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| Arcot Nawob Muhammad Ali Khan Wala-Jah(1752 to 1795).en.wikipedia.org |
Above image: Arcot Nawab (Nawab of the Carnatic; portrait by George Willison)............................
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| Carnatic territories.History Discussion |
Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah (7 July 1717 – 13 October 1795), was the Nawab of Arcot in S. India and was a close ally of the British East India Company that ran a proxy government in India on behalf of the British Crown. He maintained close contact with the Mogul ruler Emperor Shah Alam II and often referred to as the Subedar of the Carnatic.
He had military alliance with Nasir Jung, and the British in opposing his own relative Chanda Sahib, who sought Subadarship with French support. However, Chanda Sahib made a futile attempt to seize the control and it was an ignominious defeat for the French in the middle of 18th century. An Imperial firman confirmed Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah's control over the Carnatic and on 21 January 1751 he became Naib to Viceroy of the Deccan. Later in 1763 the Treaty of Paris recognized him as an independent ruler, so was the Emperor of Delhi, Shah Alam II on 26 August 1765.
The twenty years' struggle between the French and the English ended in 1763 and as per the peace treaty, the settlement of Pondicherry and a few other places were restored to the French, but the English remained a force to reckon with in Southern India. Muhammad Ali, was recognized as Nawab of the Carnatic,
The Nawabs of Arcot - The kingdom in the
Carnatic region now forming part of Tamil Nadu, South India ruled between
1761 and 1818 during the reign of Charlotte of Mecklenburg,
wife of King George III (1760-1820) and Queen Consort of Britain. The Nawabs were the official agents of the Delhi Mughal
empire in the Carnatic region from 1692 to 1744 but were more or less
independent rulers on their own headed by Nawab Anwaruddin Muhammad
Khan from 1744 to 1749. The ruler was initially an ally of the French from 1749 to 1855, and later became close to the British. The rulers' military and administrative alliance with the English company from 1752 to 1855 is an important part of British India history with respect to southern states.
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The simmering revelry between Hyder Ali and Arcot Nawab finally began to boil over. As the British provocation in the aftermath of the seizure of the French port Mahe (which was under Hyder Ali) angered Hyder Ali, he, with a powerful army estimated at roughly 100,000 men, on 23 July 1780 raided Arcot and much of the ensuing war was fought on the Nawab's territory.
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maximum,
Officially the Company enjoyed all real power though Muhammad Ali remained nominally the Dewan or revenue administrator, as well as the Nizam or military governor, while the Company took care of country's military defense. To meet the cost of maintaining the military, etc part of Nawab's revenues was assigned for this purpose. The financial problem started when EIC demanded more and more money with each war. Having insufficient revenue and to meet the increasing demand of military alliance fees the Nawab turned to the servants of the Company, a wrong step taken by the ruler not worthy of his exalted status.
It is an interesting historical fact that the Arcot Nawab was a key factor in Westminster politics. The Nawab, to suite his style of functioning and building palatial palace, etc had borrowed heavily and many of his creditors happened to be East India Company officials, in India or in the United Kingdom. It is quite surprising that elections in the UK had a close link with money from Nawab's treasury. Consequently, about a dozen Members of Parliament formed a political group for promoting "Arcot interest", as it was called. In the 1780s financial and other issues affecting Arcot had a direct impact on British politics, especially the mounting debts the Arcot ruler owing to the company and individuals. The Nawab was like a man caught in the quick sands, slowly sinking with no solution in sight.
During the years of 1783-1830, the issue of the Nawab of Carnatic`s debts became a subject of discussion and debate in the House of Commons and Fox`s India Bill of 1783 was discussed in detail. From 1767 to 1777, the Nawab owed to the servants of the British East India Company to the tune of 3,440,000 pounds, in deed a huge sum equal to the total annual income of some important European countries. The Company arranged for the Nawab to make annual payments of 480,000 pounds and saw to it that the debt was paid off by 1804. However at that time, the Nawab's fresh loan commitments stood at 30,000,000 pounds, a whooping sum one can ever imagine. In 1805 a commission of Bengal civilians, after through investigation into nature of loans, etc., determined that 2,687,000 pounds represented a valid total.
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| Arcot nawab's residence Amir mahal, Chennai. vivaciousanushri.wordpress.com |
The Nawab of Arcot was careless about his finances and gave more importance to the trappings associated with his royal status than his annual expenditure and revenue collections, a part of his administrative work. Being a luxurious prince, Muhammad Ali moved from his own capital in Arcot to live amidst luxuries of the British town of Madras. He had a palatial palace Amir Mahal (part of it is controlled by the state government) built closer to Ft St. George. His assumption was he would be much safer in Madras, a major British trading town.
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| Stringer Lawrence and Muhammed Ali Khan Wallajah.en.wikipedia.org |
Above image: Major-General Stringer Lawrence (6 March 1697 – 10 January 1775) was an English soldier, the first Commander-in-Chief, India. He had a life-long friendship with Robert Clive and was the creator of Indian Army. ....................................
With a view to freeing himself from debt that strangled him, Muhammad Ali assigned his land revenues to his British money-lenders, as a result virtually the whole of his territories passed into the hands of his creditors. In this respect the British were ungrateful to the generous ruler Nawob Muhammad Ali Khan Wala-Jah (1752 to 1795) when he was unable to pay heavy debts - the annual fee of £160,000.00 incurred as a result of military assistance provided by the British and for the restoration of throne and kingdom from Chanda Sahib and his French alley. To compensate unpaid heavy debts, the British East India Company, under duress, took over the kingdom of the Carnatic, forcing the rich Nawob royal family to become a mere titular ruler, receiving one-fifth of the total revenue of the State for the maintenance of his palaces. The British cunningly shared the major portion of the pie.
A
diabolical diplomacy they had been following since the take-over of
Bengal in the late 1700s, their first victim was Siraj-ud-Dualah, the Nawab of Bengal. The English company, under Robert Clive, set his own relatives against the ruler and finally had the Nawab killed by them. However, it took a while for the British to topple the Bengal Nawabs though there was no unity among the royal members. But in the case of Nawab of Arcot, a man of affable disposition, he fell like nine pins in the Bowling Ally before the scheming and diabolical British East India Company officials.
The British control over the Carnatic had not only impacted the ruler and his country but also the people. The Nawab's methods of collection of tax were, though harsh, there was some kind of flexibility and consideration; tax demands were made depending on the soil and the produce from the land year to year. But when the Nawab's creditors appeared on the scene, they were harsh and no mercy was shown on the tillers/land owners. The creditors were rude and very particular about collecting the revenue from the land owners. Remember the great Indian patriot Veerapandiya Kattabomman of Panchalamkuruchi (Thirunelveli District) who was hanged to death on 16 October 1799 by the British (under military officer Col. Bannerman) when he refused to pay the tax (Kisti) on the lands owned by him as a local ruler (Palayakaarar). The great early freedom fighter refused to accept the sovereignty of the British East India Company.
The crux of the matter is the revenue collected by the Nawab came back to the people by way of civil work, road or canal construction, etc. When the British money-lenders scooped the entire revenue from the lands, they left the country for good leaving the people, cottage industries, etc., in bad shape from which redemption was impossible.
Muhammad Ali lived a glorious life before the arrival of the British on the scene. Being an honest man lacking shrewdness, he fell a victim to the diabolical and dishonest tactics of the English company. He died from gangrene poisoning, at Madras on 13 October 1795. He was buried outside the gate of the Gunbad of Shah Chand Mastan, Trichinopoly.
http://www.indianetzone.com37/benaras_rebellion_1781-1782_british_india
https://navrangindia.blogspot.com/2015/01/world-famous-arcot-diamonds-of-indian.html
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