THE CARNATIC WARS
Great Power Rivalries in 18th-Century India
Book Review
Capt D P Ramachandran
The Carnatic Wars that raged in Southern India in mid-18th Century were the earliest instances of European powers meddling in Indian politics. They were often perceived as extensions of Anglo-French rivalry of the period in the form of internecine conflicts between native rulers, who acted as proxies of the two European powers. Venkatesh Parthasarathy, through this intensely-researched book on the topic, brings to the fore the ferocious power struggle between two factions of the Deccan aristocracy of the times that set the stage for these wars, with the English and the French trading companies being drawn into them, for the opportunities they presented, with their own mutual rivalry a parallel motivation. The murder and mayhem that went on during those power struggles were gruesome and mindboggling. It is a magisterial work, which painstakingly explores the labyrinthine intricacies that characterized the politics of the era, with a fragmented Mughal Empire and the Maratha power on the rise. While both the warring factions benefitted militarily for their association with the European powers for their prowess in modern warfare and powerful artillery, the decisive role the Maratha horsemen played often overshadowed every other element all through the story. The Maratha Cavalry virtually terrorized both the European powers and other Indian players involved.
An outstanding feature of the narrative is its unbiased dealing of the topic, as a historical narrative should be, devoid of any partisan interpretations. And remarkably, the cast of characters, comprising people of multiple nationalities and races, come alive as human beings with their strengths and frailties. One of the dominant characters that take centre stage, Joseph Francois Dupleix, the flamboyant French Governor of Pondicherry, finds his rightful place in India’s colonial history, and readers uninitiated in the subject would be surprised to know how close the French, instead of the British, had come to establish their rule over India. So does the French-backed Indian prince, Chanda Sahib who, although eventually ends up a loser and is killed, emerge a powerful personality, the only one among the multiple Indian players who had the potential to stand up to the European machinations. The diary of Ananda Ranga Pillai, Dupleix’s Chief Dubash, which provides the most authentic version of the events narrated in the book has obviously been a significant source for the author’s research.
In telling the story of the English side, the author has mercifully departed from the stereotypical Robert-Clive-Story and brought their real heroes like John Dalton and Stringer Lawrence to the fore. And Thomas Saunders, the little-known Englishman, whose astute business sense singularly helped establish the English supremacy, finds limelight in the narrative. Interestingly, the book traces the complex accounting process of the English East India Company (EIC). Its unscrupulous manipulation of the accounts to strangle the hapless Nawab of Arcot, Muhammad Ali Khan, by a perennial debt-trap is almost akin to modern-day Chinese strategy to exploit poorer nations. The reading of the book becomes doubly interesting for its outlining the individual lives and times of the myriad Indian and foreign characters. Admirably, the book is written with a global outlook, drawing connections of the world-wide happenings of the times, with the turbulence within the subcontinent.
Most significantly, the book highlights a most important chapter of India’s colonial history, which seldom finds its place in the national narrative, far too dominated by the happenings north of the Vindhyas. The victors write history and the EIC’s rise to supremacy in India has been painted by the British as a heroic saga of their countrymen, which is far from the truth. The entire story was one of deceit, chicanery and ruthless plunder of the land, mindlessly complemented by the native rulers for their mutual enmity. They found it handy to begin their narrative with their much-hailed Battle of Plassey as the springboard that catapulted them into power. This helped them obscure their struggle for almost two decades prior to that, while they wriggled their way forward from being a humble trading company to a prominent political entity, wherein they were often battered to humiliation by the French and the Marathas, and had to hang on by the skin of their teeth, facing an imminent possibility of the French emerging clear victors in the contest for supremacy in India. That was what the Carnatic experience was for the British. That they eventually emerged victorious, not primarily by any magnificent military feat but through a clever diplomatic coup, wherein they cunningly managed to remove their nemesis, Joseph Dupleix, from the scene, is not a story that the British would have enjoyed ruminating. No wonder, Thomas Saunders, the mastermind behind the coup is seldom remembered, whereas Robert Clive, the infamous ‘victor’ of Plassey is lionized. In fact, duping Dupleix’s superiors in France through insinuations to act naïvely enough to undermine his achievements in India was more sordid a sleight of hand by the British than bribing Mir Jaffar to betray Siraj-ud-Daulah. That said, the grinding through the Carnatic Wars, gave the British invaluable lessons that would guide them through their future Mysore, Maratha and Sikh Wars, and even some conflicts far off from India. In fact, Clive himself made his bones as a soldier in the Carnatic, although he was to excel as a manipulator in his future exploits. Luckily for him and some of his fellow compatriots, the Mughal-dominated Gangetic plains turned out to be more of a cake walk, compared to the fighting that took place in the rest of India.
Finally, the book effectively dismisses the North-India-centric colonial history the British tended to popularize and brings its Southern Chapter to the fore. No other region in India, witnessed the kind of prolonged and constant battling that the South did during the advent of colonialism, through the Carnatic and Mysore Wars (the latter is not in the ambit of the book), and the multiple rebellions that raged alongside or followed., most of which are obscured in the popular Indian perception. The author deserves to be effusively congratulated for such a monumental effort to retell the story.
Although the book is painfully brief on information about the author, merely stating that he is a history enthusiast and this is his second book, the first being Ventatesa Suprabhatam: The Story of a Beloved Indian Prayer, this reviewer has had occasion to learn that he is a former corporate man, who is giving vent to his passion for history through writing.
THE CARNATIC WARS – Great Power Rivalries in 18th-Century India
Author: Venkatesh Parthasarathy
Published by: HarperCollins Publishers India
Pages: 459
Price: Rs. 799.00
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