| Wellesley, Lord (1760-1842)
Governor General of India from 1798-1805. Born on 20 June 1760, Richard
Colley Wellesley was educated at Harrow, Eton and Christchurch, Oxford.
He was well versed in classical languages. A member of the Parliament
for several years and of the board
of control from 1795, he was appointed Governor General on
18 May 1798 at the age of thirty-seven. His seven years tenure is an important
period in the development of British power in India. His policy was to
remove all kinds of French influence from India and to make the British
the paramount power of the subcontinent, which he implemented through
wars as well as by peaceful annexations.
He reversed the policy of non-intervention and adopted the policy
of Subsidiary Alliance by which the Indian powers were forced
to come under British protection by suspending non - British European
officers, maintaining a contingent of British troops within their
states and surrendering foreign affairs to the British. The company
instead guaranteed internal freedom of the states and promised
to protect them against foreign attacks. The Nizam of Hydarabad,
greatly reduced by the Marathas, accepted Subsidiary Alliance
and thus was peacefully turned into a subordinate ally of the
British.
|
|
Lord Wellesley |
Tipu Sultan of Mysore refused to accept it and Wellesley
fought against him the Fourth Mysore War. Tipu stubbornly resisted but
failed. A large portion of his dominions was annexed to the British territory
and Wellesley also protected a child of the old royal family which was
dispossessed by Hydar Ali under the usual condition of Subsidiary Alliance.
Wellesley felt that the British could not be paramount
in India with the Marthas outside the subsidiary fold. The Peshwa Baji
Rao II, after some hesitation, accepted the Subsidiary Alliance by the
treaty of Bassein.
But when the other Maratha leaders refused to accept
it Wellesley fought against them the Second Maratha War by which he annexed
to the British Indian Empire the large portions of the territories of
the Bhosle, the Sindia and in the end the Holkar, and thus established
British domination throughout the country. He also annexed one after another,
Surat, Tanjore and Karnatak. On grounds of misgovernment he forced the
nawab of Oudh to surrender a portion of his territories. The nawab was
also urged to bring reforms in his administration. But his policy for
further aggressions and annexations embarrassed the home authorities and
be was recalled in 1805.
Wellesley left the British absolutely supreme in India
at the time of his returning home. He was also a good administrator; he
established the fort
william college to train the civil servants. The college later
became famous for the works done in Indian languages specially in Urdu,
Sanskrit and Persian. He made Sunday the official weekly holiday. After
retirement he was criticised for his aggressive policy in India, specially
for his policy in Oudh. Wellesley died on 26 September 1842.
[KM Mohsin] |
