Establishment and Expansion of British Colonial Power in India (1757–1857) — Part 2: Conquest of Bengal

2. Conquest of Bengal

2.1 Battle of Plassey (1757)

Siraj-ud-daula succeeded his grandfather Alivardi Khan as Nawab of Bengal in 1756. His accession was opposed by a powerful court faction comprising Jagat Seth, Umichand, Raj Ballabh, Rai Durlabh, and Mir Jafar, all of whom resented his reforming zeal and feared the loss of their privileges. Relations with the Company deteriorated rapidly over three specific grievances: the Company's illegal fortification of Calcutta without the Nawab's permission; the systematic misuse of the Company's dustak (trade permit) by its officials for private trade, depriving the Nawab of customs revenues; and the Company's sheltering of Krishna Das — son of Raj Ballabh — who had fled Murshidabad with immense treasure against the Nawab's explicit orders.

When Siraj attacked and captured Calcutta in June 1756, a strong British force under Robert Clive arrived from Madras to retake it. Rather than rely on military superiority, Clive entered into a secret conspiracy with Mir Jafar, the Nawab's commander-in-chief, promising him the Nawabship in exchange for his betrayal. The battle fought at Palashi (Plassey as the British spelled it), some 150 kilometres north of Calcutta, on 23 June 1757 was thus decided before it began. Mir Jafar's forces — constituting the bulk of the Nawab's army — stood aside. Siraj-ud-daula fled, was captured, and was executed on the orders of Mir Jafar's son Miran. As the contemporary record confirms: "It was not the superiority of the military power but the conspiracy of the Nawab's officials that helped the English in winning the battle." 'Mir Jafar' remains to this day a synonym for traitor in India.

2.2 Mir Jafar and Mir Kasim

Mir Jafar was installed as Nawab — the Company's first puppet ruler. He paid approximately Rs 1,750,000 in presents and compensation to British officials and bore the costs of Company troops stationed in Bengal. Zamindars refused to recognize him, his soldiers mutinied for unpaid wages, and the Mughal prince Shah Alam attempted to seize Bengal. The British grew dissatisfied, accusing Mir Jafar of collaborating with the Dutch and failing to meet the Company's ever-increasing financial demands.

Governor Vansittart replaced Mir Jafar with Mir Kasim, his son-in-law, following a secret financial arrangement. Mir Kasim ceded the three districts of Burdwan, Midnapore, and Chittagong to the Company and shifted the capital from Murshidabad to Monghyr in Bihar to escape Company interference. He reorganized the bureaucracy and rebuilt the army. When he abolished all duties on internal trade to create parity with the duty-free Company servants, the Company declared this an infringement of its privileges and again sought to replace him.

2.3 Battle of Buxar (1764)

Mir Kasim, unlike his predecessors, refused to capitulate without a fight. He allied with Shah Alam II (the Mughal Emperor) and Shuja-ud-daula (Nawab of Awadh), forming a powerful triple confederacy. Their combined forces met the British at Buxar on 22 October 1764 and were decisively defeated.

Buxar is historically more significant than Plassey. While Plassey was decided by treachery, Buxar was a genuine military engagement. The British victory was not merely over Mir Kasim but over the Mughal Emperor and the Nawab of Awadh combined — effectively signalling that no coalition of Indian powers could challenge the Company on the battlefield. The victory at Buxar "gave a clear indication that the establishment of the British rule in other parts of India was not very far off."

2.4 The Dual Government (1765–1772) and Its Failure

In August 1765, Clive — returning as Governor of Bengal — negotiated a transformative agreement with Shah Alam. In exchange for Allahabad and adjoining territories, Shah Alam granted the Diwani (the right to collect revenue) of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa to the East India Company by a formal firman. This gave the British complete control over the financial administration of the three provinces.

Responsibility for defence, law and order, and justice nominally remained with the Nawabs, whose military power had been destroyed at Buxar. The result was the Dual Government: the Company collected revenues (Diwani) while the Nawab nominally administered (Nizamat). In practice, the Nawab was reduced to a cipher. The Company extracted maximum revenues while accepting minimum administrative responsibility, contributing to the catastrophic Bengal Famine of 1770, which killed an estimated one-third of the population. The Dual Government was abolished in 1772 when Warren Hastings assumed direct administrative responsibility as the first Governor-General.