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'Conquest and Corruption. The Struggle for Supremacy. Or Clive does his best!. What happened next?. After a certain amount of disagreement, things for the EIC appeared to be settling down.
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'Conquest and Corruption. The Struggle for Supremacy Or Clive does his best!
What happened next? • After a certain amount of disagreement, things for the EIC appeared to be settling down. • There continued squabbling, but as Sir Thomas Roe had set out, the way forward was negotiate and trade rather than strong arm tactics, and the EIC would have been happy to let this continue, just trading and wheeler dealing.
But their hand was forced by a new kid on the block, the French East India company. • To begin with the French were happy to trade with India, but in 1741 a certain Joseph Duplex was put in charge and he began to meddle in local politics.
Due to a war currently being fought (War of Austrian Succession) in which the French and the British were on opposing sides, he used this as an excuse to call in soldiers from Mauritus and capture Madras from the British. • The local Mogul chief, known as the Nawab of Carnatic, demanded the French hand back Madras to him. • When Duplex refused, the Nawab brought in a huge army of 10,000 men to teach the French a lesson. • The French only has 230 French soldiers and 700 local soldiers but their superior technology and strategy led to the Indian army being soundly routed. And as a result Duplex became to all intents and purposes the new Nawab.
Had Duplex had support from the French, India would probably have become a French colony. But he didn’t get it and as a result of a treaty between the 2 countries, Madras was handed back to the British. It did not take a young man, Clive, long to put the lessons learnt from Dupleix into action. Almost immediately, he took advantage of a dispute between three local chiefs. While one, Chanda Sahib, was laying siege to another one, Muhammad Ali , Clive snuck into Chanda Sahib's capital of Arcot with 200 English and 300 sepoys (local soldiers) and took the town.
Now Clive was quite a character! • Early Life • Robert Clive was born at Styche, the old family estate, near Market Drayton and briefly educated at Merchant Taylors' School in London, until his expulsion. From his second speech in the House of Commons in 1773, it is known that the estate yielded only £500 a year. To supplement this income, his father practised law. • Teachers despaired of the young Clive. He is reputed to have climbed the tower of St Mary's Parish Church in Market Drayton and perched on a gargoyle. He also attempted to set up a protection racket enforced by a gang of youths. • If his behaviour generally was bad, in school it was worse - he was expelled from three schools, including Market Drayton Grammar School. • He was packed off to India because they could not think of anything else he could do!
Having taken Arcot, Clive then installed Muhammad Ali as Nawab. And as a result, Clive had made his reputation as a daring general and became the effective Nawab broker of the Carnatic. After some years Clive returned to Britain and became a member of parliament.. The Seven Years war (1756-1763) would provide Clive with another excuse to return to India and extend British power in India. The Seven Years War was really the first world conflict, with battles between various countries in Europe and America and then in India too. There were various alliances, but as always, the French and British were on opposite sides. Eighth Nawab of the Carnatic Muhammad Ali Wallajah ( 1749 - 1795 )
The local British commander decided to fortify Calcutta, saying that he feared an attack by the French. • The nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ad-Daula found out about it and did not like the idea of foreign powers building fortifications on his land so he ordered the British to cease building.
When the British refused, Siraj gathered an army of 50,000 soldiers and descended on the small garrison of 1,000 British soldiers, many of whom escaped to nearby ships. The remainder of the garrison surrendered when realising that the powder for their antiquated guns had become damp and unusable. • But Siraj's victorious army gave Britain an excuse for moral outrage by what has become known as 'The Black Hole of Calcutta'.
One version of this, the one believed by British, is that Siraj had 146 people shut in a dark airless room on the evening of June 20, 1756, said to be only 4.3 by 5.5 m. • By morning, when they were released, according to only primary evidence we have of one of the survivors John Howell, 123 of them had died from suffocation and trampling. • It is accepted that John Howell’s version was probably fanciful. But it was one that was clung to by the British and one they used to excuse them doing whatever it took to avenge the deaths.
However if you read other accounts, those written by Indians in particular, there are claims that • it never happened, • that if it did happen then Siraj knew nothing of it and finally • that there were not that many British soldiers left in the fort when Siraj took it over and so at the very least it was huge exaggeration.
By this time Clive had returned to India • Whatever the truth of it, Clive believed to worst case version • Clive and a fleet of warships were despatched from Madras. The warships bombarded the French base at Chandranagar (on your map near Calcutta) whilst Clive led an attack on the French fortress at Hughli. This removed French influence from the region of Bengal. • Clive then turned his attention on Siraj. • History at the time was used to tell the Battle of Plassey as a great victory of a small army against a huge one. • However, it was not quite that straight forward!
By this time Clive had returned to India • Clive found a suitable replacement Nawab, Mir Jafar. He also found allies in the form of Hindu bankers who were willing to bribe Siraj's soldiers not to fight. • Then on June 23rd 1757, Clive met the 50,000 army of Siraj with only 700 European soldiers and some 2,000 Sepoys. • Mir Jafar defected with many of Siraj's men midway through the battle as most of Siraj's troops had been paid not to risk their life or limb. • Those who did fight were overwhelmed by the ferocity of Clive's superior firepower and with the resolve of the men using it.
When Clive installed Mir Jafar as ruler, he awarded himself the lion's share of the financial spoils and granted himself a substantial area of land. • Not only had the EIC gained financially, but the Nawab, by granting so much land to gain his position, had robbed the treasury of funds. It was not too long before Mir Jafar stood down to be replaced by another Nawab - willing to grant yet more land for the privilege of becoming ruler.
In 1764 the Mughal emperors amassed their armies in a last attempt to rid India of the British once and for all. • But they were comprehensively defeated by the much smaller force of Major Hector Munro. • This victory sealed the fate of the Indian continent once and for all. • The EIC could have marched into Delhi and become the new Empire for India. But they chose not to, preferring ‘Power without Responsibility’. Major Hector Munro
The revenues that EIC officials were collecting were being rapidly repatriated back to Britain (and into their own bank accounts) - this left the Indian officials with no means to pay for their judicial system. • From the British government's point of view, this was leading to an extremely bad press. The EIC officials were getting rich from this system while the EIC itself was not making any money at all. • By the 1770s the EIC were unable to pay for the use of British armed services and then had to ask the British government for a one million pound loan to keep the company going. • Many people in Britain saw that, while the officials returned home wealthy, the tax payer was having to bail out the company itself. (Sounds familiar?!)
One condition of the grant was that the government got involved and tried to stamp out corruption . • The EIC had successfully used its influence to avoid direct Crown rule in India. • But EIC was still more concerned with revenue collection than for the betterment of civil society in the sub-continent, and trade, their original function, very much took a back seat. • This way of making money made perfect sense to them, but liberals in Britain were far from happy as they saw that India was being drained of funds and their people were suffering. [This was about the time when anti-slavery was becoming an issue and treating native peoples badly was seen as blameworthy if not downright wicked.]
The result was the creation of a 'Board of Control' in 1784 whose president was a member of the Cabinet and was directly answerable to parliament. • This Act still left the day to day running of the provinces to EIC officials - however it was clear that the British Government was being drawn further and further into the administrative affairs of India. • It was not until Lord Cornwallis became Governor General of Bengal, who ushered in a period reform, that things began to be sorted out.
Homework • Robert Clive was seen in different lights at different times by different people. Some times he was seen as a hero and at others judged to be corrupt and greedy. • (a) Research at least • 3 positive things Clive did • 3 negative attributes, and write them in a list • (b) Decide whether he was, on balance, a constructive influence or not and in a short paragraph explain the reasons for your decision.
