“Dalhousie’s predecessors had acted on the general principles of avoiding annexation, if these could be avoided. Dalhousie acted on the principles of annexation, if he could do so legitimately. His annexations were both of war and peace”. Analyse.

Predecessors of Wellesley has followed the policy of consolidating their gains and resources in India and making territorial gains only when this could be done safely without antagonizing the major Indian powers. However, Wellesley and his successors decided that the time was perfectly right for bringing as many Indian states as possible under British rule. Thus predecessors of Dalhousie followed the policies of outright wars to annex powerful empires under Tipu Sultan and Marath confederacy under such policy sindh province was also annexed deliberately through direct wars due to growing Anglo-French rivalry.

However, Dalhousie’s predecessors tried to avoid direct war in case of weak Indian rulers and used subtle means like “Subsidiary Alliance Policy”. Through “Subsidiary Alliance” British were able to annex Hyderabad and Audha. Under Dalhousie, British annexation policy was became more aggressive from the very beginning he was determined to extend direct British rule over as large an area as possible. He had declared that “the extinction of all native states of India is just a matter of time”.

The chief instrument through which he implemented his policy of annexation was the “Doctrine of Lapse”. By this policy he thus tried to legitimate the annexation of native empires. Many states including Satara, Nagpur, Jhansi, and Sambalpur were annexed by applying this doctrine. Besides he also fought direct wars to annex Punjab, lower Burma and Sikkim.

Subsidiary Alliance System by Lord Wellesley: It was Wellesley who effectively reverted the policy of "non intervention" followed by his predecessors. He made the Nawab and Nizams subsidiary allies by signing almost 100 such treaties. Initially Wellesley compelled the friendly rulers to accept this alliance. The policy of subsidiary alliance was first used by Wellesley in dealing with the Nizam of Hyderabad. Wellesley neutralized the Nizam by getting him to sign the Subsidiary alliance to replace his French detachments. He also forbade Nizam to correspond with the Marathas without British consent.

Marathas in Deccan had not entered into any kind of treaty, but still they were neutralized by Wellesley by a promise of share in the spoils of Tipu. After that only Wellesley demanded submission of Tipu and followed an invasion. In summary, the system of Subsidiary Alliance could be any of the following: 1. The company lent its army in place of the Cash 2. Company kept the armies near the border of the Protectorate and collected cash. 3. Company kept the army inside the border for protection and collected cash. 4. Company kept its army inside the border of army and got some territories.
Source: Wikipedia.org

Explore more about:

• James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie
• Subsidiary Alliance

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