Dupleix

Joseph François Dupleix was the French Governor-General in India. He dreamed of a French empire in the south.

He trained sepoy armies and backed rival claimants to local thrones. The British later copied this method and won.

1Who was Dupleix?

He was a merchant’s son who rose to lead French India.

• He was born in January 1697 at Landrecies, in France.
• His father was a wealthy tax collector who wanted him to become a merchant.
• The young Dupleix liked science.
• His father sent him to India in 1715 to distract him.
• He joined the French East India Company.
• He made several voyages to India and to the Americas.
• He joined the Company’s council in the early 1720s.
• He also traded on his own account and built a fortune.
• From 1730 he ran French affairs at Chandernagore, in Bengal.
• He married Jeanne, a widow, in 1741.
• Indians called her Joanna Begum.
• She helped him in talks with Indian princes.
• In 1742 he became Governor-General of all French establishments in India.

2How did the French take Madras?

The Carnatic Wars gave him his first big chance.

• The First Carnatic War began in 1746.
• It grew out of the wider War of the Austrian Succession in Europe.
• The French and the English were rivals in India.
• In September 1746, French forces took Madras from the British.
• Dupleix had a rival in La Bourdonnais, a French governor from Mauritius and Bourbon.
• The two men quarrelled bitterly.
• Dupleix refused to give Madras back, against a deal La Bourdonnais had made.
• In 1748 a British force besieged Pondicherry.
• Dupleix organised the defence and the fort held.
• News came that the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle had ended the war in Europe.
• The fighting in India stopped, and Madras went back to the British.
• For the wider story, see The Carnatic Wars.

3What happened at Adyar?

A small force beat a much larger army.

• The Nawab of the Carnatic, Anwaruddin, wanted Madras back.
• He sent an army led by his son, Mahfuz Khan.
• On 24 October 1746, it met a French-led force at the Adyar river.
• The French side had about 230 Europeans and 700 sepoys.
• The Nawab’s army was about ten thousand, mostly cavalry.
• The French commander was Louis Paradis.
• His men held steady and fired disciplined musket volleys.
• Then they charged with bayonets.
• The larger army broke and fled.
• The lesson was clear. Trained infantry with guns could beat huge cavalry armies.

4What was his plan in the Second Carnatic War?

He tried to rule through friendly puppets.

• Dupleix saw that succession fights split Indian courts.
• He chose to take sides and win favours.
• He backed Chanda Sahib for the Carnatic.
• He backed Muzaffar Jung for the Deccan.
• The British backed rival claimants.
• Muzaffar Jung gave Dupleix authority south of the Krishna river.
• In 1750 the Deccan ruler gifted the Alamparai fort to the French.
• From 1751 he also tried to extend French influence to Burma.
• He sent an envoy and helped the Mon people against the Burmese.
• That plan faded once the Seven Years’ War drew French attention elsewhere.
• His key military idea was the sepoy army, trained along European lines.
• Robert Clive’s defence of Arcot in 1751 was a British reply to this campaign.
• Read about him in Robert Clive.

5Why was he recalled?

His wars cost money, and France wanted peace.

• The French government grew tired of the costly wars.
• In 1754 it sent a commissioner to take over from him.
• The orders allowed his arrest if needed.
• Dupleix sailed for France in October 1754.
• The Treaty of Pondicherry followed.
• It committed both companies to stop meddling in local successions.
• Dupleix had spent his own fortune on his plans.
• The Company refused to repay him.
• The government saw him as an ambitious adventurer.
• His reputation recovered only after his death.
• He died in obscurity on 10 November 1763.
• France honoured him later with a statue at Puducherry, first put up in 1870.
• Chandernagore’s old Dupleix College carried his name.
• A square and a metro station in Paris are named after him.
• A road near the Parliament in New Delhi also carries his name.
• Pondicherry’s Nehru Street was once Rue Dupleix.

6What are the exam traps?

Do not credit the British with the first idea.

• Dupleix pioneered the sepoy army and local alliances.
• The British later copied and expanded this approach.
• He was French, not British.
• His headquarters was Pondicherry.
• Madras was taken in 1746. Arcot was Clive’s stand in 1751.
• The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ended the First Carnatic War.
• The Treaty of Pondicherry ended the Second Carnatic War.
• The Third Carnatic War ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763.