“Subsidiary Alliance” was a treaty between the British East India Company and the Indian princely states that gave the British paramountcy over the Indian states. It was a crucial step in the establishment of the British Empire in India.The French Governor-General Dupleix was the first person to utilise it. Lord Wellesley, the Governor-General of India from 1798 to1805 developed and elaborated further the system and applied it in the case of almost every Indian state. In this article,We will learn about the essential principles of the subsidiary alliance system which is an important topic of Modern Indian history.Students need to prepare this topic for UPSC preliminary as well as mains examination point of view.

Subsidiary Alliance - Ideation

• Following Mir Jafar's victory in the 1757 Battle of Plassey, the British East India Company adopted the method, with Robert Clive negotiating a series of conditions with him, which were later incorporated into the 1765 Treaty of Allahabad as a result of the company's victory in the 1764 Battle of Buxar.
• Richard Wellesley, Clive's successor, first followed a non-interventionist approach to the different Indian governments that were allies of the British East India Company, but subsequently adopted and developed the subsidiary alliance doctrine.
• In a February 1804 communication to the East India Company Resident in Hyderabad, he described the objective and ambition of this change.
• Lord Wellesley organized the subsidiary alliance in India, but it was French Governor Dupleix who coined the name.

Lord Wellesley

Features of Subsidiary Alliance System

• The ruler of the Allied Indian State was required to approve the permanent stationing of a British force within his territory and to pay a subsidy for its maintenance under the subsidiary alliance plan.
• In order to form a Subsidiary Alliance with the British, an Indian king had to disband his own military forces and accept British forces in his area.
• The State also had to pay for the upkeep of the British troops. If he did not pay, a section of his land would be taken away from him and given to the British.
• In exchange, the British promised to defend the Indian state from any foreign attack or internal uprising.
• The British vowed not to intervene in the Indian state's internal affairs, but this promise was rarely honored.
• Any other foreign country could not form an alliance with the Indian state.
• The state was also unable to hire any foreign nationals other than English without the consultation of the Company. And, if he had any, he had to fire them as soon as the partnership was signed. The goal was to limit the French influence.
• Without British sanction, there were no political ties within Indian states.
• The state was to accept British Residents at its headquarters.
• As a result, the Indian kings lost all power over foreign affairs and the military,lost almost all of their autonomy and became a British 'protectorate'. Various stages

Various stages of Subsidiary Alliances

• In the First Stage, the English pledged to provide a fixed army to the native rulers in exchange for a fixed sum of money.
• In its second stage, the English committed to keeping a permanent military force to assist their ally in exchange for a set annual sum of money.
• In its third stage, the English pledged to maintain not only a fixed subsidiary force to assist their partner in exchange for a certain annual sum of money, but also to keep the force within the ally's borders.
• The English promised to keep a permanent and fixed subsidiary force within the territory of their ally in its fourth and final form, which was instituted by Lord Wellesley. However, instead of receiving money, they were granted permanent access to a portion of the ally's territory.
• In reality, the Policy of Subsidiary Alliance was a policy of surrendering sovereignty, implying that the state lost its rights to self-defense, diplomatic contacts, the employment of foreign experts, and the resolution of problems with its neighbors.

This is how the subsidiary alliance structure came into being for expanding the Company’s Indian region.

Impact of the Subsidiary Alliance Policy

The Nizam of Hyderabad

In 1798, it broke the Nizam's ties with the French and made it illegal for the Nizam to form alliances with the Maratha without British permission. The Nizam of Hyderabad became the first to sign the Subsidiary Alliance.

Mysore

After the British victory in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War in 1799, Mysore became a subsidiary state before coming under Company rule.

The Nawab of Awadh

The subsidiary system was already adopted in Oudh by Lord Clive by Treaty of Allahabad, in which the British committed to protecting the Oudh area from adversaries such as the Marathas. Gorakhpur, Rohilkhand, and the Doab were forcibly given for the maintenance of troops by the Company.In 1801, Wellesley forced the Nawab of Awadh to join formally the Policy of Subsidiary Alliance,which was annexed later on the pretext of mis-governance.(reframed)

Peshwa Baji Rao II

• In 1802, Peshwa Baji Rao II accepted the Subsidiary Alliance system and lost his sovereignty. In 1803, many Maratha states, such as Bhosle and Scindia, agreed to the policy's stipulations.
• The last Maratha Confederation, the Holkars, agreed to the subsidiary alliance's requirements as well.

The Indian States' Subsidiary Alliances were formed in the following order:

1. Hyderabad (1798)
2. Mysore (1799)
3. Tanjore (1799)
4. Awadh (1801)
5. Peshwa (Marathas) (1802)
6. Scindia (Marathas) (1803), Gaekwad (Marathas) (1803)

Subsidiary Alliance System: Advantages to the British

The British benefited from the subsidiary alliance in all the ways and had advantages such as;

Additions to the resources of Company

• The subsidiary system added to the English Company's resources, and it was partly with the help of these resources that the English Company was able to establish itself as the country's dominant power.
• The Indian States that formed subsidiary alliances provided money or territories from which the English Company could maintain troops.
• Their troops were always at the English Company's discretion. As a result, while the troops were ostensibly funded by the Indian States for their defense, they actually increased the English Company's resources.

Enhanced Influence and military force at the expense of the local authorities

• The English Company was able to advance their military frontier ahead of their political frontier thanks to the system of subsidiary alliances.
• Although the English Company was not tasked with the administration of the States that joined the subsidiary system, its influence was increased.

Lesser Risk for War-related damage

• The English Company's territories did not suffer because the battles were fought in the majority of cases in the territories of the States joining the subsidiary alliance.

Indian states lost their sovereignty

• The Indian states lost their sovereignty. They were not permitted to establish diplomatic ties with each other without the company's knowledge or approval.
• Their chances of succeeding in their joint efforts to depose the company were diminished. They never posed a threat to the Company's existence on their own.
• As a result, the English gradually became his state's de facto overlords. The local kings were reduced to a 'protectorate' by the British.

Removed French Influence

The French influence was completely wiped out as they were unable to work in the native rulers' courts.

Continued Expansion

• Maintenance of the subsidiary force was so costly that it placed a significant financial burden on the local Indian monarch, which he largely failed to sustain.
• As a result of the subsidiary alliance policy, the British forced him to surrender more of his territory and it aided in the Company's continued expansion in India.

Subsidiary Alliance System: Demerits

Powers on matters of state

• The English gradually took over most of the original Indian ruler's fertile and militarily significant lands.
• It pushed the native state's subjects into poverty and impoverishment by putting the entire financial responsibility of maintaining the army on them.
• In theory, English citizens were exempted from meddling with the native ruler's internal administration under the policy. In practice, however, the Britishers had complete power over the rulers in all matters of state.

Unemployment

• Another disadvantage of the construction of subsidiary troops was the development of anarchy as a result of the thousands of soldiers dispatched by the Indian rulers becoming unemployed.
• The freebooting activities of dissolved soldiers were particularly noticeable in central India, where the Pindaris menace posed a serious threat to the populace.

Weakened Indian Patriotism

• The native kings progressively lost respect, patriotism, and even their primary role of ruling and strengthening their forces. As a result, their character and ability to lead their states deteriorated, making it easier for the British to gain entire control of the state.
• The English, with far greater resources than a single ruler, defended every allied ruler against every foreign assault and domestic uprising, the state's subjects were no longer able to dethrone their incapable king by revolting against him.
• As a result of this tactic, the British acquired entire control of the state's activities, deeming the native ruler and his subjects severely powerless.

Conclusion

Thus by his energetic and well planned policy of Subsidiary Alliance,Wellesley succeeded not only in safeguarding India against possible French conquest but in considerably adding to British Dominions in India.At the time when empires in Europe were crumbling like houses of cards before the might of Napoleon,in the East Wellesley was expanding the British empire.