ABSTRACT

India contains no more than two great powers, British and Mahratta, and every other state acknowledges the influence of one or the other. The list of Powers which might be considered independent had shrunk from one cause or another, the East India Company having been the most effective dissolvent. In the decade that ended the Eighteenth Century, Tipu Sultan was in fitful communication with the French. Raging from his loss of a huge indemnity and of half his dominions, he felt blindly for allies, inside and outside India. A shrunken Mysore was placed under a Prince of the Hindu dynasty which Tipu's father, Haidar, had dislodged. Haidar and Tipu brought the East India Company nearer to ruin than any other Indian foes had brought it, and nearer than any subsequent foe was to bring it. With the Marathas, the greatest of the powers, Tipu's destruction left the Company fairly face to face.