10 INFOCUS

DHAKA MONDAY JUNE 27, 2022

ASHAR 13, 1429 BS

Plassey : Myths and reality

SUDEEP CHAKRAVARTI

Each year on 23 June arrives an occasion of

template lament for Bengalis: the defeat of
Siraj-ud-daulah at Plassey at the hands of forces
led by Robert Clive—and Bengal’s subsequent
quick subjugation by the East India Company.
Indeed, the quick subjugation of the Indian
Subcontinent by both Company and Crown in
a blistering 190-year sprint from that Monsoon
day in 1757 until a muggy August in 1947. The
fact that this article is being written in English
and not French, Marathi, the language of the
Bōrgi, or—a long historical shot—Persian, is an
indication of the dexterity with which ‘John
Company’ and the British government navigated
and dominated South Asia’s shape-shifting
Cover of Sudeep dynamics.
Chakravarti’s book ‘Plassey’ This rubric included Britain’s arch-enemy
France (along with initially robust competition
in Bengal from the Dutch). The back story of
Plassey—the battle as well as the run-up to it—is
a mix of aggressive mercantilism married to
Plassey—Polashi— geopolitics, an often-diminished fact. Few works
was never a binary acknowledge just how much the French were a
conflict. Black and factor in the run up to Plassey. Then there was
the Maratha confederacy that ran riot from
white. Sacrifice western India all the way to the opposite bank of
and betrayal. the Bhagirathi in Murshidabad. And there was
Horrid English the crumbling pay-per-farman Mughal Empire.
and disadvantaged Plassey—Polashi—was never a binary
natives. The conflict. Black and white. Sacrifice and betrayal.
Horrid English and disadvantaged natives.
descriptions of a The descriptions of a hapless Siraj, and a crafty
hapless Siraj, and a Clive backed by a treacherous Mir Jafar are
crafty Clive backed not absolute. This seminal event in Bengal and
by a treacherous South Asian history is a Rashomon truth, as
Mir Jafar are not it were. That it continues to be portrayed in
binary terms even by some eminent historians
absolute. This and intellectuals, let alone by pamphleteers
seminal event in Robert Clive and Mir Jafar after
who live off emotional history for political gain, the Battle of Plassey, 1757, by
Bengal and South is outright misdirection—and Plassey’s true
Francis Hayman.
Asian history is a lament. Let me illustrate this with just a few of
Rashomon truth, numerous examples.
Take the myth that John Company were
as it were.

numerous run-ins with the Company over and his officers on their visit to Hugly are backroom help of the Jagat Seths, who read the
trade, duties, concessions, breach of protocol, entered 35 gold mohurs, = Rs. 677; ready money political and economic tea leaves and threw their
overstepping command-and-control boundaries Rs. 5,500; wax candles Rs. 1,100; a clock Rs. lot in with the British over the French and Siraj.
and, occasionally, military overreach. The British 880; looking glasses 2 pairs Rs. 550; 2 marble Moreover, the British were determined to rid
repeatedly attempted to paper these over with slabs Rs. 220; pistols 1 pair Rs. 110; a diamond the French from Bengal—the trading plum for
abject apologies and ‘gifts’. ring Rs. 1,436; to Alliverde’s wife and women 26 both European companies and their countries—
As late as 1749—seven years before Alivardi’s gold mohurs,= Rs. 429; fukiers Rs. 184 … the sum even before Clive arrived in Bengal. He arrived
death and Siraj’s accession—Company records total in ready money amounted to Rs. 15,560. In not to wrest Bengal from Siraj, but basically in
speak of attempts to mollify Alivardi with the return the president of the council in Calcutta the hope of negotiating with Siraj to win back
gift of a “fine Arab horse” as the nawab had received a robe of honour and an elephant.” the Company’s possessions and concessions in
squeezed trade to and from Calcutta and Dhaka This honour to his favourite grandson Bengal the Company had lost in 1756 through
as one of the outcomes of a dispute the British greatly pleased Alivardi. It pleased Siraj too. He the policy and military overreach of the Calcutta
had with local Armenian traders. would write to Roger Drake, Company chief Council. Clive & Co. were focused on the French,
Alivardi wasn’t mollified. He soon began to in Calcutta, adding his pleasure to a pro- their rivals in Europe, the Americas, Africa and
stop the boats of British merchants, and cut off Company parwana: “…you are a great man, Asia, as much as regaining trade in Bengal.
the supply of provisions to the British factory in and that greatness becomes you, the head of all “I hope we shall be able to dispossess the
Dhaka. Alivardi’s troops surrounded the factory merchants, and the standard of merchants.” French of Chandernagore …” Clive had written
at Qasimbajar, reminiscent of the time of the Siraj was then a friend as much as any nawab, in a letter to the Company’s Select Committee
nawab Shaista, and not unlike what Siraj would established or on the make, could be a friend, in Madras on 11 October 1756, five days before
do in a few short years. The Company capitulated strategically fêted and suitably befriended. The the Company & Crown fleet sailed from Madras
by paying off Alivardi through the Jagat Seths, teenage heir apparent hadn’t yet been magically to Calcutta. The imperative to win the French
bankers who would shortly conspire against transformed into the demon the British—and bastion in Bengal was underscored in a letter
Siraj—but they had actually been conspiring their post-Plassey allies, who contributed to dated 13 November by the Select Committee
against Siraj before he became nawab. creating a history of victors—loved to hate, the in Madras to Admiral Charles Watson, a Royal
Navy officer who commanded the naval arm
of the expeditionary force; Clive commanded
content in Bengal until the arrival of Siraj to the the infantry: “If you judge the taking of
masnad in April 1756, upon his grandfather Chandernagore practicable without much loss
The Nawab’s Alivardi’s death. This myth discredits the it would certainly be a step of great utility to the
artillery at Plassey, contentious relations the nawabs of Bengal had Company’s affairs and take off great measure the
illustration from with the British East Indian Company in Bengal bad effects of the loss of Calcutta by putting the
‘Hutchinson’s Story from the time of Shaista Khan’s governorship in French in a position equally disadvantageous.”
of the British Nation’ the late 17th century. Indeed, Job Charnock, who And what of the so-called Lion of Bengal, later
by Richard Caton II later helped establish the Company presidency celebrated as “Clive of Bengal,” and gilded into
Woodville in Calcutta 1690, was kicked out of the Company British peerage as Baron Plassey? That pushy,
trading depot in Cossimbazar—Qasimbajar— often-brilliant, opinionated but nervous wreck
alongside a near-total shutdown of trade, by of an opium addict who nearly drowned on his
Shaista, on account of aggressive manoeuvring. way to take up his position as a lowly Company
Charnock was merely following in the haloed Writer in Madras? That “heaven sent general”
military-mercantilism steps of Thomas Roe, who, despite signing the Plassey conspiracy
who arrived as ambassador of the court of King with Mir Jafar that guaranteed Clive & Co. great
James I to the court of Emperor Jahangir in riches and that disgruntled noble the masnad of
the early 17th century. Roe and his colleagues Bengal, was far from sure of victory even hours
diligently carried out the Company S.O.P.: Treat before the battle? The desperate man who was
with the Mughals, threaten them, and blockade ready to make peace with Siraj as if nothing had
Mughal shipping in the Arabian Sea and Bay of passed between them?
Bengal if need be. Play hardball. A whiny, insecure, desperate Clive who had
The Company and Charnock returned to staked his career and the Company’s fortunes
conduct business in Bengal only after Shaista on a thrown of campaign-dice, wrote to Mir
was recalled by Emperor Aurangzeb. This Jafar on 22 June, the day before the battle:
happened nearly 70 years before Siraj became “I am determined to risque everything on
nawab. Subsequent governor-nawabs, including
your account, though you will not exert yourself
Murshid Quli Khan, and later, Alivardi, who
A Plan of the Battle of Plassey. … If you will join me at Placis, I will march half
defeated Sarfaraz Khan to rule Bengal, had
way to meet you, then the whole Nabob’s army
will know I fight for you. Give me [leave] to call
The conspiracy The Company’s Consultations of 31 August man whose forces would pressure Drake and your mind how much your own glory and safety
against Siraj in 1749 note: “The English trade being stopped most of his colleagues to abandon Calcutta less depends upon. Be assured if you do this you
Murshidabad and the factory at Cossimbazar surrounded than four years later. will be the Subah of these Provinces, but if you
with troops by the Nawab owing to the dispute (Maybe Siraj-ud-daula was unpredictable, cannot do even this length to assist us I call
predated Plassey with the Armenians the English try through the perhaps a mystery. Even when he became
and Clive’s arrival upon God to witness the fault is not mine, and
Seets to propitiate him, but his two favorities relatively better known to the Company, the I must desire you your consent for concluding
in Bengal over the demand a large sum of money Rs. 30,000 political nuances and personalities of Bengal a Peace with the Nabob, and what has passed
winter of 1756-57. for themselves and 4 lakhs for the Nawab, at evidently remained as arcana to the board of between us will never be known ...”
Mir Jafar, who last after much negotiation the Armenians directors in London. As the writer and historian There was no guarantee even hours before
expressing themselves satisfied the Nawab Piers Brendon wryly observes, ‘…one Company
was sacked by becomes reconciled, but the English got off after director did ask if Sir Roger Dowler was really a
the battle commenced at 8 a.m. on 23 June 1757.
Siraj as paymaster Indeed, I would maintain that it wasn’t so much
paying to the Nawab through the Seets …” baronet.’) that Monsoon showers spoiled Siraj’s party by
general of the Various disputes continued right until 1755, a Here are some other often-ignored aspects wetting his army’s gunpowder—in addition to
Bengal army year shy of Alivardi’s death, a matter of routine of Plassey. The conspiracy against Siraj in most of his army standing idle in conspiracy to
had, with the give-and-take and written off by the Company as Murshidabad predated Plassey and Clive’s arrival see which way the storm winds travelled—but
both an investment in goodwill and the cost of in Bengal over the winter of 1756-57. Mir Jafar,
help of Ghaseti doing business. who was sacked by Siraj as paymaster general of
Siraj’s own insecurity in leadership.
Begum, Siraj’s There are numerous examples of non-binary
The Company reached out to Siraj too—a the Bengal army had, with the help of Ghaseti
aunt, conspired truths about Plassey. But there’s a stodginess
gesture that was reciprocated. This happened Begum, Siraj’s aunt, conspired to incite Shaukat
about visiting the information-soaked by-lanes
to incite Shaukat in 1752, when Alivardi declared Siraj as his heir Jang, the nawab of Purnea and Siraj’s cousin,
of Plassey, those exciting neighbourhoods
Jang, the nawab and successor. Siraj visited Hugli, the trading to march on Murshidabad. Shaukat Jung did,
beyond the ghettoes of template interpretations.
town north of Kolkata on the western bank of twice—once abortively and the second time
of Purnea and the eponymous river. Company representatives fatally, for him. Ghaseti Begum had it in for Siraj
Colonial pursuits and the other side of that
Siraj’s cousin, coin, lamenting Siraj and Bengal’s abject
travelled upriver to meet the crown prince, even before Siraj was made heir apparent by her
to march on fate, have formed the bedrock of such
and Company records note they were received father. She wished for Siraj’s younger brother
historiography. Binary history is an expired
Murshidabad. by Siraj with “… the utmost politeness and Ikram-ud-daulah, whom she had adopted, to
commodity. Certainly Plassey deserves better.
Shaukat Jung distinction far superior than was paid the Dutch succeed Alivardi. Her hate for Siraj grew after
did, twice—once or French …” Ikram died of illness and Siraj was elevated to Sudeep Chakravarti is an historian, author,
They took gifts for Siraj. A chronicler, the heir. When the Plassey conspiracy was finally columnist, and visiting professor of South Asian
abortively and Reverend James Long quoted Company ledgers sealed as late as April-May 1757, just weeks Studies at ULAB, Dhaka. He has written several
the second time Monument of Battle of Plassey, Nadia, West to observe: before the battle, Clive essentially walked into books including Plassey: The Battle that Changed
fatally, for him. Bengal. “In the accounts of presents to Suraja Doula a ready environment and leveraged it with the the Course of Indian History (Aleph, 2020).