Bengal War

• 1. Introduction

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  The Bengal War of 1763 to 1765 ended with a province that Mughal administrators had called the 'Paradise of Nations' passing under British commercial control. Bengal alone accounted for 40% of all Dutch exports from Asia at its height. The province exported silk, cotton textiles, steel, and saltpeter to buyers across the globe. The coalition that tried to stop the British included the Mughal Empire, the ruler of Bengal, and the Nawab of Awadh. Despite those numbers, the Company prevailed. How a trading firm arrived at such a position of power is not a simple story. It begins not with a battle but with festering trade disputes and a river toll over salt.

• 2. The Company's Early Foothold

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  In 1623, Dutch forces attacked a British East India Company factory in the spice islands in what became known as the Amboyna massacre. That attack effectively ended the Company's South-east Asian ambitions. The subcontinent became their new focus, and Bengal their main prize.

  By 1658, the Company had acquired a lease on the banks of the river Hughli. Fort William followed in 1696 as their chief stronghold in the region. For much of this period, the Company's relationship with Mughal authority was deferential. The one time they tried to press their advantage militarily, in what became known as the Anglo-Mughal war, they were defeated. They were forced to swear fealty to the Mughals simply to recover their own trading posts.

  In 1717, two decisions by Emperor Farrukhsiyar changed the terms. He officially granted the title of Nawab to Bengal's de-facto governor, Murshid Quli Khan, formally acknowledging Bengal's drift toward autonomy. That same year, Farrukhsiyar issued a Farman granting the Company rights to trade in Bengal, along with certain tax exemptions. By Indian custom, such decrees carried largely honorary weight. Company officials read the document differently. They interpreted it as granting them, in their own words, an 'encompassing devolved sovereignty over Bengal.' That reading placed the Company, in its own estimation, on equal footing with the Nawab himself. That disagreement over what the Farman actually meant would set the tone for the decades ahead.

• 3. Nawabs and a Suspicious Heir

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  Murshid Quli Khan's rise to de-facto ruler of Bengal began with a court rivalry in 1704. Royal prince Azim-ush-Shan, then serving as Subahdar, fell into bitter conflict with his Chief Diwan. Emperor Aurangzeb resolved the matter by transferring the prince elsewhere. Murshid Quli Khan was left as sole governor of all Bengal Subah. Aurangzeb died three years later. Without a strong center to answer to, Bengal became independent in all but name.

  By the time Nawab Alivardi Khan came to power in 1740, the province was largely autonomous while still nominally acknowledging the Emperor. Alivardi's attitude toward European traders was described as 'strict.' The British complained repeatedly about his decision to tax them to fund defenses against Maratha incursions into Bengal. They believed the 1717 Farman had exempted them from any such obligations.

  When Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah ascended to the throne in April 1756, he inherited a province already at high tension with the British. He was suspicious of the large profits the Company was making. Their fortifications at Calcutta troubled him as an assertion of sovereignty. He sought a French alliance as a counterweight, while trying to keep the line of negotiation with the Company open. That line broke after the outbreak of the Seven Years' War. Both the French and British moved to improve their Bengal fortifications. Siraj ud-Daulah opposed the moves; the French yielded, the British did not.

  On the 1st of June 1756, the Nawab's forces marched on the Company factory at Cossimbazar and seized it. Calcutta was besieged on the 16th of June and fell four days later. When news reached Madras on the 16th of August, the Company dispatched Colonel Robert Clive to retake the city. The conflict that followed lasted nearly a full year, culminating at the Battle of Plassey on the 23rd of June 1757. Siraj ud-Daulah was arrested, tried, and executed. Mir Jafar was installed as a British-aligned Nawab until his removal in 1760, when his son-in-law Mir Qasim took his place.

• 4. Abuses of Trade

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  The royal coffers at Murshidabad were nearly depleted when Mir Qasim confronted the Company's most damaging practice. Company officials had enacted a rule allowing goods with European passes to travel the Hooghly river free of transit duty. Goods without such passes faced heavy taxation.

  Even the English flag flying over a river boat was enough to claim the exemption. Bengali workers dressed as English Sepoys on board a vessel achieved the same result. Local merchants had no equivalent protection. Entire cities were left impoverished and Bengali traders were driven to destitution while Company officials enriched themselves.

  Qasim's first response was targeted. He placed a 9% duty on European private traders' goods, set against a duty of 40% for Indian traders. He later reduced that rate on salt to 2.5%. The Company rejected both figures and refused to recognize the right of local police officers to settle trade disputes.

  Qasim's final response was sweeping. He abolished all custom duties on internal trade entirely, removing the advantage that gave Company-connected goods their edge. The Company's reaction surprised even those familiar with its combative history. Rather than accept free trade for everyone, it demanded the duties be reinstated. Qasim refused. The Company would send an agent named William Ellis to Patna, ostensibly to mediate.

• 5. The Military Campaign

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  On the 25th of June 1763, Company agent William Ellis attacked Patna with a force of around 300 British infantrymen and 2,500 sepoys. Mir Qasim responded with a counterattack of some 10,000 soldiers, led by his Armenian mercenary general Gurgin Khan. The British were defeated and Ellis was captured.

  Major Thomas Adams took command of British forces on the 2nd of July and opened a new offensive. The first major engagement came at Katwa. Qasim held numerical superiority and superior artillery there under Gurgin Khan's direction, but his forces suffered from internal strife. The detachment that engaged Lieutenant Glenn's force near the British camp at Agradwip on the morning of the 17th was smaller than expected. It was led by cavalry irregulars who were defeated after hours of fighting. The British then pressed toward the fort at Katwa, which surrendered with little resistance.

  On the 19th of July, Mir Qasim's Faujdar of Birbhum, Mohammed Taki Shah, moved his vanguard to Takwa. The battle that followed was described at the time as 'one of the bloodiest and best-contested battles of the whole war.' Taki Shah was killed and Qasim was forced to retreat.

  Qasim regrouped near Jangipur at Sooty, on the plain of Giria. Adams attacked on the 2nd of August 1763 and, after a bloody engagement, forced Qasim back to Udaynala. At Udaynala, on the 5th of September, Adams stormed a well-defended Ganges gorge at Teliagarhi downstream of Rajmahal and captured Monghyr. In the aftermath, Mir Qasim executed the British soldiers who had been taken prisoner at the first battle of Patna. Adams besieged Patna in response. The city fell on the 6th of November 1763, with heavy losses inflicted on the Bengal army. Mir Qasim, driven from Bengal proper, now turned to two powerful allies in hopes of reversing the tide.

• 6. Buxar and the Settlement

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  Mir Qasim secured the support of Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II and Awadhi Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula for a renewed campaign. On the 3rd of May 1764, Colonel John Carnac's forces defeated Shuja-ud-Daula at a third engagement near Patna. The British held defensive positions and caused heavy losses for the attacking Nawab. Carnac chose not to pursue afterward; heavy rains forced Shuja-ud-Daula's retreat a month later.

  The decisive engagement of the war came on the 23rd of October 1764 at Buxar, west of Patna. Major Hector Munro commanded the British side despite being numerically inferior. His forces nonetheless carried the day, routing the combined coalition. Mir Qasim and Shuja-ud-Daula retreated into the Gangetic Doab with Major John Carnac's forces in pursuit. There they joined a Marathi army led by Malhar Rao Holkar. In May 1765, the British defeated them again. Malhar Rao fled to Kalpi. Mir Qasim sued for peace.

  The Treaty of Allahabad, signed on the 16th of August 1765, formally concluded the conflict. The Mughal Emperor, now reliant on Company military and financial support, granted the Company authority to administer Bengal's revenues. This arrangement, known as the diwani, came in exchange for a fixed annual payment. Company officials treated the grant as a proto-constitution for British authority in the region. The Regulating Act of 1773 transferred full control of the former Mughal province to the Company. It marked the formal beginning of direct British rule in Bengal.