Chapter IV: , VII (117)

"Selim, the son and successor of Akbar, reigned from the year
of his father's death until 1627, having assumed the title of
Jahangir, or 'Conqueror of the World'; that is to say, he
reigned, but he did not govern. Before he came to the throne,
he fell in love with a poor Persian girl," whom his father
gave in marriage to one of his officers. "On his advent to the
throne, Jahangir … managed to get the husband killed, and
took the widow into his harem. He subsequently married her,
and she ruled, not him alone, but the whole empire. … [She
was first called Nur Mahal, 'Light of the Harem,' then Nur
Jahan, 'Light of the World.'] It was during this reign, in
1615, that the first English ambassador, Sir Thomas Roe,
arrived in Hindustan from James I.; and proceeding to Ajmere,
where Jahangir was staying at the time with his court, he made
him several presents, amongst which, we are told, a beautiful
English coach gave the Emperor the most satisfaction. He
received the ambassador with great distinction, showed him
marked attention at all public receptions, and granted a
firmân to the English to establish a factory at Surat. … The
later years of Jahangir's reign were disturbed by family
intrigues, in which the Empress Nur Jehan took a prominent
part, endeavouring to secure the succession for her
son-in-law; but after the death of the Emperor, his oldest
living son, Shah Jahan, pensioned and forced the Empress into
retirement … and … 'dispatched all the males of the house
of Timour, so that only himself and his children remained of
the posterity of Baber, who conquered India.' In some respects
the reign of Shah Jahan was unfortunate. He lost his Afghan
dominions, and gained but little by his invasions of the
Dekhan, which were carried on by his rebellious son and
successor, Aurungzeb; but in another direction he did more to
perpetuate the glory of the Mughal dynasty than any other
emperor of his line. Amongst other handsome buildings, he
erected the most beautiful the world has ever possessed. …
This was the well-known Taj Mahal at Agra, a mausoleum for his
favourite Empress Arjamund, known as Mumtaz-i-Mahal [of which
name, according to Elphinstone, Taj Mahal is a corruption],
'the Exalted One of the Seraglio.' … When Shah Jahan had
attained his 66th year (according to some writers, his 70th),
he was seized with a sudden illness, the result of his
debauched life, and as it was reported that he was dead, a
civil war broke out amongst his sons for the possession of the
throne. These were four in number, Dara (the oldest), Shuja,
Aurungzeb, and Murad (the youngest); and in the conflict
Aurungzeb, the third son, was ultimately successful. Two of
the brothers, Dara and Murad, fell into the power of the
last-named and were put to death by his orders. Shuja escaped
to Arracan, and was murdered there; and as for the Emperor,
who had recovered, Aurungzeb confined him in the fort at Agra,
with all his female relatives, and then caused himself to be
proclaimed in his stead [1658]. Towards the close of Shah
Jehan's life [which came to an end in 1666], a partial
reconciliation took place between him and his son, who,
however, did not release him from his confinement."

_J. Samuelson,
India, Past and Present,
part 1, chapter 7._

ALSO IN:
_J. T. Wheeler,
History of India,
volume 4, chapters 5-7._

Sir T. Roe,
Journal of Embassy
(Pinkerton's Collection of Voyages, volume 8).

_M. Elphinstone,
History of India: Hindu and Mahometan,
book 10._

INDIA: A. D. 1662-1748.
The struggle of Aurungzebe with the Mahrattas.
The Mahratta empire.
Invasion of Nadir Shah.
Sack of Delhi and great Massacre.

"Aurungzebe had reigned five years before he succeeded in
destroying all his kinsmen. … About that time, in the year
1662, a new and extraordinary power in Southern India began to
attract attention. The Mahrattas appear to have been nothing
more than the Hindoo peasantry, scattered throughout some of
the mountainous districts of the Mahomedan kingdoms of
Ahmednuggur, Beijapoor and Golconda, and united into a body
only by the prejudices of caste, of which their rank was the
lowest, that of Sudra. In the confusion incidental to the
constant wars in which these states were engaged, some of the
head men of their villages set up for themselves, and one of
them, Shahji Borla, became powerful enough to play a
conspicuous part at the time of the annexation of Ahmednuggur
to the Mogul empire. His son Sevaji, setting out from this
vantage ground, strengthened his hands by the silent capture
of some hill forts in Beijapoor, and eventually raising the
standard of revolt against that government, introduced a
spirit of union amidst the scattered masses of his people, and
may thus be considered the founder of the Mahratta empire. In
1662 he commenced his predatory expeditions into the Mogul
territory, and in ten years he found himself at the head of a
regular government with the title of Rajah, and strong enough
to encounter and defeat the imperial forces in a field battle.
This was the critical moment in the progress of the Mogul
empire. Aurungzebe was called away for two years by the
chronic disturbances beyond the Indus; his strength was wasted
by the ceaseless wars of the Deccan; and being goaded to
madness by the casual insurrection of some Hindoo devotees in
the centre of his dominions, he replaced the capitation tax on
infidels, and fulminated other decrees against that portion of
his subjects of such extravagant intolerance that they at
length looked upon the progress of their co-religionists, the
Mahrattas, with more longing than alarm. In 1679, the western
portion of Rajahstan was in arms against the empire, and
continued in a state of hostility more or less active during
the whole reign. Even the emperor's eventual successes in the
Deccan, in overthrowing the kingdoms of Beijapoor and
Golconda, contributed to his ruin; for it removed the check of
regular government from that distracted portion of the
country, and … threw into the arms of the Mahrattas the
adventurous and the desperate of the population. Sevaji died,
and successors of less talent filled the throne of the
robber-king; but this seems to have had no effect upon the
progress of the inundation, which now bursting over the
natural barriers of the peninsula, and sweeping away its
military defences, overflowed Malwa and a portion of Guzerat.
Aurungzebe fought gallantly and finessed craftily by turns;
… and thus he struggled with his destiny even to extreme old
age, bravely and alone. He expired in his 89th year, the 50th
of his reign, on the 21st of February, 1707. … During the
next twelve years after the death of Aurungzebe, no fewer than
five princes sat upon the throne, whose reigns, without being
distinguished by any great events, exhibited evident
indications of the gradual decline of the empire.
{1712}
During that period the Sikhs, originally a sect of Hindoo
dissenters, whose peculiarity consisted in their repudiation
of all religious ceremonies, having first been changed into
warriors by persecution, began to rise by the spirit of union
into a nation; but so weak were they at this time that in 1706
the dying energies of the empire were sufficient almost for
their extirpation. … Mahomed Shah succeeded to the throne in
1719. The Mahratta government was by this time completely
consolidated, and the great families of the race, since so
celebrated, had begun to rise into eminence: such as that of
the Peshwa, the official title of a minister of the Rajah; of
Holkar, the founder of which was a shepherd; and of Sindia,
which sprang from a menial servant. … A still more
remarkable personage of the time was Asof Jah, whose
descendants became the Nizams [regulators or governors—the
title becoming hereditary in the family of Asof, at Hyderabad]
of the Deccan. … While the empire was … rent in pieces by
internal disturbances, a more tremendous enemy even than the
Mahrattas presented himself from without. A revolution had
taken place in Persia, which seated a soldier of fortune upon
the throne; and the famous Nadir Shah, after capturing
Candahar, found it necessary, according to the fashion of
conquerors, to seize upon the Mogul territories, Ghizni and
Cabul, and when at the latter city to continue his march into
Hindostan. In 1739, he arrived at Kurnaul, within 70 miles of
Delhi, and defeated the emperor in a general engagement. …
The two kings then proceeded to Delhi after the battle, where
Nadir, in consequence, it is said, of an insurrection of the
populace, set fire to the city and massacred the inhabitants
to a number which has been variously estimated at from 30,000
to 150,000. He then proceeded to the main business of his
invasion, robbing first the treasury and afterwards the
inhabitants individually, torturing or murdering all who were
suspected of concealing their riches, and at length returned
to his own dominions, having obtained a formal cession of the
country west of the Indus, and carrying with him in money and
plate at least twelve millions sterling, besides jewels of
great value, including those of the Peacock Throne [the throne
of the Great Mogul, made solidly of gold and adorned with
diamonds and pearls,—the enamelled back of the throne being
spread in the form of a peacock's tail.]

_Tavernier's Travels,
translated and edited by V. Ball,
book 2, chapter 8 (volume 1)._

From this period to the death of the Emperor Mahomed Shah, in
1748, the interval was filled up with the disturbances which
might be expected."

_Leitch Ritchie,
History of the Indian Empire,
book 1, chapter 5 (volume 1)._

The Asof or Asaf Jah mentioned above had become, in 1721, the
Prime Minister of the Emperor Muhammad Shah, "In a little more
than three years he had thrown up in disgust an office which
the levity of the young monarch hindered him from discharging
to his satisfaction; and had repaired to the Deccan, where he
founded the State which still subsists under the name of 'The
Nizam's Dominions.' Nominally, it was the Subah [province]
erected on the ruins of the old Musalman kingdoms; but in the
decline of the Empire it became a hereditary and
quasi-independent province, though the ruler never took the
royal title, but continued to retain the style of an Imperial
Viceroy, as 'Nizam-ul-mulk,' which his descendant still
bears."

_H. G. Keene,
Madhava Rao Sindhia,
chapter 1._

"The different provinces and viceroyalties went their own
natural way; they were parcelled out in a scuffle among
revolted governors, rebellious chiefs, leaders of insurgent
tribes or sects, religious revivalists, or captains of
mercenary bands. The Indian people were becoming a masterless
multitude swaying to and fro in the political storm, and
clinging to any power, natural or supernatural, that seemed
likely to protect them. They were prepared to acquiesce in the
assumption of authority by anyone who could show himself able
to discharge the most elementary functions of government in
the preservation of life and property. In short, the people
were scattered without a leader or protector; while the
political system under which they had long lived was
disappearing in complete disorganization. It was during this
period of tumultuary confusion that the French and English
first appeared upon the political arena in India."

_Sir A. Lyall,
Rise of the British Dominion in India,
chapter 4, sections 1-2._

ALSO IN:
_S. Lane-Poole,
Aurangzib,
chapters 9-12._

_A. Dow,
History of Hindostan, from Ferishta,
volume 3._

_J. G. Duff,
History of the Mahrattas,
volume 1, and volume 2, chapter 1._

_C. R. Markham,
History of Persia,
chapter 12._

INDIA: A. D. 1665-1743.
Commercial undertakings of the French.
Their settlement at Pondicherry.

"Many expeditions to India had been made [by the French]
earlier than the time of Colbert's East India Company,
chartered in the year 1665. The first French ships, of which
there is any record, that succeeded in reaching India, were
two despatched from one of the ports of Brittany in 1601.
These ships were, however, wrecked on the Maldive Islands, and
their commander did not return to France for ten years.
Voyages were undertaken in 1616, 1619, and again in 1633, of
which the most that can be said is that they met with no great
disaster. The attempt to found settlements in Java and
Madagascar, which was the object of these voyages, completely
failed. The first operations of the French East India Company
were to establish factories in Hindostan. Surat, a large
commercial city at the mouth of the Taptee, was fixed upon for
the principal depot. The abuses and lavish waste of the
officers entrusted to carry out Colbert's plans, brought the
company to an end in five years. An attempt in 1672 to form a
colony at Trincomalee, on the north-east coast of Ceylon, was
frustrated by the hostility of the Dutch. Afterwards the
French made an attempt on Meliapoor or Thomé, belonging to the
Portuguese. They were soon expelled, and the survivors sought
refuge at Pondicherry [1674], a small town which they had
purchased on the same coast of the Carnatic. In 1693,
Pondicherry was taken by the Dutch, who improved the
fortifications and general condition of the town. At the peace
of Ryswick, in 1697, the settlement was restored to the
French. For half a century Pondicherry shared the neglect
common to French colonies, and owed more to the probity and
discretion of its governors than to the home government. M.
Martin, and subsequently Dumas, saved the settlement from
ruin. They added to the defences; and Dumas, being in want of
money for public purposes, obtained permission from the King
of Delhi to coin money for the French settlers. He also
procured the cession of Karikal, a district of Tanjore. On the
other hand, several stations and forts had to be given up."

_J. Yeats,
Growth and Vicissitudes of Commerce,
part 3, chapter 7._

ALSO IN:
_G. B. Malleson,
History of the French in India,
chapters 1-3._

_H. Martin,
History of France: Age of Louis XIV.,
volume 1, chapter 2._

{1713}

INDIA: A. D. 1743-1752.
Struggle of the French and English for supremacy in the Deccan.
Clive against Dupleix.
The founding of British empire.

"England owes the idea of an Indian empire to the French, as
also the chief means by which she has hitherto sought to
realize it. The war of the Austrian succession had just broken
out [1743] between France and England.

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1743.

Dupleix, the governor of the settlements of the French East
India Company, proposed to the English company a neutrality in
the eastern seas; it was rejected. The English probably
repented of their presumption when they saw Captain Peyton,
the commander of a squadron of three liners and a frigate,
after an indecisive engagement with the French admiral,
Labourdonnais, take flight to the Bay of Bengal, leaving
Madras, then the most flourishing of the English settlements,
defenceless. Dupleix and Labourdonnais were the first of that
series of remarkable Frenchmen who, amidst every
discouragement from home, and in spite of their frequent
mutual dissensions, kept the French name so prominent in India
for more than the next half century, only to meet on their
return with obloquy, punishment, even death. Labourdonnais,
who was Admiral of the French fleet, was also Governor of
Mauritius, then called the Isle of France. He had disciplined
a force of African negroes. With French troops and these, he
entered the narrow strip of coast, five miles long, one mile
broad, which was then the territory of Madras, bombarded the
city, compelled the fort (which had lost five men) to
surrender. But his terms were honourable; the English were
placed on parole; the town was to be given up on payment of a
moderate ransom (1746). Dupleix, however, was jealous; he
denied Labourdonnais powers; broke the capitulation; paraded
the Governor and other English gentlemen in triumph through
Pondicherry. In vain did Admiral Boscawen besiege the latter
place; time was wasted, the trenches were too far, the rains
came on; Boscawen raised the siege, crippled in men and
stores; was recalled by the news of the peace of
Aix-la-Chapelle, and, to close his career of misfortune, lost
several ships and 1,200 men on the Coromandel coast (1748-9).
News of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, however, produced a
very temporary cessation of hostilities, Madras being
restored, with fortifications much improved. The English
fortunes seemed at their lowest in India; the French rising to
their full height. Dupleix conceived the bold plan of
interfering in the internal politics of the country.
Labourdonnais had disciplined the negro; Dupleix disciplined
the native Indian. … Labourdonnais had beaten off the
so-called Nawab of the Carnatic, when he attempted to take
Madras; the event produced an immense sensation; it was the
first victory obtained for a century by Europeans over the
natives of India. Dupleix was strong enough to be reckoned a
valuable ally. But on the English side a young man had
appeared who was to change the whole course of events in the
East. Robert Clive, an attorney's son from Market Drayton,
born in 1725, sent off at eighteen as a writer to Madras—a
naughty boy who had grown into an insubordinate clerk, who had
been several times in danger of losing his situation, and had
twice attempted to destroy himself—ran away from Madras,
disguised as a Mussulman, after Dupleix's violation of the
capitulation, obtained an ensign's commission at twenty-one,
and began distinguishing himself as a soldier under Major
Lawrence, then the best British officer in India."

_J. M. Ludlow,
British India,
lecture 7._

"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.