By STEPHEN NEILL F.B.A.
India and Political Change
1706-86
3. THE FRENCH INITIATIVE
When India was strong, the Europeans were weak.
The weakness of India gives European settlements the opportunity to dig deeper
into Indian soil and make progress as unthinkable in the great days of Mughul's
power. Portugal in India was severely weakened by the capture of Maratha in
Bassein in 1737. Some European empires could not only take care of themselves
but also strengthen their positions and increase trade. Despite all the
difficulties and upheavals, the first half of the eighteenth century was the East
India Company's time of great prosperity. The French share in Asian trade
increased rapidly, though it still lacked British success. But it does not
appear that it is possible for any of these powers to be called to play a
leading role in determining India's future. It can be difficult to pinpoint the
point at which point it first occurred to them that they might turn from the
porters to power. The culture, to which both French and English writers have
contributed, has largely connected, and perhaps appropriately, with the mind
and vision of Joseph Francis, Marquis Dupleix (1697-1763), who became emperor
of Pondicheri in 1745. It was the mind of this far-flung empire that saw the
weakness of Mughul's empire, foresaw the inevitable collapse, and realized that
a brave European empire with the potential for wealth at sea could fill the
void by occupying the empire. The two steps that would be taken in this regard
were the training of Indian sepoys to fight under the command of European
officials, and to place the Indian rulers at the throat of each other.
Robert Orme (1728-1801), the first English
historian noted for these events, wrote of Dupleix: Considering that he built
this system of conquest and domination at a time when all other Europeans held
the highest view of Mogul's power. the government, suffering from the contempt
of its most ruthless officials, rather than trying to resist the forces that
they thought it could conquer in an instant, will not shy away from
acknowledging and admiring its ingenuity, which it acquired in the first place.
and he despised the scam. The first two decades of Dupleix in India did not
provide an indication of the magnitude of the future. Ten years were spent in
Pondicheri, where sensitivity and diligence combined to give him a deeper
understanding of the mysteries of European trade in India. Duplex was governor
of Chandernagor, the French colony in Bengal, for ten years. The continuous
development of French trade in Bengal provided a good indication of his skills
in the commercial sector. It was not until he returned to Pondicheri as emperor
in 1742 that he displayed those other gifts that had made him a place in world
history. This shift from calculator skills to political and military strategy
can be attributed in part to Dupleix's marriage and the influence of his wife.
Thirty-five years into her second marriage, this remarkable woman had never
seen France, as she was born in Pondicheri and had Indian and French blood
flowing in her veins.
'Begum Dupleix'9 could speak Tamil fluently, and
a full-fledged Indian upbringing gave her an understanding of Indian thinking
and the complexity of Indian politics as her husband had never been able to
learn. Dupleix learned his first lesson in 1746, when an army of 10,000 men captured
the horses sent against him Anwar-ud-dln, the wab of the Carnatic, easily
defeated by an army of 250 French soldiers and sepoys 700 trained by French
police. Second he came up with his decision to support Chanda Sahib, who came
out of a seven-year Marathas prison to apply to the Carnatic wab office against
Anwar-ud-dln, and later against his son Muhammad CA1I. . This led to clashes
with the British, who supported Muhammad CA1I, and this led to the fall of
Dupleix and his return to France. A new conspiracy was opened by Dupleix in
Hyderabad, which was equally open to the influx of European influences. There
he performed with his colleague, Charles-Joseph Patissier, Marquis de
Bussy-Castelnau. Bussy has been an ideal tool for Dupleix goals.
He did not have a high opinion of the
Indian character he had to deal with, but his approach was modest and modest;
he knew how to adapt to the ways the Indians expected, so in many important
matters he could find his way. With only a small amount of energy, he was able
to take care of himself for many years in Deccan; and where Bussy had no other
power he could hope to exert his influence in the area under his control. These
French ambassadors, or aliens, in the courts of the Indian nobility were a
prominent feature of Indian life in the eighteenth century. After a long time
the power of France in India was really broken, they remained, perhaps because
they had nowhere else to go, perhaps hoping that an unexpected change of
fortune would restore France to that prominence, which in their view was
totally inappropriate.
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