The painting depicts a scene from the First Anglo Mysore War, in which Mysore defeated the English.
Specifically, it shows Mysorean rockets, used by Hyder Ali and then Tipu Sultan, against the East India Company in the Anglo-Mysore wars.
This painting is displayed in NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Maryland.
The story is as follows:
Mysore was a Nemesis for the East India Company for a long time. The Anglo-Mysore Wars happened around the time that the American War of Independence happened.
A common link joined the American rebels and Mysore - the French. The French (fighting the English) helped the Rebels in America and allied with Mysore in India.
In 1780, Mysore formally joined the American War of Independence through the French.
Tipu, heir to the Mysore Throne, wrote to the American Continental Congress, saying:
“Every blow that is struck in the cause of American liberty throughout the world, in France, India, and elsewhere and so long as a single insolent savage tyrant remains the struggle shall continue.”
With Mysore joining in by attacking English outposts in India, Hyder Ali and Tipu came to be respected by the American Rebels.
Thomas Jefferson, Minister to France, wrote to the Congress about a Mysore delegation to France. A young John Quincy Adams, from India, wrote about the English defeat by Mysore at Pollilur.
The English were forced to divert about a fifth of their navy to India. This reduced pressure on the American Rebels.
In 1782, in an incident in Delaware Bay, three British battleships went after three American merchant men being sheperded by a battleship named (after the ruler who the rebels respected) "Hyder Ally".
In a daring battle Hyder Ally managed to defeat the superior English ships and inflict heavy losses.
A few years later, in 1782, Richard Cornwallis surrendered the British forces to George Washington. In 1786 the same Cornwallis was sent to India as Governor General of the East India Company.
The Company's stock was low due to losses to Mysore. Cornwallis was bent on revenge. Over the next 13 years he and his successors built up a friendship with Mysore's Indian enemies - the Nizam and the Marathas. The English also went after French settlements in India. The French had been weakened by their defeat at Plassey to Clive, but were still active as allies to many Indian courts.
In 1799 Mysore lost to the combined East India Company + Nizam + (tacitly supporting) Marathas. Tipu was killed.
The British took Mysorean rockets to England. These were far superior to what Europe had at that time. William Congreve worked on them, and came up with the "Congreve Rocket" (an improved version of the Mysorean rocket).
In 1814 the British used a barrage of Congreve rockets in a naval siege of Fort McHencry, Baltimore, Maryland. American writer Francis Scott Key, witness to the 25 hour barrage of rockets on the fort (the Fort withstood the barrage), wrote a verse that mentioned "the rocket's red glare" and "bombs bursting in the air".
This verse later became the American National Anthem.
Probably the two Indian Rulers who the English feared most, were Tipu, and later Ranjit Singh. Had the Nizam and the Marathas not aided the English the story of India may have been different.
Sent by Pankaj Sethi
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