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Warriors and States: Military labour in southern India, circa 1750–1800

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2018

MESROB VARTAVARIAN
MESROB VARTAVARIAN*
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Independent scholar Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The consolidation of numerous regional polities in the aftermath of Mughal imperial decline presented favourable socioeconomic opportunities for South Asian service communities. Protracted armed conflicts in southern India allowed a variety of mercenaries, soldiers, and war bands to accumulate resources in exchange for mobilizing manpower on behalf of states with weak standing armies. This article focuses on British imperial efforts to obtain sufficient quantities of military labour during its struggle with the Mysore sultanate. As the sultanate assumed an increasingly hostile attitude towards independent warrior power, local strongmen sought more amenable arrangements with alternate entities. The British East India Company received crucial support from autonomous warrior groups during its southern wars of conquest. Warriors in turn utilized British resources to consolidate local sovereignties. Thus, the initial British intrusion into peninsular Indian society further fragmented the political landscape by patronizing petty military entrepreneurs.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , March 2019 , pp. 313 - 338
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

The general arguments of this article benefited enormously from several conversations with Victor Lieberman. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions. Any errors or shortcomings that follow are mine alone.

References

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75 M. Vartavarian, ‘Military Labour and the Company State in India, 1780–1830’, PhD thesis, University of Cambridge, 2014, Chapter 2.