The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company

by William Dalrymple

At the same time it was widely recognised that it was Indian wealth that was now helping propel Britain’s economy and that ‘the first and most immediate consequence’ of the failure of the EIC would be ‘national bankruptcy’, or what amounted to the same thing, ‘a stop to the payment of interest on the national debt’.

Indian wealth as the foundation of British prosperity

‘Had the French sent timely assistance to the enemy,’ he wrote, ‘as there was every reason to expect, and had the Mahratta states, instead of remaining quiet spectators … joined their confederate forces and acted with unanimity, there could not have been a doubt but the British must have been dispossessed of almost every settlement on the Peninsula.

Britain on the edge of defeat in India

Today most of Tipu’s capital is grazing land, and very little remains as witness of the former splendour of the kingdom of the Tiger of Mysore, the single Indian ruler who did more than any other to resist the onslaught of the Company.

Tipu Sultan - Britains most formidable and heroic adversary in India. And the only Indian prince who fought sword in hand to the very last preferring the death of a warrior to servitude to the hated invaders. He remained proud and uncompromising to the very end, spurning the opportunity to surrender and accept the British as his masters. The only other Indian ruler to do this was the Rani of Jhansi and ultimately the Mughal princes who were hanged at the Khooni Darwaza in 1858. Every other Indian ruler surrendered and bent the knee to the British. It is not surprising that the RSS and it's allies, collaborators of the British, continue to propagate the vicious anti Tipu propaganda to denigrate the most heroic opponent the British encountered in India.

‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ said Lord Wellesley, raising a glass, when the news of Tipu’s death was brought to him, ‘I drink to the corpse of India.’66

Wellesley's vicious toast on the death of Tipu