The Battle of Plassey

The Battle of Plassey was a battle that took place on June 23, 1757, on the banks of
the Bhagirathi River, about 150 km north of Calcutta.The battle was between Siraj
Ud Daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, and the forces of the British East
India Company. Siraj-ud-Daulah's army commander had defected to the British,
causing his army to collapse. After this defeat, the entire province of Bengal passed
to the Company, and this battle is today seen as one of the pivotal battles leading
to British Empire in India.
As a result of the battle of Plassey, the French were no longer a significant force in
Bengal. In 1759, the British defeated a larger French garrison at Masulipatam,
securing the Northern Circars. By 1759, Mir Jafar felt that his position as a
subordinate to the British could not be tolerated. He started encouraging the Dutch
to advance against the British and eject them from Bengal. In late 1759, the Dutch
sent seven large ships and 1400 men from Java to Bengal under the pretext of
reinforcing their Bengal settlement of Chinsura even though Britain and Holland
were not officially at war.
Matters came to head when the quick-tempered Siraj -ud- daulah succeeded the
throne of Bengal. He demanded of English that they should trade on the same basis
as in the times of Murshid quli Khan. The English refused to do so and instead
started building fortification in Calcutta without the permission of the Nawab. The
battle of Plassey soon followed in 1757 in which the Nawab was defeated and British
placed Mir Zafar ,a puppet Nawab in Siraj-ud-daulah's place. The Battle of Plassey
resulted in consolidation of British mastery in Bengal. This enhanced their prestige
and enabled them to cherish their future imperial designs in India. The revenues of
Bengal helped them to reorganize their army and meet the expenditure incurred in
the subsequent wars with the other states. It strengthened the British against
French resulting in the latter's final elimination from India.
The Battle Of Plassey was fought in 1757 A.D. The forces of English East India
Company defeated Siraj-uddaulah, the Nawab of Bengal in a battle on the field of
Plassey,about 30 km from Murshidabad. The Company had secured valuable
privileges in 1717 under a royal farman by the Mughal Emperor whereby they could
export or import their goods in Bengal without paying taxes and the right to issue
passes or dastaks for the movement of such goods. This farman was a perpetual
source of conflict between the Company and the Nawabs of Bengal.
Clive, however, initiated immediate offensive operations by land and sea and
defeated the much larger Dutch force on 25 November 1759 in the Battle of
Chinsura. The British then deposed Mir Jafar and installed Mir Qasim as the Nawab
of Bengal. The British were now the paramount European power in Bengal. When
Clive returned to England due to ill-health, he was rewarded with an Irish peerage,

as Lord Clive, Baron of Plassey and also obtained a seat in the English House of
Commons.
In southern India, the Third Carnatic War continued with several naval skirmishes
taking place off the Coromandel Coast. Fort St. David was taken by the French on 2
June 1758 by de Lally. In November 1758, the French started siege operations on
Madras until they were forced to raise the siege in February 1760 when a squadron
under Admiral Pocock arrived to reinforce the British. The struggle continued in
areas of the Deccan and Hyderabad such as Arcot, Wandewash, Tanjore and
Cuddalore, culminating in 1761 when Col. Eyre Coote defeated a French garrison
under de Lally, supported by Hyder Ali at Pondicherry. The French were returned
Pondicherry in 1763 by way of the Treaty of Paris but they never again regained
their former stature in India. The British would, in effect, emerge as rulers of the
subcontinent in subsequent years.
The Battle of Plassey was a decisive British East India Company victory over the
Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, establishing British rule of India for the next
190 years. The battle took place on 23 June 1757 at Palashi, West Bengal, India, on
the banks of the Bhagirathi River, about 150 km north of Calcutta, near
Murshidabad, then the capital of the Nawab of Bengal. The opponents were Siraj Ud
Daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, and the British East India Company.
The battle was waged during the Seven Years' War(17561763) and in a mirror of
their European rivalry the French East India Company sent a small contingent to
fight against the British East India Company. Siraj-ud-Daulah had a numerically
superior force, and made its stand at Plassey. The British, worried about being
outnumbered and not above some bribery, reached out to Siraj-ud-Daulah's
deposed army chief - Mir Jafar, along with others such as Yar Latif and Rai Durlabh.
Mir Jafar thus assembled his troops near the battlefield, but made no move to
actually join the battle, causing Siraj-ud-Daulah's army to be defeated. Siraj-udDaulah fled, eventually to be captured and executed. As a result, the entire province
of Bengal fell to the Company, with Mir Jafar appointed as their puppet Nawab.