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Hyder Ali Biography

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HYDER ALI, (more accurately, Haidar 'Ali) (c.1720-82). Ruler of Mysore and one of the greatest Mohammedan princes of India. Of humble origin, he is said to have been originally a sepoy in the French army, which may explain the friendship which he always felt for the French. He won the favor of the minister of the Rajah of Mysore by the valor which he displayed at the siege of Trichinopoly in 1749 and, by a rapid rise not infrequent in the East, soon became the power behind the throne. Hyder Ali in 1759 dispossessed his master, allowing him, however, to retain his title, while he himself took that of daïva, or regent. He then conquered Calicut, Bednor, Kananur, and other neighboring states, and in 1766 his dominions included more than 84,000 square miles. He waged two wars against the British--in the first of which (1767-69) he was completely successful, although deserted by his confederate Nizam Ali, a former friend of the English--and a treaty of peace was signed under the walls of Madras. According to the terms of this treaty, as he claimed, Hyder Ali asked the English in 1772 to help him against his old foes, the Mahrattas, who had already defeated him in 1764, but his request was refused. When a conflict broke out between the English and the French in 1778, he sought his revenge. With his son, Tippu Sahib, he entered the Carnatic in 1780 and proceeded to devastate it. After inflicting two severe defeats on the English, he was routed by Eyre Coote at Porto Novo. Two years later he died very suddenly. Consult: Le Maitre de la Tour, Histoire d'Hayder-Ali Khan (Paris, 1783): Husein Ali Khan Kirmani, History of Hydur Naik (trans. by Miles, London, 1842); L. B. Bowring, Haidar Ali and Tipú Sultán, (Rulers of India Series, Oxford, 1893).