Robert Clive: The Foundation of British Rule in India

1.1 How did he begin?

Robert Clive was born in 1725. He began in India in 1744 as a writer. A writer was a clerk in the East India Company. He worked at Madras. In 1746 the French took Madras, and that clerk career ended.

A year later he became an ensign, a junior army officer. He had no formal military training.

1.2 Why does Arcot matter?

The Second Carnatic War was fought in southern India. The French backed Chanda Sahib as Nawab of Arcot. On 31 August 1751 Clive captured Arcot. The museum record dates his heroic defence of the town to October 1751. The win helped build British power in the south.

2.1 Why did the war start?

Siraj-ud-Daula was the Nawab of Bengal. His attack on Calcutta led to open conflict. Clive led the Company force sent to win it back. Calcutta was captured on 2 January 1757.

2.2 How did the battle go?

Plassey was fought on 23 June 1757. The Nawab had about 50,000 men. The Company had about 3,000. Mir Jafar led the Nawab’s cavalry. He refused to fight.

Clive and the Jagat Seths, a family of Indian bankers, had secretly offered Mir Jafar the throne. The Nawab’s army fell apart.

2.3 Who plotted, and what did it pay?

The plotters included Rai Durlabh, Amichand, Mir Jafar and Jagat Seth. Mir Jafar became Nawab, but he was little more than a puppet. He paid the Company Rs 1.77 crore. Clive sent at least £2.5 million seized from Bengal’s rulers to the Company’s treasury.

2.4 Who wrote about it?

The Siyar-ul-Mutakherin is a history written by Ghulam Husain Khan Tabatabai. Its English translation was dedicated to Warren Hastings. That fact makes some scholars question how fair the translation is.

3.1 How did Buxar follow Plassey?

Three nawabs ruled Bengal between 1757 and 1765. They were Siraj-ud-Daula, Mir Jafar and Mir Qasim. In June 1763 the British beat Mir Qasim. He fled to Patna and sought help from Shah Alam II and Shuja-ud-Daula.

The allies met the Company at Buxar on 22 October 1764. The Company won decisively and overran Awadh.

3.2 What was agreed at Allahabad?

On 16 August 1765 a treaty was signed at Allahabad with Shuja-ud-Daula. Awadh was given back. He paid 50 lakh rupees for the cost of the war. Kara and Allahabad went to Shah Alam II.

The emperor then granted the Company the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. In return, the Company was to pay him 26 lakh rupees a year.

Do not merge these into one treaty. Learn who gave what.

3.3 Was it a fair deal?

One account says Clive dictated the terms. It adds that a terrified Shah Alam simply waved them through. The Diwani was the right to collect the tax revenue. It gave Britain a political stake in India.

4.1 What did the Company hold?

After Allahabad the Company was the Diwan of Bengal. That meant it collected the land revenue. Clive chose not to run the administration himself. He left the work to the Nawab’s deputies.

4.2 Who ran the work day to day?

Muhammad Raza Khan was both Naib Diwan and Naib Nazim. As Naib Diwan he spoke for the Company. As Naib Nazim he spoke for the Nawab.

4.3 Why was the system flawed?

It is known as Dual or Double Government. The Company had power and money without responsibility. The Nawab had the responsibility without the power to carry it out.

The Company had the money. The Nawab had the blame.

5.1 What did he do as governor?

Clive served twice as Governor of Bengal. He was also Commander-in-Chief Bengal, with the local rank of major-general. He did much to train the Company’s army on European lines. That made it a formidable force.

5.2 What honours did he get?

He was made Baron Clive of Plassey in 1762. He became a Knight of the Bath in 1764. A baron is a rank of the nobility. The Bath is an order of knighthood.

5.3 Did he fight corruption?

In his later years as governor he tried to stamp out corruption. He forbade the acceptance of gifts. Those gifts had made him so wealthy. Yet back home he was denounced in Parliament as a corrupt “nabob”.

6.1 How rich did he become?

One account says he arrived in India a pauper and left a millionaire. On his return he had a fortune valued then at £234,000. That made him the richest self-made man in Europe. At his death the fortune was worth about £500,000.

6.2 What happened to Bengal?

The province was already devastated by war. Then came the famine of 1769-70. A third of the people may have died, though this is almost certainly an overestimate. High taxation ruined the province further.

Clive had gone home by then. Even so, his system gave the Company the revenue.

6.3 What did Parliament do?

Burgoyne, Burke and other MPs accused him of running a corrupt administration. Clive replied that he stood astonished at his own moderation. Parliament passed a resolution in his favour. He also escaped formal censure.

6.4 How did he die?

Illness and depression probably led him to take his own life on 24 November 1774. He was buried in a secret night-time ceremony. Horace Walpole wrote of the time: “We have murdered, deposed, plundered and usurped.”

7.1 Is Clive a Governor-General?

No. Warren Hastings was the first governor-general, from 1773 to 1785. That office began just before Clive’s death. Clive was Governor of Bengal.

7.2 What did he leave behind?

Plassey eventually led Britain to become the greatest economic and military power on the subcontinent. The Diwani made the Company ruler of India’s richest province. Later rulers built on the base he laid.

8.1 Which traps come up most?

• Plassey: 23 June 1757, a plot with Mir Jafar.
• Buxar: 22 October 1764, after Plassey.
• Allahabad: two settlements. Awadh paid 50 lakh. The emperor gave the Diwani.
• Kara and Allahabad: these went to the emperor.
• Dual Government: the Company held the money, the Nawab the blame.

8.2 How do I remember the story?

Think of the four steps above. Clerk, Arcot, Plassey, Diwani. Each step opened the next.