Page 13 - DHIS204_DHIS205_INDIAN_FREEDOM_STRUGGLE_HINDI

Indian Freedom Struggle (1707–1947 A.D.)

Notes that English recommendation was the only sure way to office. Very soon Mir Jaffar found the English
yoke galling and intrigued with the Dutch to oust the English from Bengal. Clive thwarted this
design and defeated the Dutch at Bedara (November 1759). When Mir Jaffar refused to read the
writing on the wall, he had to give place to Mir Kasim, a nominee of the Company, in 1760.
The battle of Plassey and the subsequent plunder—for there was not much difference then between
fair trade and plunder—of Bengal placed at the disposal of the English vast resources. The , first
instalment of wealth paid to the Company immediately after Plassey was a sum of £800,000, all paid
in coined silver. In the graphic language of Macaulay, “the fleet which conveyed this treasure to
Calcutta consisted of more than a hundred boats.” Bengal then was the most prosperous province,
industrially advanced and commercially great. “The immense commerce of Bengal”, wrote Verelst in
1767, “might be considered as the central point to which all the riches of India were attracted. Its
manufactures find their way to the remotest part of India.” The vast resources of Bengal helped the
English to conquer the wars of the Deccan and extend their influence over Northern India.
A great transformation came about in the position of the English Company in Bengal. Before Plassey
the English Company was just one of the European Companies trading in Bengal and suffering
various exactions at the hands of the Nawab’s officials. After Plassey the English Company virtually
monopolised the trade and commerce of Bengal. The French never recovered their lost position in
Bengal, the Dutch made a last bid in 1759 but were humbled. From commerce the English proceeded
to monopolise political power in Bengal.
Plassey proved a battle with far-reaching consequences in the fate of India. “There never , was a
battle.” writes Malleson, “in which the consequences were so vast, so immediate and so permanent.”
Col. Malleson certainly overstates the case when he writes that it was Plassey which “made England
the great Mohammadan power in the world; Plassey which forced her to become one of the main
factors in the settlement of the burning Eastern Question; Plassey which necessitated the conquest
and colonisation of the Cape of Good Hope, of the Mauritius, the protectorate over Egypt.”
Nevertheless, the battle of Plassey was an important event in the chain of developments that made
the English the masters of India. Eric Stokes, a modern writer, describes “The Plassey Revolution as
the first English eassy in private profiteering on a grandiose scale”. The consequences of Plassey
shaped the form of British overrule and the modes of cultural contact.
Self-Assessment
1. Choose the correct option:
(i) The first English Factory was established at Hugli in ___ .
(a) 1651 (b) 1653 (c) 1654 (d) 1660
(ii) In 1717, the Emperor ..... confirmed the trade privileges granted by earlier Subahdars of
Bengal.
(a) Siraj-ud-daula (b) Alivardi Khan (c) Farrukhsiyar (d) Mir Jaffer
(iii) Which Nawab compared the English to bees?
(a) Mir Jafar (b) Alivardi Khan (c) Farrukhsiyar (d) Mir Qasim
(iv) Mir Jaffar Proclaimed himself the Nawab of Bengal on
(a) 26 June (b) 28 June (c) 25 June (d) 24 June
(v) The Battle of Plassey was fought on
(a) 20 June, 1757 (b) 22 June, 1757 (c) 23 June, 1757 (d) 24 June, 1757

1.3 Mir Jafar and Mir Qasim

Mir Jafar
Mir Jafar was the first Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa under the British rule in India. He succeeded
Siraj-ud-Daulah.

8 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY