Key Points on Subsidiary Alliance

Before knowing the key points on Subsidiary Alliance, it is important to have a clear idea of what the Subsidiary Alliance stands for. In South Asian History, the Subsidiary Alliance was the first tributary alliance that was signed between the East India Company and the Indian States. The idea of the subsidiary alliance was established by Joseph Francois Dupleix who was the governor of the French. He established a treaty with the king of Hyderabad and the other princes of south Indian regions that fall between the Bay of Bengal and the Eastern Ghats in the year 1740s.

When Robert Clive was the senior officer of the East India Company, it adopted the subsidiary alliance. But Robert Clive approached with several conditions to negotiate with Mir Jafar after his victory in the War of Plassey in the year 1757. He also negotiated some of the conditions with the princes who were already existing under the Allahabad Treaty for Subsidiary Alliance that resulted in the victory of the East India Company in the Battle of Buxar that took place in 1764. Richard Whelesly who was the next governor General also took up the Subsidiary Alliance. But from the year 1798 to 1805, while he was governing, he in his initial years only incorporated a few key points on non-intervention policy in the princely states of India. But in the later years, as he adopted the Subsidiary Alliance policies, it helped him expand and establish the East India Company throughout the country. 

This article thus deals with the key points on Subsidiary Alliance with its adoption and advantages and disadvantages.   

Different Forms of Subsidiary Alliance

The different forms of Subsidiary Alliance are listed below that gradually evolved and took different forms of their own.

1. In its first negotiation, the East India Company agreed to heal the peasants in their field by providing fixed forces in return for a sum of money from them.

2. In the second form, they agreed that in return for some fixed amount of money from the princely states they will provide their allies with permanent and fixed military support.

3. In the third form, in addition to providing the permanent and fixed forces to their allies in return for a fixed fund as maintenance to East India Company, they also agreed to settle the soldiers within the territory of the ally.

4. In the fourth and the final form, which was introduced by Lord Wellesly, he incorporated the permanent and fixed subsidiary force within the territory of tier allies but not in return for money. He proposed the help n return of a part of the land of their territory being designated to East India Company. Thus, this policy has helped in expanding and establishing the East India Company throughout the country. 

Features of Key Points of Subsidiary Alliance

The main key points of the Subsidiary Alliance to introduce in the country are listed below:-

1. Though the idea to implement the Subsidiary Alliance between East India Company and the Indian States was introduced by Lord Dupleix who was a french Governor but later it was modified by Lord Wellesley to expand the rule of the East India Company throughout the country.

2. When the first ruler of India accepted the offer under the Subsidiary Alliance with the East India Company, he had to dissolve his own forces and army troops before allying to accept the British army into his territory.

3. According to the terms and conditions assigned under the Subsidiary Alliance, the ruler has to pay for the maintenance of the British soldiers that are appointed to his empire and if he fails to do that then a portion of his territory would be taken away and relinquished by British to expand the East India Company.

4. In return for the agreement to all the forms of Subsidiary Alliances, the British will be responsible for the protection of the entire territory under the allies from any foreign troops and the attack by the internal enemy.

5. Even after the agreement of the non-intervention policy was incorporated by Lord Wellesly for the native states of India under the ruling of the Kings agreed to the policy, but that was rarely maintained by the Britishers. 

6.  Under the agreement to the policy, none of the Indian allies to the East India company could come to an agreement with any other foreign forces and have to terminate anyone other than British people who are serving in their empire post-signing of the Subsidiary Alliance policy. They are only henceforth allowed to incorporate only Englishmen in their courts as officials. This was done to weaken the French influence on India. 

7. After the signing of the Subsidiary Alliance with the British East India Company, the members under the agreements are not allowed to be a part of any Political group or have any private connections with any political members without the consent of Britishmen.   

8. Thus this agreement actually weakened the ruling of the kings and their kingdoms as they lost all hold over the external affairs as well as army affairs. 

9. Slowly under this agreement, all the rulers and their kingdoms started losing all their independence and came under complete control and protection of the Britishers.  

Terms of Subsidiary Alliance

The last section of the Subsidiary alliance policy was taken up by Lord Wellesly where he added the fourth and the last clause that includes following terms and conditions:-

1. The court of the ruler needs to incorporate an Englishmen official as the residence.

2. The ruler during his service posts the agreement of the Subsidiary Alliance is not allowed to recruit any other members belonging to other European countries or any Indians who are not allied with the Britishers. 

3. The native rulers who fall under the agreement could not build or continue having any relationship or allies with any other ruler of the country. 

4. In return for it, the British troops take full responsibility in native kingdoms and their territories to protect them from any foreign invasion or internal attack. 

5. Also, the British officials will not interfere in the internal decision-making or affairs of the native empires under a non-intervention policy.

All the native rulers who agreed to be part of the policy also had to align themselves with the fourth and the last section and all the terms that are stated under the policy along with offering a piece of their territory permanently to the Britishers. And that was the main pillar of expanding the East India Company and its ruling all over the country. 

States that are included in the Subsidiary Alliance

The States that Came Under the Agreement of the Policies are as Follows:

1. The Nizam of Hyderabad” was the first one to come under the trap of the policy and signed on the agreement with the British East India company in the year 1798. Post the agreement, the British snapped all the influence of France on the Nizam of Hyderabad and were restricted against making an alliance with the Marathas without the consent of the Britishers.

2. The second state that was forced into entering the policy is Mysore in the year 1799.

3. Nawab of Awadh was also compelled by Lord Wellesly in 1801 to sign the agreement of the Subsidiary Alliance.

4. After being vanquished by the Britishers, Peshwa Balaji Rao II was also compelled to take up the Subsidiary Alliance in the year 1802. 

5. After Peshwa Balaji Rao II, many other Maratha states under the ruling of kings like Scindia and Bhosle also agreed to sign the agreement and come to a settlement with the British ruling in the following year. 

6. The federation under the Holikars came to terms with the Subsidiary Alliance Policy lastly after a lot of resistance against the establishment of British ruling.    

Advantages and Disadvantages of Subsidiary Alliance System

There were few advantages for the rulers and much higher for the Britishers over the disadvantages of Subsidiary Alliance and the following points are mentioned below:-

1. The French influence over India was completely wiped away by the Britishers by incorporation of the policy of not including any Foreign influence within the court of native rulers. 

2. The native rulers were also forbidden from making alliances with each other and that helped the native rulers to keep apart from influencing the Indian society.

3. This has highly benefited the Englishmen in controlling and expanding their territory at expense of the native rulers who slowly lost all their hold over their own empire and the controlling of the territory finally went in hands of the Britishers. 

4. The Britishers were also able to expand their military forces all over the country on the expanses of the Native rulers who fell for the policy. Since the maintenance of the foreign military with their types of equipment was very high and the elevated costs put a toll on the financial position of the rulers thus they were compelled to release more and more territories under their ruling to the Britishers.  

On the other hand, this policy proved to be a huge disadvantage for the native rulers who were lured into the policy. Some of them are:-

1. The native rulers lost most of their fertile lands that are financially and strategically crucial for the Indian rulers to maintain their ruling.

2. As the entire financial burden to maintain the foreign army fell on the rulers they could not help the state financially to grow as it was before. Thus more and more native states were going into poverty.

3. Under the last form of the policy, it was tactically maintained that the British residence in the court of the ruler will not interfere with the internal affairs but slowly they captured the entire ruling of the native empire with the decision-making power for the internal affairs as well. 

Summary of Key Points of Subsidiary Alliance

The summer of the Key points of the Subsidiary Alliance was mostly done to gradually capture the entire territory of the native empires and to bring in control the ruling under East India Company of the British. It was solely aimed at expanding the control of the East India Company to establish a strong British ruling in the country. They maintained and expanded the entire British troops under the expanses of the native ruling and upon failing they captured more and more of their territories. In this way, they captured the most strategic and fertile lands that were proved to be highly beneficial in terms of finance and power.