It was October 17, 1781. A bunch of so called rag tagged farmers as ridiculed by British under the leadership of George Washington forced General Cornwallis (later to become Lord Cornwallis, the Governor General of India) to surrender. America 🇺🇸 had already declared itself independent 5 years ago in 1976. The surrender of Great Britain was a matter of formality.
In the iconic movie "The Patriot" when Cornwallis was cornered by American revolutionaries and staring at defeat, his compatriot generals were reluctant to surrender, still disillusioned with the notion of British supremacy and infallibility. But Cornwallis was prudent enough to beat the retreat rather than face any further humiliation and gotterdammerung, as he knew he was on a losing ticket.
The myth of the invincibility of English power was shattered. The Great Britain wasn't looking so great anymore. Its colony America convincingly defeated it, with quite a bit of help from the French which vindicated the adage - DUSHMAN KI DUSHMAN DOST HOTA HAI (Enemy's enemy is a friend). No doubt the French contributed its formidable military and diplomatic support to defeat the British in America and became first state to recognize the United States.
The British morale was at its lowest ebb. The future of its empire which it prided as "Sun never sets over British empire" was at stake. It's ego was tarnished and trampled in Yorktown, Virginia after its forced surrender of the English Army. But the icing of the cake, its new colony of India 🇮🇳 inside where it was on an expansion spree wasn't looking so good as Tipu Sultan, the King of Mysore was giving it a run for money.
A dejected Cornwallis returned back to England and five years later he had to go on a voyage to India as the Commander-in-Chief of the British India Army to secure its empire there. The iron was hot. The English were most vulnerable at the time. It was the time for India to deal the final blow to the British occupation. Tipu Sultan had already defeated the British in the second Anglo-Mysore and forced them to a sign a treaty in Mangalore.
The French sensed an opportunity and tried to teach the English a lesson in India. They had to relinquish India not so long ago which the French General Joseph Dupleix almost managed to drive away the British. Now after successfully helping the Americans to defeat British they were anxious to replicate the same in India by extending their help to Tipu Sultan.
But unfortunately for India, history had something else written in its fate. The French connection wasn't much fruitful due the inopportune time of internal turmoil in France with the advent of the French revolution. But still Tipu could have put the final nail in the British coffin if the Marathas and Nizam of Hyderabad supported him (the other powers of the yesteryear, the Mughals and Rajputs were already a spent force).
It didn't happen. British, the master of divide and conquer policy managed to keep the Nizam and Marathas away from Tipu and finally defeated him. It was the last, real opportunity for us to force a Brexit ahead of time, but we missed the boat.
The British tried its classic divide and rule policy in America too, but spectacularly failed as its founding fathers, especially Benjamin Franklin could foresee it and spread the message to the Americans to stay united in his journal "Philadelphia Gazette". But divided along the lines of caste, creed, religion, ethnicity and plagued by serious regionalism and factionalism blended with parochial outlook we provided the British the perfect recipe to divide and rule. Cornwallis succeeded in India when he failed in America. History has taught us so many lessons. One among them -United we win, divided we fall.
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