Indian Army (contd-3)

From left- Zorawar Singh, Ranjit Singh
This led to the Deccan campeign of 1803 under Wellesly, in which Pune and ahmednagar were captured by the British to support their ally , the Peshwa. Advancing further south the British defeated the Marathas in the battle of Argaon and stormed gwalior on 15 Dec to end the campaign.While the British took on the Pindaris head on , clashes took place between the Marathas and the British forces at Nagpur and and Kirkee, which endedwith the surrender of the Marathas in June 1818. It marked the end of Maratha political power . In the north, during three years of warfre between 1799-1802, maharaja Ranjit Singh united the Sikhs to control most of Punjab. In an agreement at Amritsar in 1809,by which Sutluj was accepted as the boundarybetween the Sikh territories and those the British had seized from the Marathas.
Turning to the West, Ranjit Singh conquered the whole of Punjab from the Afghans and local princes. Considering his landwith the help of French and Italian offices, he developed the most powerful and effective native Army in India. He also conquered kashmir in 1819. His able General Gulab Singh , who was given the 'jagir' or Kingdom of Jammu to rule in 1822, went on to expand his empire. One of his trustworthy and daring generals Zorwar Singh, with a modest force comprising 5000 Dogras and loyal Ladakhis , ventured into battlein 1841. After subduing Ladakh and Baltistan he conquered large tracts of Tibet upto Mount Kailash, on the banks of Lake Manas sorober and areas as close as 24 miles off Nepaland the Kumaon hills before making the supreme sacrifice. he became known as 'Mountain Fox.'
In Nov 1814, while Ranjit Singh was expanding and and consolidating his territories, expeditionary forces from British Indian Army were sent to Nepal to stop Gorkha raids into northern India. The ferocity of the Gorkhas repulsed the initial attempts but General Orchteriony campaigned systematicallyto penetrate the Kathmandu valley and forced peace in the Gorkhas after the battle of the of the Manlaun in 1816. Ever since, the Gorkhas have been at peace with India and its youth have been joining the Indian army regularly, albeit on a voluntary basis . Since the death of Ranjit Singh in 1839, friction between the British and the Sikhs in the Punjab increased and led to the first Sikh war(1845-46). A sikh army of 20,000 crossed the Sutlejand attacked the British at Mudki in Dec 1845but were repulsed with heavy losses.In February, having crossed the Sutlej , the British defeated the Sikhs inflicting heavy casualities. The final coup came in the form of the two winter campaigns fought against the Sikhs, with its capital at Lahore in 1846 and 1849.     

Indian Army (contd-2)

In the south, from 1756 to 1769, Haider Ali fought the British in what came to be known as the first Mysore War, and later conclude a treaty with the East India Company. However, not getting any help in his war with the Marathas, Haider Ali joined the French. He attacked and cut to pieces a small British Force at Perambakam in the Carnatic (modern Karanatak) in 1780, sparking off the second Mysore war which  swept unto the gates of Madras. With 8,000 men sent by sea from Bengal, Sir Eyre Coote attacked and defeated Hyder Ali in the Battle of Porto Novo on 1 June 1781, thus saving Madras.In August and September that year , Hyder Ali was defeated at Paliburg and Shollingurh. In 1783, owing to the withdrawal of French aid and death of Haider Ali, his son Tipu Sultan succeeded the throne and made peace. In 1789, Tipu attacked Travancore and starting the Third Mysore War. In this War the British invaded Mysore, stormed the fortress at Bangalore and drove Tipu into Seringapatam where he was besieged. Tipu made peace in 1792 by ceding half of his dominion to the British. In 1796 the Madras Army consisted of two European Infantry regiments each of two battallions. Between 1796 and 1824 the native infantry was raised to 25 regiments of two battallions each. In 1806, two regiments were disbanded because of the mutiny at Vallore. In 1803 Colonel James raised a regiment of irregular horse from Scidia's army and pressed it into Company service. In 1815 three Gorkha battallions were raised as Bengal local Battallions, of which only one survived. This became first Gorkha regiment . The British conquest of India thus progressed , as did trade, under the joint efforts of the British crown and East India Company. Resistance by native states increased as they received French support , particularly the Marathas in the south who had large armies of well trained  well equipped French-trained soldiers.           

The Father of Indian Army (contd-1)

In 1759, Bombay Garrison's Sepoy Companies were reorganized. In 1768 the first two regular Sepoy Battalions were formed, with a third in 1769 and a fourth in 1770. While a graduated albeit similar expansion was taking place in the other Presidencies as well, each now placed under respective Governors who subsequently rose in rank and power to become Governor Generals, by the middle of the century's Commander-in-chief was provided to the Governors for coordination of military activities. Major Stringer Lawrence filled this post with great verve. This was the first move to integrate the military assets of the three Presidencies in a coordinated manner. In 1784-85 full military powers, including the power to appoint the Commandor-in-Chief, wee retained by the board of directors, which meant the British Government. For the Governor-General, a formal Army Headquarters was created with the commander-in-chief as head. To assist him were two Principal Staff Officers, namely the Quartermaster General and the Adjutant General. By 1790 the total strength of the combined British Indian Army was 80,000. The begining of the 18th century also saw the rise of Sikhs in Punjab and the Rajputs in Rajputana. The French also established a new base of Calicut in addition to their existing bases at Surat, Pondicherry, Muslipatam, Chandernagar, Balasore and Kasim Bazar. The first invasion bu Ahmed Shah in 1774 was halted at Sirhind by a combine Mughal and Rajput force and the invaders were forced to retreat to Afghanistan.      
Having well established themselves, the Europeans started  increasing their influence with the princely states and often resorted to war and intrigue against them. Native soldiers were also raised by them to fight against each other and for taking sides  in local wars . During the first, Carnatic war (1744-48) hostilities ensued between the British and the French. The French seized the main British base at Madras after a fierce encounter. The Nawab who had allied himself with the British, arrived near Madras with a large army. In the battle of St. Thome the French detachment of 230 European and 730 native soldiers attacked and routed a force of 10,000 of the Nawab's troops near Madras.Commanded by Dupleix, the French tried unsuccessfully for 18 months to take the British base near Madras , but had to raise the seige following the arrival of British reinforcements. In 1748 the British tried to take Pondichery, Defended by Dupleix, but were forced to withdraw. after the Treaty in Europe, they returned Madras to the British. In 1749, Ahmed Shah's second invasion was a combined raid and reconnaissance in force which led him to believe that he could conquer Punjab and Kashmir. The Dutch exploitation  was finally eliminated in 1759 in the battle of Wandiwash, and Portugal's control was confined to their occupation of Goa, Daman and Diu. despite formal peace between France and Britain, hostilities between the two continued through their involvement in Indian conflicts.
During the second Carnatic War, the British, under Robert Clive with 500 soldiers and three guns , captured Arcot so as to relieve presure on a small English garrison at Trichinopally. They took advantage of native rivalries in an almost continual warfare.
The British East India Company had a remarkable organisation. It built up its own army, composed of European adventures and native troops, under English Commanders. Further military influence was exercised in 1754 by an English regular regiment, the 39 foot, at Madras, which became the backbone   of the British  military operations in India. Many of its officers and men were later transferred to the company's service. The French under Dupliex and its native allies, however, controlled a great part of Southern India. In Bengal, after Siraj-ud-daulah had seized Calcutta in !756, Clive recaptured it next year in January. On March 1, he took Chandenagar from the French so as clear his line of communication before pursuing Siraj-ud-Daulah. Clive found him entrenched near Plassey, north of Calcutta with 50,000 troops and 53 guns. With 1,100 Europeans and 2100 native troops, Clive launched a masterly operation and won the decisive and historic battle of Plassey. This gave the British suzerainty over Bengal,Bihar and Orissa and became lord of the vast territory.The British advanced westward along the gangetic plainand occupied areas upto Allahabad.     

The Father of Indian Army

The first authentic record of the existence of a sort of regular battalion in Indian soil dates back to the year 1741, when such a unit came into being for carrying out garrison duties in Bombay Castle. Seven years later Major Stringer Lawrence, " the father of the Indian Army", was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the East India Company's field forces in India with its Headquarters at Fort St. David, 100 miles south of Madras and only 12 miles from the then French town Pondichery. The war with France , which had temporarily ended in 1748,had brought about a substantial increase in the local enrolment of Indian troops, since neither France nor Britain could spare regular troops for India. In 1754, however, a considerable force of king's troops was sent to India from England, but this again proved to be woefully inadequate to manage the Company's military affairs in India, and local recruitment continued.

In 1757, the reorganisation of the Indian troops into regular, organised battalions was entrusted by Major Lawrence to Robert Clive. That year was also famous for the battle of Plassey, wwhich gradually reduced French influence and led to an expansionof the Company's territories in India. With the expansion, the number of troops at its disposal, quite naturally increased.  

Thus came into creation the first regular Indian infantry battalions, each with an establishment of one British captain, two lieutenants, several British sergeants, 42 Indian non commissioned officers and 820 Indian ranks and file. Clive was the first British officers in India to have Indian troops fully equipped , at the expense of the East India Company Company, which was popularly known as 'Sarkar'. He even dressed them with British 'Red Coats', hence the term 'Lal Paltan' came into being, which was locally used for such units. 

Rise and Expansion of East India Company

Trade posts of British East India Company since 1610.

The modern Indian Army dates back to the early seventeenth century when Europeans, like the French, Dutch, Portuguese, and British, settled in India as traders.In 1600 the East India Company was formed to coordinate all British trading activities. The Mughal Empire, being at its Zenith, did not consider these locally recruited and foreign military units to be any threat to its political, military and economic power.   

The Royal charter of East India Company was, ostensibly,to trade with India. The British saw India as a vast and unending source of fabulous treasures, and encouraged the company to enlarge and diversity its operations while tightening its stranglehold on a tottering and decadent Mughal Empire. Since its trading interests needed to be protected, the company decided raise local levies to protect their trading posts along the coast.These were soon raised on a war footing while European units sailed into India to oversee safety of their expanding trade and allied assets.

During the second half of the seventeenth century the  Mughal Empire declined rapidly. It was hastened by Nadir Shah's successful invasion and by the steady advance of Marathas from Deccan into Northern India. The Marathas under Shivaji rose against the Muslim principality of Bijapur and established an independent  principality there. In 1664 Shivaji captured the important Mughal port of Surat, made temporary peace with the Mughal but, after his subsequent arrest and dramatic escape from Aurangazeb's prison, Shivaji renewed war and kept the Mughals at bay.

By 1674 he established an independent Maratha kingdom and expanded it for thirty years by restoring to Guerrilla warfare. In all his operations Shivaji upheld the Hindu chivalric tradition in his treatment of defeated soldiers and non combatants. By the end of the century there were four major powers - the Maratha Confederacy, the Afghan Empire of Ahmed Shah,  the French and the British, all competing to take over the nearly extinct Mughal Empire.

In 1640 AD the British East India Company established its first fortified post - Fort Saint George near Madras which soon became its headquarters. Eleven years later, in 1651, they set up another post in Calcutta on the bank of River Hooghly which they later fortified and named it Fort William. In 1662 the British received Bombay from the Portuguese, British troops arrived in Bombay in 1665, but it was only in 1668 when Bombay was formally handed over to the Company. Soon Bombay Garrison was converted into a strong commercial and military base comprising cavalry, artillery and infantry elements, which later became the Bombay European Regiment. However, local troops were raised as and when required.  

Maratha Empire - Yashwantrao

Yashwantarao Holkar was the son of Maharaja Tukojirao Holkar who had conquered Attock ( at present Pakistan) in 1758 and hoisted the saffron flag beyond the Sindu River. He had defeated Tipu Sultan and hoisted the saffron flag beyond the Tungabhadra River.After the demise of Malharrao Holkar (d. May 1766), his daughter-in-law Punyaslok Rajmata Ahilyadevi Holkar (ruled 1795-1797)briefly succeeded Rani Ahilyadevi upon her death.
Rise of Yashwantarao 
Yashwantarao Holkar never trusted anybody. Meanwhile support for Yashwantrao was growing.A good number of important persons joined the army of Yashwantarao. After successful victory of some battle , he was crowned King, as per Hindu Vedic Rites.
Battle of Poona
After conquering Pune, the capital of Maratha Empire, Yashwantrao took the adminstration in his hands and appointed his men.
Maharaja Yashwantrao Holkar wrote letters to different kings to unite and fight against the British. He stated, "First country and then religion. We will have to rise above caste, religion, and our states in the interest of our country. You too must wage a war against the British, like me. His appeal fell on deaf ears, as all of them had already signed treaties with the British.
Ultmately Bitish had to come to a peace treaty with Yashwantrao.

Maratha Empire- Sambhaji

Chaatrapati Shivaji had two sons, Sambhaji and Rajaram. The elder son was very popular among the courties. He was a great warrior, a great politician and a poet. In 1681, Sambhaji had himself crowned and resume his father's expanist policies. Sambhaji had earlier defeated the Portuguese and Chikka Deva Raya of Mysore.He fought against Aurangazeb's 400,000 strong army for about seven years from 1682 to 1689. Ultimately Sambhaji was captured and tortured to death on March 11, 1689.

Rajaram, Chaatrapati Sambhaji's brother, assumed the throne after the death of Sambhaji. Mughal laid siege to Raigad. Rajaram fled to Vishalgad and then to Jinji for safety. From there they raided Mughal territory and captured many forts by Santaji Ghorpade and Dhanaji Jadav. In 1697 Rajaram. Rajaram died in 1700 and his wife Tarabai assumed the control. Tarabai heroically led the Marathas forced the Mughal  upto Narmada river and entered Malwa in 1705 during Aurangazeb's time.

Aurangazeb died in 1707 when Shahuji,son of Sambhaji was released by Azam Shah, the next Emperor of Mughal.

Due to the disputes of Maratha Kingship it was separated in 1710 between two principalities by the treaty of Warna in 1731.