Latest / The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History / Mughal Defector: Mir Jafar and the Partition of Bengal 1765
Transcript
- Lucas: Last time we talked about the Battle of Plassey in 1757, how Robert Clive used the traitor Mir Jafar to depose Siraj ud-Daulah. But that was really just the beginning of Bengal's takeover. The real transformation happened eight years later, with a single piece of paper: the Treaty of Allahabad in 1765. Luna: So Plassey wasn't the end of the story? Lucas: Not even close. After Plassey, Mir Jafar became Nawab, but he was a puppet—the Company controlled his army, his treasury, even his foreign policy. Mir Jafar soon chafed under that, and the British got tired of him too. They replaced him with his son-in-law, Mir Qasim, in 1760—but Mir Qasim turned out to be even more dangerous because he actually tried to be independent. Lucas: Mir Qasim moved his capital from Murshidabad to Monghyr, in present-day Bihar, and built a modern army with the help of European mercenaries. He also abolished all internal duties—customs posts that the British used to avoid taxes—and that directly hit Company profits. The British demanded he restore their privileges; he refused. Luna: So they went to war again? Lucas: Exactly. And this time it wasn't just Mir Qasim—he allied with the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II and the Nawab of Awadh, shuja ud daula. The three armies met the British at Buxar, in Bihar, in October 1764. The British commander was Hector Munro, and he crushed the coalition. It was a decisive victory—the Mughal emperor actually fled to the British camp and surrendered. Lucas: So after Buxar, the British were in complete control. And in 1765, Robert Clive came back from England to settle the terms. The result was the Treaty of Allahabad, signed on August 12, 1765. Under this treaty, the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II granted the East India Company the diwani—the right to collect revenue—for Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. Luna: Wait—the diwani. So the Company got the tax collection rights from the Mughal emperor himself? Lucas: Yes, and it's a remarkable document. In exchange, the Company agreed to pay the emperor an annual tribute of twenty-six lakh rupees and to maintain a military force for his protection. But the key thing is that the Mughal emperor was effectively a pensioner under Company protection. He stayed in Allahabad for a while, then eventually moved to Delhi under Maratha influence. Lucas: And what did this mean for Bengal? The Company now had legal authority, from the Mughal throne, to be the tax collector of the richest province in India. But they didn't administer it directly. Instead, they set up what's called the 'dual government'—the Company collected the revenue, but the Nawab was left with the responsibility of maintaining law and order. The Nawab had no money and no army, so it was a total farce. Luna: So the Nawab was just a front man? Lucas: Pretty much. Mir Jafar had been reinstalled as Nawab after Buxar, but he was a broken man. He died in February 1765, just a few months before the treaty. His son, Najim ud-Daulah, was put on the throne, and the Company really tightened the screws. The real power lay with the Company's officials, especially Clive. Lucas: And here's where it gets really sordid. Clive himself took a personal 'jagir'—an estate—from the Company worth about twenty-seven thousand pounds a year. It was essentially a bribe for his services. When this was later revealed in Parliament, it caused a huge scandal—Clive was accused of corruption. He defended himself by saying he was amazed at his own moderation, but the damage was done. Luna: That quote is famous: 'I stand astonished at my own moderation.' Lucas: Exactly. But beyond the personal greed, the dual government had disastrous consequences for Bengal. The Company's officials were more interested in squeezing as much revenue as possible than in good governance. They imposed heavy taxes, and when the peasants couldn't pay, they were tortured or had their land seized. The system was so exploitative that it contributed directly to the great Bengal famine of 1770. Lucas: The famine killed an estimated ten million people—about a third of Bengal's population. And yet the Company continued to collect revenue at the same rate, even during the famine. When the British governor, Harry Verelst, was asked about the harsh tax collection, he said the famine was an 'act of God' and the Company couldn't be blamed. Luna: It's almost impossible to imagine that level of callousness. Lucas: It's a dark chapter, but it set the pattern for British rule in India: extraction without responsibility. The Treaty of Allahabad didn't just shift revenue rights—it made Bengal a colony in all but name. And once the Company had Bengal's wealth, it could expand into the rest of India. The money from Bengal funded the wars against Mysore, the Marathas, and the Sikhs. Lucas: So when we look at the British Raj, its foundations were laid not in Delhi or Bombay, but in Allahabad in 1765, with a treaty that handed the keys to Bengal's treasury to a trading company. Luna: And it all started with one man's betrayal at Plassey. Lucas: Right. Mir Jafar's name is synonymous with treachery in South Asian history. But the Treaty of Allahabad is perhaps a more profound turning point—it legally formalized what Plassey had started. And it raises a question: could things have been different if the Mughal emperor had refused to sign? Probably not—he had no army. But the treaty gave the Company a veneer of legitimacy that made it harder to challenge. Luna: It's a reminder that history often hinges on documents, not just battles. Lucas: Absolutely. Well, that's the story of the Treaty of Allahabad and the birth of British Bengal. Next time, we'll look at how the Company actually ruled—and misruled—the province in the decades that followed.