Hyder Ali

hi'der a'lee (1728-1782), a distinguished soldier of India. He is considered the most formidable Asiatic rival the English have ever had in India. He was a Mohammedan descended from a fakir family. He never learned to read or write. He was the first native of India to arm a corps of sepoys with firelocks and bayonets. Macaulay calls him "a man born for conquest and command." This military adventurer rose from one position to another. In 1762 he made himself rajah, that is to say, king, of Mysore. His territory embraced 84,000 square miles and yielded an enormous revenue. He spent his time carrying on wars with surrounding princes and with the English. He brought the British empire in southern India to the verge of ruin. Only a half dozen fortified places remained under the British flag. His forces were defeated finally by the English commander, Sir Eyre Coote, in 1781. He was succeeded by his son, Tippoo Sahib, whom English historians consider an arrant knave, in rascality quite equal to his father, but without corresponding ability. See India