The Fall of Yusuf Khan: Treachery, Empire, and a Hanging at Madurai

1. INTRODUCTION: THE MAN AND HIS TIMES

On the evening of 15 October 1764, Muhammad Yusuf, Khan Bahadur, also popularly called Maruthanayagam  Governor of Madura and Tinnevelly, was hanged as a rebel in front of the British camp before Madura, by order of Muhammad Ali, Nawab of Arcot.

The historical interest of this tragic event lies in the fact that the man thus executed—Muhammad Yusuf, better known in his time as Yusuf Khan—was by far the ablest of the Indian soldiers who fought in the early wars between the English and French for the possession of Southern India. In the words of Sir John Malcolm:

“The name of this hero, for such he was, occurs almost as often in the page of the English historian [Robert Orme] as that of Lawrence or Clive.”

Robert Orme’s History concludes abruptly in 1761, when Yusuf Khan had been nearly ten years in the service of the English and had arrived at the zenith of his reputation. His services, as we read in Orme, had on two occasions—the campaign of Trichinopoly in 1752-4 and the siege of Madras in 1758-9—been of immense, if not vital, importance to the English in the Madras Presidency. During the years 1756-1761, he had, as their Governor, brought back to peace and prosperity the provinces of Madura and Tinnevelly, which actually belonged to the Nawab but had been placed by him under the control of the Madras Council.

Orme therefore told us of the rise of Yusuf Khan, but the rest of his story—the transfer of Yusuf Khan’s services to the Nawab, his rebellion, and his fall—can be gathered only from the Records of the Madras Government and the collection of manuscripts which Orme bequeathed to the East India Company.

This is the story of an extraordinary personage who, beginning life as a humble peasant, raised himself by his military talent to high rank in the East India Company’s service; then, by his administrative ability, reduced to order the two most turbulent provinces of Southern India; and finally, when compelled to rebel against the Nawab in self-defence, managed to maintain himself against that Prince assisted by the whole available power of the English for a period of nearly two years—falling at last only by the treachery of his own troops and not by the force of his enemies.

Yusuf Khan was, in fact, of the same type as Haidar Ali—one of those men of genius who naturally come to the front in times of great social or political unrest. Had he been left without outside interference to settle his quarrel with his native suzerain, like Haidar Ali with the Rajas of Mysore, there is absolutely no doubt that he would have succeeded in establishing his independence.

Ultimately, the very power that helped him rise to fame was the one that destroyed him.

Yet, despite his failure and his execution as a rebel, we shouldn’t forget his impact. For many years—including some of the darkest—Yusuf Khan served the English with absolute loyalty. In his final battle, he fought with honor and died bravely. The people he ruled remembered him for his talent, firmness, and fairness. While he received zero mercy from his bitter enemy, the Nawab, his courage won the respect of the British soldiers who fought against him. They genuinely mourned his death.

Even long after he was gone, British officials running the Madura and Tinnevelly provinces still praised his leadership.

2. EARLY LIFE: FROM MARUTHANAYAGAM TO MUHAMMAD YUSUF

Very little is known for certain of the early career of Yusuf Khan. The only sources of information are native tradition or casual references by persons often not very well disposed towards him. Even the date of his birth is nowhere mentioned, and can be fixed only doubtfully and approximately by the fact that he is supposed to have enjoyed, as a youth, the protection of Jacques Law, who arrived in India in 1744.

Hindu Origins

According to tradition, Yusuf Khan was born a Hindu, of the Vellala caste, at Paniyur in the district of Ramnad, his name being Maruthanayagam Pillai. He is said to have been wild in his youth and disobedient to his parents. Finally, it is related, he ran away from home, became a Muhammadan, assumed the name of Muhammad Yusuf, and went to Pondicherry.

According to one French account he became a boatman; according to another, a tailor. Native tradition asserts that he entered the service of a European, by whom, after three years and a half, he was dismissed for some great fault. From the Nawab’s letters and the Tamil ballad The War of the Khan Sahib, it appears likely that this European was the Chevalier Jacques Law.

The Accusation of Theft

The French accounts concur with the Nawab in asserting that the cause of his dismissal was theft, in punishment for which his ears were cut off, either by order of M. Law or by the court which disposed of criminal cases involving natives. As this shameful accusation was never mentioned until after the death of Yusuf Khan, and then only by those who were certainly biased against him, it may be dismissed as groundless.

It is, however, very probable that during his stay at Pondicherry he made the acquaintance of another servant of M. Law, named Marchand, who also became a soldier and was destined to be the immediate cause of his downfall.

Education and Service

The French account continues that, not wishing to live in a town where he had suffered such a disgrace, Yusuf Khan left Pondicherry and enlisted as a sepoy, first in the army of the King of Tanjore, and then in that of the Nawab Muhammad Ali. Native tradition, however, states that after his first dismissal he entered the service of another European, a Mr. Brunton, who took great pains with his education and had him instructed in various languages.

Letters still exist which show that Yusuf Khan could read, and probably write, both English and French. The Nawab himself tells us that Yusuf Khan at one time served Muhammad Kamal of Nellore as a physician, which certainly implies the possession of some education. As Yusuf Khan married a Portuguese woman and employed Portuguese clerks, it is probable that he knew their language.

Native tradition does not mention Yusuf Khan’s service under Muhammad Kamal, but says that after leaving Mr. Brunton he entered the service of the Nawab, and after passing through the various posts of toll-collector, sepoy, naik and havildar, he finally reached that of Subadar or Captain of a company of sepoys. It was with this rank that, as Orme tells us, he entered the English service.

The Vellala Caste

The unanimity of tradition as to the Hindu origin of Yusuf Khan is corroborated by the fact that he was often spoken of by the natives of Madura as “the Pillai,” a term applicable to both Brahmans and Vellalans, but in the Madura district almost synonymous with Vellalan. His tomb, near Madura, is still known by the half-Muhammadan, half-Hindu name of “the Khan Sahib’s Pallivasal.”

The Vellalans are supposed to be descendants of foreign immigrants who entered the country of Madura about 900 AD. A very numerous caste speaking a pure dialect of Tamil, their proper occupation was agriculture, but they engaged in many others, including Government service and the army—though never in such employments as were considered personally degrading. They belonged to the Saiva sect, abstained from eating flesh or drinking intoxicating liquors, and polygamy was unknown among them.

For Yusuf Khan to rise to the position he attained, it was necessary for him to be freed from whatever trammels might be imposed by his religion. This was effected by his conversion—voluntarily or by force is unknown—to Muhammadanism. To a Muhammadan, the lowly birth of Yusuf Khan was no hindrance to his success. As Orme says:

“There is no country in which the titles of descent are less instrumental to the fortunes of men than they are in Indostan. The field of fortune is open to every man who has courage enough to make use of his sword, or to whom Nature has given superior talents of mind.”

3. ENTRY INTO THE ENGLISH SERVICE

According to Orme, Yusuf Khan entered the English service by enlisting, with a company of sepoys which he had raised himself in the Nellore District, under Clive shortly before the battle of Kaveripakkam. It is more probable that he was at first in the service of Chanda Sahib, the French candidate for the Nawabship of the Carnatic.

The Political Situation

At this time, though in Europe England and France were at peace, in India they were at war, for the rule of the Carnatic was contested between Muhammad Ali (supported by the English) and Chanda Sahib (the candidate put forward by the French). Of all the country between the river Krishna and Cape Comorin to which Muhammad Ali laid claim, he was limited in 1751 practically to the town of Trichinopoly. The country to the north, including Arcot, the capital of the Province, was dominated by Chanda Sahib and the French.

Yusuf Khan first appears in English records during the campaign against the French and Chanda Sahib in 1752. There are two references to his good conduct in the private papers of Captain John Dalton, a brave and capable officer who was the intimate friend of Clive.

In the month of April 1752, Monsieur d’Auteuil appeared in the neighbourhood of the island of Srirangam with a convoy for the relief of Law and Chanda Sahib. On the 3rd May, he was defeated at Utatur by Dalton, who wrote the next day to Clive:

“Your Nellore sepoys are glorious fellows, and their Subadar as good a man as ever breathed. He is my sole dependence.”

It should be explained that at this time, and for some years after, Yusuf Khan is often referred to as “the Nellore Subadar” or simply “the Nellore.”

The Battle of Volkonda

On the 29th May, Clive attacked d’Auteuil at Volkonda and forced him to surrender. In describing the action, Dalton writes:

“Eight hundred of these sepoys were the very same who had made the resolute attempt to storm the breaches at Arcot when Clive commanded there and had since deserted to him. They were a parcel of resolute fellows, and the continued series of success which for a considerable time had attended our arms made them look upon themselves as sure of victory when supported by an English battalion.”

If this is correct, then Yusuf Khan must have first met the English as an enemy at the ever-memorable attempt to storm Arcot. The day was to come when he was to see the English in turn retire from a breach defended by himself.

The End of Chanda Sahib

The surrender of d’Auteuil at Volkonda was soon followed by that of Law in Srirangam, and on the same day—the 3rd June 1752—Chanda Sahib, who had placed himself in the hands of the Tanjorean general Mankoji, was put to death as the only possible way of settling the rival claims of the Nawab, the Marathas and the Mysoreans to the possession of his person.

Orme moralizes on the death of Chanda Sahib:

“Such was the unfortunate and ignominious end of this man. The many examples of a similar fate which are perpetually produced by the contests of ambition in this unsettled empire have established a proverb that fortune is a throne, and therefore he who falls in such contests is only reckoned unfortunate, without having the odium of rebellion or treachery charged on his memory.”

4. THE TRICHINOPOLY CAMPAIGN (1752-1754)

With the capture and death of Chanda Sahib, the English fondly hoped that they had foiled the schemes of Dupleix. They had yet to learn that their most troublesome opponent was not Dupleix, but their shifty ally the Nawab.

The Nawab’s Broken Promises

When the Nawab first asked the aid of the Mysoreans, he promised them the town of Trichinopoly as the price of their assistance. They now demanded payment, and very naturally refused to accept his excuse that, as an officer of the Mughal, he was unable to dispose of the Mughal’s possessions. What the Madras Council themselves thought of his behaviour they recorded as follows:

“A knavish and weak action: the former because he knew he had no right to do it; the latter because he must know that, though he procrastinated difficulties, yet he must in the end, as it but too plainly appears, make a powerful enemy instead of a friend.”

Lawrence’s Dependence on Convoys

Lawrence, in fact, depended for the existence of his army entirely upon the safe arrival of his convoys, and for this he was indebted to Yusuf Khan, thanks to whose skill and courage, according to Orme, not a single convoy miscarried for a period of three months.

In his own Journal, Lawrence wrote concerning Yusuf Khan:

“He is an excellent partisan, knows the country well, is brave and resolute but cool and sensible in action—in short, he is a born soldier, and better of his colour I never saw in the country. He never spares himself, but is out on all parties, and by his good intelligence brought in provisions to keep us in a moderate plenty.”

Earlier in his Journal, Lawrence describes Clive in strikingly similar words:

“A man of an undaunted resolution, of a cool temper and a presence of mind which never left him in the greatest danger. Born a soldier, for without a military education of any sort, reading or much conversing with any of the profession, from his judgment and good sense he led an army like an experienced soldier and a brave officer with prudence.”

One can hardly wonder at Yusuf Khan’s rapid rise when the first soldier in India thus marked his resemblance to so great a man as Clive. Alike in capacity for both civil and military affairs, alike in courage, in quick and cool decision, in passionate resentment of insult or injustice, they also resembled each other in that both were destined to an unhappy death.

A Gallant Action

On the 12th May 1754, Yusuf Khan accompanied a party despatched to meet a convoy under Captain Caillaud. According to his usual custom of acting as his own scout, Yusuf Khan was riding ahead of the column when his horse suddenly began to neigh and was answered by others. As the latter might belong to the enemy, he advanced cautiously, and being fired upon by some French troopers, galloped back to warn his commander of the danger.

Caillaud, knowing their position, thought it might be possible to surprise the French. Giving the sepoys to Yusuf Khan and taking the Europeans himself, he advanced quietly on either side of the road. The French had paid but little attention to the appearance of a single horseman, and being taken off their guard, were quickly thrown into confusion and compelled to retreat.

The English found that they had only 360 Europeans against 700. The situation appeared desperate, and nothing was left but to surrender or fight their way out. This, though harassed on both flanks and in the rear by the French and thousands of sepoys, they managed to do in good order. In the evening the convoy came out of the woods and arrived safely in Trichinopoly. Orme remarks that the lack of provisions was such that, had this convoy not come through, Lawrence must next day have left the town to its fate and withdrawn to Tanjore.

5. THE PUNNIYAPPAN CONSPIRACY

The reputation of Yusuf Khan grew so rapidly that the natives soon came to the conclusion that if he were removed, the destruction of the English was inevitable. In consequence of the favour in which he was held by Lawrence, he had excited the jealousy of a Brahman named Punniyappan, who filled the post of linguist or interpreter to that officer.

The Forged Letter

Punniyappan suggested to Lawrence that if he were allowed to visit the Mysorean general, he might be able to bring about some arrangement. Permission was given, and Punniyappan paid a visit to Nandaraj, in the course of which he suggested that the English would be forced to accept any terms if their supplies were cut off by getting rid of Yusuf Khan.

It was determined that there should be dropped in the English camp a letter addressed to Yusuf Khan and one of his brother officers, implying that for certain rewards they had agreed to betray Trichinopoly to the Mysoreans. This was done. The letter was picked up by a Kalian and taken to Major Killpatrick, who immediately placed Yusuf Khan and the other sepoy officer under arrest.

The Investigation

Captain Caillaud was ordered to enquire into the affair. Cross-examination of the Kalian who had picked up the letter soon showed that it had not come from the Mysorean camp but had been dropped by a Brahman who was known to have a grudge against Yusuf Khan. Yusuf Khan and his friend were immediately released, and the Brahman placed in confinement, with the threat from Caillaud that if he did not quickly reveal the truth he would be put to death.

Punniyappan promised to protect him, but the Brahman was so terrified that he disclosed the whole story. Punniyappan was now himself placed on trial and found guilty, and the facts reported to Madras for the orders of the Council. The only plea in favour of mercy was based on Punniyappan’s long service under the English.

The Council’s orders were as follows:

“We have attentively perused and considered the examinations you have sent us in relation to Punniyappan’s treachery, which appears so plain that there is not even room to doubt his guilt. His having been all his life a Company’s servant is so far from lessening that it aggravates his crime, which in our opinion deserves death and that in the most ignominious manner.”

The Execution

On receipt of these orders, Punniyappan was, on the 1st June 1754, blown from the mouth of a cannon—the usual military punishment for treachery. The fact of his being a Brahman seems to have excited no remark, for in a case of this vital character, the interest of the State overrode all other considerations.

It has been suggested that his narrow escape must have made Yusuf Khan sensible of the danger of serving foreigners who were so dependent upon their native subordinates, and that accordingly it may have been a remote cause of his subsequent attempt to establish his independence. On the other hand, if he had been in the service of an Indian prince, he would probably have been put to death upon the mere evidence of the letter without any further examination.

6. RECOGNITION AND REWARD: THE GOLD MEDAL

On the 8th March 1754, Major Lawrence wrote to the Council:

“I beg leave to recommend another person to you, Gentlemen, for your notice. ‘Tis our commander of sepoys, by name Muhammad Yusuf. Besides his intelligence and capacity, I cannot too much praise his zeal and alacrity for the service. He always prevents my asking by offering himself for everything; and executes what he goes about as well and as briskly as he attempts it. Some mark of your regard by a letter and some little present would keep up that useful spirit besides rewarding merit.”

On the 21st, the Council replied that they “would take notice of Muhammad Yusuf, the Commander of Sepoys,” as Lawrence desired. On the 25th they resolved:

“Agreed a commission be drawn out for him as Commander of all the Company’s sepoys, and that he be presented at the same time with a gold medal.”

The Presentation

The medal, weighing over three ounces, had on one side the Company’s arms with the motto “Auspicio Regis et Senatus Anglice,” and on the reverse this inscription in Persian:

“To Muhammad Yusuf, Khan Bahadur, Commander of the Honourable Company’s Sepoys, this medal is given by the Honourable Governor and Council of Fort Saint George as a reward to courage, and to preserve to posterity the name of a brave soldier, a skilful officer and a faithful servant.”

Yusuf Khan appears to have been the first native officer in the English service who held a commission, and the only native officer in Madras who ever held a commission as “commandant of all the sepoys.”

The seal attached to the letters which were intercepted by Yusuf Khan’s besiegers in 1764 bore the inscription in Persian “Muhammad Yusuf, Khan Bahadur, 1168″—this date being the year of the Hegira corresponding to AD 1754, in which he received his commission as Commandant and was awarded this medal. Possibly he considered the latter a charm which would protect him in the last extremity if ever he quarrelled with his present patrons.

7. THE KINGDOM OF MADURA: LAND AND PEOPLE

The ancient Kingdom of Madura had at one time included, besides Madura itself, the provinces of Trichinopoly, Dindigul, Tondaiman, Tanjore, the two Maravas (Sivagangai and Ramnad), Tinnevelly and Travancore. Its political capital, once at Madura, was in quite modern times transferred to Trichinopoly. In 1750, the only portions which remained under the direct control of the Governor of Madura were Madura, Tinnevelly and the two Maravas, but the last-mentioned had long ceased to pay any tribute and their allegiance was of the most fitful character.

Fortifications

Madura and Palamcotta (near Tinnevelly) were the only towns which could boast of fortifications of any importance, but in neither case were these of such a character as would be considered formidable by a European enemy, even had they been in good order, which was not the case. Their strength lay rather in their distance from Trichinopoly—Madura being about eighty and Palamcotta about one hundred and eighty miles from that place—in the absence of any made roads, in the fierce character of the people who inhabited the woods and mountains, and in the peculiar climatic conditions where torrential rains alternate with severe droughts.

The City of Madura

Madura itself is situated on the southern bank of the river Vaigai, and formed at this time an irregular square of about one thousand yards. It was surrounded by a stone wall twenty-two feet high with square towers at about every hundred yards. Outside this was a faussebraye thirty feet broad and overgrown with thorny bushes, almost impenetrable; and beyond this a low wall and a deep and wide ditch. There was no citadel, and the safety of the town accordingly depended entirely upon the walls and ditch and the courage of its defenders.

The Kallans

The inhabitants of the country were composed of various castes, but the greater portion of those who made up its native military force were the Kallans—the feudal retainers of the Poligars or petty chiefs who occupied the woody and mountainous parts of the country. The word Kalian means “robber,” and the Kallans, to whom alone were known the secret tracks through the jungles, occupied their leisure in robbery and murder.

Absolutely loyal to their own chiefs, they made but little distinction between allies and enemies. It was men of this caste who, in the camp at Trichinopoly, stole all the horses belonging to Lawrence and Clive. Their chief weapons were long pikes of twelve to eighteen feet, and they showed considerable skill in the rude but effective barriers which they constructed with mud walls and thorn hedges round their villages.

Apparently they were aboriginals in race, and though passionately attached to the gods whose little brass images filled their temples, they had no great love for the Brahmans. This explains the readiness with which they listened to the teaching of the Roman Catholic missionaries.

Recent History

In 1736, the last great Hindu dynasty in Madura came to an end with the treacherous capture of the Queen Minakshi by Chanda Sahib. In 1741 he was compelled to surrender Madura to the Marathas, and these in turn were driven out in 1744 by the Nizam of the Deccan, who ultimately made over the province to Anwaruddin Khan as Nawab of Arcot or the Carnatic. The latter entrusted it to the care of his sons Muhammad Ali and Mahfuz Khan, but on his death and the accession of Muhammad Ali in 1749, Madura was placed under another son, Abdul Rahim.

In the year 1750, whilst Abdul Rahim was absent in Tinnevelly, the fort of Madura was seized by one Alam Khan, a partisan of Chanda Sahib, thus cutting off the Nawab from the province of Tinnevelly and depriving him of half his revenue.

8. COLONEL HERON’S ILL-FATED EXPEDITION (1755)

The Council decided to despatch a strong force under Colonel Heron and Yusuf Khan to establish the Nawab’s authority. Heron arrived at Madura on the 5th March 1755. The Governor Mayana, terrified at the ease with which Heron had stormed the forts that had opposed his progress, made no resistance to his entry but fled for refuge to the Pagoda of Kovilkudi.

The Storming of Kovilkudi

Heron determined to attack Kovilkudi. Yusuf Khan was sent in advance to surround the Pagoda, but owing to some misunderstanding he halted halfway. At last Heron came up, but his heavy guns had broken down on the road, and he had forgotten to bring scaling ladders.

Heron accepted with delight the suggestion of one of his servants to burn down the gate of the Pagoda and so force an entrance. All his officers declared the attempt was madness. Orme describes what followed:

“To silence their remonstrances [he] set the example and carried the first torch himself. Excess of courage, however desperately or absurdly employed, seldom fails to interest those who are spectators of it, and often obliges them to participate of the danger even against the conviction of their reason. Yusuf Khan, who had more than any one ridiculed the madness of this attempt, no sooner saw Colonel Heron exposing himself in this desperate manner, contrary to all military rules, than he followed his example and accompanied him with another torch, so that the two principal officers of the army were now seen acting the part of volunteers leading a forlorn hope.”

The gate was burned down and the pagoda entered. Most of the garrison were put to the sword and the place was plundered. Amongst the spoil the soldiers included a large number of the little images which the Kallans worshipped. These Heron told the Brahmans he would restore for five thousand rupees, and on the offer being refused, placed them amongst the baggage to be sold as old brass for the benefit of the soldiers. The Madras Council recorded:

“The Committee cannot but esteem this to be an action unworthy of an English officer, and an action which must undoubtedly cause a great prejudice against the Nation all through the country where it was committed.”

The Natham Pass Disaster

As the direct route to Trichinopoly lay through very difficult country, Captain Joseph Smith was sent ahead to take post at a fort at the southern entrance of the Natham Pass. How the army got through this pass, Colonel Heron reported to the Council with a very sanitized account. Captain Joseph Smith, however, supplied Orme with a very different account.

The pass was a kind of deep hollow way, closely bordered by continuous and almost impenetrable jungle. A heavy carriage got stuck in a slough, blocking the road completely. The Kallans attacked, and a scene of terrible confusion ensued. Smith wrote:

“Men, women and children pressed on me so much, that with difficulty I made my way back out of the wood to a little field. This was the severest task I ever met with.”

Heron was tried by Court Martial, convicted of having given in false accounts, of having secreted part of the money collected, and of having farmed out the countries of Madura and Tinnevelly to Mahfuz Khan at a very inadequate rent. He was dismissed the Company’s service but escaped to Europe.

9. YUSUF KHAN APPOINTED GOVERNOR (1756)

The military officer chosen by the Council to replace Heron was Yusuf Khan. On the 14th March 1756, Mr. Pigot wrote to inform him of his appointment, entrusting him “not only with military affairs, but also with the management of the Company’s other concerns in the Madura and Tinnevelly countries.”

Yusuf Khan’s First Actions

As Yusuf Khan had accompanied Heron, he was well aware of the dangers of the direct route from Trichinopoly to Madura through the Natham Pass. He therefore marched to the east of the Natham forest and took his small army through the Tondaiman’s and Little Maravan’s countries until he could strike west to Kovilkudi.

• The Brutal Vellaloor Massacre and East India Company’s Reign of Terror

On the 6th April, Yusuf Khan arrived at Madura, which he found in a very bad condition. With some difficulty he persuaded the governor to receive an addition of two companies of sepoys to his garrison, and then proceeded to Tinnevelly.

Here he found that Mahfuz Khan, in spite of his victory, was almost in a state of destitution, for the ravages of the poligars had been so widespread that he had been unable to collect any revenue. Yusuf Khan set to work in his own way, and without much regard to the loss of men, he stormed the forts of some of the poligars and drove others out of their villages, creating such a panic amongst them that, by the beginning of August 1756, he had reduced the western poligars to at least temporary submission and quiet.

The Mutiny at Madura

Whilst Yusuf Khan was in Tinnevelly, the garrison of Madura mutinied and made Mahfuz Khan prisoner. The mutiny was at first supposed to be due only to the pay of the soldiers being heavily in arrears, but it soon became known that the higher officers, including the Governor Barkatullah, were as deeply implicated.

As soon as Yusuf Khan received information of the mutiny, he left a garrison under Jamal Sahib in Tinnevelly and marched hurriedly to Madura. Even so, he had only 1500 men, and his only heavy gun was in the hands of the enemy. All he could do was to take up a position at Sikandarmalai, three miles to the south, and watch the course of events.

10. CAILLAUD AND YUSUF KHAN: PARTNERSHIP AND FRICTION

Captain Caillaud was ordered to join Yusuf Khan and attempt the reduction of Madura. He arrived before Madura on the 20th April 1757 and took possession of the pagoda at Sikandarmalai. The next day Yusuf Khan was sent to attack Solavandan, which he captured without difficulty.

The First Assault on Madura

Caillaud attempted to carry Madura by a sudden assault. He made his preparations secretly in the pagoda at Sikandarmalai. On the evening of the 30th April, leaving a few men to guard the baggage and artillery, he marched out with a hundred Europeans and two hundred sepoys.

By 3 am on the 1st May, his force was safely concealed in a watercourse within two hundred yards of the west wall. Everything went well at first, but a dog that had followed the party began to bark, alarming a sentry. The guard hoisted blue lights, which threw a prodigious clear light all around, and the alarm was general in an instant. Caillaud made a retreat with much less loss than he first apprehended.

In his report to the Council, Caillaud said that the attack might have succeeded if the men had kept cool, but they got flurried and crowded onto the ladders, which broke down. His loss was only one sepoy killed and one wounded.

The Second Assault

On the 9th July, Caillaud tried again. This time he attacked the curtain close to the spot where he had made his first attempt. The outer wall was quickly demolished, and also the parapet of the inner. The assault was ordered at once. Caillaud later wrote: “I made a breach, attacked it, and got a damnable drubbing.”

His official account is as follows:

“The battery was finished by that time and opened in the morning and a breach made by twelve at noon. They had however in the morning begun to work behind it. Not to give them time to do more, an immediate disposition was made for the assault, and at two the troops marched for it, but could not carry their point. The best, who were in front as is usual upon all such occasions, were almost all killed and wounded. The few that returned disheartened the rest, who in spite of their officers’ efforts to encourage them on to another trial thought rather of returning. I found I had lost between thirty and forty of my best Europeans and Coffrees, either killed or disabled, and about one hundred sepoys.”

The rebel confederation now showed signs of dissolution. More of the poligars came in or submitted, and even Mayana joined Caillaud. The garrison, despairing of assistance, offered to treat, and on the 8th September surrendered the town on a payment of 170,000 rupees.

Caillaud wrote to his friend Captain Pechell: “I am studying hard attack and defence. I have been beat from one breach and am bound to defend one”—a soldierly aspiration the fulfilment of which, though not granted to Caillaud, was seven years later given to his trusty comrade Yusuf Khan.

11. THE SIEGE OF MADRAS BY LALLY (1758-1759)

When the French under Lally besieged Madras, Yusuf Khan was recalled from the south. He marched rapidly with 2,000 sepoys and a body of horse, ravaging French-controlled territory along the way.

The Flying Column

Yusuf Khan’s bands of raiders constantly harassed Lally’s supply lines. On the 15th December 1758 he appeared at Villianur and came in sight of Pondicherry, causing so much terror that the people from all sides crowded into that city for protection. On the 18th he cut the mound of the great tank at Valdavur so as to flood the country and ruin the cultivation.

He was now right across Lally’s direct communication with Pondicherry, and so dreadful was the devastation he effected that Lally threatened Mr. Pigot to retaliate by putting men, women, and children to the sword in the territory of Madras—a threat which, to his credit, he did not carry out.

The Battle of the Mount

On the 30th December 1758, a French force of 500 Europeans, 600 sepoys, and 800 black horse under M. de Soupire attempted to surprise Preston and Yusuf Khan at the Mount. The French superiority in Europeans ought to have given them a decisive advantage, but they retreated at 11 o’clock with the loss of two guns and 15 Europeans killed.

Lally had good reason to say of Preston’s and Yusuf Khan’s men that “they were like the flies, no sooner beat off from one part but they came to another.”

After the siege was raised, the Council formally thanked Yusuf Khan and paid his accounts—amounting to roughly three lakhs of rupees—for services rendered. The Council also made him a present of three pieces of red cloth and two of velvet, whilst Mr. Pigot made over to him a number of firelocks and pistols.

Forde’s reference to what might be expected from the efforts of the army of observation enables us to judge of the value of Yusuf Khan’s services to the English during the siege. After all the credit due to Preston and Caillaud has been discounted, it is evident that what most distressed Lally’s army was the constant attacks of Yusuf Khan’s bands of raiders, and this was universally acknowledged by Europeans as well as natives.

12. YUSUF KHAN AS GOVERNOR: CIVIL ADMINISTRATION (1759-1762)

Yusuf Khan was now the acknowledged ruler of Madura and Tinnevelly, though only for a limited period and as the nominee of the Madras Council, holding office contrary to the wish of the Nawab. Subject to the payment of the rent, he was given absolute discretion in all matters civil and military.

Restoring Order

When he arrived in Madura on the 20th May 1759, he found the whole country relapsed into confusion. It was no time to draw up a report on the state of the provinces. His first task was to restore order. He began with the Nad Kallans in the immediate neighbourhood of Madura.

Orme explains how this business was finished:

“As all of the troops with Yusuf Khan were fit for hostilities against such an enemy, he resolved to employ them in attacking their haunts, whilst his levies were forming to better discipline. He however attended the service himself, which appeared more like one of the general huntings peculiar to Asia than a military expedition. Avenues were cut into the forest, and the inhabitants shot as they fled; but some were reserved to be released or executed on occasion.”

His Methods

M. Marchand gives other details of Yusuf Khan’s methods:

“Scarcely had he taken over the administration of Madura when, having carefully considered the troubles which agitated the province, he resolved to arrest them at their very source by an example of severity which would terrify every malefactor. He attacked therefore first the least powerful of the rebel poligars. Success justified his expectations. The poligar upon whom he fell offered to capitulate and submit, but Yusuf Khan forced him to surrender at discretion, and then hanged him as well as five hundred of his Kallans who had fought for him. These he executed in a single day. This cruel instance of severity frightened the boldest.”

Colonel William Fullarton later wrote:

“While he ruled those provinces his whole administration denoted vigour and effect: his justice was unquestioned, his word unalterable, his measures were happily combined and firmly executed, the guilty had no refuge from punishment. His maxim was that the labourer and the manufacturer should be the favourite children of the Sarkar because they afford strength and comfort to the Public Parent, but that the poligar and Kalian, though equally entitled to truth and justice, have no pretension to indulgence, because they are the worthless prodigals who waste their own means and ravage those of others.”

The Revenue Records

In his report on the province of Tinnevelly, Mr. S. Lushington, afterwards Governor of Madras, sums up his account of Yusuf Khan’s administration as follows:

“Notwithstanding the disadvantages under which he laboured of an usurped authority, he accomplished by the vigour of his mind and military talents the complete subjugation of the Province. In his time the tribute of the poligars was regularly collected, private property was in no danger from their depredations, and the revenue of the Sarkar lands was very largely increased. The effect of the subordination he established may be seen in his Jamabandis from the year 1761 to 1764, when they never fell below 1,030,489 chakrams and were in one year as high as 1,244,530.”

The lower of these figures is higher than that for any year between 1749 and 1760. In 1770, after the Council had allowed the Nawab to govern and collect revenue as he pleased, the Jamabandi fell as low as 739,035.

The Kallans

Of the Kallans, Yusuf Khan speaks in one of his letters to Mr. Pigot as “rather devils than men”—and yet they became his firmest adherents. The common cultivator of other castes he assisted not only with grants of money, but by the proper upkeep of the tanks and embankments which are necessary to cultivation in a country where violent downpours of rain alternate with prolonged droughts.

13. THE FRENCH ALLIANCE: MAUDAVE, MARCHAND, AND FLAMICOURT

Since the fall of Pondicherry there had been no representative of the French nation in the Carnatic of any importance or ability. But on the 4th April 1762, there arrived at Negapatam from Mauritius the French frigate Fidèle, on board of which was M. de Maudave, who had served as a Colonel under Lally.

Maudave’s Mission

Maudave received a general commission from the French Council of Mauritius to represent France in India, to make an effort to resuscitate the French party amongst the Indian princes, and to give the English as much trouble as possible. He had but little money, and what more he wanted he was to raise as best he could in India from well-disposed persons.

The only prince from whom Maudave received a promising reply was the King of Tanjore, who was so moved by the danger of his own position that he at last gave a qualified assent to his propositions. The King advised him to write to Yusuf Khan, with whose feelings towards the Nawab he was well acquainted.

Marchand

M. Marchand was an extraordinary personage. He first appears as a servant or secretary of the Chevalier Jacques Law, who, seeing his capacity for the military life, made him a partisan or officer of irregulars. In the Deccan, Marchand distinguished himself by many deeds of desperate valour. He was present at the siege of Madras and took part in all the rough fighting against Preston and Yusuf Khan.

In March 1760, Marchand was captured and allowed, on giving his parole, to proceed to Negapatam. He decided that he had been captured in neutral territory and that he was therefore entitled to ignore his parole, which he proceeded to do.

The Treaty

In July 1762, M. Charles Flacourt persuaded Yusuf Khan to enter into an agreement by which he acknowledged himself a subject of France in return for French assistance. Maudave explained his plan as follows: the English on the Coast being much weakened by the despatch of the expedition to Manila, he would march towards Trichinopoly so as to draw the whole remaining English force in that direction, whilst the fleet would make a sudden attack upon Madras.

On the 9th January 1763, with Yusuf Khan’s permission, Marchand hoisted the French colours in place of the English, which he lowered and burnt in the midst of the camp. When the English colours were hauled down, Yusuf Khan had them blown away from the mouth of a cannon—the usual punishment for treachery.

14. THE ROAD TO REBELLION (1762-1763)

In January 1762, the Council ordered Yusuf Khan to pay his rent directly to the Nawab and to hoist the Nawab’s flag instead of the Company’s at Madura and Palamcotta. This was a fundamental change of policy. Hitherto, the Nawab’s vassals had looked to the Madras Council as the supreme authority; now Yusuf Khan was reduced to the status of a mere servant of a man he hated and distrusted.

Yusuf Khan’s Response

He never paid a rupee into the Nawab’s treasury. Instead, he began preparing for rebellion. On the 20th September 1762, he replied to Mr. Pigot in a long letter, enumerating his services to the English, complaining of the ingratitude and injustice of the Nawab, and promising to come to Madras as soon as he had collected the next instalment of revenue and settled the arrears of his troops.

The Council’s Decision

On the 22nd November 1762, the Council resolved:

“The many trifling excuses alleged by Muhammad Yusuf Khan to avoid coming hither… appear to us but as so many indications of his resolution to rebel. It is therefore resolved that a sufficient quantity of stores and ammunition be sent immediately to Trichinopoly that we may be ready to march against him whenever we shall find it expedient.”

Yusuf Khan’s Letter to Pigot

In his letter of the 20th September 1762, Yusuf Khan wrote:

*“I have served the English ever since the year 1751, having been in many engagements, and I hope with success. I have been at the taking of Arcot in the year 1751; at the battles of Kaveripak and Volkonda; at the siege of Trichinopoly in 1752-4; at the reduction of Madura and Tinnevelly; at the siege of Madras in 1758-9. In all these services I have endeavoured to do my duty faithfully. But now I find myself abandoned by those whom I have served, and forced to defend myself against the Nawab, who seeks my ruin.”*

15. THE FIRST SIEGE OF MADURA (JULY-NOVEMBER 1763)

The English and the Nawab assembled a formidable force: about 1,600 Europeans, 4,000 sepoys, 2,000 black horse, and many thousands of Kallans. Yusuf Khan’s garrison numbered perhaps 3,000 sepoys, 1,000 horse, one troop of European hussars, 200 French, and a large body of Kallans.

The Siege Begins

The siege began in August 1763. Colonel Monson, the English commander, expected to take Madura in eighteen days. He was badly mistaken.

The English battered the walls with heavy guns for weeks. They attempted an assault on 30 April, but the defenders—alerted by a barking dog—repulsed it with heavy loss. Another assault on 9 July failed even more disastrously. The ditch proved 28 yards wide and unfordable; the garrison repaired breaches as fast as they were made.

The Cavalry Action

On the 2nd September, Monson rode out to reconnoitre the western side. Near the south-west angle of the fort, the enemy’s hussars charged and drove a small body of English hussars in confusion back to their lines. Lieutenant Stevenson was killed, and Captain Donald Campbell wounded and taken prisoner.

When Yusuf Khan, who was out to see the fight, met Donald Campbell stripped and wounded, he shed tears, said he was sorry for his misfortune and wished it had happened to another person. After that, Donald Campbell was treated very civilly by the Rebel and the French. Yusuf Khan sent him back to the English camp.

By November, Monson had to admit failure. He advised the postponement of further operations until after the rainy season. The guns were withdrawn, and the army retreated to Tirumbur. The siege was raised. Yusuf Khan had won.

Maudave tells us that in this siege the English fired more than 40,000 cannon shot, threw into the town more than 18,000 shells, and lost by death and desertion 700 Europeans, and spent about a million pounds sterling.

16. THE SECOND SIEGE OF MADURA (FEBRUARY-OCTOBER 1764)

The Council was determined not to accept defeat. They assembled an even larger force under Major Charles Campbell. Yusuf Khan, knowing they would return, strengthened his defences, cleared the ditch, and built a ring of redoubts around the town.

The English resumed the siege in February 1764, this time proceeding more cautiously, investing the town completely and cutting off all communications. Yusuf Khan’s cavalry harassed them constantly, but the net tightened.

On 29 April, Campbell captured five of Yusuf Khan’s outer redoubts in a well-executed assault. In the evening Yusuf Khan sent out a flag of truce for permission to bury the dead. Soon after he abandoned all such outposts as appeared to be too far from the town to be easily protected.

The Capture of Palamcotta

On the 16th March, Major Preston started with a detachment towards Palamcotta. On the 26th he reported the capture of Sundarapandiyam, the commandant of which place was looked upon as one of the most faithful followers of Yusuf Khan. Srivilliputtur also surrendered without waiting to be attacked.

Preston pushed on to Palamcotta. About three miles from Palamcotta, he fell in with Daud Khan, who had a considerable body of horse with him. The English hussars charged, and Daud Khan’s men took to a general flight. Mr. Heyne, an officer in the Nawab’s service, acquired a great name amongst the black cavalry, cutting down three of the enemy’s horsemen himself.

The Fall of the Outer Redoubts

By the 21st May, Yusuf Khan had abandoned the last works of any importance outside Madura. Campbell wrote to the Council:

“From this night I will reckon the siege begun, and from the spirit and willingness that appears in the officers and soldiers, I flatter myself it will be carried on with such vigour and resolution that success must speedily follow… and I doubt not but that the month of June will determine the fate of Madura.”

17. THE FAILED ASSAULT OF 26 JUNE 1764

By the night of the 10th June, the batteries for making the breach were ready. On the 11th, the Nawab’s flag was hoisted and a gun discharged as a signal to the batteries to open fire. Yusuf Khan replied by hoisting a yellow flag in sign that he intended to fight to the death.

After a few shots had been fired, the yellow flag came down with some thirty feet of the wall all in a heap. The Nawab celebrated this successful opening of the bombardment by the promise of 130,000 pagodas to the troops as soon as the siege should be ended.

The Assault

On the 26th June, at 3 am, the disposition was made and the covering and assaulting parties posted. But it was broad daylight before the signal was given, and the enemy were fully prepared for resistance.

The forlorn hopes rushed into the ditch. Though many of the men fell into deep holes, they struggled across and in a moment stormed the two redoubts on either side of the main breach. But the breach itself had been blocked, and pikemen under cover kept pushing their weapons across one another so that it was impossible to pass, whilst showers of stones, hand-grenades, and shells came pouring upon the assailants.

The Death of Major Preston

Major Preston, in spite of the fact that the assault had been made against his advice, fought as if he sought death. Finally, with his aide-de-camp, Mir Sahib, and another sepoy officer, he made his way to the tower upon which the French flag was flying. Preston went down with a bullet in the groin. Mir Sahib was also wounded. As he was being carried “covered with dust and blood” to his tent, Preston was met by the good padre Schwartz, and exclaimed, “I am now punished for my sins.” He lingered until the 12th July and then died, to the great grief of the whole army.

The Madras Council wrote to the Court of Directors:

“The loss of so good and so gallant an officer will, if there was no other consideration, make us look upon Madura, whenever it falls, to be dearly purchased.”

18. THE BLOCKADE AND STARVATION

After the failed assault, Campbell decided on a blockade. The circumvallation was completed by July, and the garrison began to starve.

The Sufferings of the Garrison

Horses were eaten, then donkeys, then cats. Betel and tobacco—essential luxuries—ran out. The native troops suffered terribly from the lack of vegetables and betel. The writer of one contemporary letter from Palamcotta adds:

“You’ll easily form an idea of Yusuf Khan’s abilities from his being able to keep together a body of men of different nations, who with cheerfulness undergo the greatest miseries on his account; wretches who have stood two severe sieges, one assault and a blockade of many months.”

Sickness in the English Camp

Sickness was also rampant in the English camp. On the 16th March, Campbell wrote to the Council:

“There has been no arrack for the army for twenty days past, and our sick list is a hundred more than last month, which the surgeons impute to the want of arrack.”

On the other hand, there was no sickness in the city—a fact which, considering the general poverty of the inhabitants, the lack of any food supplies outside Yusuf Khan’s own magazines, and the presence of a large garrison, speaks volumes for the order and organization maintained by Yusuf Khan.

By August, desertions had begun. A French sergeant deserted and confirmed the reports of the distress of the garrison. He stated:

“That the severe rains we have lately had and bad rice and provisions that are served out has such an effect upon the troops that they swell and become dropsical and die with a few days sickness; that three more Europeans were coming off with him but were taken and, I suppose, hanged, as Yusuf Khan does everybody he catches.”

19. THE CONSPIRACY AND CAPTURE

By September, dissension had sprung up among the defenders. Marchand tells us that Yusuf Khan, after the failure of his proposals, had fallen into a lethargy of despair, from which he roused himself only to indulge in wild outbursts of fury.

The Quarrel

From the very beginning of their association, it was difficult for the two men to keep upon friendly terms. Now, when cooperation was above all things necessary, they quarrelled incessantly. On one occasion, passion flamed so high that Yusuf Khan actually struck Marchand with his riding whip—an unpardonable insult never before offered to a European officer in this part of India.

From that moment, Marchand forgot his duty in his thirst for revenge.

The Conspiracy

A conspiracy to seize Yusuf Khan and hand him over to the Nawab was formed, with Srinavas Rao and Baba Sahib as its leaders. The latter had private causes of complaint against Khan Sahib, by whom he had often been ill-treated, and burned for revenge.

The conspirators fixed the 13th October for the attempt. At 5 o’clock in the evening, Marchand with the leaders of the conspiracy entered a private room, where they found Yusuf Khan engaged in his prayers. One of the subadars taxed him with his intention to desert those who had so long and so faithfully served him.

Furious at the insult, Yusuf Khan drew his sword and cut down his traducer, but was overpowered by the rest of the conspirators, bound with his own turban, and carried under guard to Marchand’s quarters.

The Rescue Attempt

Only one of Yusuf Khan’s men, a brave young fellow named Mudali, was aware of his master’s plight. Hurrying to the women’s quarters, he sent word to Yusuf Khan’s wife, despatched a message to the artillerymen, and having collected five or six hundred men went to Yusuf Khan’s rescue.

Mudali was shot or cut down at once—he was the only man killed in the affair. The men whom he had brought, having no one to lead them, quickly dispersed.

The Surrender

Marchand sent a letter to Campbell announcing that he had arrested Yusuf Khan with the consent of all his chiefs. Campbell, at first thinking it was a trick, sent Captain Meyers into the town. After some difficult negotiations, the west gate was opened, and Campbell rode in with the cavalry.

Yusuf Khan was handed over to the Nawab’s servants, bound down in a palanquin, and carried out to the camp. His wife and family were despatched at once to Trichinopoly.

Campbell’s Journal records:

“Thus ended this long, bloody and tedious siege and blockade, much to the satisfaction of the Nawab and Governor and Council.”

20. EXECUTION AND AFTERMATH

On the 15th October, the Nawab wrote to Madras:

“To-day, being Monday, the Rebel was hung at five o’clock in the evening, which struck a terror into the hearts of our enemies.”

The Execution

Little is known for certain of what happened in the brief period between the arrival of Yusuf Khan in camp and his execution. All accounts agree that he was immediately handed over to the Nawab’s officers, who questioned him as to the whereabouts of the treasure he was supposed to have amassed. To this inquiry, his only reply was to refer them to his secretary.

On the evening of the 15th, he was led through the camp to a large mango tree and hanged. His body was dismembered according to the cruel custom of the age: his head sent to Trichinopoly, his limbs to Tanjore, Palamcotta, and Travancore, his trunk buried in the village of Sammattipuram.

The Legend of the Charm

It is generally believed that the circumstances of his execution partook of the extraordinary. A native writer records:

“The account of the execution of this rebel which is current among the people at large is to the effect that attempts were made to hang him three times, and at every trial the rope invariably broke. At last he revealed that there was a magic ball deposited in his thigh which had been granted to him by one of the most eminent magicians. Measures were accordingly adopted to remove it, and the spell being taken and cast out, he was hanged.”

There is no doubt that the attempt to hang him failed once, or even twice, by the breaking of the rope. It seems most probable that this reputed charm was only the medal given him by the Council in 1755, and that it was still round his neck when he was led out to execution.

The Fate of Marchand

Marchand and the other European prisoners were eventually released at the request of M. Jean Law, the French commissary. Marchand returned to France, received the Cross of St. Louis, and published a book defending his actions. But his reputation never fully recovered. M. Bruno tells us he never wholly succeeded in clearing his reputation.

21. ASSESSMENT: HERO OR TRAITOR?

Was Yusuf Khan a hero or a traitor? The answer depends on one’s perspective.

Contemporary Opinions

To the English and the Nawab, he was a rebel who broke his oath and allied with their enemies. The Council wrote to the Court of Directors:

“The next evening an example was made of the Rebel which we hope will have a good effect and deter others from the many crimes he has been guilty of to support his power.”

To the people of Madura and Tinnevelly, he was a just and capable ruler who brought peace and prosperity after decades of chaos. Colonel Fullarton wrote:

“On comparing the state of that country with his conduct and remarks, I found that wisdom, vigor and integrity were never more conspicuous in any person of whatever climate or complexion.”

To his fellow soldiers, he was a gallant opponent who fought chivalrously and died bravely. One English officer wrote:

“There fell Yusuf Khan, the greatest black man India could ever boast of.”

He was certainly a man of extraordinary ability. He rose from humble origins to high command through sheer talent. He administered two of the most turbulent provinces in Southern India with wisdom and firmness. He defended his fortress against a superior European-led army for nearly two years, falling only by the treachery of his own men—not by force of his enemies.

His fatal mistake was to trust the French. His deeper tragedy was that the same power in whose service he had risen to distinction became the effective agency of his ruin.

Self-Defence

James Mill asserted that he rebelled in self-defence. When he did rebel, the Company had no other enemy in the field, and he had been bidden to consider himself the servant no longer of the Company, but of his ancient enemy the Nawab. The change of the Company’s policy was one which he had no right to criticize and much less to oppose, but it left him only the choice of resigning his high office or of a humiliating submission to a man whom he despised. To a soldier of his character and past, this was intolerable.

It must also be remembered in his favour that, in his time, Indian opinion looked with a very lenient eye on rebellion against any one but the Great Mughal himself. A rebel was considered simply as a man who was prepared to play for his life, success bringing him a throne and failure bringing death. Such a man was Yusuf Khan.

22. LEGACY AND MEMORY

Of Yusuf Khan there now remains only a little white mosque, a street in Madura known to the people by his name though officially it bears another designation, and a fading memory of one who, though he died a rebel, had been a gallant and skilful soldier and an able and upright governor.

His Tomb

His tomb is in the village of Sammattipuram, two miles west of Madura, where he is said to have usually lived whilst he ruled over Madura. Over it was built a small square mosque, which still exists and is known by the half-Hindu name of “the Khan Sahib’s Pallivasal.” Inscriptions in Tamil and Persian on the tablet to the left of the doorway state that the tomb was erected in the year 1222 AH (1808 AD) by Shaikh Imam, son of Shaikh Kathal.

His Influence on Haidar Ali

Haidar Ali must have watched his career with keen attention and learned much from it, especially in regard to the adaptation of European methods of warfare to Indian armies. The necessity of European discipline and European instructors, the preparation of his own military supplies, the supply of his own horses to his cavalry—all were matters in which Haidar Ali followed if he did not actually imitate Yusuf Khan.

The rebellion cost the Nawab two crores of rupees and the loss of a very large number of European officers and soldiers. The military prestige of the Company had also suffered, not merely by Yusuf Khan’s prolonged resistance, but by the fact that Madura had fallen, not to an assault, but by the treachery of a portion of the garrison.

The Closing of Opportunity

The rebellion of Yusuf Khan closed for many years all opportunity of a high career to the natives of Madras who entered into the military service of the Company. As Wilks wrote:

“Among the inconveniences of that singular and generally beneficial government established by the British nation in India is the practice of committing the higher offices of the Army and State and almost all situations of trust and emolument to Europeans, and thereby excluding the natives of the country from every object of honourable ambition.”

In the words of the inscription on his medal, Yusuf Khan was indeed “a brave soldier, a skilful officer and a faithful servant”—until the day he chose to rebel.

He was a man of the same type as Haidar Ali—one of those men of genius who naturally come to the front in times of great social or political unrest. Had he been left without outside interference to settle his quarrel with his native suzerain, like Haidar Ali with the Rajas of Mysore, there is absolutely no doubt that he would have succeeded in establishing his independence.

As it was, the same Power in whose service he had risen to distinction was fated to be the effective agency of his ruin. Still, in spite of his failure, in spite even of his execution as a rebel, it must be remembered that for many years, and those some of the darkest, Yusuf Khan had served the English faithfully; that in his last struggle he fought chivalrously and died gallantly; that amongst the people whom he had governed he left a reputation for ability, firmness, and justice; that, though he could win no pity from his mortal enemy the Nawab, his courage was admired and his fate lamented by the British soldiers who fought against him.

Long after his death, his administration of Madura and Tinnevelly was spoken of in high terms by the British officials who held charge of those Provinces.

“There fell Yusuf Khan, the greatest black man India could ever boast of.”

Yusuf Khan’s execution in 1764 sent a clear message to every Polygar in the south: defiance would not be tolerated. That message did not hold for long. Within decades, chieftains across Tamil Nadu rose again in the Second Polygar War, fighting the same battle Yusuf Khan had fought alone. For the full account of his rise from a Vellalan farming family to governor of two provinces, see Maruthanayagam to Yusuf Khan.

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