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Unit 1: British Expansion

who held out were soon overpowered by Clive’s troops. Mir Jaffar merely looked on. Clive Notes
won the day and received a message of congratulations from Mir Jaffar. Mir Jaffar reached
Murshidabad on 25th and proclaimed himself the Nawab of Bengal. Siraj-ud-daula was captured
and put to death. Mir Jaffar rewarded the services of the English by the grant of the zamindari
of 24-Parganas besides a personal present of £234,000 to Clive and giving 50 lakh rupees in
reward to army and naval officers.
• The battle of Plassey is important because of the events that followed it. Plassey put the British
yoke on Bengal which could not be put off. The new Nawab, Mir Jaffar, was dependent on
British bayonets for the maintenance of his position in Bengal and for protection against foreign
invasions. An English army of 6,000 troops was maintained in Bengal to help the Nawab maintain
his position.
• Mir Jafar became the Nawab of Bengal by cheating Nawab Siraj-Ud-Daulah and surrendered
the Nawab’s army against Robert Clive in the battle field. His rule is regarded as the initiation
of the rule of British in India.
• The British soldiers under the command of Robert Give advanced to Murshidabad and
confronted Siraj in the Battle of Plassey in the year 1757. Mir Jafar’s army betrayed Siraj-Ud-
Daulah by denying fighting for him and in the end Siraj was defeated and killed. Mir was made
the new Nawab.
• To please the British, Mir Qasim robbed everybody, confiscated lands, reduced Mir Jafar’s purse
and depleted the treasury. He also transferred the districts of Burdwan, Midnapur and
Chittagong to the British East India Company. However, he soon tired of British interference
and endless avarice and like Mir Jafar before him, yearned to break free of the British.
• Clive’s solution of the political tangle of Bengal was the setting up of the infamous Dual System
whereby the Company acquired real power while the responsibility for administration rested
on the shoulders of the Nawab of Bengal.
• In the hey days of the Mughal Empire the two principal officers of the Central government in a
province were the Subahdar and the Diwan. The Subahdar looked after the Nizamat functions,
i.e., military defence, police and administration of criminal justice, while the Diwan was the
chief financial officer and in charge of revenue affairs, besides being responsible for the
administration of civil justice in the province. The two officers served as a check on each other
and were directly responsible to the Central government. After the death of Aurangzeb the
Mughal central authority weakened and Murshid Kuli Khan, the Nawab of Bengal, exercised
both the Nizamat and Diwani functions.
• The firman issued by Emperor Shah Alam an 12 August 1765 granted the Diwani functions to
the Company in return for an annual payment of Rs. 26 lakhs to the Emperor and providing for
the expenses of the Nizamat (fixed at Rs. 53 lakhs). Earlier in February 1765, Najm-ud-Daula
was allowed to succeed as Nawab of Bengal (after the death of his father Mir Jaffar) on the
condition that he practically surrendered the Nizamat functions, i.e., the military defence and
foreign affairs of the province entirely into the hands of the Company and the civil administration
to the care of a Deputy Subahdar to be named by the Company and not removable without their
consent. Thus, the Company acquired the Diwani functions from the Emperor and the Nizamat
functions from the Subahdar of Bengal.
• The three revolutions of Bengal (1757, 1760 and 1764), had enriched the governors and councillors
and demoralised the servants of the Company from top to bottom. The general desire to ‘get-
rich quick’ had vitiated the whole atmosphere. Bribery and corruption were rampant and
acceptance of presents was carried to extreme limits. The servants of the Company indulged in
private trade and misused the Company’s dastak to seek exemption from payment of internal
duties. The servants of the Company put self-advancement above the interests of the Company.
• Eighteenth century India provided very favourable circumstances for the rise of military
adventurers both in the north and the south. One such soldier of fortune, Haidar Ali
(born 1721) started his career as a horseman and rose to the position of the ruler of Mysore.

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