By the end of 1788, Pazhassi Raja's hatred of Tipu had shot up on account of the latter's policy of forcible conversion. So he strengthened his ties with the British on one hand and with fellow rebel chiefs and princes in Malabar on the other. Tipu sent an army under a French general named Lally with a genocidal mission—the extermination of the Nair caste from Kottayam to Palakkad – as Tipu was determined to end the menace of Nair rebels in Malabar who had foiled all attempts of him and his late father Hyder Ali to subjugate and exploit Malabar.