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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

“Haidar Ali was born to build an empire, and Tipu Sultan to lose one”. Comment.

  • UPSC 2023
  • The Eighteenth Century

The verdict — attributed to the East India Company's Colonel Mark Wilks, an early historian of Mysore — captures a real contrast in temperament and outcome between father and son, but risks flattening a more complex story of structural odds into a tale of individual character.

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What the full answer covers

  • Haidar Ali: The Empire-Builder
  • Tipu Sultan: Continuity and Innovation
  • Why Tipu "Was Born to Lose One"
  • Beyond Character: The Structural Argument

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