History of Bharat (India): Nutmegs and Cloves - Ocean of Churn

We provide a brief summary of Chapter 9 (Pages 176 - 196) of the book "Ocean of Churn" written by Sanjeev Sanyal.

Towards the end of 16th century, English and Dutch defeated combined Spanish and Portuguese ships in Indian Ocean
In 1600, “The Company of Merchants of London trading into East Indies” was established under Queen Elizabeth I. It is more commonly known as East India Company (EIC)
Dutch set up United East India Company (initials VOC)

The Dutch Hand

English and Dutch fought and killed each other also locals in many spice-rich islands in south East Asia (aka East Indies). Example: Pulau Ai and Pulau Run
Ended with Treat of Brenda in 1667. Dutch got Pulau Ru & England got Manhattan!

EIC discovered that SE Asia & Europe had an insatiable demand for Indian cotton textiles. More than black pepper, textiles were the reason EIC decided to build permanent establishments on Indian mainland
EIC decided to build fortified settlements (for warehouses) to defend against Indian rulers and European rivals

Each of these EIC settlements attracted many Indian merchants, clerks, labourers, sailors, artisans, mercenaries
French EIC built a major settlement at Pondicherry

EIC paid low salaries, due to fluctuating profits and losses. Its employees were more interested in private trade than company’s larger interest. This led to corruption.
Elihu Yale, Governor of Madras, amassed large fortune before being sacked. His funds were the seed money for Yale university in USA.
Origin of pirates: Private parties who were granted commissions by different European monarchs to carry out acts of piracy against rival states
Henry Avery, a notorious British pirate, had his base at Madagascar. He looted ships like Fath Mohamaddi and Ganj-i-Sawai that altogether yielded 200,000 pounds of gold, silver, ivory and jewels

Lost Mirani fort in Oman by clever tactics of Naruttam, an Indian merchant, who saved his daughter from being married off to Portuguese commander Pereira
Squeezed out by Mughals and Marathas in Indian ocean, they were reduced to trading in African slaves and kidnapping Indian children for export
Meera, a girl from India west coast, went on to become a popular saint in Mexico in later life: Catrina de San Juan

Marthanda Varma (Nair warrior clan) inherited crown on Travancore from his maternal uncle at the age of 23, in year 1729
Dutch tightly controlled pepper trade on which prosperity of Kerala depended. Locals did not put up any resistance, since the region was divided into many small kingdoms
Marthanda Varma built an army drilled in modern warfare. He took over neighbouring kingdoms one by one. Finally, he defeated Dutch army and marines. His army chased them from Padmanabhapuram to Colachel coast.
Battle of Colachel was a turning point. After that, Dutch power in Indian Ocean went into decline.
Marthanda Varma hired defeated Dutch commander Eustachius de Lannoy as a general in his army, under the condition that he train his army under European lines
Lannoy not only served the Travancore army for 3 decades, but also built a network of forts using advanced European design. e.g. Vattakotai fort near Kanyakumari, which has windmills in the vicinity!
Lannoy’s well-trained army expanded Travancore kingdom as far north as Kochi. It also defended Travancore from Tipu Sultan of Mysore.

After Aurangzeb’s death, a major part of his empire was taken over by Marathas
Kanhoji Angre, the Grand Admiral of Maratha Navy, imposed control on Konkan coast from 1712 onwards. With smaller and faster boats, the Marathas were able to close in and board larger EIC ships
Angre’s main base was at Vijaydurg, a fortress on a peninsula jutting into Arabian Sea. It could not be conquered from 1718 to 1756 across multiple attempts, even by a combined fleet of EIC, Royal Navy and Portuguese
Vijaydurg fell in 1756 because Bajirao’s army blocked land supplies. This led to decline of Maratha naval power and dominance of British naval power in Indian Ocean
British and French fought many battles right from Malacca to Madras and Hyderabad
Battle of Plassey in 1757 was the turning point in EIC control over India. British troops led by Robert Clive defeated Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daulah, even though the Naawab had 10x military resources compared to Clive. This happened because a large segment of the Nawab’s army, which was led by turncoat Mir Jafar, did not take part in the battle
Marathas controlled most of Indian Ocean territory in the latter half of the 18th century. However, they were finally defeated by the technically advanced British in the third Anglo-Maratha war of 1817-18

Tipu sultan got the throne of Mysore in 1782 after Hyder Ali’s death. In the past, Hyder Ali usurped the throne from Wodeyar dynasty that he served as military commander
Tipu crushed all dissent within his kingdom. He conquered adjoining smaller kingdoms. In particular, coastal Karnataka and Coorg.
The indiscriminate cruelty of Tipu’s troops is testified not only in Indian and European accounts, but also in letters that Tipu sent to his commanders. 10,000’s of Coorgi men were hung upon trees, since they refused to convert to Islam.
Tipu & army razed Calicut (old port city) to the ground. 100’s of temples and churches were destroyed. 10,000’s Hindus and Christians were either killed or forcibly converted to Islam. This is testified by his court historian Mir Hussein Kirmani
Tipu tried invading Travancore but was repeated repulsed by Nair troops
Combined force of EIC, Travancore, Marathas and Hyderabad marched to Mysore and conquered most of Tipu’s kingdom in 1791. He was forced to pay a big war indemnity, plus half his kingdom was confiscated.
In 1799, the British once again marched to Srirangpatna, since Tipu wrote letters seeking help from Ottoman sultan and Napoleon. He died fighting, sword in hand. British restored Mysore to old Wodeyar dynasty.
Given Tipu’s record of Brutality towards fellow Indians, it is difficult to think of him as a great freedom fighter.