Haidar Ali
(1721–1782), Indian warrior. Haidar Ali (or Hyder Ali) was the son of a Panjabi Muslim adventurer. Although not formally educated, Haidar was a sagacious and pragmatic warrior who had many military successes. He learned the skills of warfare during the Anglo-French wars of 1751–1755 in South India and was fighting constantly with his neighbors. His three main enemies were the Marathas to the northwest of Mysore, the Nizam of Hyderabad to the northeast of Mysore, and the British to the southeast in Madras. Haidar would not go to war against any one of them except when confident the other two would not join in against him. He admired the British and French armies in India, and equipped the Mysore army along similar lines.
Haidar became commander of that army in 1759, and in 1761 rose to be chief minister of Mysore State. In 1766 the ruler of Mysore became a mere figurehead, and Haidar assumed complete control of the expanding kingdom. He unified Mysore for the first time since the fall of the Vijayanagar Empire in 1565. In 1766 he controlled the west coast through his conquests, and even organized a small fleet there, one of very few Indian commanders ever to do such a thing.
He then went on to fight the First and Second Anglo-Mysore Wars with great success (1767–1769, 1780–1784), but died before the second war was over. In the first of these wars he dictated terms to the British outside Madras City, and in general demonstrated that the British army was not invincible. When he lost some possessions to the British, however, he hoped that the French would come to his aid, but they never provided sufficient support for him to oust the British from South India; and indeed, when they killed his son Tipu Sultan in 1799, British paramountcy was assured.
Further Reading
Sinha, Narendra Krishna. (1969) Haidar Ali. 4th ed. Calcutta, India: A. Mukherjee.
This is the complete article, containing 317 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).
