make more out of his connection was – whatever may be asserted to the contrary – in consequence of his unbounded faith in his ally.'
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