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Chapter 10 – From the Capture of Calcutta to the Battle of Paniput, 1756–1761

During these transactions on the coast, a revolution was in progress in Bengal, which resulted in transferring the empire of India to a European power. But before entering on the narrative of these events, it is necessary to glance at the progress of affairs at Delhi, though they had long ceased to exercise any influence on the destinies of Hindostan.

Ahmed Khan Abdalee, 1747

In the year 1747, a new and formidable enemy, from the region beyond the Indus, appeared on the scene, in the person of Ahmed Khan, the chief of the Abdalee tribe of Afghans, and of the venerated family of the Sudoozies, whose persons were held inviolate. He was rescued from the Ghiljies, when Nadir Shah appeared before Candahar, and at the early age of twenty-three, attracted the notice of that conqueror. He was present with him at the sack of Delhi, the horrors of which he was one day destined to renew. In June, 1747, the atrocities of Nadir Shah, which are without a parallel on the page of history, constrained his subjects to rid the world of him. Ahmed Khan immediately after rose to distinction, and extended his influence over the tribes around him, and so great was his success, that he was crowned at. Candahar before the close of the year. From some motive of superstition, he was led to change the name of his tribe to that of Dooranee; but he will continue to be designated in this work, by his original title of Abdalee.

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His coronation was scarcely completed before he turned his attention to India, as the region in which his soldiers would most amply find both employment and plunder. Having crossed the Indus with a force estimated at 15,000 men, he overran the Punjab, and pushed on to Sirhind. An army was despatched against him from Delhi without delay, under Ahmed Shah, the eldest son of the emperor, who successfully resisted all the assaults of the Abdalees for ten days, and on the eleventh, completely discomfited them, and constrained them to retreat towards their own country. The battle of Sirhind was the last expiring effort of the dynasty of the Moguls, and the last event in the life of Mahomed Shah, who died a month after, in April, 1748, after an inglorious reign of twenty-eight years.

Ahmed Shah, Emperor, 1748 The Rohillas

His son, Ahmed Shah, was in pursuit of the Abdalees when he heard of the event, and returned to Delhi to ascend the throne. Sufder Jung, the viceroy of Oude, was appointed vizier, and devoted his first attention to the subjugation of the Rohillas, who had been expelled from the provinces to which they had given their name, but had taken advantage of the invasion of the Abdalees, to re-establish themselves in it. He marched against them with a numerous but ill-disciplined army, and was defeated by a far inferior force. The Rohillas pursued him into his own provinces, and though beaten off from Lucknow, penetrated to Allahabad, and set the Emperor and the vizier alike at defiance. In this emergency the vizier called up the Mahratta chieftains, Mulhar Rao Holkar and Jyapa Sindia, as well as the Jaut chief, Sooruj mull, and with their aid, completely defeated the Rohillas, and obliged them to seek refuge in the hills. The Mahrattas were allowed to repay themselves by the unrestricted plunder of the province, which did not recover from the effect of these ravages for many years. Before his retirement, Holkar, true to his Mahratta instincts, exacted a bond of fifty lacs of rupees from the despoiled Rohillas.

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Second Invasion of Ahmed Shah, 1751

The Abdalee availed himself of these commotions to invade India a second time, and having overrun Lahore and Mooltan, sent an envoy to Delhi to demand the cession of those provinces. The vizier was absent in pursuit of the Rohillas; the emperor was under the influence of a favourite eunuch, and the whole country was under the dominion of terror. The provinces were formally surrendered to the invader. The vizier arrived at the capital too late to prevent this dastardly submission, but he manifested his disapproval of it, by inviting the favourite to an entertainment, and causing him to be assassinated. The incensed emperor soon found a fit instrument to avenge the insult, in the person of a youth destined to play an important part in the closing scenes of the Mogul empire. This was the grandson of the first Nizam, and the son of Ghazee-ood-deen, who was poisoned by his stepmother. The youth, whose original name was Shaha-boo-deen, but who is more generally known by his title of Ghazee-ood-deen, was courageous and resolute, but at the same time, one of the most accomplished villains of the age. He had been raised to the post of commander of the forces, through the favour of the vizier, but did not hesitate to turn against him at the bidding of the emperor. A civil war was carried on between the parties for six months in the city of Delhi, the streets of which were deluged with blood. Ghazee-ood-deen at length called Holkar’s mercenaries to his aid, and the vizier finding himself no longer equal to the contest, consented to an accommodation, and retired to his own government of Oude.

Independence of Oude, 1753

That province may be considered as finally alienated from the crown of Delhi in the present year, 1753. But the emperor was unable long to support the insolence of his overbearing minister, and marched out of the capital to oppose him, but was defeated and captured by Holkar.

Ghazee-ood-deen deposes and blinds the emperor, 1754

The infamous Ghazee-ood-deen repaired forthwith to the Mahratta camp, deposed the unfortunate captive, and put out his eyes, proclaiming one of the princes of the blood emperor, under the title of Alumgeer.

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Third Abdalee invasion, 1756

During these events, the vizier, Sufder Jung, died, and Ghazee-ood-deen invested himself with the office. His insufferable tyranny soon after drove his soldiers to revolt, and he was dragged by them through the streets, without his turban or slippers. He was eventually rescued from their hands by his own officers, and glutted his revenge by slaughtering the whole body of the insurgents. In an evil hour his ambition led him to invade the Punjab, and to expel the officers whom Ahmed Shah had left to govern it. That prince immediately crossed the Indus, and advanced to avenge the insult. Ghazee-ood-deen, unable to cope with such an adversary, repaired to his camp, and made the most humiliating submission. But though he obtained forgiveness, the Abdalee was resolved to obtain a pecuniary compensation on this his third irruption. He accordingly marched on to Delhi and gave it up to plunder for many days. All the atrocities of Nadir Shah’s invasion were repeated, and the wretched inhabitants were subjected a second time, in less than ten years, to the outrages of a brutal soldiery. Ghazee-ood-deen was sent to plunder the province of Oude, and Ahmed Shah himself undertook to pillage the territories of the Jauts. In this expedition be inflicted an indelible stain on his character, by the indiscriminate slaughter of thousands of unoffending devotees who were assembled during a religious festival at the shrines of Muttra. Agra was saved from destruction only by a great mortality which broke out in the Abdalee army, and constrained Ahmed Shah to hasten his retreat across the Indus. The wretched emperor entreated that he might not be abandoned to the tender mercies of his ruthless vizier, Ghazee-ood-deen, and Nujeeb-ood-dowlah, an able and energetic Rohilla chief, was installed as commander-in-chief.

The pirates on the Malabar coast

The attention of the reader is now transferred to the Malabar coast, which had for centuries been denominated, and not without reason, the pirate coast of India. The western shore of the Peninsula is as thickly studded with harbours as the eastern coast, from the

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mouths of the Hooghly to Ceylon, is destitute of them. For fifty years the piratical princes on the coast had been increasing in power and audacity. Among the most formidable was Conajee Angria, who had raised himself from the condition of a common sailor to the command of the Mahratta fleet, and then declared his independence and set up a terrific piratical power, boasting that he was as great a freebooter at sea as the Peshwa was by land. He established fortifications in every creek, bay, and harbour, for a hundred and twenty miles on the Cancan coast, but his most important arsenal was in the noble port of Gheriah, about a hundred and seventy miles south of Bombay. In 1752, an expedition, consisting of three British ships of the line and a Portuguese squadron attacked Colaba, another of his ports, but without success. In 1754, his corsairs overpowered three Dutch vessels, respectively of 50, 36, and 18 guns, the two largest of which were burnt, and the third captured. The following year the Peshwa and the Bombay government sent a joint expedition against Angria, and Commodore James attacked and carried the strong fortress of Severndroog, without the loss of a single man. The fort was made over to the Mahrattas, though their pigmy fleet of grabs had never come within gunshot of the place.

Clive arrives at Bombay, 1755

The Court of Directors viewed the progress of Bussy in the Deccan with great alarm, and resolved to form an alliance with the Peshwa with the view of arresting it, and to send a powerful force to Bombay to cooperate in this design. Clive, on his return to England from Madras, had been received with great distinction by the Company and by the Ministers, and to him the Court of Directors committed the command of the troops destined to act against Bussy. On his arrival at Bombay, however, in October, 1755, he found the government of the Presidency firmly and conscientiously opposed to the enterprize. They considered themselves precluded from entering upon it by the Convention made in the preceding year between M. Godeheu

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and Mr. Saunders, of which their masters in England were ignorant when this design was formed. Admiral Watson happening to arrive with the fleet from Madras about the same time, it was resolved to take advantage of the presence of this large armament to root out the piratical power on that coast, which it was costing the Company five lacs of rupees a year to oppose. An arrangement was accordingly made with the Peshwa for a joint expedition against Gheriah. The Mahrattas marched down by land, and Colonel Clive and Admiral Watson proceeded by sea, with 14 vessels and 800 Europeans and 1,000 sepoys. The fire from the ships set the pirate fleet in a blaze within an hour. The next morning Clive attacked the fort by land, while the Admiral kept up so vigorous a cannonade from the sea that the defenders were obliged to capitulate in half an hour. In the arsenal were found 200 pieces of cannon, together with large quantities of ammunition and two large vessels on the stocks, as well as twelve lacs of rupees. The money was immediately distributed among the captors, without any reservation for the Mahrattas, or the Company, and the port and arsenal were, eventually, made over to the Peshwa. Admiral Watson and Colonel Clive soon after sailed for Madras, and, on the 20th of June, the latter took charge of the government of St. David, to which he had been appointed in England.

Seraja dowlah viceroy of Bengal, 1756

The brave old Tartar viceroy of Bengal, Ali verdy, expired at Moorshedabad at the age of eighty, on the 9th of April, 1756, bequeathing the government to Seraja Dowlah, a grandson on whom he had long doated. The youth, though only twenty years of age, was already cruel and profligate beyond the usual run of purple-born princes in India. The little understanding with which nature had endowed him was obscured by intemperance; he was the slave of parasites and buffoons; he had carried pollution into the families of the nobility, and had become the object of general abhorrence before he ascended the throne. His young cousin, Sokut Jung, with a character not less

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abandoned than his own, had recently succeeded to the government of the district of Purnea, and sent large sums to the court of Delhi to obtain his own nomination to the viceroyalty of the three provinces. Seraja Dowlah resolved to lose no time in extirpating him, and marched with a large force to Purneah; but on reaching Rajmahal he received a letter from Mr. Drake, the governor of Calcutta which gave another direction to his purpose.

Disputes with the governor of Calcutta, 1756

Raja raj bullub, one of the Hindoo officers whom it was the policy of Ali verdy to place in public employments, had amassed great wealth in the service, and shortly before the death of the old viceroy had been nominated governor of Dacca. His predecessor in that office had been assassinated and plundered by order of Seraja dowlah, and he was anxious to place his family and treasures beyond the reach of the tyrant; he, therefore, obtained a letter of recommendation from Mr. Watts, the Company’s chief at Cossimbazar – the factory adjoining Moorshedabad – to the governor of Calcutta; and his son, Kissen-dass, embarked at Dacca with a large retinue, under the pretence of going on a pilgrimage to Jugunnuth, and landed at Calcutta, where he received a cordial welcome. Seraja Dowlah, a day or two after the death of his grandfather, for which he had been waiting, despatched a letter to Mr. Drake, the governor, demanding the immediate surrender of Kissen-dass and his wealth. The messenger, though the brother of the raja of Midnapore, the head of the spy department, came in a small boat, and was expelled from the settlement as an impostor. A second communication was soon after sent to Mr. Drake, ordering him peremptorily to demolish all the fortifications which the Nabob understood he had been erecting. The governor replied that the Nabob had been misinformed, that no new defences had been attempted, and that nothing in fact had been done but to repair the ramparts facing the river, in the prospect of another war with France. The Nabob was not in a humour to brook the slightest resistance of his will; his

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indignation was kindled to a degree which astonished even those who had been accustomed to the violence of his passions, and he ordered the army to march down instantly to Calcutta.

State of Fort William, 1756

Calcutta was ill-prepared for such an assault. During fifty years of peace, the fortifications had been neglected, and warehouses built up to the ramparts. The defenceless state of the fort at this juncture was owing to the neglect of the Council, not to the inattention of the Court of Directors. After the capture of Madras by Labourdonnais in 1747, they were naturally anxious to protect their settlement in Bengal from a similar fate, and sent orders to strengthen the defences, however the viceroy might oppose them. Year after year were these injunctions repeated, and on one occasion no fewer than 250 recruits were sent out, and the artillery establishment augmented to 114 gunners and four officers. Colonel Scott arrived at Calcutta in 1754 as commandant, with the most stringent orders to complete the fortifications, and, if necessary, to conciliate the Nabob by an offering of a lac of rupees. At the same time the Court directed that none but Europeans should be received into their military service, but Colonel Scott represented that there was “a set of men called Rashpoots, natives, on the banks of the Ganges near Patna, gentoos of the fighting caste, and he was of opinion that when disciplined they would make excellent soldiers.” The Court thereupon permitted the garrison to be recruited with Rajpoots, and the nucleus was thus formed of that army of which a hundred thousand endeavoured a century afterwards to subvert the British Empire. In 1755 the Court stated in their despatch that the death of the Nabob might be daily expected; that it would be attended with great confusion and trouble; that they trusted their officers had put Calcutta in a state of defence; and that they were to be on their guard to protect the possessions, effects, and privileges of the Company. But these warnings were lost on the authorities in Calcutta, who were heedful only of their own pelf, and whose infatuation

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up the latest moment, was exceeded only by their cowardice when the danger came. Colonel Scott died in 1755, and all the works in progress for the defence of the settlement were immediately suspended; the militia was not embodied till it was too late; the gunpowder, made by a fraudulent contractor, whom no one looked after, was deficient both in quantity and quality, and there were only 174 men in garrison, not ten of whom had ever seen a shot fired.

Siege of Calcutta, June, 1756

The army of the Nabob, 50,000 strong, approached the town on the 17th June. Under every disadvantage, Clive would have made as noble a defence of Calcutta as he had made of Arcot, but the governor was Drake, and the commandant, Minchin. Instead of clearing the space round the fort of houses and encumbrances, batteries were injudiciously planted at a great distance from it, which the enemy captured on the first day, and were thus enabled to bring a galling fire to bear directly on the fort itself. At two in the morning of the 19th a council of war was held, when it was resolved to send the women and children on board the vessels lying off the town. But as soon as the water gate was open there was a general rush to the boats, many of which were capsized, and the rest pushed off without order or discipline. After the fugitives had reached the ships, a shower of “fire-arrows,” by no means dangerous, was discharged on them, and the captains immediately weighed anchor, and dropped down two miles out of their reach. At ten in the morning only two boats remained at the wharf, into one of which, the governor, Mr. Drake, quietly slipped, without leaving any instructions for the conduct of the garrison. The military commander, Minchin, followed his example, and they rowed down to the ships in all haste.

Surrender of Calcutta

As soon as this base desertion was known, nothing was heard on all sides but imprecations. When calmness had been in some measure restored, Mr. Holwell was, by common consent, placed in command, and it was resolved to defend the fort to the last extremity. It held out

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for forty-eight hours, during which signals of distress were made, day and night, to the vessels anchored below the town. They might have come up with perfect safety, and rescued the gallant garrison with ease; but to crown this scene of infamy, not a vessel was moved to its assistance. On the 21st, the enemy renewed the assault with increased vigour, and more than half the remaining force was killed or wounded. The European soldiers broke into the liquor stores and became unfit for duty. A flag of truce was deceitfully sent by the Nabob, and Mr. Holwell, seeing the utter helplessness of the garrison, agreed to a parley, during which the enemy treacherously rushed into the fort, and the officers were obliged to surrender their swords. The Nabob entered the fort about five in the afternoon, and ordered Kissen-dass, the cause of these calamities, to be brought before him, but received and dismissed him with courtesy. Mr. Holwell was then ushered into his presence, and he expressed his resentment that the sum in the treasury was found not to exceed five lacs of rupees, but gave him every assurance of protection, and retired about dusk to his encampment.

The Black Hole, 1756

The European prisoners were collected together under an arched verandah, while the native officers went in search of some building in which they might be lodged for the night. They returned about eight in the evening and reported that none could be found. The principal officer then desired the prisoners to move into one of the chambers behind the verandah, which had been used as the prison of the garrison. Orme calls it a dungeon; but the room immediately adjoining it was used as the settlement church for twenty-eight years after the recovery of the town. It was not twenty feet square, and however suited for the confinement of a few turbulent soldiers, was death to the hundred and forty-six persons, now thrust into it at the sword’s point, in one of the hottest nights of the most sultry season of the year. The wretched prisoners soon became frantic with suffocating heat and insufferable thirst. The

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struggle to reach the window and catch a breath of air proved fatal to many. At length they began to sink one by one into the arms of death; and the few who survived that awful night owed their lives to the more free ventilation obtained by standing on the bodies of their deceased companions. When the door was opened in the morning, only twenty-three came out alive – the most ghastly forms ever seen. This is the tragedy of the Black Hole, which has rendered the name of Seraja Dowlah the type of infamy among all the nations of Christendom. Yet so little did it appear to be out of the ordinary course of events in the East, that it was scarcely marked by the native community, and was not considered of sufficient importance to demand even a passing notice from the Mahomedan historian of the time. The next morning the Nabob came down to the fort, and inquired whether the English chief still lived; and when Mr. Holwell was borne into his presence, he manifested no compassion for his sufferings, nor the least remorse for the fate of the other prisoners, but reproached him anew with the concealment of the public treasure, and ordered him to be placed in confinement. The Nabob returned to Moorshedabad, after having extorted large sums from the French and the Dutch, and confiscated all the property of the English throughout the country; and thus was the East India Company expelled a second time from Bengal, as completely as they had been seventy years before, in the days of Aurungzebe.

Expedition to recover Calcutta, 1756

Information of this catastrophe was seven weeks in reaching Madras, where the military force consisted of 2,000 Europeans and 10,000 sepoys. But, while the national honour required immediate vindication in Bengal, there was a strong party in the council desirous of employing the resources of the Presidency in assisting Salabut Jung to expel Bussy from the Deccan, although the Convention which they themselves had entered into with M. Godeheu was still fresh and binding. Much time was wasted in discussing whether the expedition should be sent

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to Hyderabad or Calcutta. When the council at length came to the resolution to retrieve the affairs of the Company in Bengal, in the first instance, further time was lost in disembarking the royal artillery and stores, which Col. Adlecron would not allow to proceed when he found that the command of the expedition was not to be given to him. Happily it was entrusted to the genius of Clive, who was instructed, after the recapture of Calcutta, to march up to Moorshedabad, if the Nabob continued refractory, and to attack Chandernagore, if the declaration of war with France, then hourly expected, should arrive before the time fixed for the return of the troops. Admiral Watson and Col. Clive sailed from Madras on the 10th of October with five ships of war, and five of the Company’s vessels, on which 900 Europeans and 1,500 sepoys were embarked.

Recapture of Calcutta, 1757

On the 15th of December the expedition reached Fulta, about forty miles below Calcutta, where Mr. Drake and the other fugitives were lying in the vessels on which they had taken refuge. A Mogul fortification on the river at Budge-budge was soon after attacked. Manickchand, the Nabob’s Hindoo general, who had been left in charge of Calcutta, had arrived there two days before with a large reinforcement of horse and foot; but a shot happening to pass too near his turban, he gave the signal of retreat, and the whole body of his troops marched back in disorder to Calcutta. Not considering himself safe even there, he left 500 men to defend the fort, and fled with the remainder to Moorshedabad. Colonel Clive entered the dismantled town on the 2nd of January, and the fort surrendered at discretion. To impress the Nabob with a conviction of the power and resolution of the English who had come to avenge their wrongs, an expedition was sent about a week after to the important post of Hooghly, which submitted without resistance.

Defeat of the Nabob, 1757

The Nabob had persuaded himself that the English would never again venture to set foot in

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his dominions, and the news of these transactions filled him with indignation, and he lost no time in marching down to Calcutta with an army of 40,000 men. Clive was anxious for an accommodation, and offered him the most moderate and reasonable terms. But while the negotiations were in progress, the army of the Nabob was in full march towards the town, burning down the villages as it advanced. Two envoys whom Clive had sent on the 4th of February to request the Nabob to withdraw his army, if his intentions were pacific, were treated with contumely. Finding a contest inevitable, Clive determined to take the initiative; and, on the morning of the 5th, marched with his whole force, augmented by 600 marines, to the assault of the enemy’s entrenchment, which lay to the north-east of the town. But a little before sunrise he was confounded by one of those dense fogs which are common at that season of the year, and although his troops fought with the greatest gallantry, they became bewildered and disheartened, and he withdrew his force with the loss of more than 200 soldiers. But the Nabob was still more disheartened. He had lost twenty-two officers of distinction; he had never been so much involved in the perils of a battle before, and, passing at once from the extreme of arrogance to the extreme of pusillanimity, hastened to make overtures of peace; and on the 9th of February a treaty was concluded by which all their former privileges were restored to the English, and permission was given to fortify Calcutta and to establish a mint, and a promise of compensation for their losses was held out.

Capture of Chandernagore, 1757

Clive was directed, and had engaged, to return with the troops to Madras after the recovery of Calcutta, and he has been censured for disregarding his promise; but in his determination to remain in Bengal he exercised a wise discretion. Information had been received, through Aleppo, of a declaration of war between France and England on the 9th of May in the preceding year. Chandernagore was garrisoned with 700 Europeans. Bussy, with a

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victorious army, was encamped in the Northern Sircars, not 300 miles from Calcutta, and the Nabob, immediately on signing the treaty, had importuned him to march up and expel Clive from Bengal. The junction of the two French armies with that of the Nabob would have endangered the position of the English, more especially as, on Clive’s departure for the coast, the management of affairs would have devolved on the wretched Drake, who still held his commission as governor. Calcutta would probably have been lost a second time. Clive justly concluded that it was his duty to remain and dislodge the French from Chandernagore. The Nabob was extremely averse to this proceeding, but Admiral Watson terrified him into a vague and reluctant consent, by threatening to “kindle such a flame in his country, as all the waters in the Ganges would be unable to extinguish.” The Admiral proceeded up the river, with his ships of the line, while Clive attacked the town by land; and Chandernagore surrendered, chiefly through the exertions of the fleet, after a noble defence of nine days. As Clive was preparing for the attack he uttered these memorable words, “If we take Chandernagore, we cannot stop there;” and a century of progress has verified his prediction.

Confederacy against the Nabob, 1757

The capture of Chandernagore still farther incensed the Nabob, and he encamped his army at Plassy, forty miles south of Moorshedabad, and Clive kept the field in the neighbourhood of Hooghly, instead of withdrawing his army to Calcutta. Meanwhile, the violence and atrocities of the Nabob continued to augment the disgust of his ministers and officers, none of whom considered themselves secure from the caprices of his passion. Every day produced some new act of provocation; and in the month of May, Meer Jaffier, the paymaster and general of his forces, Roy-doorlub, his finance minister, and the all-powerful bankers, the Setts, entered into a combination to dethrone him. They were constrained to admit into their councils one, Omichund, the Shylock of this drama, who had settled in Calcutta forty years before, and accumulated great wealth by his contracts

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with the Company, – in which, however, they always complained of having been overreached, – and by his extensive commercial dealings throughout the country. He maintained the establishment of a prince in Calcutta, and rendered himself important at the Court of Moorshedabad. He accompanied Seraja Dowlah on his return to the capital, and became a great favourite with that weak prince. He daily attended the durbar, thrust himself into every affair, and acquired such influence in the public councils that the confederates were constrained to take him into their confidence, as the least of two evils.

Clive joins the Confederacy

As the plans of the party proceeded, Jugut Sett. the banker, assured his friends that there was little, if any, chance of success without the co-operation of Clive, and they invited him to join them, holding out the most magnificent offers for the Company. Clive felt “that there could be neither peace nor security while such a monster as the Nabob reigned,” and readily entered into their plans, notwithstanding the reluctance of the timid Council in Calcutta. A secret treaty was concluded between the confederates and Clive, the chief stipulations of which were that he should march with his army to Moorshedabad and place Meer Jaffier on the throne, and that Meer Jaffier should make the amplest reparation to the English for all losses, public and private. The whole scheme, however, had well nigh miscarried, through the rapacity of Omichund, who came forward in the last stage, and demanded, by the threat of disclosure – which would have been certain death to all the confederates – the insertion of a specific article in the treaty, guaranteeing to him thirty lacs of rupees, and a commission of five per cent. on all payments. Clive, on hearing of this outrageous demand, came to the conclusion “that art and policy were warrantable to defeat the designs of such a villain;” and he formed the plan of deceiving the man by a fictitious treaty, written on red paper, which provided for his demand, while the real treaty, authenticated by the seals and signatures of the contracting

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parties, contained no such stipulation. This is the only act in the bold and arduous career of Clive, which, in the opinion of posterity, does not admit of vindication. But it is due to his memory to state that, to the end of his life, he conscientiously asserted the integrity of his motives and of his conduct on this occasion, and declared that he “would do it a hundred times over.” When the treaty was complete, Meer Jaffier took an oath on the Koran to be faithful to his engagements, and to withdraw with his troops from the army of the Nabob, either before or on the day of the battle.

Battle of Plassy, 1757

Clive, having concluded his arrangements, addressed a letter to the Nabob, recapitulating the grievances of which the English had to complain, and stating that he was coming to Moorshedabad to submit them to the judgment of the durbar. He marched from Chandernagore, on the 13th June, with 1,000 Europeans, 2,000 natives, and eight pieces of cannon. On the 17th he reached Cutwa, and captured the fort, but looked in vain for Meer Jaffier, who bad, in the meantime, taken another oath of fidelity to his master. On the 19th the rains set in with extreme violence, and Clive paused on the threshold of the campaign, doubting the propriety of opening it at the beginning of the rainy season, and on “their own bottom, without any assistance.” But on second thoughts he felt he had advanced too far to recede, and that there would be more peril in returning than in advancing. The whole army crossed the river on the 22nd, and encamped for the night in the grove of Plassy, in the immediate neighbourhood of which the Nabob was posted with an army of 15,000 horse and 35,000 foot, in an entrenched camp. The next morning, the memorable 23rd of June, 1757, the Nabob’s troops moved out and assaulted the English force which was sheltered by a high bank, but with little effect. About noon the enemy withdrew their artillery, and Clive advanced vigorously to the attack of their lines. Meer Mudun, the general-in-chief, was mortally wounded, and expired in the presence of the Nabob, who was unable

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any longer to control his terror, but mounted a camel and fled at the top of its speed, accompanied by about 2,000 horse. His whole army immediately dispersed, and this battle, so momentous in its eventual result on the destiny of India, was gained with the loss of only 72 killed and wounded on the part of the English, while, even on the side of the enemy, the casualties did not exceed 500. As soon as victory appeared to declare in favour of the English, Meer Jaffier moved off with his troops and joined their standard. Seraja Dowlah, on his arrival at the capital, found himself deserted by his court, and, after passing a day in gloomy reflections, disguised himself in a mean dress and escaped out of a window in the palace at ten at night, with a favourite concubine and a eunuch, and embarked in a little boat which had been secured for him.

Elevation of Meer Jaffier, 1757

Clive entered Moorshedabad on the 29th of June, and proceeding to the palace, where all the great officers were assembled, conducted Meer Jaffier to the throne, and saluted him Soobadar of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa. The change in the position and prospects of the English was so rapid and stupendous as almost to exceed belief. In June, 1756, Calcutta had been plundered and burnt, its European inhabitants murdered, and the Company exterminated from Bengal. In June, 1757, they had recovered their capital, extinguished their European rivals, defeated and dethroned the Nabob, and disposed of the government of the three provinces, with a population of twenty-five millions, to their own partizan. In accordance with the terms of the treaty, the sum of two crores and twenty lacs of rupees was gradually paid out of the treasury at Moorshedabad, to make good the losses of the Company and of individuals. The first instalment of eighty lacs was conveyed to Calcutta in a triumphant procession with bands playing and banners floating – a bright contrast to the spectacle of the previous year when Seraja Dowlah marched back to his capital with the plunder of Calcutta. While Clive was thus giving away a

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kingdom larger and more populous than England, he reserved for his own masters only the fee simple of the land six hundred yards around the Mahratta ditch, and the zemindary rights of the country lying to the south of Calcutta. Nor was his moderation as a private individual less conspicuous than as the representative of a victorious nation. While the opulent nobles of the court were anxious to conciliate his favour by pouring uncounted wealth into his lap, he refused every gift except that which the gratitude of Meer Jaffier pressed on him, not exceeding sixteen lacs of rupees. When, in aftertimes, his great services had been forgotten and he was upbraided with rapacity, he indignantly replied, “When I recollect entering the treasury at Moorshedabad, with heaps of silver and gold to the right hand and to the left, and these crowned with jewels, I stand astonished at my own moderation.”

Fate of Seraja Dowlah, 1757

Seraja Dowlah proceeded up the river in his boat in the hope of overtaking Mr. Law, the French officer, whom he had been constrained to dismiss at the mandate of Clive. Had Law, who had a large body of officers, and about 200 soldiers with him, succeeded in joining the Nabob, the history of Bengal, and perhaps of India, might have borne a different stamp. But Law, who had retraced his steps on hearing of the advance of Clive to Moorshedabad, retired with rapidity to Oude, after receiving news of the battle of Plassy. The fugitive prince landed at Rajmahal to prepare a meal, and unfortunately proceeded to the hut of a fakeer, whose ears he had ordered to be cut off in the previous year. The man immediately gave information of his arrival to those who were in pursuit of him, and he was conveyed back as a prisoner to Moorshedabad, eight days after he had quitted it. On the night of his arrival, Meerun, the son of Meer Jaffier, a youth as heartless and abandoned as Seraja Dowlah himself, caused him to be put out of the way by assassination. The next day his mangled remains

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were paraded on an elephant through the streets, and then buried in the tomb of his grandfather.

The Court of Directors on Plassy, 1717

Intelligence of the destruction of Calcutta did not reach England for eleven months. On the 3rd of August, 1757, the Court of Directors wrote to the President in Calcutta: “On the 4th of June, we heard of the melancholy news of the loss of Fort William and the rest of our settlements in Bengal. On the 22nd day of July, Mr. Holwell arrived on the Siren, and gave a most agreeable turn to our thoughts by bringing advice of the recapture of Fort William.” A few months after, they heard of the battle of Plassy, and the great revolution which had been effected by their troops. That victory more than realised the expectations which the Court had entertained seventy years ago, when they sent out Admiral Nicholson to make them “a nation in India.” It had laid the foundation of a great empire. Yet so little conception had the Court of the high destiny which was opening before them that their chief source of gratification was derived from the hope that their servants in Bengal would now be able to provide the investment for two years without drawing on them.

Clive quells three revolts, 1757

The first object of Meer Jaffier, after his elevation, was to plunder the Hindoo minister of finance, Roy-doorlub, and the officers who had amassed wealth in the governments conferred on them by Ali verdy. These proceedings provoked no fewer than three revolts within three months, in Behar, Purneah, and Midnapore. But they were quelled without bloodshed, by the mere exercise of Clive’s influence, to whom the whole country looked up as to a demigod. The ascendancy which he thus acquired, though inseparable from his position and his genius, could not fail to lessen the importance of the Nabob, and to irritate his mind, while it gave umbrage to his family and his officers. They could not forget that it was only two years since the foreigners, who now bore the supremacy in Bengal,

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had approached them as suppliants, with gifts and flatteries; and it required the most delicate management on the part of Clive to prevent the explosion of their discontent. A few months after the battle of Plassy, a Mahratta envoy arrived at Moorshedabad to demand the arrears of chout now due for two years, but he soon found that the days of chout had ceased with the advent of the English.

Expedition to the coast September, 1758

The Court of Directors, on hearing of the great victory of Plassy, placed the government of Calcutta in the hands of Clive, and he was anxious to afford substantial relief to Madras, now menaced by Lally; but the presence of a formidable French force on the confines of Orissa, and of Law with 200 Europeans on the borders of Behar, combined with the growing alienation of the Nabob, made it impolitic to weaken Bengal. The number of European troops at Madras was, moreover, twice as large as the number at the disposal of Clive, and, above all, that settlement had Lawrence for its military commander, which Clive considered an ample guarantee of its safety. He, therefore, supplied it most liberally with funds from his own full treasury, and took steps to remove one cause of disquietude by an attack on the French possessions in the Northern Sircars, now no longer protected by the genius of Bussy. He entrusted the expedition to Colonel Forde, one of the great soldiers created by the long-continued wars on the Coast. Clive had begun to enlist the Rajpoots, and was enabled to send 2,000 sepoys with Forde, in addition to 500 Europeans and 14 guns. That officer landed at Vizagapatam, and, after defeating Bussy’s feeble successor, the Marquis of Conflans, formed the bold design of laying siege to Masulipatam, the great stronghold of the French on the coast, though it was garrisoned by a larger force than that of the besiegers. Conflans solicited the immediate aid of the Nizam, Salabut Jung, who marched down to the coast with a large army in support of his friends. Forde, however, pushed the siege with such skill and energy as to oblige the French general to capitulate before the

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arrival of the auxiliary force. The Nizam was thunderstruck at this early and unexpected surrender, and lost no time in changing sides, and courting the victor. A treaty was speedily concluded, by which Salabut Jung ceded Masulipatam and eight districts around it to the English, and engaged to exclude the French from his dominions This brilliant exploit raised the reputation of the English as high in the Deccan as it stood in Bengal, and entirely deprived the French of the resources of the Northern Sircars.

Ali Gohur invades Behar, 1751

While the troops were thus employed on the coast their presence was urgently required in Bengal. The emperor at Delhi was a mere puppet in the hands of his unprincipled vizier, from whose thraldom the heir apparent, Mahomed Ali Gohur, had contrived to make his escape, not without his father’s connivance. India, at this time, abounded with military adventurers ready for any service, and the name of the emperor was sufficient to attract crowds to the standard of his son. The Soobadar of Oude was likewise anxious to turn the unsettled state of Bengal to his own profit, and joined the camp of the prince with a large force, and induced him, in the first instance, to invade the province of Behar. An army of 40,000 men now suddenly appeared before Patna, the provincial capital, which Ramnarayun, the Hindoo governor, defended with great valour for twelve days. Meer Jaffier was thrown into a fever of anxiety by this invasion, and importuned Clive to hasten to the rescue. On his march towards Patna, Clive received repeated letters from Ali Gohur, offering him province after province for his assistance, but he handed them to the Nabob, who had like’. wise received letters from the emperor, written under the dictation of the vizier, and commanding him to seize his rebellious son, and chastise his adherents. Clive’s advanced guard appeared in sight of the city on the 4th of April, and the Prince instantly raised the siege and endeavoured to escape from the province faster than he had entered it. As a matter of course, the Nabob of Oude deserted him on the first

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appearance of adversity, and he was reduced to such straits during his flight as to throw himself on the compassion of Clive, who sent him 500 gold mohurs to relieve his necessities.

Conflict with the Dutch, 1759

Scarcely had this cloud blown over than another gathered on the horizon. The Nabob, fretting under the supremacy of Clive and the restraints it imposed on him, cast about for some means of counterbalancing it, and hit on the device of inviting the Dutch to introduce a large European force into their settlement at Chinsurah. The Dutch government at Batavia appear to have viewed the prosperity of the English in India with no small feeling of envy, and eagerly embraced the proposition, hoping to fish up some prize in the troubled waters of Bengal. They accordingly dispatched a fleet of seven vessels to the Hooghly, with 700 Europeans and 800 well-trained Malay sepoys. Clive would tolerate no European rival in Bengal; and, on hearing of the arrival of the expedition, blocked up the river and took measures to prevent the junction of this force with that already cantoned at Chinsurah. The two nations were at peace in Europe; but, according to the established practice, this did not impede their waging war with each other in India. Even if Clive had felt any delicacy on the subject it was removed by the aggressive movement of the Dutch commander, who seized upon some of the British vessels, hauled down their colours, and transferred their guns and stores to his own ships. Clive retaliated by sequestering the vessels which had arrived from Batavia, and sending Colonel Forde, who had returned from the coast, with all the troops available to intercept the progress of the Batavian force. Forde, dreading the responsibility of attacking the troops of a friendly power, requested a written order from Clive. He was sitting at cards when the letter was put into his hands, and without rising, wrote on one of the cards with his pencil, – “Dear Forde, fight them immediately, I will send you the Order in Council tomorrow.” That officer hesitated no longer, but advanced to meet the Dutch army, which he came up with

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just as it arrived within sight of Chinsurah, and defeated in half an hour. Immediately after the action, the Nabob’s son, Meerun, appeared with an army of 7,000 men, who were destined to turn on the English if the fortune of the day had been different. Clive restored the vessels he had taken to the Dutch authorities, on their engaging to make good all the expense incurred in defeating their plans, and embarked for England on the 25th of February, 1760.

Ahmed Shah and the Mahrattas, 1757–68

We now resume the thread of Mahratta and Mogul affairs. Ahmed Shah Abdalee returned to Persia in June, 1757, leaving his son, Timur, in charge of the Punjab, and Nujeeb-ood-dowlah in command at Delhi, to protect the emperor from the designs of Ghazee-ood-deen. That profligate minister called the Mahrattas to his aid, and Raghoba, the fighting brother of the Peshwa, marched up to Delhi, and captured it after a month’s siege. Nujeeb retreated to Rohilcund, and Ghazee-ood-deen was reinstated in the office of vizier. Soon after the capture of the capital by Raghoba, one Adina-beg, a veteran intriguer in the Punjab, invited him to seize on that province, as well as Mooltan, and annex them to the Mahratta dominions. He marched to Lahore, in May, 1758; the Abdalees were totally routed; Prince Timur retreated to Persia; and the Mahratta standard was planted, for the first time, on the banks of the Indus. Raghoba then returned to the Deccan, but with more glory than money; and, instead of the loads of booty which usually marked the return of the Mahratta expeditious, brought back a load of obligations little short of a crore of rupees. This disappointment gave rise to a serious altercation with Sudaseeb Rao Bhao, the cousin and civil administrator of the Peshwa. “Then take charge of the next expedition yourself,” was the tart reply of Raghoba. The Peshwa took him at his word, and compromised the differences between them by transferring the command of the army to Sudaseeb, generally known as the Bhao, and placing his brother at the head of the civil department.

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Territory wrested from Salabut Jung, 1758

The Peshwa had been, for some time, engaged in intrigues for the acquisition of Ahmednugur, the most important city south of the Nerbudda, and, at length, obtained possession of it by an act of base treachery. This aggression brought on hostilities with Salabut Jung and his brother, Nizam Ali, who had been recently reconciled to him. The master-spirit of Bussy no longer animated the councils or the army of the Nizam. Ibrahim Khan Gardee, one of the ablest native generals of the time, who was in command of the sepoy battalions trained by Bussy, and a powerful and well served artillery, had been dismissed from the service. He immediately transferred his sword to the Peshwa, and, in the conflict now raging, contributed, in no small degree, to reduce Salabut Jung and his brother to such straits, that they were constrained to submit to the most humiliating conditions as the price of safety. A treaty was wrung from them, which conceded to the Mahrattas five of the most important fortresses in the Deccan, and some of its most flourishing districts, yielding a revenue of not less than sixty lacs of rupees a year.

Power of the Mahrattas, 1759

The Mahrattas had now reached the zenith of their power. Their authority was equally acknowledged on the banks of the Cavery and the Indus. All the territory within these limits, which was not their own, paid them tribute. The vast resources of the Mahratta community were guided by one head and directed to one object – the aggrandisement of the nation, and they now talked proudly of establishing Hindoo sovereignty over the whole of Hindostan. The only hope of preserving the country from subjection to this power, of which tyranny, rapine, and destruction were the constant attendants, now rested on the arms of a foreign potentate – Ahmed Shah Abdalee.

Fourth invasion of Ahmed Shah, 1759

Raghoba had left Mulhar Rao Holkar and Datajee Sindia to extort contributions from the Rajpoot princes, and to maintain the conquests he had made in the Punjab. At the instigation of Ghazee-ood-deen,

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Sindia sent his officers to invade Rohilcund, and in the course of a month they laid waste thirteen hundred villages in that flourishing province. The ulterior object of the vizier and of the Mahrattas was the possession of Oude, and as the Nabob dreaded them more than he hated the Rohillas, he entered into a treaty with Hafiz Ruhmut, the bravest of their chiefs, and, in conjunction with Nujeeb-ood-dowlah drove Sindia across the Ganges with great slaughter. Just at this juncture both parties were astounded by the intelligence that Ahmed Shah was entering India with a grand army to recover and extend his conquests. The remembrance of the sack of Delhi by his troops gave a portentous character to this, his fourth invasion; and the Nabob and the Mahratta were induced, by a common alarm, to patch up an accommodation. The Abdalee crossed the Indus in September, 1759, and marched direct to Lahore.

Murder of the emperor, Alumgeer, Nov, 1759

During his advance, the vizier, who had deprived his former master of sight, dreading the intercourse of the emperor with Ahmed Shah, on whom he felt that he had inflicted inexpiable injury, gave orders for his assassination, and placed some unknown youth on the throne, who was however never acknowledged.

Defeat of Sindia and Holkar, 1760

The two Mahratta chiefs, supported by their allies, the Jauts, advanced to encounter Ahmed Shah, but they were in two divisions, widely separated from each other, and he resolved to attack them before they could form a junction. The army of Sindia was surprised, and two-thirds of the troops, including the general, slaughtered. Holkar made all haste to retreat, and might have escaped, but he could not resist the temptation of turning out of his way to plunder a rich convoy, of which he had received intimation. Ahmed Shah overtook him by forced marches of extraordinary length, and routed him with great carnage. Of these reverses the Peshwa received information, immediately after he and his cousin had succeeded in wresting the forts and districts already mentioned from Salabut. The

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Bhao, flushed with his recent success, entreated the Peshwa to allow him to proceed to Upper India, and restore the reputation of the Mahratta arms, and expel the Abdalees from the country. In an evil hour permission was granted, for though personally brave and resolute, he was rash and arrogant, and filled with an overweening conceit of his own abilities, which were unequal to the great expedition on which the fortunes of the Mahratta nation were about to be staked.

The Mahratta army

The army which now proceeded against Ahmed Shah was the largest and best equipped with which the Mahrattas had ever taken the field. It resembled rather the gorgeous array with which Aurungzebe had crossed the Nerbudda eighty years before than that of the humble and hardy mountaineers who had baffled him. The spacious and lofty tents of the chiefs were lined with silk and brocades, and surmounted with gilded ornaments. The finest horses, richly caparisoned, together with a long train of elephants, accompanied the army. The wealth which half a century of plunder had accumulated was exhibited in all its splendour. The officers, dressed in cloth of gold, vied with each other in profuse and prodigal display. The military chest was laden with two crores of rupees. Every commander throughout the Mahratta commonwealth was required to join the Bhao, and the whole of the Mahratta chivalry marched under the national standard. The Rajpoot chiefs contributed their cavalry brigades; the Pindarrees, who now appear for the first time in history, swarmed to the conflict, and Sooruj Mull, the Jaut chieftain, brought up a contingent of 30,000 men. The entire force did not fall short of 270,000. It was the grand struggle of Hindoo and Mahomedan for the sovereignty of India.

Arrogance of the Bhao

The experienced old Jaut did not fail to perceive that the unwieldy masses of the Bhao, encumbered with artillery and other accessories unsuited to their national mode of warfare, were ill calculated for such a campaign. He strongly advised that the guns and the

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infantry should be left in his forts, and that the army should revert to the old system of warfare, and harass the enemy with incessant attacks and cut off his supplies, till the hot season obliged the Abdalee to withdraw his troops to a more congenial climate beyond the Indus. But this sage advice, though supported by the ablest of the Mahratta generals, was rejected with scorn by the Bhao. The city of Delhi was occupied almost without a struggle, and he was with difficulty dissuaded from proclaiming Wiswas Rao, the eldest son of the Peshwa, Emperor of India. But, in a spirit of wanton barbarity, he destroyed the monuments of art which even Nadir Shah had spared. Disgusted with these acts, and not less with the overbearing conduct of the Bhao, the Rajpoots and the Jauts withdrew from his army.

Movements of the Mahrattas and Moguls, 1760

Ahmed Shah was cordially supported by the Rohillas, and with less zeal by the Nabob of Oude. His regular army consisted of 38,000 foot and 41,800 horse, with seventy pieces of artillery. His irregular force was computed to be equally strong. After a variety of manoeuvres the two armies confronted each other on the field of Paniput, where for the third time the fate of India was to be decided. The Bhao entrenched himself behind a ditch, forty feet wide and twelve feet deep. Ahmed Shah fortified his camp with felled trees. Numerous encounters took place from time to time between different detachments without any decisive result. The Rohillas and the Nabob of Oude were impatient to be led at once against the enemy, but the wary and experienced Abdalee prudently determined to wait the certain progress of famine in their encampment. The resources of the Mahrattas were gradually exhausted; their foraging parties were constantly driven back, and starvation stared them in the face, while the stench from the dead bodies of men and animals within the narrow limits of the camp became at length insupportable. Unable any longer to bear these privations and evils, men and officers equally demanded, in a voice of

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thunder, to be led against the enemy instead of being cooped up to die like dogs. The Bhao was obliged to yield; with the provisions which were left they partook together of one full meal, and then prepared for the struggle of the morrow.

Battle of Paniput, January 7, 1761

An hour before daybreak on the 7th of January, 1761, the Mahratta army issued from its entrenchments, not, as on many former occasions, in the full confidence of victory, but with the recklessness of despair. The engagement was opened by Ibrahim Khan Gardee and his 10,000 sepoys, trained under Bussy, and his splendid artillery, with which be swept down the ranks of the Rohillas who were opposed to him. He then charged them with the bayonet, but they did not retire till 8,000 of their number lay dead or wounded on the field, while the loss of half the corps of Ibrahim shewed the desperate character of the conflict. The retirement of the Rohillas uncovered the right of the centre division of the Abdalees, and the Bhao and his cousin, with the flower of the Mahratta force, charged them with such vigour, that the day at one time seemed to belong to the Mahrattas, but at this critical juncture Ahmed Shah brought up his reserve, and the conflict became closer and more ferocious than ever. With the exception of Mulhar Rao Holkar, all the chiefs maintained their reputation, but about two hours after noon, Wiswas Rao, the son of the Peshwa, was mortally wounded, and the Bhao immediately mounted his horse, and disappeared in the confusion of the fight. Holkar likewise marched off, and was followed by the Guickwar. As soon as the leaders were no longer seen the army fell into disorder and fled. No quarter was given, and the carnage was prodigious. Men, women, and children crowded into the village of Paniput, where they were surrounded for the night, but the men were drawn out the next morning, and ranged in files, when, to the eternal disgrace of Ahmed Shah, his soldiers were encouraged to amuse themselves in cutting off their heads, and piling them up as trophies in front of their tents. The body of Wiswas

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Rao was found, and the Abdalee was with reluctance prevailed on to allow it to be burnt, instead of having it dried and stuffed, to take back with him to Cabul. Junkajee Sindia and the illustrious Ibrahim Khan Gardee, were taken prisoners and put to death, the latter on the ground of having fought on the side of the Hindoos against the true believers. Only one-fourth of the troops escaped; and the entire loss of the Mahrattas, from the beginning of the campaign, was computed at 200,000. Never was defeat more complete or more fatal. There were few families which had not lost some relative, and grief and despondency overspread the community. The Peshwa died of grief, and with him perished the prestige of his family. The formidable unity of the Mahratta power was destroyed, and the hope which the Mahrattas had cherished of becoming masters of all India, was at once and for ever annihilated.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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