Chapter XX: Part 20

"Clive and others who escaped [from Madras] betook themselves
to Fort St. David's—a small English settlement a few miles
south of Pondicherry. There Clive prepared himself for the
military vocation for which nature had clearly destined him.
… At Fort St. David's the English intrigued with the native
chiefs, much as the French had done, and not more creditably.
They took sides, and changed sides, in the disputes of rival
claimants to the province of Tanjore, under the inducement of
the possession of Devi-cottah, a coast station at the mouth of
the Coleroon. There was no great honour in the results, any
more than in the conception, of this first little war. We
obtained Devi-cottah; but we did not improve our reputation
for good faith, nor lessen the distance between the French and
ourselves in military prestige. But Dupleix was meantime
providing the opportunity for Clive to determine whether the
Deccan should be under French or English influence. … The
greatest of the southern princes, the Nizam al Mulk, Viceroy
of the Deccan, died in 1748; and rivals rose up, as usual, to
claim both his throne and the richest province under his
rule—the Carnatic. The pretenders on one side applied to the
French for assistance, and obtained reinforcements to the
extent of 400 French soldiers and 2,000 trained sepoys. This
aid secured victory; the opposing prince was slain; and his
son, the well-known Mohammed Ali, 'the Nabob of Arcot' of the
last century, took refuge, with a few remaining troops, at
Trichinopoly. In a little while, the French seemed to be
supreme throughout the country. Dupleix was deferred to as the
arbiter of the destinies of the native princes, while he was
actually declared Governor of India, from the Kistna to Cape
Comorin—a region as large as France, inhabited by 30,000,000
of people, and defended by a force so large that the cavalry
alone amounted to 7,000 under the command of Dupleix. In the
midst of this dominion, the English looked like a handful of
dispirited and helpless settlers, awaiting the disposal of the
haughty Frenchman. Their native ally had lost everything but
Trichinopoly; and Trichinopoly itself was now besieged by the
Nabob of the Carnatic and his French supporters. Dupleix was
greater than even the Mogul sovereign; he had erected a column
in his own honour, displaying on its four sides inscriptions
in four languages, proclaiming his glory as the first man of
the East; and a town had sprung up round this column, called
his City of Victory. To the fatalistic mind of the native
races it seemed a settled matter that the French rule was
supreme, and that the English must perish out of the land.
Major Lawrence had gone home; and the small force of the
English had no commander. Clive was as yet only a commissary,
with the rank of captain, and regarded more as a civilian than
a soldier.
{1714}
He was only five-and-twenty. His superiors were in extreme
alarm, foreseeing that when Trichinopoly was taken, the next
step would be the destruction of Madras. Nothing could make
their position worse; and they caught at every chance of
making it better. Clive offered to attack Arcot, the capital
of the Carnatic, in the hope that this would draw away the
besiegers from Trichinopoly; and the offer was accepted. The
force consisted of 200 British and 300 native soldiers,
commanded, under Clive, by four factors and four military men,
only two of whom had ever been in action. Everything was
against them, from numbers and repute to the weather; but
Clive took Arcot [September 11, 1751], and (what was much more
difficult) kept it. The garrison had fled in a panic; but it
was invested by 10,000 men before the British had repaired
half its dilapidations and deficiencies, or recruited their
numbers, now reduced to 320 men in all, commanded by four
officers. For fifty days, amidst fatigue, hunger, and a
hundred pressing dangers, the little band sustained the siege.
… A series of victories followed, and men and opinion came
round to the side of the victors. There was no energy at
headquarters to sustain Clive in his career. … In his
absence, the enemy appeared again before Fort George, and did
much damage; but Clive came up, and 100 of the French soldiers
were killed or taken. He uprooted Dupleix's boasting monument,
and levelled the city to the ground, thereby reversing the
native impression of the respective destinies of the French
and English. Major Lawrence returned. Dupleix's military
incapacity was proved, and his personal courage found wanting
as soon as fortune deserted him. Trichinopoly was relieved,
and the besiegers were beaten, and their candidate prince put
to death. Dupleix struggled in desperation for some time
longer before he gave up the contest; and Clive had his
difficulties in completing the dislodgement of the French. …
He did it; but nearly at the sacrifice of his life. When the
British supremacy in the Deccan was completely established, he
returned [1752] in bad health to England. … He left behind
him Dupleix, for whom a summons home in disgrace was on the
way."

_H. Martineau,
History of British Rule in India,
chapter 6._

ALSO IN:
_G. B. Malleson,
History of the French in India,
chapters 3-6._

_G. B. Malleson,
Founders of the Indian Empire: Lord Clive,
chapters 1-6._

_Colonel Sir C. Wilson,
Lord Clive,
chapters 2-4._

INDIA: A. D. 1747-1761.
The Duranee power in Afghanistan.
Conflict of the Afghans and the Mahrattas.
Great defeat of the latter at Panniput.
Fall of the shattered Moghul empire.
The state of things which invited British conquest.

On the death of Nadir Shah, who was murdered in 1747, his
Afghan kingdom was acquired by a native chief, Ahmed Abdalee,
who, first a prisoner and a slave to Nadir Shah, had become
one of the trusted officers of his court and army. "Ahmed
Abdalee had acquired so great an ascendency among the troops
that upon this event [the death of Nadir Shah] several
commanders and their followers joined his standard; and he
drew off toward his own country. He fell in with and seized a
convoy of treasure, which was proceeding to the camp. This
enabled him to engage in his pay a still larger body of his
countrymen. He proclaimed himself king of the Afghauns; and
took the title of Doordowran, or pearl of the age, which being
corrupted into Dooranee,[or Duranee], gave one of their names
to himself and his Abdallees. He marched towards Candahar
which submitted to his arms; and next proceeded to Cabul …
and this province also fell into the hands of the Afghaun."
Lahore was next added to his dominions, and he then, in 1747,
invaded India, intent upon the capture of Delhi; but met with
sufficient resistance to discourage his undertaking, and fell
back to Cabul. In 1748, and again in 1749, he passed the
Indus, and made himself master of the Punjab. In 1755-6 he
marched to Delhi, which opened its gates to him and received
him, pretendedly as a guest, but really as a master. A plague
breaking out in his army caused him to return to his own
country. He "left his son Governor of Lahore and Multan;
disordered by revolutions, wasted and turbulent. A chief …
incited the Seiks [Sikhs] to join him in molesting the
Dooranees; and they gained several important advantages over
their principal commanders. They invited the Mahratta
generals, Ragonaut Raow, Shumsheer Bahadur, and Holkar, who
had advanced into the neighbourhood of Delhi, to join them in
driving the Abdalees from Lahore. No occupation could be more
agreeable to the Mahrattas. After taking Sirhind, they
advanced to Lahore, where the Abdalee Prince made but a feeble
resistance and fled. This event put them in possession of both
Multan and Lahore. … The whole Indian continent appeared now
about to be swallowed up by the Mahrattas. … Ahmed Shah [the
Abdalee, or Dooranee] was not only roused by the loss of his
two provinces, and the disgrace imprinted on his arms, but he
was invited by the chiefs and people of Hindustan, groaning
under the depredations of the Mahrattas, to march to their
succour and become their King. … For some days the Dooranees
hovered round the Mahratta camp; when the Mahrattas, who were
distressed for provisions, came out and offered battle. Their
army, consisting of 80,000 veteran cavalry, was almost wholly
destroyed; and Duttah Sindia, their General, was among the
slain. A detachment of horse sent against another body of
Mahrattas, who were marauding under Holkar in the
neighbourhood of Secundra, surprised them so completely that
Holkar fled naked, with a handful of followers, and the rest,
with the exception of a few prisoners and fugitives, were all
put to the sword. During the rainy season, while the Dooranee
Shah was quartered at Secundra, the news of this disaster and
disgrace excited the Mahrattas to the greatest exertions. A
vast army was collected, and … the Mahrattas marched to
gratify the resentments, and fulfil the unbounded hopes of the
nation. … They arrived at the Jumna before it was
sufficiently fallen to permit either the Mahrattas on the
other side, or the Dooranees, to cross. In the meantime they
marched to Delhi, of which after some resistance they took
possession; plundered it with their usual rapacity, tearing
away even the gold and silver ornaments of the palace;
proclaimed Sultan Jewan Bukht, the son of Alee Gohur [or Shah
Alum, absent son of the late nominal Emperor at Delhi,
Alumgeer II., who had recently been put to death by his own
vizir], Emperor; and named Sujah ad Dowlah, Nabob of Oude, his
Vizir.
{1715}
Impatient at intelligence of these and some other
transactions, Ahmed Shah swam the Jumna, still deemed
impassable, with his whole army. This daring adventure, and
the remembrance of the late disaster, shook the courage of the
Mahrattas; and they entrenched their camp on a plain near
Panniput. The Dooranee, having surrounded their position with
parties of troops, to prevent the passage of supplies,
contented himself for some days with skirmishing. At last he
tried an assault; when the Rohilla infantry … forced their
way into the Mahratta works, and Bulwant Raow with other
chiefs was killed; but night put an end to the conflict.
Meanwhile scarcity prevailed and filth accumulated in the
Mahratta camp. The vigilance of Ahmed intercepted their
convoys. In a little time famine and pestilence "raged. A
battle became the only resource [January 7, 1761]. The Abdalee
restrained his troops till the Mahrattas had advanced a
considerable way from their works; when he rushed upon them
with so much rapidity as left them hardly any time for using
their cannon. The Bhaow was killed early in the action;
confusion soon pervaded the army, and a dreadful carnage
ensued. The field was floated with blood. Twenty-two thousand
men and women were taken prisoners. Of those who escaped from
the field of battle, the greater part were butchered by the
people of the country, who had suffered from their
depredations. Of an army of 140,000 horse, commanded by the
most celebrated generals of the nation, only three chiefs of
any rank, and a mere residue of the troops, found their way to
Deccan. The Dooranee Shah made but little use of this mighty
victory. After remaining a few months at Delhi, he recognized
Alee Gohur as Emperor, by the title of Shah Aulum II.; and
entrusting Nujeeb ad Dowlah with the superintendence of
affairs, till his master should return from Bengal, he marched
back to his capital of Cabul in the end of the year 1760
[1761]. With Aulum-geer II. the empire of the Moguls may be
justly considered as having arrived at its close. The unhappy
Prince who now received the name of Emperor, and who, after a
life of misery and disaster, ended his days a pensioner of
English merchants, never possessed a sufficient degree of
power to consider himself for one moment as master of the
throne."

_J. Mill,
History of British India,
book 3, chapter 4 (volume 2)._

"The words 'wonderful,' 'strange,' are often applied to great
historical events, and there is no event to which they have
been applied more freely than to our [the English] conquest of
India. … But the event was not wonderful in a sense that it
is difficult to discover adequate causes by which it could
have been produced. If we begin by remarking that authority in
India had fallen on the ground through the decay of the Mogul
Empire, that it lay there waiting to be picked up by somebody,
and that all over India in that period adventurers of one kind
or another were founding Empires, it is really not surprising
that a mercantile corporation which had money to pay a
mercenary force should be able to compete with other
adventurers, nor yet that it should outstrip all its
competitors by bringing into the field English military
science and generalship, especially when it was backed over
and over again by the whole power and credit of England and
directed by English statesmen. … England did not in the
strict sense conquer India, but … certain Englishmen, who
happened to reside in India at the time when the Mogul Empire
fell, had a fortune like that of Hyder Ali or Runjeet Singh
and rose to supreme power there."

_J. R. Seeley,
The Expansion of England,
course 2, lecture 3._

ALSO IN:
_J. G. Duff,
History of the Mahrattas,
volume 2, chapters 2-5._

_G. B. Malleson,
History of Afghanistan,
chapter 8._

_H. G. Keene,
Madhava Rao Sindhia,
chapter 2._

INDIA: A. D. 1755-1757.
Capture of Calcutta by Surajah Dowlah.
The tragedy of the Black Hole.
Clive's recovery of the Fort and settlement.

Clive remained three years in England, where he sought an
election to Parliament, as a supporter of Fox, but was
unseated by the Tories. On suffering this disappointment, he
re-entered the service of the East India Company, as governor
of Fort St. David, with the commission of a lieutenant-colonel
in the British army, received from the king, and returned to
India in 1755. Soon after his arrival at Fort St. David, "he
received intelligence which called forth all the energy of his
bold and active mind. Of the provinces which had been subject
to the house of Tamerlane, the wealthiest was Bengal. No part
of India possessed such natural advantages both for
agriculture and for commerce. … The great commercial
companies of Europe had long possessed factories in Bengal.
The French were settled, as they still are, at Chandernagore
on the Hoogley. Higher up the stream the Dutch traders held
Chinsurah. Nearer to the sea, the English had built Fort
William. A church and ample warehouses rose in the vicinity. A
row of spacious houses, belonging to the chief factors of the
East India Company, lined the banks of the river; and in the
neighbourhood had sprung up a large and busy native town,
where some Hindoo merchants of great opulence had fixed their
abode. But the tract now covered by the palaces of Chowringhee
contained only a few miserable huts thatched with straw. A
jungle, abandoned to water-fowl and alligators, covered the
site of the present Citadel, and the Course, which is now
daily crowded at sunset with the gayest equipages of Calcutta.
For the ground on which the settlement stood, the English,
like other great landholders, paid rent to the government; and
they were, like other great landholders, permitted to exercise
a certain jurisdiction within their domain. The great province
of Bengal, together with Orissa and Bahar, had long been
governed by a viceroy, whom the English called Aliverdy Khan,
and who, like the other viceroys of the Mogul, had become
virtually independent. He died in 1756, and the sovereignty
descended to his grandson, a youth under twenty years of age,
who bore the name of Surajah Dowlah. … From a child Surajah
Dowlah had hated the English. It was his whim to do so; and
his whims were never opposed. He had also formed a very
exaggerated notion of the wealth which might be obtained by
plundering them; and his feeble and uncultivated mind was
incapable of perceiving that the riches of Calcutta, had they
been even greater than he imagined, would not compensate him
for what he must lose, if the European trade, of which Bengal
was a chief seat, should be driven by his violence to some
other Quarter. Pretexts for a quarrel were readily found.
{1716}
The English, in expectation of a war with France, had begun to
fortify their settlement without special permission from the
Nabob. A rich native, whom he longed to plunder, had taken
refuge at Calcutta, and had not been delivered up. On such
grounds as these Surajah Dowlah marched with a great army
against Fort William. The servants of the Company at Madras
had been forced by Dupleix to become statesmen and soldiers.
Those in Bengal were still mere traders, and were terrified
and bewildered by the approaching danger. … The fort was
taken [June 20, 1756] after a feeble resistance; and great
numbers of the English fell into the hands of the conquerors.
The Nabob seated himself with regal pomp in the principal hall
of the factory, and ordered Mr. Holwell, the first in rank
among the prisoners, to be brought before him. His Highness
talked about the insolence of the English, and grumbled at the
smallness of the treasure which he had found; but promised to
spare their lives, and retired to rest. Then was committed
that great crime, memorable for its singular atrocity,
memorable for the tremendous retribution by which it was
followed. The English captives were left at the mercy of the
guards, and the guards determined to secure them for the night
in the prison of the garrison, a chamber known by the fearful
name of the Black Hole. Even for a single European malefactor,
that dungeon would, in such a climate, have been too close and
narrow. The space was only twenty feet square. The air-holes
were small and obstructed. It was the summer solstice, the
season when the fierce heat of Bengal can scarcely be rendered
tolerable to natives of England by lofty halls and by the
constant waving of fans. The number of the prisoners was 146.
When they were ordered to enter the cell, they imagined that
the soldiers were joking; and, being in high spirits on
account of the promise of the Nabob to spare their lives, they
laughed and jested at the absurdity of the notion. They soon
discovered their mistake. They expostulated; they entreated;
but in vain. The guards threatened to cut down all who
hesitated. The captives were driven into the cell at the point
of the sword, and the door was instantly shut and locked upon
them. Nothing in history or fiction, not even the story which
Ugolino told in the sea of everlasting ice, after he had wiped
his bloody lips on the scalp of his murderer, approaches the
horrors which were recounted by the few survivors of that
night. They cried for mercy. They strove to burst the door.
Holwell who, even in that extremity, retained some presence of
mind, offered large bribes to the gaolers. But the answer was
that nothing could be done without the Nabob's orders, that
the Nabob was asleep, and that he would be angry if anybody
woke him. Then the prisoners went mad with despair. They
trampled each other down, fought for the places at the
windows, fought for the pittance of water with which the cruel
mercy of the murderers mocked their agonies, raved, prayed,
blasphemed, implored the guards to fire among them. The
gaolers in the mean time held lights to the bars, and shouted
with laughter at the frantic struggles of their victims. At
length the tumult died away in low gaspings and moanings. The
day broke. The Nabob had slept off his debauch, and permitted
the door to be opened. But it was some time before the
soldiers could make a lane for the survivors, by piling up on
each side the heaps of corpses on which the burning climate
had already begun to do its loathsome work. When at length a
passage was made, twenty-three ghastly figures, such as their
own mothers would not have known, staggered one by one out of
the charnel-house. A pit was instantly dug. The dead bodies,
123 in number, were flung into it promiscuously and covered
up. … One Englishwoman had survived that night. She was
placed in the harem of the Prince at Moorshedabad. Surajah
Dowlah, in the mean time, sent letters to his nominal
sovereign at Delhi, describing the late conquest in the most
pompous language. He placed a garrison in Fort William,
forbade Englishmen to dwell in the neighbourhood, and directed
that, in memory of his great actions, Calcutta should
thenceforward be called Alinagore, that is to say, the Port of
God. In August the news of the fall of Calcutta reached
Madras, and excited the fiercest and bitterest resentment. The
cry of the whole settlement was for vengeance. Within
forty-eight hours after the arrival of the intelligence it was
determined that an expedition should be sent to the Hoogley,
and that Clive should be at the head of the land forces. The
naval armament was under the command of Admiral Watson. Nine
hundred English infantry, fine troops and full of spirit, and
1,500 sepoys, composed the army which sailed to punish a
Prince who had more subjects than Lewis XV. or the Empress
Maria Theresa. In October the expedition sailed; but it had to
make its way against adverse winds, and did not reach Bengal
till December. The Nabob was revelling in fancied security at
Moorshedabad. He was so profoundly ignorant of the state of
foreign countries that he often used to say that there were
not ten thousand men in all Europe; and it had never occurred
to him as possible, that the English would dare to invade his
dominions. But, though undisturbed by any fear of their
military power, he began to miss them greatly. His revenues
fell off. … He was already disposed to permit the company to
resume its mercantile operations in his country, when he
received the news that an English armament was in the Hoogley.
He instantly ordered all his troops to assemble at
Moorshedabad, and marched towards Calcutta. Clive had
commenced operations with his usual vigour. He took
Budgebudge, routed the garrison of Fort William, recovered
Calcutta, stormed and sacked Hoogley. The Nabob, already
disposed to make some concessions to the English, was
confirmed in his pacific disposition by these proofs of their
power and spirit. He accordingly made overtures to the chiefs
of the invading armament, and offered to restore the factory,
and to give compensation to those whom he had despoiled.
Clive's profession, was war; and he felt that there was
something discreditable in an accommodation with Surajah
Dowlah. But his power was limited. … The promises of the
Nabob were large, the chances of a contest doubtful; and Clive
consented to treat, though he expressed his regret that things
should not be concluded in so glorious a manner as he could
have wished. With this negotiation commences a new chapter in
the life of Clive. Hitherto he had been merely a soldier
carrying into effect, with eminent ability and valour, the
plans of others. Henceforth he is to be chiefly regarded as a
statesman; and his military movements are to be considered as
subordinate to his political designs."

_Lord Macaulay,
Lord Clive (Essays)._

ALSO IN:
_Sir J. Malcolm,
Life of Lord Clive,
chapter 3 (volume 1)._

_J. Mill,
History of British India,
book 4, chapter 3 (volume 3)._

_H. E. Busteed,
Echoes from Old Calcutta,
chapter 1._

{1717}

INDIA: A. D. 1757.
A Treacherous conspiracy against Surajah Dowlah.
His overthrow at the battle of Plassey.
The counterfeit Treaty with Omichund.
Elevation of Meer Jaffier to the Subahdar's throne.

The unsatisfactory treaty entered into with Surajah Dowlah had
been pressed upon Clive by the Calcutta merchants, who
"thought the alliance would enable them to get rid of the
rival French station at Chandernagore. The Subahdar gave a
doubtful answer to their proposal to attack this settlement,
which Clive interpreted as an assent. The French were
overpowered, and surrendered their fort. Surajah Dowlah was
now indignant against his recent allies; and sought the
friendship of the French officers. Clive, called by the
natives 'the daring in war,' was also the most adroit,
and,—for the truth cannot be disguised,—the most
unscrupulous in policy. The English resident at the Court of
Moorshedabad, under Clive's instructions, encouraged a
conspiracy to depose the Subahdar, and to raise his general,
Meer Jaffier, to the supreme power. A Hindoo of great wealth
and influence, Omichund, engaged in this conspiracy. After it
had proceeded so far as to become the subject of a treaty
between a Select Committee at Calcutta and Meer Jaffier,
Omichund demanded that a condition should be inserted in that
treaty, to pay him thirty lacs of rupees as a reward for his
service. The merchants at Calcutta desired the largest share
of any donation from Meer Jaffier, as a consideration for
themselves, and were by no means willing that £300,000 should
go to a crafty Hindoo. Clive suggested an expedient to secure
Omichund's fidelity, and yet not to comply with his
demands—to have two treaties drawn; a real one on red paper,
a fictitious one on white. The white treaty was to be shown to
Omichund, and he was to see with his own eyes that he had been
properly cared for. Clive and the Committee signed this; as
well as the red treaty which was to go to Meer Jaffier.
Admiral Watson refused to sign the treacherous document. On
the 19th of May, 1773, Clive stood up in his place in the
House of Commons, to defend himself upon this charge against
him, amongst other accusations. He boldly acknowledged that
the stratagem of the two treaties was his invention;—that
admiral Watson did not sign it; but that he should have
thought himself authorised to sign for him in consequence of a
conversation; that the person who did sign thought he had
sufficient authority for so doing. 'He (Clive) forged admiral
Watson's name, says lord Macaulay. … The courage, the
perseverance, the unconquerable energy of Clive have furnished
examples to many in India who have emulated his true glory.
Thank God, the innate integrity of the British character has,
for the most part, preserved us from such exhibitions of 'true
policy and justice.' The English resident, Mr. Watts, left
Moorshedabad. Clive wrote a letter of defiance to Surajah
Dowlah, and marched towards his capital. The Subahdar had come
forth from his city, as populous as the London of a century
ago, to annihilate the paltry army of 1,000 English, and their
2,000 Sepoys disciplined by English officers, who dared to
encounter his 60,000. He reached the village of Plassey with
all the panoply of oriental warfare. His artillery alone
appeared sufficient to sweep away those who brought only eight
field pieces and two howitzers to meet his fifty heavy guns.
Each gun was drawn by forty yoke of oxen; and a trained
elephant was behind each gun to urge it over rough ground or
up steep ascents. Meer Jaffier had not performed his promise
to join the English with a division of the Subahdar's army. It
was a time of terrible anxiety with the English commander.
Should he venture to give battle without the aid of a native
force? He submitted his doubt to a Council of War. Twelve
officers, himself amongst the number, voted for delay. Seven
voted for instant action. Clive reviewed the arguments on each
side, and finally cast away his doubts. He determined to
fight, without which departure from the opinion of the
majority, he afterwards said, the English would never have
been masters of Bengal. On the 22nd of June [1757], his little
army marched fifteen miles, passed the Hooghly, and at one
o'clock of the morning of the 23rd rested under the
mangoe-trees of Plassey. As the day broke, the vast legions of
the Subahdar,—15,000 cavalry, 45,000 infantry,—some armed
with muskets, some with bows and arrows, began to surround the
mangoe-grove and the hunting-lodge where Clive had watched
through the night. There was a cannonade for several hours.
The great guns of Surajah Dowlah did little execution. The
small field-pieces of Clive were well served. One of the chief
Mohammedan leaders having fallen, disorder ensued, and the
Subahdar was advised to retreat. He himself fled upon a swift
camel to Moorshedabad. When the British forces began to
pursue, the victory became complete. Meer Jaffier joined the
conquerors the next day. Surajah Dowlah did not consider
himself safe in his capital; and he preferred to seek the
protection of a French detachment at Patna. He escaped from
his palace disguised; ascended the Ganges in a small boat; and
fancied himself secure. A peasant whose ears he had cut off
recognised his oppressor, and with some soldiers brought him
back to Moorshedabad. In his presence-chamber now sat Meer
Jaffier, to whose knees the wretched youth crawled for mercy.
That night Surajah Dowlah was murdered in his prison, by the
orders of Meer Jaffier's son, a boy as blood-thirsty as
himself."

_C. Knight,
Popular History of England,
volume 6, chapter 14._

ALSO IN:
_G. B. Malleson,
Founders of the Indian Empire: Clive,
chapters 8-10._

_G. B. Malleson,
Lord Clive (Rulers of India)._

_G. B. Malleson,
Decisive Battles of India,
chapter 3._

_E. Thornton,
History of British Empire in India,
volume 1, chapter 4._

INDIA: A. D. 1757-1772.
Clive's Administration in Bengal.
Decisive war with the Moghul Emperor and the Nawab of Oudh.
English Supremacy established.

"The battle of Plassey was fought on June 23, 1757, an
anniversary afterwards remembered when the Mutiny of 1857 was
at its height. History has agreed to adopt this date as the
beginning of the British Empire in the East. But the immediate
results of the victory were comparatively small, and several
years passed in hard fighting before even the Bengalis would
admit the superiority of the British arms.
{1718}
For the moment, however, all opposition was at an end. Clive,
again following in the steps of Dupleix, placed Mir Jafar upon
the Viceregal throne at Murshidabad, being careful to obtain a
patent of investiture from the Mughal court. Enormous sums
were exacted from Mir Jafar as the price of his elevation. …
At the same time, the Nawab made a grant to the Company of the
zamindari or landholder's rights over an extensive tract of
country round Calcutta, now known as the District of the
Twenty-four Parganas. The area of this tract was 882 square
miles. In 1757 the Company obtained only the zamindari
rights—i. e., the rights to collect the cultivator's rents,
with the revenue jurisdiction attached [see below: A. D.
1785-1793]. The superior lordship, or right to receive the
land tax, remained with the Nawab. But in 1759, this also was
granted by the Delhi Emperor, the nominal Suzerain of the
Nawab, in favour of Clive, who thus became the landlord of his
own masters, the Company. … Lord Clive's claims to the
property as feudal Suzerain over the Company were contested in
1764; and on the 23d June, 1765, when he returned to Bengal, a
new deed was issued, confirming the unconditional jagir to
Lord Clive for ten years, with reversion afterwards to the
Company in perpetuity. … In 1758, Clive was appointed by the
Court of Directors the first Governor of all the Company's
settlements in Bengal. Two powers threatened hostilities. On
the west, the Shahzada or Imperial prince, known afterwards as
the Emperor Shah Alam, with a mixed army of Afghans and
Marhattas, and supported by the Nawab Wazir of Oudh, was
advancing his own claims to the Province of Bengal. In the
south, the influence of the French under Lally and Bussy was
overshadowing the British at Madras. The name of Clive
exercised a decisive effect in both directions. Mir Jafar was
anxious to buy off the Shahzada, who had already invested
Patna. But Clive marched in person to the rescue, with an army
of only 450 Europeans and 2,500 sepoys, and the Mughal army
dispersed without striking a blow. In the same year, Clive
despatched a force southwards under Colonel Forde, which
recaptured Masulipatam from the French, and permanently
established British influence throughout the Northern Circars,
and at the court of Haidarabad. He next attacked the Dutch,
the only other European nation who might yet prove a rival to
the English. He defeated them both by land and water; and
their settlement at Chinsurah existed thenceforth only on
sufferance. From 1760 to 1765, Clive was in England. He had
left no system of government in Bengal, but merely the
tradition that unlimited sums of money might be extracted from
the natives by the terror of the English name. In 1761, it was
found expedient and profitable to dethrone Mir Jafar, the
English Nawab of Murshidabad, and to substitute his
son-in-law, Mir Kasim, in his place. On this occasion, besides
private donations, the English received a grant of the three
Districts of Bardwan, Midnapur, and Chittagong, estimated to
yield a net revenue of half a million sterling. But Mir Kasim
soon began to show a will of his own, and to cherish dreams of
independence. … The Nawab alleged that his civil authority
was everywhere set at nought. The majority of the Council at
Calcutta would not listen to his complaints. The Governor, Mr.
Vansittart, and Warren Hastings, then a junior member of
Council, attempted to effect some compromise. But the
controversy had become too hot. The Nawab's officers fired
upon an English boat, and forthwith all Bengal rose in arms
[1763]. Two thousand of our sepoys were cut to pieces at
Patna; about 200 Englishmen, who there and in other various
parts of the Province fell into the hands of the Muhammadans,
were massacred. But as soon as regular warfare commenced, Mir
Kasim met with no more successes. His trained regiments were
defeated in two pitched battles by Major Adams, at Gheriah and
at Udha-nala; and he himself took refuge with the Nawab Wazir
of Oudh, who refused to deliver him up. This led to a
prolongation of the war. Shah Alam, who had now succeeded his
father as Emperor, and Shuja-ud-Daula, the Nawab Wazir of
Oudh, united their forces, and threatened Patna, which the
English had recovered. A more formidable danger appeared in
the English camp, in the form of the first sepoy mutiny. This
was quelled by Major (afterwards Sir Hector) Munro, who
ordered 24 of the ringleaders to be blown from guns, an old
Mughal punishment. In 1764, Major Munro won the decisive
battle of Baxar [or Buxar], which laid Oudh at the feet of the
conquerors, and brought the Mughal Emperor as a suppliant to
the English camp. Meanwhile, the Council at Calcutta had twice
found the opportunity they loved of selling the government of
Bengal to a new Nawab. But in 1765, Clive (now Baron Clive of
Plassey in the peerage of Ireland) arrived at Calcutta, as
Governor of Bengal for the second time. Two landmarks stand
out in his policy. First, he sought the substance, although
not the name, of territorial power, under the fiction of a
grant from the Mughal Emperor. Second, he desired to purify
the Company's service, by prohibiting illicit gains, and
guaranteeing a reasonable pay from honest sources. In neither
respect were his plans carried out by his immediate
successors. But the beginning of our Indian rule dates from
this second governorship of Clive, as our military supremacy
had dated from his victory at Plassey. Clive landed, advanced
rapidly up from Calcutta to Allahabad, and there settled in
person the fate of nearly half of India. Oudh was given back
to the Nawab Wazir, on condition of his paying half a million
sterling towards the expenses of the war. The Provinces of
Allahabad and Kora, forming the greater part of the Doab, were
handed over to Shah Alam himself, who in his turn granted to
the Company the diwani or fiscal administration of Bengal,
Behar, and Orissa, and also the territorial jurisdiction of
the Northern Circars. A puppet Nawab was still maintained at
Murshidabad, who received an annual allowance from us of
£600,000. Half that amount, or about £300,000, we paid to the
Emperor as tribute from Bengal. Thus was constituted the dual
system of government, by which the English received all the
revenues and undertook to maintain the army; while the
criminal jurisdiction, or nizamat, was vested in the Nawab. In
Indian phraseology, the Company was diwan and the Nawab was
nizam. The actual collection of the revenues still remained
for some years in the hands of native officials. … Lord
Clive quitted India for the third and last time in 1767.
{1719}
Between that date and the governorship of Warren Hastings, in
1772, little of importance occurred in Bengal beyond the
terrible famine of 1770, which is officially reported to have
swept away one-third of the inhabitants. The dual system of
government, established in 1765 by Clive, had proved a
failure. Warren Hastings, a tried servant of the Company,
distinguished alike for intelligence, for probity, and for
knowledge of oriental manners, was nominated Governor by the
Court of Directors, with express instructions to carry out a
predetermined series of reforms. In their own words, the Court
had resolved to 'stand forth as diwan, and to take upon
themselves, by the agency of their own servants, the entire
care and administration of the revenues.' In the execution of
this plan, Hastings removed the exchequer from Murshidabad to
Calcutta, and appointed European officers, under the now
familiar title of Collectors, to superintend the revenue
collections and preside in the courts. Clive had laid the
territorial foundations of the British Empire in Bengal.
Hastings may be said to have created a British administration
for that Empire."

_Sir W. W. Hunter,
India (article in Imperial Gazetteer of India)
volume 4, pages 389-394._

ALSO IN:
_W. M, Torrens,
Empire in Asia: How we came by it,
chapters 4-6._

_Sir C. Wilson,
Lord Clive,
chapters 7-9._

_G. B. Malleson,
Decisive Battles of India,
chapter 7._

INDIA: A. D. 1758-1761.
Overthrow of French domination in the Carnatic.
The decisive Battle of Wandiwash.

"In 1758 the fortunes of the French in India underwent an
entire change. In April a French fleet arrived at Pondicherry.
It brought a large force under the command of Count de Lally,
who had been appointed Governor-General of the French
possessions in India. … No sooner had he landed at
Pondicherry than he organised an expedition against Fort St.
David; but he found that no preparations had been made by the
French authorities. There was a want alike of coolies, draught
cattle, provisions, and ready money. But the energy of Lally
overcame all obstacles. … In June, 1758, Lally captured Fort
St. David. He then prepared to capture Madras as a preliminary
to an advance on Bengal. He recalled Bussy from the Dekhan to
help him with his Indian experiences; and he sent the Marquis
de Conflans to succeed Bussy in the command of the Northern
Circars. [A strip of territory on the Coromandel coast, which
had been ceded to the French in 1752 by Salabut Jung, Nizam of
the Dekhun, was so called; it stretched along 600 miles of
seaboard, from the Carnatic frontier northwards.] … The
departure of Bussy from the Northern Circars was disastrous to
the French. The Raja of Vizianagram revolted against the
French and sent to Calcutta for help. Clive despatched an
English force to the Northern Circars, under the command of
Colonel Forde; and in December, 1758, Colonel Forde defeated
the French under Conflans [at Condore, or Kondur, December 9],
and prepared to recover all the English factories on the coast
which had been captured by Bussy. Meanwhile Count de Lally was
actively engaged at Pondicherry in preparations for the siege
of Madras. He hoped to capture Madras, and complete the
destruction of the English in the Carnatic; and then to march
northward, capture Calcutta, and expel the English from
Bengal. … Lally reached Madras on the 12th of December,
1758, and at once took possession of Black Town. He then began
the siege of Fort St. George with a vigour and activity which
commanded the respect of his enemies. His difficulties were
enormous. … Even the gunpowder was nearly exhausted. At
last, on the 16th of February, 1759, an English fleet arrived
at Madras under Admiral Pocock, and Lally was compelled to
raise the siege. Such was the state of party feeling amongst
the French in India, that the retreat of Lally from Madras was
received at Pondicherry with every demonstration of joy. The
career of Lally in India lasted for two years longer, namely
from February, 1759, to February, 1761; it is a series of
hopeless struggles and wearying misfortunes. In the Dekhan,
Salabut Jung had been thrown into the utmost alarm by the
departure of Bussy and defeat of Conflans. He was exposed to
the intrigues and plots of his younger brother, Nizam Ali, and
he despaired of obtaining further help from the French.
Accordingly he opened up negotiations with Colonel Forde and
the English. Forde on his part recovered all the Captured
factories [taking Masulipatam by storm, April 7, 1759, after a
fortnight's siege], and drove the French out of the Northern
Circars. He could not however interfere in the domestic
affairs of the Dekhan, by helping Salabut Jung against Nizam
Ali. In 1761 Salabut Jung was dethroned and placed in
confinement; and Nizam Ali ascended the throne at Hyderabad as
ruler of the Dekhan. In the Carnatic the French were in
despair. In January, 1760, Lally was defeated by Colonel Coote
at Wandiwash, between Madras and Pondicherry. Lally opened up
negotiations with Hyder Ali, who was rising to power in
Mysore; but Hyder Ali as yet could do little or nothing. At
the end of 1760 Colonel Coote began the siege of Pondicherry.
Lally … was ill in health and worn out with vexation and
fatigue. The settlement was torn by dissensions. In January,
1761, the garrison was starved into a capitulation, and the
town and fortifications were levelled with the ground. A few
weeks afterwards the French were compelled to surrender the
strong hill-fortress of Jingi, and their military power in the
Carnatic was brought to a close." On the return of Count Lally
to France "he was sacrificed to save the reputation of the
French ministers. … He was tried by the parliament of Paris.
… In May, 1766, he was condemned not only to death, but to
immediate execution."

_J. T. Wheeler,
Short History of India,
part 3, chapter 2._

"The battle of Wandewash, … though the numbers on each side
were comparatively small, must yet be classed amongst the
decisive battles of the world, for it dealt a fatal and
decisive blow to French domination in India."

_G. B. Malleson,
History of the French in India,
chapter 12._

ALSO IN:
_G. B. Malleson,
Decisive Battles of India,
chapter 4._

INDIA: A. D. 1767-1769.
The first war with Hyder Ali.

"At this period, the main point of interest changes from the
Presidency of Bengal to the Presidency of Madras. There, the
English were becoming involved in another war. There, they had
now, for the first time, to encounter the most skilful and
daring of all the enemies against whom they ever fought in
India—Hyder Ali.
{1720}
He was of humble origin, the grandchild of a wandering 'fakir'
or Mahomedan monk. Most versatile in his talents, Hyder was no
less adventurous in his career; by turns a private man devoted
to sports of the chase, a captain of free-booters, a
partisan-chief, a rebel against the Rajah of Mysore, and
commander-in-chief of the Mysorean army. Of this last position
he availed himself to dethrone and supplant his master. …
Pursuing his ambitious schemes, Hyder Ali became, not merely
the successor of the Rajah, but the founder of the kingdom of
Mysore. From his palace at Seringapatam, as from a centre, a
new energy was infused through the whole of Southern India. By
various wars and by the dispossession of several smaller
princes, he extended his frontiers to the northward, nearly to
the river Kistna. His posts on the coast of Malabar, Mangalore
especially, gave him the means of founding a marine; and he
applied himself with assiduous skill to train and discipline
his troops according to the European models. The English at
Madras were roused by his ambition, without as yet fully
appreciating his genius. We find them at the beginning of 1767
engaged, with little care or forethought, in a confederacy
against him with the Nizam and the Mahrattas. Formidable as
that confederacy might seem, it was speedily dissipated by the
arts of Hyder. At the very outset, a well-timed subsidy bought
off the Mahrattas. The Nizam showed no better faith; he was
only more tardy in his treason. He took the field in concert
with a body of English commanded by Colonel Joseph Smith, but
soon began to show symptoms of defection, and at last drew off
his troops to join the army of Hyder. A battle ensued near
Trincomalee, in September, 1767. Colonel Smith had under him
no more than 1,500 Europeans and 9,000 Sepoys; while the
forces combined on the other side were estimated, probably
with much exaggeration, at 70,000 men. Nevertheless, Victory,
as usual, declared for the English cause. … Our victory at
Trincomalee produced as its speedy consequence a treaty of
peace with the Nizam. Hyder was left alone; but even thus
proved fully a match for the English both of Madras and of
Bombay. … He could not be prevented from laying waste the
southern plains of the Carnatic, as the territory of one of
the staunchest allies of England, Mahomed Ali, the Nabob of
Arcot. Through such ravages, the British troops often
underwent severe privations. … At length, in the spring of
1769, Hyder Ali became desirous of peace, and resolved to
extort it on favourable terms. First, by a dexterous feint he
drew off the British forces 140 miles to the southward of
Madras. Then suddenly, at the head of 5,000 horsemen, Hyder
himself appeared at St. Thomas's Mount, within ten miles of
that city. The terrified Members of the Council already, in
their mind's eye, saw their country-houses given up to plunder
and to flame, and were little inclined to dispute whatever
might be asked by an enemy so near at hand. Happily his terms
were not high. A treaty was signed, providing that a mutual
restoration of conquests should take place, and that the
contracting parties should agree to assist each other in all
defensive wars. In the career of Hyder Ali, this was by no
means the first, nor yet the last occasion, on which he showed
himself sincerely desirous of alliance with the English. He
did not conceal the fact, that, in order to maintain his power
and secure himself, he must lean either on them or on the
Mahrattas. … In this war with Hyder, the English had lost no
great amount of reputation, and of territory they had lost
none at all. But as regards their wealth and their resources,
they had suffered severely. Supplies, both of men and of
money, had been required from Bengal, to assist the government
at Madras; and both had been freely given. In consequence of
such a drain, there could not be made the usual investments in
goods, nor yet the usual remittances to England. Thus at the
very time when the proprietors of the East India Company had
begun to wish each other joy on the great reforms effected by
Lord Clive, and looked forward to a further increase of their
half-yearly Dividend, they were told to prepare for its
reduction. A panic ensued. Within a few days, in the spring of
1769, India Stock fell above sixty per cent."

_Lord Mahon (Earl Stanhope),
History of England, 1713-1783,
chapter 67._

ALSO IN:
_Meer Hussein Ali Khan Kirmani,
History of Hydur Naik,
chapters 1-17._

_L. B. Bowring,
Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan,
chapter 8._

INDIA: A. D. 1770-1773.
Climax of English misrule.
Break-down of the East India Company's government.
The Indian Act of Lord North.