Peninsular history

There are histories of India, and then occasionally we have histories of south India. K.A. Nilakanta Sastri’s pioneering A History of South India (1955), which soon established itself as a classic, demonstrated the possibility of studying south India as a distinct historical unit encompassing the Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam linguistic regions. Even though his narrative was essentially in terms of dynastic changes, it made conspicuous the absence of the south from histories of India. Rajmohan Gandhi has undertaken a difficult task in writing a full-length history of modern south India, from the end of the 17th century to the present, bringing the story up to August 2018 when M. Karunanidhi passed away. Gandhi commences his account with the beginnings of Portuguese presence on the Malabar coast towards the end of the 1490s. The scene shifts to the Coromandel coast where the Portuguese were joined by the Dutch. By the early 17th century, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) had established control over all sea routes between Europe and Asia via the Cape of Good Hope, putting an end to Portuguese monopoly over the route. Already in the first decade of the 17th century, VOC had set up three factories on the Coromandel coast to obtain supplies of cloth for its intra-Asian trade. These included Pulicat (1610), at the northern extremity of present-day Tamil Nadu, which became the administrative centre of their enclaves in the area till the end of the century. During the course of the 17th century, the English and the French too had acquired toe-holds on the coast, with Madras and neighbouring Pondicherry becoming the respective headquarters of their operations in the South. The first half of the 18th century was dominated by a prolonged conflict between the two for supremacy, with the English East India Company (EIC) emerging triumphant by the end of the 1750s. Anglo-French rivalry entered a critical phase from the mid-1740s onwards, and the ensuing Carnatic Wars engulfed a large part of south India as the Anglo-French conflict overlapped with violent struggles to control the territories subject to Hyderabad and to Arcot, in which the English and the French supported and encouraged a series of rival candidates. Figuring out the complicated moves of the Carnatic Wars has been a nightmare for many an undergraduate student. In recounting this story, Gandhi frequently cites contemporary observers, thus avoiding the dreary style of textbooks. From the late 1760s down to the end of the century EIC’s expansionist drive in south India was fiercely resisted by the kingdom of Mysore under Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan. The history of this combat is well-known. The book is rather cautious in its appraisal of Tipu, perhaps in light of the recent political controversy over his legacy. Besides, one wonders whether despite his bravery and numerous successes on the battlefield, Tipu had a thorough understanding of advances in modern warfare. Gandhi quotes a perceptive remark by Wilks. “He fell (at Srirangapatna) in the defence of his capital; but he fell,…