Company Rule in Bengal

By Dr Vipan Goyal
 Company Rule in Bengal
• During the short period of eight years
(1757 to 1765) three nawabs, Siraj-ud-
Daula, Mir Jafar and Mir Qasim ruled
over Bengal but they failed to uphold
the sovereignty of the nawab and
ultimately the reign of control passed
into the hands of the British.
• Bengal was the most fertile and the
richest province of India and its
industries and commerce were well
developed.
 Company Rule in Bengal
• In the beginning, the East India Company and its servants had highly profitable trading
interests in the province.
• The Company secured valuable privileges in 1717 under a royal farman by the Mughal
Emperor Farrukhsiyar, which had granted the Company the freedom to export and
import their goods in Bengal without paying taxes and the right to issue passes or
dastaks for the movement of such goods.
• The Company’s servants were also permitted to trade but were not covered by this
farman. They were required to pay the same taxes as Indian merchants.
• This farman was a perpetual source of conflict between the Company and the Nawabs of
Bengal. First it meant loss of revenue to the Bengal Government. Secondly, the power to
issue dastaks for the Company’s goods was misused by its servants to evade taxes on
their private trade.
 Company Rule in Bengal
• All the Nawabs of Bengal, start from Murshid Quli Khan, Shuja-ud-daulah to Alivardi
Khan, had objected to the English interpretation of the farman of 1717.
• They compelled the Company to pay lump sums to their treasury, and firmly suppressed
the misuse of dastaks.
• The Company had been compelled to accept the authority of the Nawabs in the matter,
but its servants had taken every opportunity to evade and defy this authority.
• By the time Siraj-ud-Daula succeeded Alivardi Khan as nawab of Bengal in 1756 trade
privileges and their misuse by the Company and its officers had already become an issue
of conflict.
• The Company officials also suspected that nawab was going to have an alliance with the
French in Bengal.
 Company Rule in Bengal
• The breaking point came when, without taking the Nawab’s permission, the
Company began to fortify Calcutta in expectation of the coming struggle with the
French, who were stationed at this time at Chandernagore/WB.
• Siraj-ud-Daula’s prevented the English from fortifying Fort William.
• However the English refused to stop the new fortification which prompted the
Nawab to attack their factory at Qasim Bazar.
• The Nawab captured Fort William, taking 146 Englishmen prisoners. Holed up in a
very small room 123 died on 20th June, 1756 out of suffocation and only 23
survived. English historians describe this incident as the Black Hole Tragedy.
• This incident instigated the English at Chennai to send a relieving force under
Robert Clive alongwith Admiral Watson to Bengal.
 Company Rule in Bengal
• The British retaliation started with hatching a conspiracy against the nawab in
alliance with his
• Mir Bakshi : Mir Jafar,
• Manik Chand : the Officer-in-Charge of Calcutta,
• Amichand : a rich merchant,
• Jagat Seth : the biggest banker of Bengal,
• and Khadim Khan who commanded a large number of the Nawab’s troops and
Rai Durlabh.
• Clive marched towards Plassey on 23rd June, 1757; which was near the
Nawab’s capital of Murshidabad.
 Company Rule in Bengal
• As agreed earlier, Mir Jafar, the Commander-in-chief of Siraj-ud-daula did
not take up arms against the English army and on the other hand the
Nawab’s soldiers fled from the battlefield.
• Later the Nawab was killed by, Mir Jafar’s son Miran.
• Mir Madan and Mohan Lal, who were loyal to the Nawab fought bravely but
were killed due to treachery of Mir Jafar and Rai Durlabh.
 Company Rule in Bengal
• English victory in the battle of Plassey (23 June, 1757) was pre-decided.
• It was not the superiority of the military power but the conspiracy that
helped the English in winning the battle.
• Mir Jafar, the commander-in-chief of the Nawab was awarded the
Nawabship by Clive for his support to the English.
• Mir Jafar responded to this favour by paying a sum of Rs. One Crore and
Seventy Seven lakhs to the Company and large sums to the Company
officers as bribe.
 Company Rule in Bengal
• But Mir Jafar could not support the ever increasing demands of the English who
were also suspicious about his collaboration with the Dutch Trading Company.
• Mir Jafar was deposed in 1760 and Mir Qasim was placed on the throne by the
British.
• This alliance was of great help to the British in their campaign against the French in
1760-1761; the money paid by Mir Qasim helped the Calcutta Council to finance
their war in South.
• The Nawab succeeded in establishing a better system of administration. But he
came into conflict with the British in Bengal on the question of a privilege, i.e., duty
free private trade of the Company.
• Mir Qasim’s proposed plan about equal trade duties for British and Indian traders
was turned down by the British Council at Calcutta.
 Company Rule in Bengal
• Mir Qasim, in the circumstances, remitted all duties on Indians and the
British alike for two years.
• This measure deprived the British private traders of the privileged position
they had created for themselves, they could not compete with Indian
traders on equal terms.
• The Nawab’s attempts to reorganize the army and shifting of capital from
Murshidabad/Benagal to Monghyr/Bihar were also taken as unforgivable
offences by the Company.
 Company Rule in Bengal
• The war broke out between Mir Kasim and the Company in 1763.
• Mir Qasim escaped to Oudh to organise a confederacy with Shuja-ud-
daula, the Nawab of Oudh and the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II in a final
bid to oust the English from Bengal.
• The combined armies of the three powers fought the Battle of Buxar with
English army commanded by Major Hector Munro on October 22, 1764.
 Company Rule in Bengal
• Battle of Plassey had made the English a powerful factor in the politics of Bengal, the
victory of Buxar made them a great power of North India and contenders for the
supremacy of the whole country.
• The English now faced the Afghans and the Marathas as serious rival in the final
struggle for the empire of Hindustan.
• Treaty of Allahabad followed Aug 1765 in which the English got the Diwani ( or the right
to collect revenue) of Bengal and thus became the master of whole of Bengal ( Bengal,
Bihar and Orissa)
• The dual Government of Bengal system followed wherein the company acquired the
real power, while the responsibility of administration rested on nawab of Bengal.
• The Mughal Emperor was made virtually Company’s prisoner at Allahabad.
Thank You