Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/825

801 HISTORY.] INDIA 801 in European history as Jafar Khan. By birth a Brahman, and brought up as a slave in Persia, he united the adminis trative ability of a Hindu to the fanaticism of a renegade. Hitherto the capital of Bengal had been at Dacca on the eastern frontier of the empire, whence the piratical attacks of the Portuguese and of the Arakanese or Maghs could be most easily checked. Murshid Kuli Khan transferred his residence to Murshidabad(Moorshedabad), in the neighbour hood of Kasimbazar (Cossimbazar), the river port of all the Ganges trade. The English, the French, and the Dutch had each factories at Kasimbazar, as well as at Dacca, Patna, and Maldah. But Calcutta was the headquarters of the English, Chandarnagar of the French, and Chinsurah of the Dutch, nil three towns being situated close to each other in the lower reaches of the Hooghly, where the river is navigable for large ships. Murshid Kuli Khan ruled over Bengal prosperously for twenty-one years, and left his power to a son-in-law and a grandson. The hereditary succession was broken in 1740 by All Vardi Kluan, who was the last of the great nawabs of Bengal. In his days the Marhatta horsemen began to ravage the country, and the English at Calcutta obtained permission to erect an earth-work, which is known to the present day as the Marhatta ditch. All Vardi Khan died in 1756, and was succeeded by his grandson, Siraj-ud-Daula (Surajah Dowlah), a youth of only eighteen years, whose ungovern able temper led to a rupture with the English within two months after his accession. In pursuit of one of his own family who had escaped from his vengeance, he marched upon Calcutta with a large army. Many of the English fled down the river in their ships. The remainder sur rendered after a feeble resistance, and were thrown as B k prisoners into the &quot; black hole &quot; or military jail of Fort t William, a room about 18 feet square, with only two small windows barred with iron. It was the month of June, in which the tropical heat of Calcutta is most oppres sive. When the door of the prison was opened in the morning, only twenty-three persons out of one hundred and forty-six were found alive. The news of this disaster fortunately fcund Clive returned to Madras, where also was a squadron of king s ships under Admiral Watson. Clive and Watson promptly sailed to the mouth of the Ganges with all the troops that could be got together. Calcutta was recovered with little fight ing, and the nawab consented to a peace which restored to the Company all their privileges, and gave them com pensation for their losses of property. It is possible that matters might have ended here if a fresh cause of hostilities had not suddenly arisen. War had just been declared between the English and French in Europe, and Clive, following the traditions of his early warfare in the Carnatic, attacked and captured Chandarnagar. Siraj-ud-Daula, exasperated by that breach of neutrality within his own dominions, took the side of the French. But Clive, again acting upon the policy he had learned from Dupleix, had provided himself with a rival candidate to the throne. I ,le of Undaunted, he marched out to the battlefield of Plassey 1 sey. (Palasi), at the head of about 1000 Europeans and 2100 sepoys, with 9 pieces of artillery. The Mahometan army is said to have consisted of 50,000 foot, 18,000 horse, and 50 pieces of cannon. But there was a traitor in the Mahometan camp in the person of Mir Jafar, who had married a sister of the late nawab, All Vardi Khan. The battle was short but decisive. After a few rounds of artillery lire, Suraj-ud-Daula fled, and the road to Murshid- abad was left open. The battle of Plassey was fought on June 23, 1757, an anniversary afterwards remembered when the mutiny was at its height in 1857. History has agreed to adopt this date as the beginning of the British empire in the East ; but the immediate results of the victory were comparatively small, and several more hard-won fights were fought before even the Bengalis would admit the superi ority of the British arms. For the moment, however, all opposition was at an end. Clive, again following in the steps of Dupleix, placed his nominee, Mir Jafar, upon the masnad at Murshidabad, being careful to obtain a patent of investiture from the Mughal court. Enormous sums were exacted from Mir Jafar as the price of his elevation. The Company claimed 10,000,000 rupees as compensation for losses ; for the English, the Indian, and the Armenian inhabitants of Calcutta there were demanded the sums of 5,000,000, 2,000,000, and 700,000 rupees ; for the squad ron 2,500,000 rupees, and an equal sum for the army. The members of the council received the following amounts : Mr Drake, the governor, and Colonel Clive 280,000 rupees each ; and Mr Becker, Mr Watts, and Major Kilpatrick 240,000 rupees each. The whole amounted to 2,097,750. The English, deluded by their avarice, still cherished extravagant ideas of Indian wealth ; nor would they listen to the ungrateful truth. But it was found that there were no funds in the treasury to satisfy their inordinate demands, and they were obliged to be contented with one- half the stipulated sums, which, after many difficulties, were paid in specie and in jewels, with the exception of 584,905 rupees. The shares of the council were, however, paid in full, At the same time the nawab made a grant to the Company of the zammddri rights over an extensive tract of country round Calcutta, now known as the district of the Twenty-four Parganas. The area of this tract was about 882 square miles, and it paid a permanent revenue or quit rent of about 23,000. The gross rental at first payable to the Company was 53,000, but within a period of ten years it had risen to 146,000. Originally the Com pany possessed only the zammddri rights, i.e., revenue jurisdiction. The superior lordship, or right to receive the quit rent, remained with the nawab ; but in 1759 this also was parted with by the Delhi emperor, the nominal suzerain of the nawab, in favour of Clive, who thus became the landlord of his own masters, the Company. At that time also Clive was enrolled among the nobility of the Mughal empire, with the rank of commander of 6000 foot and 5000 horse. Clive s jagir, as it was called, subsequently became a matter of inquiry in England, and on his death&quot; it passed to the Company, thus merging the zaminddri in the pro prietary rights. In 1758 Clive was appointed by the court of directors the first governor of all the Company s settlements in Bengal. From two quarters troubles threatened, which perhaps Clive alone was capable of overcoming. On the west the shdhzdda or imperial prince, known afterwards as the emperor Shah A.lam, with a mixed army of Afghans and Marhattas, and supported by the nawab wazfr of Oudh, was advancing his own claims to the province of Bengal. In the south the influence of the French under Lally and Bussy was overshadowing the British at Madras. But the name of Clive exercised a decisive effect in both directions. Mir Jafar was anxious to buy off the shahzada, who had already invested Patna. But Clive in person marched to the rescue, with an army of only 450 Europeans and 2500 sepoys, and the Mughal army dispersed without striking a blow. In the same year Clive despatched a force southwards under Colonel Forde, which recaptured Masuli- patam from the French, and permanently established British influence throughout the Northern Circars, and at the court of Hyderabad. He next attacked the Dutch, the sole European nation that might yet be a formidable rival to the English. He defeated them both by land and water ; and from that time their settlement at Chinsurah existed only on sufferance. XII 10 1