The Northern Sircars and the Carnatic region lay along the Coromandel Coast and were critically important for trade for East India Company.
The Carnatic region consisted mainly of the coastal areas of present-day Tamil Nadu and parts of Andhra Pradesh. During the eighteenth century, both the France and United Kingdom competed intensely for influence in the Carnatic. In the Third Carnatic War, the French were decisively defeated, enabling the East India Company to install Muhammad Ali Khan as the Nawab of Carnatic. The Nawab became heavily dependent on the East India Company for protection, as he faced hostility from the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Maratha Confederacy. To maintain his position, the Nawab incurred large debts from the Company, which he was unable to repay, resulting in a severe financial crisis. Gradually, the administration of the Carnatic came under the effective control of the East India Company. In 1801, the Carnatic Treaty was executed, by which the civil and military administration of the Carnatic was transferred to the Company, while the Nawab was granted a pension. The Carnatic was finally annexed in 1855 under the policy known as the Doctrine of Lapse.
The Northern Sircars comprised the coastal districts of present-day Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. After the Battle of Buxar, the East India Company secured a grant of the Northern Sircars from the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II. However, this grant was largely symbolic because the region was actually under the control of the Nizam of Hyderabad. The Company subsequently pressured the Nizam to surrender the territory on the basis of the imperial grant. Under this pressure, the Nizam transferred the Northern Sircars to the Company in 1766. Through the Treaty of Masulipatnam, the Nizam formally recognized the Mughal farman and the rights of the East India Company over the Northern Sircars.
Thus, both the Carnatic and the Northern Sircars came under British control largely through diplomacy, treaties, and political pressure rather than direct military conquest.
