THE RISE AND FALL OF THE MUGHAL EMPIREand soon the troops of the two East India companies shot at each other or
at a variety of Indian enemies in this way.
Initially, Dupleix was not at all keen to get involved in this warfare.
When the war started in Europe he actually offered to his British
colleagues in India that they should come to an agreement to keep the
peace in India. The British were willing to accept this offer, but indicated
that such an understanding would not be binding on the royal troops
about to be stationed in India. Thus Dupleix was forced into hostilities. He
was so successful to begin with that it seemed as if the French were going
to win the war in India. He called upon the daring Admiral La
Bourdonnais, who had organised a small but very effective French navy in
the Indian Ocean. In fact, La Bourdonnais was more of a pirate than a
regular naval officer. His navy was his own enterprise. Thus when he
managed to capture Madras from the British with Dupleix’s support, he
was willing to give it back to them if they paid a high ransom. Dupleix, on
the other hand, insisted that it should be kept by the French; thereupon La
Bourdonnais left India in a huff. Dupleix had to return Madras to the
British as a condition of the peace treaty of 1748. However, both he and
his British adversaries kept enough troops at hand to continue the game of
warfare at which they had become so adept. They were also practically
invited by Indian rulers to take sides with them in dynastic infighting or
campaigns of regional conquest.
When the 1748 peace treaty was signed in Europe the old Nizam-ul-
Mulk died in Hyderabad and his sons started fighting for the succession in
true Mughal style. Parallel to this dynastic fight there was a similar one
between two sons of the nawab of Arcot, who had been a Mughal
governor and had subsequently enjoyed a quasi-independent status under
the suzerainty of the nizam of Hyderabad. The French and the British
joined the fray, and thus there were two alliances each composed of one
Hyderabad prince, one Arcot prince and one European power. These two
alliances waged war against each other for some time. Finally the French
ally succeeded in Hyderabad, whereas the British ally succeeded in Arcot
and established his independence from Hyderabad’s jurisdiction. A young
British clerk in the service of the East India Company, Robert Clive, had
greatly distinguished himself in this campaign by capturing Arcot and
defending this town against the much more numerous forces of the enemy
in 1751. Dupleix, however, thought that, because the French protégé had
become nizam of Hyderabad, he had won the war; when this nizam died in
1751 the French general, de Bussy, managed to install another French
protégé as his successor. Subsequently, de Bussy warded off a Maratha
attack on this protégé’s realm; he was rewarded by being granted four
districts on the east coast whose revenues he could use to pay his troops.
De Bussy and his master, Dupleix, seemed to have succeeded in securing
a major role in Indian politics for the French. In Paris, however, the