Indian History Quiz: Anglo-Mysore, Anglo-Maratha and Anglo-Sikh Wars

The correct answer is B, the Treaty of Mangalore. The Second Anglo-Mysore War, fought from 1780 to 1784, ended with the Treaty of Mangalore signed in 1784 between Tipu Sultan and the English East India Company on the basis of mutual restitution of conquered territory. It is historically important as the last treaty in which an Indian power dictated terms to the Company. Option A is wrong because the Treaty of Madras of 1769 closed the First Anglo-Mysore War fought by Hyder Ali. Option C is wrong because the Treaty of Seringapatam of 1792 ended the Third Anglo-Mysore War and cost Tipu nearly half his kingdom. Option D is wrong because the Treaty of Salbai of 1782 belongs to the First Anglo-Maratha War and had nothing to do with Mysore. Remember also that Hyder Ali died in December 1782, in the middle of the second war.

The correct answer is B, the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War in 1799. Lord Wellesley, who wanted every major state inside his subsidiary alliance system, accused Tipu Sultan of corresponding with the French. The war lasted only a few weeks: Srirangapatna was stormed and Tipu died fighting at its gates on 4 May 1799. Mysore was then partitioned, with Kanara, Coimbatore and Seringapatam kept by the Company and the rest restored to the Wodeyar dynasty under a subsidiary treaty. Option A is wrong because Tipu survived the Third Anglo-Mysore War and signed the Treaty of Seringapatam in 1792, giving up half his territory and two sons as hostages. Option C is wrong because 1784 is the year of the Treaty of Mangalore, which Tipu himself signed. Option D is wrong because 1805 belongs to the closing stage of the Second Anglo-Maratha War, when Holkar signed the Treaty of Rajghat.

The correct answer is B, Peshwa Baji Rao II. Defeated by Yashwantrao Holkar at Poona, the Peshwa fled to British protection and signed the Treaty of Bassein on 31 December 1802, accepting a subsidiary alliance under which a British force was stationed in his territory and his foreign relations passed to the Company. The other Maratha chiefs saw this as the sale of the confederacy and went to war, which is why a treaty, not a battle, is treated as the cause of the Second Anglo-Maratha War. Option A is wrong because Mahadji Scindia had died in 1794, well before this treaty. Option C is wrong because Holkar was the chief who drove the Peshwa out and was the last to submit, signing the Treaty of Rajghat in 1805. Option D is wrong because the Bhonsle of Nagpur fought on and signed the Treaty of Deogaon in 1803 after his defeat.

The correct answer is C, the Treaty of Salbai, about twenty years. Signed in 1782 during the governor-generalship of Warren Hastings, the Treaty of Salbai restored to each side the territory held before the war, recognised Madhavrao II as Peshwa and gave the Company and the Marathas roughly twenty years of peace, until the Treaty of Bassein upset the balance in 1802. Option A is wrong because the Treaty of Purandhar of 1776 was made by the Calcutta Council to cancel the Bombay government engagement and came before the fighting, not after it. Option B is wrong because the Treaty of Surat of 1775, by which Bombay backed Raghunathrao, actually began the war. Option D is wrong because the Treaty of Bassein of 1802 started the Second Anglo-Maratha War rather than ending the first. The British humiliation at Wadgaon in 1779 falls within this same war.

The correct answer is B, Lord Hastings, the Marquess of Hastings, who must not be confused with Warren Hastings. He fought the Third Anglo-Maratha War of 1817 to 1818 as one campaign against the Pindaris and the Maratha chiefs, defeating the Peshwa at Khadki, the Bhonsle at Sitabuldi and Holkar at Mahidpur. Baji Rao II surrendered in June 1818 and was pensioned to Bithur near Kanpur, the office of Peshwa was abolished and a small kingdom of Satara was created for a descendant of Shivaji. Option A is wrong because Lord Wellesley fought the Second Anglo-Maratha War from 1803 to 1805. Option C is wrong because Lord Cornwallis is associated with the Third Anglo-Mysore War and the Permanent Settlement of 1793. Option D is wrong because Lord Dalhousie came much later and is remembered for annexing Punjab in 1849 and for the Doctrine of Lapse.

The correct answer is B, the Treaty of Amritsar. After the First Anglo-Sikh War the Treaty of Lahore of 9 March 1846 imposed a war indemnity of one and a half crore rupees on the Sikh state, which it could not pay. A week later, by the Treaty of Amritsar of 16 March 1846, the Company transferred Kashmir to Gulab Singh of Jammu for seventy-five lakh rupees, creating the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Option A is wrong because the Treaty of Lahore took the Jalandhar Doab, limited the Sikh army and installed a British Resident, but did not itself transfer Kashmir to Gulab Singh. Option C is wrong because the Treaty of Bhairowal of December 1846 set up a council of regency with Henry Lawrence as Resident and removed Rani Jindan from the regency. Option D is wrong because the Treaty of Gwalior of 1817 was signed with Scindia during the Third Anglo-Maratha War.

The correct answer is B, Lord Dalhousie. The Second Anglo-Sikh War of 1848 to 1849 began with the revolt of Mulraj at Multan and was decided by the battles of Chillianwala in January 1849 and Gujrat in February 1849. Dalhousie annexed Punjab on 29 March 1849, pensioned off Maharaja Dalip Singh, had the Kohinoor diamond sent to the Crown and placed the province under a Board of Three Administrators. Option A is wrong because Lord Hardinge was Governor-General during the First Anglo-Sikh War of 1845 to 1846 and stopped short of annexation, choosing instead the treaties of Lahore and Bhairowal. Option C is wrong because Lord Auckland is remembered for the disastrous First Anglo-Afghan War and the Tripartite Treaty of 1838. Option D is wrong because Lord Canning was Governor-General at the time of the Revolt of 1857 and became the first Viceroy of India.

The correct answer is C, the Battle of Sobraon, fought in February 1846 on the Sutlej. It was the last and decisive engagement of the First Anglo-Sikh War and was followed within weeks by the Treaty of Lahore of 9 March 1846. Option A is wrong because Mudki, fought in December 1845, was the opening battle of that war, followed by Ferozeshah and Aliwal. Option B is wrong because Chillianwala, fought in January 1849, belongs to the Second Anglo-Sikh War and was so costly for the British that it caused alarm in England, though it did not end the war. Option D is wrong because the Battle of Gujrat of February 1849 ended the Second Anglo-Sikh War and led to the annexation of Punjab by Dalhousie in March 1849. Keeping 1846 and 1849 apart is the easiest way to sort these battles.

The correct answer is B, the Second Anglo-Mysore War. Hyder Ali led Mysore into that war in 1780, defeated a British force at Pollilur the same year and died of a carbuncle in December 1782 while the war was still being fought. His son Tipu Sultan took over the command and concluded the Treaty of Mangalore in 1784. Option A is wrong because Hyder Ali survived the First Anglo-Mysore War of 1767 to 1769 and came out of it with the favourable Treaty of Madras. Option C is wrong because the Third Anglo-Mysore War of 1790 to 1792 was fought by Tipu Sultan against Lord Cornwallis, long after his father death. Option D is wrong because the First Anglo-Maratha War was a separate conflict in western India, fought from 1775 to 1782 and ended by the Treaty of Salbai, in which Mysore was not a party.

The correct answer is B, the Second Anglo-Maratha War. After the Treaty of Bassein of December 1802, Scindia and the Bhonsle of Nagpur took the field against the Company. Arthur Wellesley, the younger brother of Governor-General Lord Wellesley, beat their combined armies at Assaye in September 1803 and again at Argaon, while General Lake captured Delhi and won at Laswari in the north. Option A is wrong because the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War was fought in 1799 and ended with the storming of Srirangapatna and the death of Tipu Sultan. Option C is wrong because the Third Anglo-Maratha War of 1817 to 1818 is marked by Khadki, Sitabuldi and Mahidpur, not Assaye. Option D is wrong because the First Anglo-Sikh War came four decades later, in 1845 to 1846, and was fought along the Sutlej.

The correct answer is B, Bithur near Kanpur. Baji Rao II surrendered to the British in June 1818 at the close of the Third Anglo-Maratha War and was removed from the Deccan altogether, being granted a pension and a residence at Bithur in the Ganga plain. His adopted son Nana Saheb later made Bithur a centre of the Revolt of 1857, precisely because the pension was stopped on Baji Rao death. Option A is wrong because Satara was made into a small princely state for a descendant of Shivaji, not a home for the Peshwa, and it was later annexed by Dalhousie under the Doctrine of Lapse. Option C is wrong because Gwalior was the capital of Scindia, who signed a separate treaty in 1817. Option D is wrong because Nagpur was the seat of the Bhonsle, defeated at Sitabuldi in the same war.

The correct answer is C, the Treaty of Mandasor and Holkar. Holkar was defeated at Mahidpur in the Third Anglo-Maratha War and signed the Treaty of Mandasor in 1818, accepting British control over his foreign relations. Option A is wrong because the Treaty of Deogaon of 1803 was signed with the Bhonsle of Nagpur, not Scindia. Option B is wrong because the Treaty of Surji-Anjangaon of 1803 was signed with Scindia, not the Bhonsle, so options A and B are simply swapped, a favourite examiner device. Option D is wrong because the Treaty of Rajghat of 1805 was signed with Yashwantrao Holkar at the close of the Second Anglo-Maratha War; the Peshwa treaty was the Treaty of Bassein of 1802, and it was he who had set off that war by accepting a subsidiary alliance.