Plassey, on 23 June 1757, was the battle that gave the East India Company control of Bengal, which in turn foreshadowed British dominance over the whole of India. Local politics played its part. When the Nawab of Bengal, Ali Vardi Khan, died in 1756, he was followed by his great-nephew, Siraj-ud-Daulah, a succession that was opposed both within his own family and more generally. The British East India Company was busy, meanwhile, fortifying Calcutta, on the face of it because of the existential threat from the French, although the suspicious Siraj reckoned that the duplicitous British really had him in their sights – and therefore the territory of Bengal.
Siraj bombastically ordered the British Governor to take down the fortifications or the East India Company would be expelled. The Governor naturally refused, and on 20 June 1756 Siraj went on the offensive, taking Calcutta after feeble resistance. Then followed the vengeful and merciless episode of the ‘Black Hole of Calcutta’ (see previous article) – which the British would later use to justify their takeover of Bengal. In August 1756, news of Calcutta’s fall reached Madras (now Chennai), 1,000 miles to the south, and Lieutenant Colonel Robert Clive with his 900 British troops and 1,500 Sepoys set off to reclaim it. Conveyed around the Bay of Bengal to Calcutta by Vice Admiral Charles Watson, the troops wrested the trading post back from Siraj, displacing a garrison of 3,000 in the process. In the circumstances, the Nawab had no option other than to restore the East India Company’s trading privileges and cough up some compensation. But what transpired in India has also to be viewed against a bigger backdrop, as 1756 saw the outbreak of the Seven Years War, the first truly global conflict, in which Britain and France would contest not only the subcontinent but also Europe and the Americas.
The French had their own bastion with 300 troops and cannon at Chandernagore, near to Calcutta, but Clive attacked on 14 March 1757 and swept all before him. This victory alerted Siraj to Britain’s growing dominance and took him into the arms of France – an unholy alliance from the British perspective, leading Clive and Watson to resolve to remove Siraj by whatever means necessary. Siraj has been described as ‘cruel and debauched’ and unpopular as a ruler – so there were plenty of rivals eyeing his throne and several principal officers of his who were happy to parley with the British, asking Clive directly if he could help them get shot of this liability. Their spokesperson was Mir Jafar, the Nawab’s uncle: his prospective reward, a crown on his head. In return, Jafar pledged to keep the French out of Bengal and pay £500,000 to the East India Company. Clive duly left Chandernagore and plotted a course towards Siraj’s HQ of Murshidabad, 100 miles to the north. His force comprised 1,000 Europeans, 2,000 Sepoys (Indian colonial troops), and just eight cannon.
