Mention the merits and demwrits od Subsudiary Allince System
Answers
His ideas and plans were two—to make the English the paramount power in India and the other to crush for ever all French intrigues in the courts of the Indian princes.
It was his belief that the English rulers would ensure better justice and peace in India than the tyrannical local princes. At the same time if the English authority was strengthened it would minimise the French authority in the courts of the princes.
The two clear policies he boldly adopted were the policy of subsidiary alliance and the policy of annexation.
Under this programme the English in India played a vigorous role.
Subsidiary Alliance
The key-note of the Subsidiary Alliance was the subordination of the allied prince to the British government in external policy and foreign relations, the maintenance and payment of a contingent of Company troops and dismissal of officers belonging to other nations.
If we analyse the Subsidiary Alliance we find that it was not solely a creation of Wellesley, but a culmination of the policy of his predecessors.
Warren Hastings had introduced the system of putting the English forces to the services of one state against other as he actually had done with regard to the fight of Nawab of Oudh against the Rohillas.
The second stage was English interference not invited by the Indian princes.
The third stage was the request to the prince of the states to give money for protecting their states in emergency, a good example of which was the treaty concluded between Sir John Shore and the Nawab of Oudh in 1798.
All the four stages that kept the English intervention in the Indian affairs haphazard and unsystematic were systematised and given a uniform shape by Wellesley in the Subsidiary Alliance.
It was now finalised by Wellesley’s Subsidiary Alliance that the Company was to undertake the internal and external defence of the Indian states.
The English were under obligation to keep a force for the purpose of defending the states and the expenses for it were to be maintained by the states.
The prince of such a state was to surrender his right of any independent action in diplomatic matter and was under compulsion not be enter into any political relation with any powers other than the British.
The prince was further required to expel from his state all foreigners except the English.
Merits of the Subsidiary Alliance
Looked at from the point of view of British interests the policy of Subsidiary Alliance had several merits. The merits are as follows:
It added to the strength and resources of the British without requiring them to undertake the risk and expenses of the war.
It enabled the British to grow their paramountcy over the Indian States, because under the British arms the states were virtually put under British control.
The system did not keep anything secret to the other European nations who had earlier suspicion over the British policy.
It sealed for ever the chance for the rise of France in India by eliminating all foreign elements except the English from the courts of the princes.
Demerits of Subsidiary Alliance
Defects of the Subsidiary Alliance were vicious and unbearable for the Indian princes. They are as follows:
Since the money demanded from the princes by the British was out of proportion, it virtually brought an economic ruin to the states. This forced the states to cut down their own welfare measures.
The second defect of the system was that it crushed the initiative and responsibility of the Indian prince by making them dependent upon the British for the maintenance of law and order and for the protection of the territorial boundaries.
After the battle of Plassey in 1757, the battle of Buxar in 1764 and gaining the Diwani of Bengal, the company began to expand its rule in many parts of India. For that it had devised several plans, one among them was the “Subsidiary Alliance”. Subsidiary Alliance system was means used by the Company to extend its control over the Indian states.
According to the terms of this alliance -
The East India Company behaved as a guardian of the State.
The State appointed an English Resident in its court, to check the activities of the king.
Indian rulers were not allowed to have their independent armed forces.
The State could not give shelter to any other European other than English in its army.
The Indian states entering into subsidiary alliance were protected by the Company’s forces but had to pay for the maintenance of the British troops. The Indian rulers were not allowed to have their independent armed forces. If the Indian rulers failed to make payments to the British, part of their kingdom was taken away as penalty.