1798 Subsidiary Alliance · 1800 Treaty of Perpetual and General Defensive Alliance · French officers dismissed · British subsidiary force · Cession of territories · Hyderabad's military and diplomatic independence restricted
The relationship was substantially reorganized on October 12, 1800, when the Company and the Nizam concluded the Treaty of Perpetual and General Defensive Alliance. The treaty expanded the subsidiary force and transferred territories to the Company to provide revenue for its maintenance. Hyderabad remained a princely state under the Nizam, but its freedom to conduct foreign relations and organize military affairs was severely restricted.
The treaties therefore did not abolish Hyderabad as a state in 1798–1800. Instead, they established a system in which the Nizam retained substantial authority over internal administration while the British gained decisive influence over Hyderabad's external relations, military arrangements and strategic position in the Deccan. This subsidiary relationship became one of the foundations of British paramountcy in Hyderabad.
The Nizam had already allied with the British against Tipu Sultan of Mysore. Following the Third Anglo-Mysore War, the Treaty of Seringapatam of March 18, 1792 redistributed territory among the victorious powers. After Tipu Sultan's defeat and death in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, the British and the Nizam concluded a further treaty on June 22, 1799, partitioning portions of the former Mysore dominions.
These territorial changes increased the Nizam's holdings but also deepened his dependence on British military power. At the same time, the Nizam faced pressure from the Marathas and other regional powers. Wellesley's subsidiary system offered protection while allowing the Company to extend strategic control without immediately annexing Hyderabad.
On September 1, 1798, Nizam Ali Khan concluded a treaty with the East India Company that substantially altered Hyderabad's military and diplomatic position. The arrangement is commonly identified as the first major, well-defined subsidiary alliance concluded by Wellesley with an Indian ruler.
Its principal provisions included:
- Removal of French military influence: The Nizam agreed to dismiss the French officers serving in his forces, including the troops associated with the French commander Michel Joachim Raymond.
- Subsidiary force: Hyderabad accepted a permanent British force of approximately 6,000 troops, with associated artillery arrangements, to be stationed in or near the Nizam's dominions.
- Annual payment: The Nizam agreed to provide an annual subsidy of Rs. 24,17,100 toward the cost of the force.
- Restrictions on foreign military employment: The treaty reduced the Nizam's ability to employ European military personnel independently of British approval.
- British protection: The Company undertook to protect the Nizam against external threats within the terms of the alliance.
A further treaty concluded on October 12, 1800 replaced an earlier defensive treaty negotiated in May of that year. The final agreement, known as the Treaty of Perpetual and General Defensive Alliance, contained twenty articles.
The principal arrangements included:
- Permanent military protection: The Company maintained a subsidiary force in Hyderabad's dominions.
- Expanded force: The arrangement provided for eight battalions of infantry and two regiments of cavalry, together with the appropriate artillery establishment.
- Territorial assignment: The Nizam assigned territories to provide revenue for the maintenance of the subsidiary force.
- Foreign relations: Hyderabad's ability to negotiate independently with other powers was restricted. The Nizam was required to communicate with and consult the British on relations with other states.
- British mediation: The Company assumed an important mediating role in disputes between Hyderabad and other powers.
The territories transferred under the 1800 settlement were connected with lands acquired by the Nizam through the earlier redistribution of Mysore territory. The relevant treaties included the Treaty of Seringapatam of 1792 and the Treaty of Mysore of June 22, 1799.
These territories became known collectively in British administrative usage as the Ceded Districts. They corresponded broadly to areas of present-day Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, including territories associated with Bellary, Cuddapah and Kurnool.
The military establishment created under the 1798 and 1800 treaties should not be described simply as the fully developed Hyderabad Contingent. The 1800 agreement established the Subsidiary Force. The Hyderabad Contingent emerged institutionally through later arrangements, especially the treaties of 1853 and 1860.
Under the 1853 treaty, the British agreed to maintain an auxiliary force known as the Hyderabad Contingent, consisting of not less than 5,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry and four field batteries of artillery. Revenue from assigned territories, particularly in Berar, was used to meet the costs of this force.
The subsidiary system placed a significant financial obligation on Hyderabad. The Nizam's government was responsible for meeting the costs associated with forces maintained for the defence of his dominions, while British military arrangements increasingly shaped the state's financial priorities.
During the nineteenth century, Hyderabad experienced recurring financial difficulties. The burden associated with British-supported military forces became particularly serious by the middle of the century. In 1853, the Nizam's government assigned territories in Berar and elsewhere to provide revenue for the Hyderabad Contingent and related obligations.
The subsidiary system gave the British Resident at Hyderabad an increasingly important role in the state's political affairs. The Resident represented the British Government, advised the Nizam, monitored relations with other powers and became a key intermediary in military and diplomatic matters.
British influence over Hyderabad increased considerably during the nineteenth century, particularly when financial difficulties gave the Resident greater leverage. Yet it would be inaccurate to describe the Resident simply as the sovereign ruler of Hyderabad. The Nizam retained substantial authority over internal administration, while the precise extent of British intervention varied according to the period and the political strength of the Nizam's ministers.
Raja Mahipat Ram became associated with efforts to strengthen Hyderabad's freedom of action in the years after the 1800 treaty. Historical accounts describe his attempts to encourage closer relations between Hyderabad and the Maratha powers, including the Holkars and Sindhias.
British authorities regarded such independent diplomacy as incompatible with the subsidiary relationship. Mahipat Ram consequently lost his position and eventually left Hyderabad for the Maratha territories.
By the middle of the nineteenth century, the military relationship created in 1798–1800 had evolved considerably. Financial difficulties and the costs associated with the forces stationed in Hyderabad produced repeated negotiations between the Nizam's government and the British.
The Treaty of 1853 created the Hyderabad Contingent as an auxiliary force in addition to the subsidiary forces. The Nizam assigned territories including areas of Berar, Dharaseo and the Raichur Doab to provide revenue for the force and related obligations.
The Treaty of 1860 modified the arrangement further. The Contingent became an important British-controlled military establishment associated with Hyderabad, while the financial relationship surrounding the assigned territories continued to shape relations between the two governments.
When the uprising of 1857 spread across northern and central India, Hyderabad became strategically important because of its location and the military forces operating in and around the Deccan.
The Nizam's government remained aligned with the British. In July 1857, an attack was made on the British Residency at Hyderabad, but it was repulsed. The Nizam's minister Salar Jung played an important role in maintaining order alongside British authorities.
British officials frequently described the Nizam and Hyderabad as a "Faithful Ally", particularly in the later nineteenth century. The phrase reflected Hyderabad's consistent alignment with the British Government and its strategic importance within the British Indian system.
It should not, however, be interpreted as meaning that Hyderabad had ceased to possess all internal sovereignty. Hyderabad remained a princely state ruled by the Nizam. Its distinctive constitutional position was based on treaties and, after 1858, the broader system of British paramountcy.
When British rule ended in 1947, British paramountcy over the princely states lapsed. The Nizam of Hyderabad sought to preserve Hyderabad's separate status rather than accede immediately to India or Pakistan. The Government of India rejected the idea of an independent Hyderabad within the Indian subcontinent.
The two sides concluded a Standstill Agreement in November 1947, but relations deteriorated during the following year amid political conflict, armed activity and the growth of the Razakar movement.
On September 13, 1948, the Government of India launched Operation Polo. Hyderabad's forces surrendered on September 17, and the Nizam accepted the political settlement that brought Hyderabad under the authority of the Indian Union.
- They brought Hyderabad into the British system of subsidiary alliances.
- They removed important elements of French military influence from the Nizam's service.
- They restricted Hyderabad's independent military and diplomatic action.
- They transferred territories and revenue resources to support the British military establishment.
- They established a political relationship that later developed into Hyderabad's position as a major princely state under British paramountcy.
The significance of the treaties therefore lies not in the disappearance of Hyderabad in 1800, but in the transformation of its sovereignty. The Nizam continued to rule, yet the range of decisions that could be made independently of British power became increasingly narrow.
Timeline · From Alliance to the End of Hyderabad's Separate Rule
Key Figures
- Nizam Ali Khan, Asaf Jah II: Ruler of Hyderabad who concluded the 1798 and 1800 treaties with the East India Company.
- Lord Wellesley: Governor-General who developed the subsidiary alliance system as a major instrument of British expansion.
- Michel Joachim Raymond: French military commander whose corps served the Nizam and was removed following the 1798 treaty.
- Raja Mahipat Ram: Hyderabad official associated with efforts to pursue greater diplomatic freedom from British influence.
- Raja Chandu Lal: Powerful Hyderabad minister whose career illustrates the interaction between the Nizam's government and the British Resident.
- Salar Jung: Important nineteenth-century Hyderabad minister who worked to preserve order during the crisis of 1857.
- Lord Dalhousie: Governor-General during the 1853 treaty that established the Hyderabad Contingent as an auxiliary force.
- Mir Mahbub Ali Khan: Nizam during the late nineteenth century and the 1902 Berar settlement.
- Osman Ali Khan: Last ruling Nizam of Hyderabad, whose reign ended with the political integration of Hyderabad into India in 1948.
Places Associated with the Treaties
Hyderabad: Capital of the Nizam's dominions and the principal political centre of the treaty relationship.
British Residency, Hyderabad: Seat of the British Resident and an important centre of British diplomacy and political influence in Hyderabad.
Secunderabad: Cantonment area associated with the British military presence and the subsidiary forces stationed near Hyderabad.
Ceded Districts: Territories transferred to the Company under the 1800 settlement and subsequently administered as British territories.
Seringapatam: Site associated with the 1792 treaty following the Third Anglo-Mysore War.
Mysore: The 1799 settlement following Tipu Sultan's defeat was directly connected with the territorial changes that preceded the 1800 Hyderabad treaty.
Berar: Territory assigned under the 1853 arrangement to provide revenue for the Hyderabad Contingent and related obligations, with the Nizam's sovereignty later reaffirmed in the 1902 settlement.
- British Library, India Office Records: IOR/H/635, including the September 1, 1798 treaty, June 22, 1799 treaty with the Nizam, and October 12, 1800 Treaty of Defensive Alliance.
- British Library, Add MS 13500: Collection of East India Company treaties, including the treaty with the Nizam of September 1, 1798.
- British Library, IOR/H/564a: Hyderabad correspondence and treaties from 1800.
- The Nizam and published collections of treaties between the East India Company and the Nizam, including the 1798 and 1800 agreements.
- Imperial Gazetteer of India: Historical and administrative material concerning Hyderabad, the subsidiary system and the assigned territories.
- Indian National Trust / IGNCA historical material: Documentation concerning the 1853 and 1860 treaties and the Hyderabad Contingent.
- Wellesley's correspondence: Contemporary material concerning the development of the subsidiary alliance system and the Company's relations with Hyderabad.
Editorial note: The terms "loss of sovereignty," "British control" and "subordination" in discussions of the Hyderabad subsidiary system require careful qualification. Hyderabad remained a princely state under the Nizam after 1800, while its military and diplomatic independence was substantially restricted by treaty and later by British paramountcy.
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