Modern History of South India

Modern history of south India begins in 18th century AD, when the whole region was under the British rule.

Colonial Period – The Anglo- French Power Struggle
The colonial period in history is associated with a prolonged struggle between British and French rulers. Armies of both the powers battled, to get complete control over South India. The European powers led to much of blood shed and soldiers were primarily remunerated through loot. In three Anglo-Maratha wars and four Anglo-Mysore wars, Hyderabad and Marathas joined hands together to end up British and French reign. Eventually, British had a friendly agreement with Hyderabad and Mysore and finally both of them were absorbed as a princely states.

British Period - Glorious Era of Europeans
During the British period, south India was divided into Mysore, Cochin, Vizianagaram, Madras Presidency and Hyderabad and several other small princely states. The Madras Presidency was under direct rule of British while other minor princely states were independent. British rulers very smartly ruled south India and they resided in capitals of important states to keep an eye on activities of other rulers. Strict arrangements were made for the security of British residents by stationing British troops in cantonments near the capitals to fight against the rebellion. The Kings of princely states followed the principles of Britishers and respected their decisions. They were responsible for the development of infra structure in their region and issued their own currency. It was during the British period only that coffee and tea plantations were encouraged in hilly regions of South India.

Post Independence – Emergence of South India States
After ruling India for more than 300 years, the British left the country and independence was gained on 15 August, 1947. It is one of the most remarkable days for the country, when British rule was put to an end. The rulers of the country's princely states acceded to Indian Government between 1947 and 1950. South India was divided into a number of new states by merging of small princely states. Each state demanded for reorganization of boundaries, which resulted in formation of a National States Reorganization Commission. Hence,the boundaries of every state was reorganized along with linguistic lines. Andhra Pradesh came into being on October 1, 1953 and was enlarged by addition of Telugu speaking region. Travacore-Cochin were merged with Malabar and Kasargod to form a new Malayalam speaking state – Kerala. The boundaries of Tamil Nadu was increased by including some districts of Madras in 1968. Major parts of Mysore Kingdom was renamed as Karnataka in 1972.