Travancore Rebellion

The Travancore rebellion against the British East India Company was led by the prime ministers of the Indian states of Travancore and Cochin in 1808–09.

The East India Company–Travancore Subsidiary Alliance Treaty of 1795 established a subsidiary alliance between the British East India Company and the Kingdom of Travancore. Under the treaty, the Company was to maintain a subsidiary military force in or near Travancore to defensively aid the kingdom from foreign powers, and the maintenance costs would be paid by the government of Travancore. The Company intervened during the Mysorean invasion on behalf of its ally Travancore in 1789, and defeated Mysore in the Third Anglo-Mysore War. Following the death of the Maharajah Dharma Raja, the next ruler Balarama Varma was weak and his ministers started having a greater say in the running of the country and became the de facto rulers of the state. Following a revolt by a section of the Tranvancorean army and an attempt on the life of the Dalawa Velu Thampi in 1804, the Company's troops, at the behest of the Dalawa himself, initially protected the Dalawa and then later, put down the revolt. A further treaty in July 1805 replaced Travancore's military obligations with an additional subsidy of 401,655 rupees and a financial obligation to bear a proportion of any further costs incurred in defending the state.

In 1806, the Maharaja of Travancore did not have the funds to pay the additional subsidy in full. The Company remitted half of the subsidy for two years, so that the king could make military budget cuts to raise the funds to pay it in full afterwards. In 1807, the king still lacked the funds to pay the subsidy in full, requested permanent remission of half of the subsidy, and also requested that future payments . The British Resident at Travancore, Lieutenant Colonel Colin Macaulay, insisted on prompt payment of the arrears, which amounted to 662,669 rupees, and demanded military reduction and the disbandment Travancore's Carnatic Brigade to raise the money. The king insisted on retaining the corps. The Company intended to discharge the unremitted half of the subsidy, and the entirety of it from 1807. Dalawa Velu Thampi claimed that the requirement of the additional subsidy was a product of extortion. In 1808, he and the king asked for the additional subsidy to be relinquished entirely.

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