A historic and bloody conflict took place 269 years ago at a place called Palashi, on the banks of the Bhagirathi River, about 50 kilometers north of Krishnanagar in Nadia district of West Bengal, India, and about 70 kilometers southeast of Meherpur district of Bangladesh. The day was June 23, 1757. On this day, a force of just 3,000 East India Company soldiers, led by Robert Clive, defeated the massive army of 50,000 soldiers of Siraj-ud-Daula, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, laying the foundation for British colonial and imperial rule in the Indian subcontinent. The bloody conflict lasted less than half a day and was over in about 8 to 11 hours.
It was a short-lived conflict in terms of duration. It is nevertheless called a “battle” because it was a decisive political and territorial juncture. The East India Company won not by military force, but by the treachery of the Nawab’s general, Mir Jafar, who held back his troops in exchange for bribes. The bribes were paid by Robert Clive on behalf of the East India Company to Mir Jafar, Nawab Siraj-ud-Daula’s general, and others. Not only that, Robert Clive also promised to make Mir Jafar the Nawab of Bengal at that time. And as a result of all this, Clive defeated Siraj-ud-Daulah in the Battle of Plassey in 1757, laying the foundation for British colonial rule and exploitation in the Indian subcontinent! What was the final fate of such a brave and skilled English commander Robert Clive?
On a grey November morning in 1774, the city of London was abuzz with sensational news. Robert Clive, Baron of Plassey, whom some called the founder of Britain’s Indian Empire and others its “most shameless plunderer,” had died. The humorous politician Horace Walpole told friends that Clive had ‘cut his own throat’. The English aristocrat Lady Mary Coke wrote in her diary that he had “committed suicide.” Some said a razor-blade was found next to him, others whispered about opium. The autopsy report did not give a clear cause, but many believed that Britain’s most famous “Nawab” had taken his own life! Some thought it was a fitting end for such a cunning and cruel man, whose rise was as brutal as his fall!
Robert Clive was born in 1725 in the small village of Stych, Shropshire, England. He is described in literature as a restless, ill-tempered, and ambitious boy. According to contemporary legend, he once climbed a church steeple and sat on the edge, his feet dangling far above the ground, suggesting that he was not easily frightened.
At the age of about nineteen, with little to live on in England, Clive went to Madras as a junior clerk for the East India Company. In Madras, Clive was eccentric and quarrelsome, attempted suicide and once fought in a duel. He found solace in studying in the Governor’s library. In this library he practically educated himself. The rivalry between the English and French East India Companies and their competing support for rival Indian princes drew Clive into military service and gave him the opportunity to demonstrate his abilities. In 1751, the French ally Hussain Dost Khan alias Chanda Sahib besieged his British-backed rival Muhammad Ali in the fort of Trichinopoly. Clive proposed to lead a strategic and daring attack against Chanda’s base at Arcot. With 200 European and 300 Indian troops, he captured Arcot on 31 August 1751 and then successfully resisted a 53-day (23 September–14 November) siege led by Hussain Dost Khan, alias Chanda Sahib’s son.
Historian Thomas Babington Macaulay says of Clive’s capture of Arcot, ‘…the general who was to conduct the defence… was trained as an accountant… After three desperate assaults, the besiegers retreated… the garrison of the fort lost only five or six men.’ Prime Minister William Pitt the elder called him ‘the heavenly general’, a title Clive held with pride, although he had no formal military training.
Battle of Plassey: The outcome was decided before it even began
Six years after the capture of Arcot, the event that would make Clive’s name and fortune occurred. In 1756, the new Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daulah, took control of Calcutta. After the ‘Black Hole’ incident, in which many British prisoners died, Clive set out to retake the city.
On 23 June 1757, at Plassey, Clive faced 50,000 soldiers of Nawab Sirajuddaula with just 3,000 soldiers under his command. But the real battle was fought in secret; the major Nawab commanders, including Mir Jafar, had been promised gold and power by the British. The Nawab’s army was scattered before any major fighting could begin. Some in Britain called this a military feat. Others saw it as mere bribery and betrayal. Either way, India’s richest province came under the control of the East India Company. Historians agree that this was a watershed moment in the establishment of British rule in India.
The price of victory in the battle was paid in plunder and titles
Finally, in 1760, Robert Clive left the administration of Bengal in the hands of his subordinates and returned to England with a vast fortune that made him one of the richest men in Britain. This included a cash payment of £234,000 from the new ruler of Bengal and a jagir worth £30,000 a year. He bought land, secured a seat in Parliament, and was created Baron Clive of Plassey in 1762. Pitt repeated his praise of the “heavenly commander.” The well-planned tax collection system established by Muhammad Reza Khan, in coordination with the Nawab and the East India Company, soon began to break down.
Reza Khan had frequent disagreements with Henry Sykes, the Company’s Resident at Murshidabad. Sykes demanded that British officials be appointed to replace the traditional tax collectors and declared that his main aim was to collect the maximum revenue for the Company. Reza Khan protested vehemently that such a move was unjust and vowed to resist it. However, Sykes pointedly reminded him that he had no real independent authority.
Gradually, British officials took over the responsibility of revenue collection. The traditional Mughal tax administration system, run by the Nawabs and their officials, collapsed, ushering in the direct control of the East India Company over the finances of Bengal.
But in his native England, public opinion about Clive had already begun to change. For many, Clive and his associate “Nawabs” became symbols of greed. He was accused of plunder and corruption in Parliament. His infamous self-defense, “surprised at his own restraint” considering he could have taken much more, further deepened his villainous image.
Gaining Diwani and establishes control by East India Company
By 1765, the economy of Bengal was collapsing under Company mismanagement. Clive returned, this time not to conquer, but to consolidate. In the Treaty of Allahabad, he secured the Diwani—that is, the right to collect taxes in Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa—from the Mughal emperor. In this one step, the Company became the de facto ruler of Bengal.
Clive reorganized the army, increased salaries to curb petty corruption, and banned officials from accepting personal gifts; these steps were taken not out of philanthropy but to ensure the Company’s monopoly on wealth. By the time he left in 1767, he had created the financial structure of the British Raj, a system designed to fill London’s coffers at the expense of Bengal.
Clive’s trial, illness and death
In 1767, Clive returned to England. But he left behind a sordid history of bribery, corruption, embezzlement, palace intrigue, corruption and apolitical politics in India. He also lived in Paris for some time. Then he returned to his country again. At that time, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Meanwhile, in 1770, a terrible famine occurred in Bengal. In history, it is known as the ‘Famine of Seventy-six'(Bengali 1176). In this, one-third of the people of Bengal died tragically. This incident caused uproar in England itself. British politics and Parliament became heated about the activities of Clive and the company. The investigation of the British Parliament revealed the astonishing story of Clive’s mismanagement, corruption, and plunder in India. Although Clive was acquitted in 1773, these investigations had a negative impact on his health and reputation. Edmund Burke and other MPs portrayed him as the embodiment of imperial greed.
Clive’s health was also failing at this time. He suffered from gallstones. He used opium to relieve his pain and was often depressed. On 22 November 1774, he was found dead in his house in Berkeley Square. Horace Walpole told the story of the razor-blade. Trevor Allan writes in “Robert Clive ‘Clive of India’ 1725–1774” that ‘Clive committed suicide by cutting his own throat at the age of only 49.’
Robert Clive is a highly controversial figure in history. Some still call Clive “the founder of the British Empire in India”, while others, such as historian William Dalrymple, have called him “a vicious plunderer”. To the people of Indian subcontinent, he was a tragic storyteller, an iconic devil. On the other hand, as the founder of the British Empire in India, he was once revered as a hero by his countrymen. Two sculptures of Robert Clive were erected in front of Shrewsbury, a small town in England founded during the Saxon era, and White Hall, the administrative center of the British government. But what a cruel irony of history, Clive, the founder of British imperialism in the subcontinent, finally had to stand trial in his own country. He has always been a villain to the people of the Indian subcontinent and to the anti-imperialist humanists. In the course of time, he has become the embodiment of colonialism and extremely hateful in his own country as well. Clive is a symbol of oppression for the people of the Indian subcontinent.
