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Summary
Modern Indian History Class 12

Battle of Plassey (5:01 PM)

  • Short-term reasons:
  • Misuse of Dastaks and illegal trade:
  • By the 1750s 100,000 pounds was the quantum of private trade by EIC officials which was 50 times their annual salaries.
  • EIC officials also sold Dastaks to non-EIC merchants.
  • Nawab of Bengal lost a huge amount of revenue due to the misuse of Dastaks(that is tax/duty evasion).
  • Private trade of EIC officials hurt the economic interest of EIC as well but EIC was unable to control it.
  • Illegal trade- the Chater of EIC gave a monopoly to EIC over British trade will all territories to the east of cape of good hope and therefore trade with India by anyone other than EIC was illegal, for example, private trade of EIC officials and trade by non-EIC merchants from Britain.
  • Interlopers were non-EIC British merchants who traded illegally in India.
  • Free merchant trade was also illegal but artificially legalized as EIC allowed them to settle in EIC establishments if they agreed to act as middlemen between Indian merchants and EIC instead of directly trading with India, that is they sold Indian goods to EIC in India instead of exporting themself.
  • Britain-France rivalry:
  • EIC feared the french and was afraid of the french repeating their success in Carnatic
  • Therefore EIC began adding fortifications in Calcutta in 1755 without the permission of Alivardi Khan.
  • EIC officials also offered protection to fugitives from the nawab's court.
  • Therefore EIC Challenged the sovereign authority of the nawab
  • However, Alivardi Khan avoided conflict and followed diplomacy.
  • Role of Siraj-ud-Daulah:
  • He acted in haste and stopped all misuse of Dastaks, therefore hurting the private trade of EIC officials.
  • When the British gave asylum to Krisha Ballabh(charged with fraud with Siraj) and EIC began a new fortification in Calcutta, Siraj acted.
  • He took over a British factory in Qasim Bazar near Hooghly and attacked and captured Calcutta and renamed it, Ali Nagar.
  • Also during this attack Black Hole tragedy in Calcutta, thereby 30 British men were killed due to suffocation because of overcrowding in a non-ventilated room.
  • This created huge controversy among the British.
  • Events:
  • Robert Clive arrived with the army from Madras and then defeated Siraj, took back Calcutta, and signed the Treaty of Ali Nagar with Siraj which restored all privileges of EIC.
  • Then the British defeated the french in Chandannagar and destroyed the Hugli port important for the french.
  • Now Jagat Seth and Mir Jafar bribed EIC and Robert Clive so they replaced Siraj with Mir Jafar as Nawab(Mir Jafar was the war commander of the Bengal army).
  • There was rivalry in the court between merchants, bankers, Zamindar, and nobles.
  • Siraj was hated due to his disrespectful conduct and Indian merchants and bankers benefited greatly from their business with EIC.
  • Mir Jafar ensured that the majority of the Bengal army did not fight in the battle of Plassey in 1757 when EIC attacked.
  • Therefore Siraj was defeated easily by Robert Clive, Siraj ran away, later captured and killed.

Result/Significance of Battle of Plassey (6:18 PM):

  • Now Mir Jafar was a puppet nawab of EIC.
  • EIC's military domination of Bengal began, therefore beginning the political supremacy of EIC in India.
  • Plassey plunder(1757-65):
  • 275,000 pounds to the royal military for distribution to their members.
  • 2.25 Crore rupees to EIC.
  • Personal Jagir for Clive is worth 35,000 pounds per annum and 234,000 pounds in cash to him.
  • From 1757-65,  2.5 Million pounds were taken by EIC as political gifts from the Nawab of Bengal.
  • Change in the structure of EIC trade:
  • Now gold was no more needed by Britain to buy Indian goods as Indian money was now used to buy Indian goods.
  • Indian gold was used to buy Chinese goods and Indian gold was taken to Britain.
  • Therefore from Gold outflow pre-1757, now there was gold and wealth inflow to Britain.
  • Therefore drain of wealth from India began after 1757.
  • This also led to a huge dip in Bengal revenue.
  • Now rampant misuse of Dastaks and EIC officials made personal fortunes example Clive(Governor of Culcutta presidency).
  • When Mir Jafar could not pay any more to EIC, he was replaced with his son-in-law Mir Qasim by the EIC.

Battle of Buxar, 1764 (7:02 PM)

  • Background:
  • Mir Qasim was an efficient administrator and wanted independence from EIC control, therefore sifted his base from Murshidabad to Bihar to be physically away from the British.
  • He gathered money and started building his army.
  • To get the support of Indian merchants he abolished all taxes on domestic trade, therefore bringing parity between Indian merchants and British traders who did not pay any taxes when they did domestic trade, through their Indian agents called Gomutsahs.
  • This hurt revenue of Bengal but Qasim wanted the support of Indian merchants.
  • EIC did not like this streak of independence in Qasim, and thus defeated and replaced Qasim with Mir Jafar.
  • Now Qasim escaped with wealth to Awadh and built an alliance with Suja-Ud-Dualah(Nawab of Awadh) and Shah Alam-II(Mughal emperor) who was in Awadh.
  • Fugitive prince Shah Alam-II escaped Delhi due to fear of life from Imam-ul-Mulk, Wazir, and grandson of Nizam-ul-Mulk.
  • He was also frustrated with Delhi court politics and wanted to build his kingdom in the east, that is Bengal which had stopped sending revenue to Delhi since Alivardi Khan.
  • Shuja-Ud-Daulah agreed to a promise of 30 million rupees, Bihar and its treasury for Awadh(lack of modern nationalism).
  • Reason for defeat:
  • A tactical mistake by Shuja who followed an offensive strategy rather than a more appropriate defensive strategy of cutting off the supply lines of the EIC army in Buxar and he also ignored the advice of Qasim.
  • Therefore Hector Munro emerged victorious and now EIC send Clive from London to India to negotiate the treaty of Allahabad.
  • The treaty of Allahabad, 1765:
  • EIC treated Shah Alam-II with respect as in he lay sovereignty of India and with him on their side, EIC could have greater influence in India.
  • The Treaty of Allahabad was signed between Robert Clive of EIC and Shah Alam-II & Shuja-Ud-Daula.
  • EIC promised a tribute of 26 lakh rupees/ annum to the emperor(although never gave this help).
  • EIC promised Shah Alam-II military help to recapture Delhi which was under Rohilla Afghans since 1761(although never helped recapture Delhi).

The topic of the next class:  The treaty of Allahabad w.r.t Bengal.