भारत का पूरा आधु क इ हास Part 4/16

With mind maps & notes

MODERN HISTORY OF INDIA
BIPAN CHANDRA
# UPSC CSE
नि
ति
 LESSON 4
British conquest of India

The story of complete fall of Indian kingdoms and

making of the British empire in India
Part 1 of lesson 4 - The signi cantly historical battle of plassey
fi
 Standard map of Standard map of
Indian states in 1757 India in 1857
 Aims and areas to be focused on
• Reasons behind the war b/w English company and Siraj-ud-Daulah
• Battle of Plassey and its consequences
• Why clash b/w Mir Qasim and English company
• Dual government of Bengal
• Weakening and the conquest of Mysore
• Methods of governor Wellesley and his actions
• Weakening and the conquest of Marathas
• Policies of Dalhousie
• Annexations of di erent states.
ff
Familiarity with the upcoming
This lesson starts from 1757 and end at 1857
English defeated all european powers in India till 1763, and
simultaneously they started conquering the Indian kingdoms.
First was bengal.
First they made states weaker over a period of time and then
Wellesley took over.

The British political in uence in india may be traced to the battle of

Plassey in 1757.
fl
Conquest of Bengal
• The problem started when the company received a royal
Farman from the Mughal emperor in 1717, for import and export
in Bengal without taxes and power to issue passes.
• But the servants of company were not covered under this
policy of trade without tax.
• These servants and o cials started misusing the power of
issuing the passes on their personal trade, this lead to the lose
of revenue for the Bengal govt.
• In starting from 1717, the nawabs suppressed this misuse and
forced company’s o cials to pay taxes. - -

_
ffi
ffi
Siraj-ud-daulah
• Things became bitter in 1756, when new and young nawab
Siraj-ud-daulah demanded that company should pay tax like
they were paying before.
• Company refused it as they felt strong after defeating
French and also recognised the weakness of Indian states.
• Instead of paying tax, company put tax on Indian
merchants, who were trading in Calcutta.
• Moreover, without nawab’s permission, company started
forti cation of Calcutta, this angered the nawab.
• Now the nawab ordered English and French to demolish
their forti cation, French obeyed but English denied it,
because English were in high con dence due to their
victory in carnatic. Siraj-ud-Daulah

• Moreover English company demanded the absolute right

to trade freely in Bengal.
fi
fi
fi
Big historical mistake
• Siraj-ud-daulah felt the future and decided to make English
company obey the law of land.
• With great energy but less preparation, nawab seized the English
factory at kasimbajar and occupied fort William in June 1756.
• All good, but a big mistake was that he let English escape and
underestimated their power and came back to celebrate his victory.
• English took refuge at Fulta, near the sea protected by their
superior navy and waited for aid as well as organised a web of
intrigue and treachery with Mir Zafar and other high o cials.
• From madras came a strong force of English, colonel Clive
reconquered Calcutta in 1757 and forced nawab to accept their
demands.

ffi
 Battle of Plassey 1757, worst event for India.
• English were not satis ed, they want to plunder Bengal at its limits and for
that they wanted to dethrone the nawab to put new ruler of their choice.
• They forced impossible sets of demands on Siraj-ud-Daulah.
• The time came when both English and nawab realised that a war to the
nish have to be fought.
• Both met for Battle in Plassey on 23 June 1757, but this was a battle just for
name.
• English lost 29 and nawab lost 500 men in total.
• The major part of the nawabs army led by traitors took no part.
• Only a small group of nawabs soldiers fought well with bravery.
• The nawab was forced to ee and captured and put to death by Mir Jafar’s
son miran, this night considered as worst for India .
fi
fi
fl
 LESSON 4
British conquest of India

The story of complete fall of Indian kingdoms and

making of the British empire in India

Part 2 of lesson 4 - Big scale plunder of Bengal to battle of buxar

New nawab - Mir Jafar and starting of real plunder of
Bengal.
• English proclaimed Mir Jafar as the nawab of Bengal.
• New nawab granted right to free trade, zamindari of
the 24 Parganas near Calcutta and nearly 17 million
rupees as the compensation for the attack on Calcutta.
• It was later estimated that high o cials of company
received over 30 million as bribe.
• British merchants would no longer be asked to pay
taxes.

Mir jafar
“Battle of Plassey made the way of British mastery of
bengal and eventually the whole of India, wealth gained
by Bengal enabled English to make strong organised
army”
ffi
The shameless plunder of bengal
• Mir Jafar owed his position to the company, his treasury was
emptied by demands of o cials and Mir Jafar was a golden sack
for company.
• The wealth of Bengal was inexhaustible, the directors of the
company ordered that Bengal should pay the expenses of Bombay
and madras.
• Mir Jafar soon realised that it was impossible to meet the full
demands of company and he was incapable of ful lling them.
• Company forced him to vacant the throne in favour of his son in
law Mir Qasim.
• Mir Qasim became the nawab and gave company the zamindari
of 3 districts and 29 lakh rupees to o cials as present.
ffi
ffi
fi
Mir Qasim
• Mir Qasim was a strong and e cient ruler who wanted
to free himself , he belied the hopes of English and he
soon emerged as a threat to the company.
• He tried to prevent public disorder and corruption
along with tried to make e cient modern army, and this
was not to the liking of English.
• Company and its servants misused the Farman of 1717,
moreover issued the passes of free trade to friendly
Indian merchants and as a consequence state revenue
decreased.
• Company ill treated nawab’s o cials and honest
merchants and compelled Indian artisans to sell their Mir qasim

goods cheap.
“ these years described as period of open and
unashamed plunder”
ffi
ffi
ffi
A drastic step and the war.
• Mir Qasim realised the situation and abolished all duties on
internal trade, thus giving his people of Bengal concessions that
English were enjoying by force.
• English were no longer in mood to tolerate this equality
between them and Indian merchants.
• Mir Qasim believed himself independent but English wanted
him to obey them.
• Mir Qasim was defeated by English in a series of battle in 1763
and he ed to Awadh
fl
Battle of Buxar
• In Awadh he formed an alliance with nawab of
Awadh and fugitive Mughal emperor Shah Alam
ll.
• These three allies clashed with the company at
Buxar on 22 oct 1764 and were thoroughly
defeated.
• This was one of the most decisive battles of
Indian history for it demonstrated the superiority
of English arms over the combined army of two
of the major Indian powers.
• By now English were established as the
masters of bengal, Bihar Orissa and placed
Awadh at their mercy.
 LESSON 4
British conquest of India

The story of complete fall of Indian kingdoms and

making of the British empire in India
Part 3 of lesson 4 - The unlucky province : bengal
Transfer of power from nawab to company
Works of Clive
• Clive returned to bengal as its governor in 1765, rst he decided to transfer the
authority of the govt. from nawab to company.
• He restored Mir Jafar as nawab and collected huge money from him.
• After the death of Mir Jafar, Clive made nizam-Ud- Daulah the new nawab and signed
a new treaty with him in 1765.
• By this treaty nawab was to disband his army and to administer bengal through a
deputy subedar nominated by company, by this company became the supreme power.

How English legalised their authority over bengal

• Company secured the Diwani ( the right to collect tax ) of bengal, Bihar and Orissa by
titular Mughal emperor Shah Alam ll.
• By this English control over bengal was legalised.
• In return they gave a subsidy of 26 million rupees to Shah Alam ll and made him their
prisoner or pensioner at Allahabad. fi
Awadh - happening ( half gone )
• Nawab of Awadh signed an alliance with company for military
support and nawab had to pay for the expenses of this military.
• Nawab became dependent on company
• Nawab was in false belief, he thought that the company is just
a merchants organisation and the real dangers were afghans
and Marathas.
• This was a costly mistake and English used Awadh as a bu er
state against Marathas while consolidating their hold over
bengal.

ff
Dual system of government
• The east India company became the real master of Bengal at least from
1765.
• A same person acted as a deputy Diwan for tax collection on behalf of the
company and as deputy subedar on behalf of the nawab.
• In simple words - company collected the revenue directly, and administer
the administration through the appointed deputy subedar in the name of
nawab, means power without responsibilities.
• Nawab and his o cials had administrative powers But the power to
discharge it was in English hands.
• Every problem was blamed on nawab and fruits were gathered by the
company.
clive himself said. :- such scene of corruption, anarchy, bribery , injustice
was never heard of but in Bengal only.
ffi
The unlucky province - Bengal
• The British gathered so much money from here, that they
stopped money in ow from England and used their looted
money to purchase Indian goods and sell it abroad.
• Now, British govt. asked for its share and company paid 4
lakh euros to the government.
• In 1766, 67 and 68 a total of 5.7 million euro drained from
bengal.
• Due to all these, in 1770 Bengal su ered a lot in a famine
which in its e ects proved one of the most terrible famines
known in human history. ( though this famine was due to
rains, but its impacts were heightened by British )People
died in lakhs.
ff
fl
ff
 Punjab
Empire

Awadh

Bengal

Sindh
Multan Rajputs
States

Maratha
Empire Hyderabad
And nizam’s
Dominion
Mysore
Kingdom
Carnatic
Subah
Note - Boundaries of these states
were always changing
Kerala
Due to expansion or conquests
 LESSON 4
British conquest of India

The story of complete fall of Indian kingdoms and

making of the British empire in India
Part 4 of lesson 4 - power to weakness.
Conquest of Indian kingdoms under warren Hastings
( 1772-1785 ) and Cornwallis ( 1786-1793 )
How it all started. ( rst step, the weakening of states )
( Mysore )
• However habit of english of interference in Indian
states, involved them into series of war.
• In 1766 they helped nizam of Hyderabad to attack
Haider Ali of Mysore, Haider Ali defeated them very
badly and both signed a peace treaty and promised
mutual help in need of attack.
• But in 1771, when Marathas attacked the Mysore,
British went back on its promise, this led Hyder Ali to Haider ali

disliked them.
fi
( Marthas )
• In 1775, Marathas ghting with each other for power, English decided to
took advantage as they did in madras and Bengal by exploiting and
intriguing.
• This involved them into a long war with the Marthas from 1775 to 1782.
• Marathas defeated English very badly and it became the darkest hour for
English, because all Maratha chiefs became united under leadership of
Peshwa.
• Haider Ali and nizam of Hyderabad also declared war against the
company in this time, thus British faced the powerful combination of
Marathas, Mysore and Hyderabad.
• On the other hand they were also loosing war in America, so they were
loosing every where.
fi
Warren Hastings ( 1772-1785 ), hope for English.
• In this bad time, British in India were led by their
brilliant and energetic Governor General, he sent
an British force to Ahmedabad and captured it in
1780.
• English found their biggest enemy in Marathas
and fought with them, mahadaji Scindia gave
them a dreaded war, neither side won and a
peace treaty concluded between them in 1782.
• this war known as the rst Anglo Maratha war,
as no body won but the peace treaty gave British
20 years of peace and they gathered their power
again.
• In this time Maratha chiefs were ghting with Warren hastings

each other again.

fi
fi
How English ( warren Hastings ) used Marathas and Hyderabad against Mysore.
• In the peace treaty of 1782, marathas promised to help English against Mysore
so no objection from Marathas.
• War b/w English and Haider Ali started in 1780, Haider Ali repeated the history
and gave English defeat over defeat and forced them to surrender and occupied
the carnatic.
• But here comes the British diplomacy, warren Hastings bribed the nizam of
Hyderabad and gained his withdrawal from anti British alliance with Mysore.
• In 1781 British under eyre coote defeated Haider Ali and captured madras.
• In December 1782 Tipu sultan became the ruler of Mysore after the death of his
father Haider Ali and carried the war with English, since neither side was able to
overpower, a peace treaty was signed b/w them in 1784.
• It was clear that British were too weak against Marathas and Mysore but it also
became clear that they were now became the third power in India.
Defeat of Mysore and expansion of English in south.
• The treaty of 1784 was just an tool to postponed the struggle
b/w them.
• English were hostile to Tipu, they looked at him as an obstacle
in b/w them and south india. On his part Tipu also thoroughly
disliked English.
• War b/w them started again in 1789 and it ended up in tipu’s
defeat in 1792 and Tipu had to ceded his half territory to British.
• Though Tipu fought with exemplary bravery, the new English
governor “Cornwallis” had succeeded through his diplomacy in
isolating him from Marathas , the nizam, the rulers of travancore
and Coorg. ( this again showed the shortsightedness of Indian Tipu sultan
rulers )
• This third Anglo Mysore war destroyed tipu’s dominant
position in south and English supremacy was established there.
 LESSON 4
British conquest of India

The story of complete fall of Indian kingdoms and

making of the British empire in India
Part 5 of lesson 4 - Closure of Indian states
Expansion under lord Wellesley ( 1798 - 1805 )
• The next large scale expansion of British in India took
place under governorship of Wellesley from 1798.
• Till now British were playing safe, without much
danger.
• Wellesley planned to brought as many states as
possible under English.
• Mysore and Maratha were at their decline in this time,
Mysore was only remained a shadow of its past glory,
marathas indulged in internal disputes.
• Looking at the conditions, time was right for
aggression. Lord Wellesley

• British merchants also came to know that their

business would grow in India, only if entire India came
under British control, so they press their demand.
Methods of Wellesley
• To achieve political aims, he relied on three methods.
• 1 - Subsidiary alliance - in this British stationed their permanent army in
a state and ruler of the state should pay for its maintenance, agreed to
the posting of a British resident in his court, would not employ any
european, and agreed to consult British governor in interstate matters.
• 2 - Direct wars
• 3 - Assumption of territories of previous subsidiary rulers.

• Reality and consequences of subsidiary alliance - no independence for

state, no self Defence, no diplomatic relations, no foreign postings
inside, British resident interfered in everything, downfall of economy due
to army maintenance, lakhs of soldiers lost jobs, rulers no longer
responsible to peoples.
 Bene ts of subsidiary alliances for the British.
• Maintained Large army as they got free maintenance of their army
by Indian states.
• Due to di erent stationing of army, could wage war anywhere.
• Controlled the foreign relations of allies.
• Could overthrow a ruler by declaring him “ine cient”
fi
ff
ffi
Alliances ( second step, complete subjugation of the states )
• First subsidiary alliance was signed with Hyderabad in 1798, as the
result nizam dismissed his troops and in return British guaranteed his
safety from Marathas. ( Hyderabad gone )
• Nawab of Awadh was forced to signed this treaty in 1801 and in
return he was made to surrender half of his kingdom, and no longer
independent. ( Awadh gone )
• Tipu of Mysore would of course never agree to English, he was
working hard to regain his military strength and entered into alliance
with revolutionary France and sent missions to Afghanistan, Arabia
and turkey for help to counter British.
• Wellesley did not want Tipu to be heal again and French re-entering
in India.
• Before French help reached Tipu, British defeated him in a erce war in 1799.
• Tipu refused to beg in front of English like others and choose to die as a
soldier and a hero, his army was very loyal and fought till last.
a British said - “on the night of tipu’s defeat, British scarcely left any house
unplundered, they looted gold, jewellery and everything. People of Mysore
returned to home to start their life anew, but lost everything”
• Tipu’s dominions were divided into half half b/w English and the nizam, English
restored old rulers of Mysore on a small territory and a subsidiary alliance was
signed with them ( Mysore gone - and here also gone the threat to English )

• Nawab of Carnatic was forced to gave away his kingdom and remained on
the pensions of British, English attached carnatic with madras. ( carnatic
gone in 1801 )
• Many small rulers were also pensioned o on similar lines.
ff
fi
 Punjab
Empire

Awadh

Bengal

Sindh
Multan Rajputs
States

Maratha
Empire Hyderabad
And nizam’s
Dominion
Mysore
Kingdom
Carnatic
Subah
Note - Boundaries of these states
were always changing
Kerala
Due to expansion or conquests
 LESSON 4
British conquest of India

The story of complete fall of Indian kingdoms and

making of the British empire in India
Part 6 of lesson 4 - Marathas : closure of the last hope
Now remained the Marathas only.
• Now Wellesley turned his attention on Marathas and began aggressive
interference in their internal a airs.
• By 1800, all old guards of Marathas, who were wise, experienced and e cient
were all dead.
• The Maratha empire by now became the Maratha confederacy of ve big
chiefs, these were;
◦ The Peshwa at Poona
◦ Gaekwads at Baroda
◦ Scindia at Gwalior
◦ Holkar at indore
◦ Bhonsle at Nagpur
• All these Maratha chiefs were engaged in bitterness with each other while
ignoring the real danger from the foreigners.
ff
fi
ffi
Wellesley tackling the Marathas
• He o ered subsidiaryship to Peshwa and Scindia but the far sighted
nana Phadnis ( the head minister of Peshwa ) refused to fall in trap.
• But when holkar defeated the combined forces of Peshwa and Scindia,
the cowardly Peshwa, Baji Rao ll rushed to English and signed the
subsidiary in 1802.
on this Wellesley said
“This crisis of a airs appeared to me to a ord the most favourable
opportunity for the complete establishment of the interests of the
British power in the Maratha Empire, without the hazard of involving us
in a contest with any party”
ff
ff
ff
• Though this victory was easy, But the Maratha chiefs would not
surrender their great tradition of independence without a struggle.
• But even in this bad situation, they did not unite themselves against
their common enemy, who became very powerful by now.
• English defeated the Scindia and Bhonsle in September 1803.
• Allies of Marathas became the subsidiary allies of English and Peshwa
remained a puppet in English hands.
• Wellesley now turned his attention towards holkar, But Yashwant Rao
holkar proved more powerful over British, by using his Maratha mobile
warfare tactics and in alliance with the jats of Bharatpur.
End of Wellesley’s term.
• Shareholders of company found that expenses for
expansion brought company under heavy debts and
constant wars reduced the trade.
• High o cials of company decided to put an end on
further expansions and to digest and consolidate the
recent gains, as a consequence they called back
Wellesley and company made peace with holkar.
• Wellesley’s works resulted in the company becoming
the paramount power in India.
ffi
Expansions under lord Hastings
• The loss of prestige was not digestible to Marathas, they made a nal
but desperate attempt in 1817 under the leadership of Peshwa, who was
under British hands.
• They attacked Britishers at several places, but Hastings struck back
with great vigour and defeated all of them included holkar.
• He dethroned the Peshwa And pensioned him o , his territories were
annexed and added with the Bombay presidency.
• Holkar and Bhonsle accepted subsidiary alliance.
• To satisfy Maratha peoples, English founded a small Maratha kingdom
of Satara and made descendants of Shivaji its ruler, as complete
dependent on British.
• Now all Maratha states existed on the mercy of British power.
( this way Maratha empire gone )

ff
fi
 Punjab
Empire

Awadh

Bengal

Sindh
Multan Rajputs
States

Maratha
Empire Hyderabad
And nizam’s
Dominion
Mysore
Kingdom
Carnatic
Subah
Note - Boundaries of these states
were always changing
Kerala
Due to expansion or conquests
 LESSON 4
British conquest of India

The story of complete fall of Indian kingdoms and

making of the British empire in India
Part 7 of lesson 4 - clean sweep and Mind maps
What now ?
• By 1818 entire Indian sub continent was under British except Sindh and Punjab.
Some part ruled directly by British and some by allies.
• These are the allies in names only, they did not have any independence, almost no
army, completely dependent.

Last tasks - 1818 to 1857 ( conquest of Sindh, Punjab and complete annexation of
other states )

The conquest of Sindh

• The reason behind the conquest of Sindh is the fear of English by Russia, with
which English was ghting in Europe.
• So they choose to increase their in uence in Afghanistan and Persia, and the rst
step was Sindh.
• Amirs ( kings ) of Sindh made to sign the subsidiary alliance in 1839 and Sindh was
completely annexed by English in 1843.
( Sindh gone )
fi
fl
fi
The conquest of the Punjab
• After the death of maharaja ranjit singh in 1839,
sel sh and corrupt leaders came to front and the
power fell into the hands of brave yet indisciplined
army.
• Though English signed friendship treaty with Punjab
in 1809, but now they became greedy.
• In 1844 English appointed major broadfoot as British
agent in Ludhiana, who was completely hostile to
sikhs.
• In 1845 news reached in Punjab that British
dispatched its army to conquer Punjab with full
preparations. Maharaja ranjit singh
• War declared b/w them in December 1845, Hindus,
Muslims and sikhs all united against common enemy.
fi
• Punjab army was forced to concede and forced to sign the
humiliating treaty of Lahore in 1846 and Punjab army was reduced to
only 20,000 along with a British force was stationed at Lahore.
• After some time a new treaty was signed b/w them, by which British
appointed its agent, who became the real ruler of Punjab.
• But high o cials of British wanted direct British rule over Punjab,
opportunity came in 1848, when freedom loving punjabis rose to
revolt and Dalhousie took advantage and annexed the Punjab
completely. ( Punjab gone )
ffi
Dalhousie and the policy of annexation ( 1848-1856 )
• He came as governor in 1848 and determined to extend
direct British rule.
• He believed that British administration was far superior to
the corrupt and oppressive Indian rulers.
• The chief instrument he used was “doctrine of lapse
policy”
• He annexed Jhansi, Nagpur and Satara in 1854.
• He was keen to annexed the kingdom of Awadh but it was
not easy because of two reasons, one is the nawab had
many heirs and he was an ally since battle of Buxar.
• So, some other methods was to be used and Dalhousie
Dalhousie
accused the nawab for Misgoverning his state and annexed
Awadh in 1856. ( but the reality was that British themselves
were responsible for this bad situation of peoples)
 Punjab
Empire

Awadh

Bengal

Sindh
Multan Rajputs
States

Maratha
Empire Hyderabad
And nizam’s
Dominion
Mysore
Kingdom
Carnatic
Subah
Note - Boundaries of these states
were always changing
Kerala
Due to expansion or conquests
In reality there was no native state left, in some
way or the other British was the only and only
power remained in India till 1857.
 BRITISH
INDIA

Note - though some states remained

with their identity or as princely states
Final product in 1857 later but in reality they ruled by British
eic in one way or another.
PLEASE ZOOM IT, TO READ