The Battle of Plassey ( 23 JUNE 1757 )

Prelude to the Battle

The officials of the Company made rampant misuse of its trade privileges
that adversely affected the nawab’s finances. The English fortified Calcutta
without the nawab Siraj-ud-din-daulah permission. The Company further
tried to mislead him, and compounded their sin by giving asylum to a
political fugitive, Krishna Das, son of Raj Ballabh who had fled with
immense treasures against the nawab’s will.

Black Hole Tragedy’. Siraj-ud-daula is believed to have imprisoned 146

English persons who were lodged in a very tiny room due to which 123 of
them died of suffocation. However, historians either do not believe this
story, or say that the number of victims must have been much smaller.

The Battle

The arrival of a strong force under the command of Robert Clive at Calcutta
from Madras strengthened the English position in Bengal. Clive forged a
secret alliance with the traitors of the nawab—Mir Jafar, , Jagat Seth (an
influential banker of Bengal) Under the deal, Mir Jafar was to be made the
nawab who in turn would reward the Company for its services. The secret
alliance of the Company with the conspirators further strengthened the
English position. So the English victory in the Battle of Plassey (June 23,
1757) was decided before the battle was even fought.

Due to the conspiracy of the nawab’s officials, the 50,000-strong force of

Siraj was defeated by a handful of Clive’s forces. Siraj-ud-daula was
captured and murdered by the order of Mir Jafar’s son, Miran. The Battle of
Plassey placed at the disposal of the English vast resources of Bengal.
After Plassey, the English virtually monopolised the trade and commerce of
Bengal.
Significance of Battle of Plassey

As a result of this victory, Mir Jafar became the Nawab of Bengal. He gave
large sums of money plus the zamindari of 24 parganas( DISTRICT ) to
the English. The Battle of Plassey had political significance for it laid the
foundation of the British empire in India; it has been rightly regarded as the
starting point of British rule in India. The battle established the military
supremacy of the English in Bengal. But there was no apparent change in
the form of government, though the supreme control of affairs passed to
Clive, on whose support the new nawab, Mir Jafar, was entirely dependent
for maintaining his newly acquired position.

Mir Kasim and the Treaty of 1760

Mir Jafar was increasingly irritated by the interference of Clive. He entered

into a conspiracy with the Dutch at Chinsurah. But the Dutch were
defeated. The treachery of Mir Jafar and his failure to make the payments
due to the Company, annoyed the English. Meanwhile, Miran, the son of
Jafar died and there started a fight for the nawabship of Bengal between
Mir Kasim, the son-in-law of Mir Jafar, and Miran’s son. Vansittart, the new
Governor of Calcutta,agreed to support Mir Kasim’s claim after a treaty
between Mir Kasim and the Company was signed in 1760.

Important features of the treaty were as follows:

(i) Mir Kasim agreed to cede to the Company the districts of Burdwan,
Midnapur and Chittagong ( cities in west bengal & bangladesh )
(ii) The Company would get half of the share in chunam ( chuna )
trade of Sylhet ( city in bangladesh )
(iii) Mir Kasim agreed to pay off the outstanding dues
to the Company.
(iv) Mir Kasim promised to pay a sum of rupees five
lakh towards financing the Company’s war efforts in
southern India.
(v) It was agreed that Mir Kasim’s enemies were the
Company’s enemies, and his friends, the Company’s
friends.
(vi) It was agreed that tenants of the nawab’s territory
would not be allowed to settle in the lands of the
Company, and vice-versa.

Under the pressure of the Company, Mir Jafar decided

to resign in favour of Mir Kasim. A pension of Rs 1,500 per annum was
fixed for Mir Jafar.

The Battle of Buxar ( October 22, 1764 )

Prelude to Battle
The Company had thought that Mir Kasim would prove to be an ideal
puppet for them. However, Mir Kasim belied the expectations of the
Company. Ram Narayan, the deputy- governor of Bihar, was not
responding to repeated requests by the nawab to submit the accounts of
the revenues of Bihar. Mir Kasim could not tolerate this open defiance of
his authority. But Ram Narayan was supported by the English Officials of
Patna. The misuse of the Company’s dastak or trade permit (a permit
which exempted the goods specified from payment of duties) by Company
officials also resulted in tensions between the nawab and the English.
The misuse of the dastak meant the loss of tax revenue to the nawab.

It also made the local merchants face unequal competition with the
Company merchants. By an imperial farman, the English company had
obtained the right to trade in Bengal without paying transit dues or tolls.
However, the servants of the Company also claimed the same privileges
for their private trade. The Company’s servants also sold dastak to Indian
merchants for a commission. Besides, they used coercive methods to get
goods at cheaper rates, which was against the spirit of the duty-free trade.
The duty-free trade simply meant buying cheap in an otherwise competitive
market. Mir Kasim decided to abolish the duties altogether, but the British
protested against this and insisted upon having preferential treatment as
against other traders.
The Nawab-Company tussle over transit duty led to the outbreak of wars
between the English and Mir Kasim in 1763.Mir Kasim fled to Awadh (or
Oudh) and formed a confederacy with the Nawab of Awadh,
Shuja-ud-daulah, and the Mughal Emperor, Shah Alam II, with a view to
recover Bengal from the English.

The Battle
The combined armies of Mir Kasim, the Nawab of Awadh and Shah Alam II
were defeated by the English forces under Major Hector Munro at Buxar on
October 22, 1764 in a closely contested battle. The English campaign
against Mir Kasim was short but decisive.The victory made the English a
great power in northern India and contenders for supremacy over the whole
country.
After the battle, Mir Jafar, who was made Nawab in 1763 when relations
between Mir Kasim and the Company became strained, agreed to hand
over the districts ofMidnapore, Burdwan and Chittagong to the English for
the maintenance of their army. The English were also permitted duty-free
trade in Bengal, except for a duty of two per cent on salt. After the death of
Mir Jafar, his minor son, Najim- ud-daula, was appointed nawab, but the
real power of administration lay in the hands of the naib-subahdar, who
could be appointed or dismissed by the English.

Dual Government in Bengal (1765-72)

After the battle of Buxar, the East India Company became the real masters
of Bengal. Robert Clive introduced the dual system of government, i.e., the
rule of the two—the Company and the Nawab—in Bengal in which both the
Diwani( REVENUE COLLECTION ) ​, i.e., collecting revenues, and
Nizamat ( COURTS) ​ i.e., police and judicial functions, came under the
control of the Company. The Company exercised diwani rights as the
diwan and the nizamat rights through its right to nominate the deputy
subahdar.