Chapter XII: The Reign of Misrule in Bengal

Clive had chosen Mr. Vansittart to succeed him as President of the Council in Bengal because he believed he had recognized in him a man who would do all in his power to put down the growing system of venality and corruption. I have already shown how he had written to him before he quitted India. The words he had used were: 'The expected reinforcements will, in my opinion, put Bengal out of all danger but that of venality and corruption.' But Clive had not sufficiently considered that the very fact that the new President had been selected from Madras instead of from amongst the men who had served under his immediate orders was likely to cause jealousy among the latter; that Vansittart, notwithstanding his estimated lofty moral nature,[1] had no strength of character; {150}no such persuasive powers as could win men to his side; no pre-eminent abilities; no force of will, such as Clive himself would have displayed, to dominate or, in case of great emergency, to suspend a refractory colleague. He was but one of the herd, well-meaning, opposed in principle to the venality and corruption then in vogue, but, in every sense of the term, ordinary. Even with respect to the two vices he denounced, he was an untried and untempted man.

[Footnote 1: One anecdote will demonstrate the extent of the 'lofty moral nature' attributed by Clive to Mr. Vansittart. After Clive had been a year or so in England he wrote to Vansittart requesting him to select for him and despatch to him an elephant, as he wished to present one to the King. Vansittart chose and despatched the elephant for presentation to his Majesty, not as a gift from Clive, but as from himself.]

His capacity for rule was put to the test very soon after he had assumed the reins of office. Those reins had not, as I have said, been handed to him by Clive. He had taken them from Mr. Holwell at the very end of July (1760). In the interval an event had occurred which had changed the general position in Bengal. Five months after Clive had quitted Calcutta (July 2, 1760) Miran, the only son of the Subahdar, Mir Jafar, was struck dead by lightning. The reader may recollect the passage in his letter to Mr. Pitt, wherein Clive referred to this young man. He had described him as 'so cruel, worthless a young fellow, and so apparently an enemy to the English, that it will be almost unsafe trusting him with the succession.' If another successor, with an unquestionable title, had been immediately available, the death of Miran would have been no calamity. But there was no such successor. The next son in order of succession had seen but thirteen summers. Outside of that boy and his younger brothers were many claimants, not one of them with an indefeasible title. Mir Jafar himself {151}was older even than his years. It devolved then, with the tacit consent of the nobles, on the Council at Calcutta, to nominate the successor to Miran. Such was the state of affairs when Mr. Vansittart arrived, and took his seat as President of the Council.

It happened that there were in Bengal at this time two officers who had rendered conspicuous service to the State, Majors Calliaud and Knox. During the very month in which Clive had quitted Calcutta, these officers had marched with such English troops and sipahis as were available, to assist in the repelling of an invasion made by the titular King of Delhi, prompted, it was believed, by Miran, and had repulsed, with great loss to the enemy, an attempt made to storm the city of Patna. Vansittart, who knew Calliaud well alike as a friend and as a man trusted by Clive, summoned him to attend the Council upon the deliberations of which the future of Bengal depended. The discussions were long and somewhat heated. The party in the Council which represented most accurately the opinions of Clive, as rendered in his letter to Mr. Pitt, already referred to,[2] was of opinion that whilst Mir Jafar should be allowed to reign during the remainder of his life, opportunity should be taken of his death to transfer the direct {152}administration to the English. If this opportunity had been taken to carry out some such policy it is probable that the evils which followed would have been avoided.

[Footnote 2: Clive's letter had been written during the life of Miran. After detailing his character and the growing infirmities of Mir Jafar, he had added: 'so small a body as 2000 Europeans will secure us against any apprehensions from either the one or the other; and, in case of their daring to be troublesome, enable the Company to take the sovereignty upon themselves.']

The discussions were still proceeding when there arrived an envoy from the Subahdar, his son-in-law, Mir Muhammad Kasim, a man of ability, tact, great persuasive powers, no scruple, and, in a certain sense, a patriot. Mir Kasim had coveted the succession vacant by the death of Miran. He had divined the plans of the English; he hated them as the enemies of the race of conquerors who had ruled Bengal and its people for centuries. He despised them as venal: and he had resolved to use them for his own advantage. He had brought with him a bag full of promises, and, though nominally the representative of Mir Jafar, had come resolved to work for his own interests.

Admitted into the secret deliberations of the Council, Mir Kasim soon realized that, with the single exception of Major Calliaud, he could buy them all. Even the scrupulousness of Mr. Vansittart vanished before his golden arguments. He bought them. For certain specified sums of money to be paid by him to each member of Council,[3] these official Englishmen covenanted to dethrone their ally of Plassey, Mir Jafar, and to seat on the _masnad_ his son-in-law, Mir Kasim. Three days after the signature of the treaty Mir {153}Kasim set out to make his preparations for the coming event, and two days afterwards Mr. Vansittart started for Murshidabad to break the news to Mir Jafar. His very first official act had been a violation of the principle prescribed to him by Clive as the one the non-indulgence in which would secure the English from all danger.

[Footnote 3: He included even Major Calliaud, but without the consent, and after the departure from India, of that officer.]

The events which followed must be stated very briefly. Vansittart obtained from Mir Jafar his resignation. The one condition stipulated by the old man was that thenceforth he should reside, under the protection of the English, at Calcutta, or in its immediate vicinity. For that city he started the following morning (September 19). Mir Kasim proceeded to Patna to complete the arrangements which had followed the repulse of the invasion of Bihar by the troops of Shah Alim, and was there formally installed by Shah Alim himself as Subahdar of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa.

Mir Kasim possessed all the capacities of a ruler. He knew thoroughly the evils under which the three provinces were groaning, and he proceeded with all the energy of a nature which never tired to reform them. He moved his capital to Mungir, a town with a fortress, on the right bank of the Ganges, commanding Northern and Eastern Bihar, and nearly midway between Calcutta and Benares. He then proceeded to reform his infantry on the English system, enlisting in his service two well-known soldiers of mixed or Armenian descent, Samru and {154}Markar, to command brigades of their own, and to aid in the training of the other soldiers. So far he achieved success. But when he proceeded to alleviate the misery of his people, he found that the fatal gift of the salt monopoly enabled the English to thwart all his efforts. For not only did the English use the authority they possessed to the great impoverishment of the soil, but they gave to their friends and dependents licences exempting from the payment of duty in such profusion, that the people of Bengal and Bihar suffered to an extent such as, in the present day, can with difficulty be credited. Never, on the one side, was there so insatiable a determination to become rich, no matter what misery might be thereby caused to others; never, on the other, a more honest endeavour, by sacrifices of any kind, to escape the ruin caused by such cruel exactions.

At last, when he had exhausted appeal after appeal to the Calcutta authorities, Mir Kasim recognized that his only chance of escape from the pressure too hard to be borne, was to appeal to the God of Battles. He was ready; the English, he believed, were not. He had excellent fighting material; generals who would not betray him. On the other hand, he knew that Clive and Calliaud had quitted India, and he did not believe that either had his equal amongst the men on the spot. Accordingly, just after he had received a demand from Calcutta, compliance with which would have completed the ruin then {155}impending, he took the bold step of abolishing all transit duties, and of establishing free-trade throughout his territories. Anticipating the consequences of this bold act, he notified to his generals to be prepared for any movement the English might make.

Here, in the space allotted,[4] it must suffice to state that the English, amazed that such a worm as the Subahdar of the three provinces should dare to question their commands, sent two of their number to remonstrate with him. But, whilst they were negotiating, another Englishman, one of their own clique, a civil officer named Ellis, furious at the idea of stooping to negotiate, made preparations to seize the important city of Patna. At the head of a small force he did surprise (June 25, 1763) that city during the hours before daybreak, but the garrison of the citadel and of a large stone building refused to admit him. Little caring for this, he permitted his men to disperse to plunder. Meanwhile the commander of the Subahdar's troops, Mir Mehdi Khan, had started for Mungir to represent to his master the turn events had taken. On his way thither, a few miles from the city, he encountered the troops in his master's service commanded by Markar, the Armenian. Markar, as in duty bound, at once marched on Patna, found the English still plundering, drove them out of the city, and forced them to take refuge in a factory outside of it. {156}There he besieged them, and thence he forced them to retreat (June 29). Meanwhile the Subahdar had despatched his other brigade, under Samru, to Baksar, to cut off the retreat of the English, whilst he urged Markar to follow them up. Markar followed, caught, and attacked them between the two places--the 1st of July--and completely defeated them. The English, of whom there were 300, aided by 2,500 natives, fought with their usual courage; but they were badly led, were discouraged, and were completely beaten. Those who did not fall on the field were taken prisoners, re-conveyed to Patna, and were there eventually put to death.

[Footnote 4: For a detailed account of the events preceding and following this action on the part of Mir Kasim, the reader is referred to the author's _Decisive Battles of India_, New Edition, pp. 133-174.]

Such was the mode in which the war began. Had not the English possessed, though they knew it not until experience had taught them, a commander not inferior to any of the men who had done so much for the glory of their country in the East, it is probable that Mir Kasim, who, according to a contemporary writer,[5] 'was trained to arms,' and who 'united the gallantry of the soldier with the sagacity of the statesman,' would have driven them to their ships.

[Footnote 5: The author of an admirable book, written at the time, entitled, _Transactions in India from 1756 to 1783_.]

From such a fate they were saved by the skill, the devotion, the supreme military talents of Major John Adams. This officer, placed in command, defeated Mir Kasim's army, after a very bloody battle, at Katwa (July 19); again, a few days later, after a most stubborn resistance, at Gheria. But neither {157}of these battles was decisive of the war. When, however, the month following, Adams stormed the immensely strong position of Undwa Nala, defended by 40,000 men, and captured 100 pieces of cannon, Mir Kasim recognized that the war was over. He made no attempt to defend either Rajmahal, Mungir, or Patna. On the fall of the latter city (November 6) he fled to Oudh to take refuge there with the Nawab-Wazir, and to instigate him to espouse his cause.

It is only necessary to add that he succeeded in persuading that prince to attempt the venture. He attempted it, however, only to repent his audacity, for, after much manoeuvring, the English, led by Munro, afterwards Sir Hector--who, after an interval of the incapable Carnac, had succeeded Adams, killed by the climate and the fatigues of the campaign--inflicted a crushing defeat upon him on the plains of Baksar (October 23, 1764); then Munro, pursuing his victorious course, occupied successively Benares, Chanar, and Allahabad. In March, 1765, the English overran Oudh, occupying Lucknow and Faizabad; then went on to beat the enemy at Karra, and again at Kalpi on the Jumna. Then the Nawab-Wazir, 'a hopeless wanderer,' threw himself on the mercy of the conquerors. These behaved to him with conspicuous generosity, repaid by his successors in late years. The English frontier was, however, not the less advanced, practically, as far as Allahabad. Such was the military position when Clive returned to Calcutta as Governor in May, 1765.

{158}Meanwhile the English, on the outbreak of the war with Mir Kasim, had restored Mir Jafar, receiving the usual gratuities for themselves and stipulating for exemptions from all duties except two and a half per cent. on salt. As for Mir Kasim, it is only necessary to add that he died some years later at Delhi in extreme poverty. With all his faults he was a patriot.

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