A new book recounts British Governor Cornwallis’s attempts to remove Tipu Sultan

The main obstacle to the Company’s expansionist drive in southern India was the kingdom of Mysore. For Charles Cornwallis, success in an operation to check Tipu’s power might salvage his military reputation, which had been seriously damaged due to the failure in America. Ever since the signing of the Treaty of Mangalore – the terms of which had not at all been satisfactory for the British – the EIC had been looking for an opportunity to undo the outcome of the Second Anglo–Mysore War. The British would seize any chance to unleash another war. Cornwallis, in his correspondence between 1786 and 1790, repeatedly urges the officers posted in the south to be alert to even the slightest transgression by Mysore. This would justify the resumption of hostilities. Tipu’s dispute with the kingdom of Travancore in southern Kerala provided the pretext.

In the mid-1760s, Haidar Ali had absorbed northern and central Kerala (Malabar), with their numerous petty-chieftaincies, into the kingdom of Mysore. Besides, the small but strategically located principality of Cochin had agreed to render an annual tribute to the kingdom. With these acquisitions, Mysore had also gained access to the sea.

During the Second Anglo–Mysore War, the EIC had endeavoured to prevent Mysore from...

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