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History

Robert Clive

His Impressions of Bengal

Azizul Jalil


Robert Clive

Sir Robert Clive (1725-74) became one of the richest men of his time in England, a member of the House of Commons and later a member of the House of Lords (ironically, as the first Baron of Plassey). He came thrice to Bengal. Coming first as a company writer (clerk) in 1743, he became an army officer in 1755, the last time he came as the Governor in 1764. As long as he was winning battles in India, amassing huge wealth and high honours, Clive an opium addict and chronically depressive, was cheerful. But during retirement in England, when he was accused in the Commons for his excesses and the plunder by him and the East India Company officials in India, he committed suicide. Clive had begun the process of forcibly establishing British supremacy over India, edging out the French. Every schoolchild in England would perhaps recollect his exploits and consider him a hero, but in India- Bengal in particular, he will forever be remembered as a treacherous agent of British colonialism.

Sirajuddaula became the nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa in 1756. The young nawab had increasingly challenged the emerging British hegemony in Bengal. He attacked Calcutta, routed the British from there and punished them severely. Coming from his victories in south-India, Clive, along with Admiral Watson, recaptured Calcutta in January 1957. The nawab's independent policies and aggressive actions were hindering British commercial interests and colonial ambitions. Using deceit and bribery with the nawab's officials and merchants, he confronted the nawab's formidable army at the mango grove at Plassey on June 23, 1757. The resulting battle may appropriately be called the first major Indian resistance to British expansionism.

Recently, while reading about Clive, I came across a letter sent by him in 1757 to the East India Company in London giving a first-hand account of the conquest of Bengal, and a speech he delivered in 1772 at the House of Commons on the prosperity of Bengal and the character and conduct of the young company officials in India. These were included in a historical documents series compiled by the University Research Extension of Milwaukee- Vol. VII: The Age of Revolution. The two documents, which give an insight into Clive's mind and his view of Bengal, may not be widely known. Finding these interesting enough to share with the readers, I have extensively quoted his words to provide the real flavour.

In his letter to the East India Company headquarters in London, Clive reportsed that the nawab was designing British ruin in conjunction with the French. On June 22, 1757 the company's forces under Clive arrived at the Plassey Grove at night. Clive states: “At daybreak we discovered the Nabob's army moving towards us, consisting, as we since found, of about fifteen thousand horse and thirty-five thousand foot, with upwards of forty pieces of cannon. They approached apace, and by six began to attack with a number of heavy cannon, supported by the whole army, and continued to fire very briskly for several hours, during which our situation was of the utmost service to us, being lodged in a large grove with good mud banks.” According to Clive, about noon the enemy drew off their artillery, and retired to their camp. A detachment was then sent with two field-pieces, to take possession of a tank with high banks from which the enemy had fired with some cannon managed by Frenchmen. The nawab's army made several attempts to bring out their cannon, but the company's advance field-pieces drove them back. “Their horse exposing themselves a good deal on this occasion, many of them were killed, and among the rest four or five officers of the first distinction, by which the whole army being visibly dispirited and thrown into some confusion, we were encouraged to storm both the eminence and the angle of their camp, which were carried at the same instant, with little or no loss. On this a general rout ensued; and we pursued the enemy six miles, passing upwards of forty pieces of cannon they had abandoned, with an infinite number of carriages filled with baggage of all kinds. It is computed there are killed of the enemy about five hundred. Our loss amounted to only twenty-two killed and fifty wounded, and those chiefly sepoys.”|


(Top) Nawab Sirejuddaula. (Bottom) And Clive’s meeting with Mir Jafar after the battle of plassey, by Francis Hayman (c.1762)

In his 1772 speech in the Commons, Clive gives his uncomplimentary impressions of the Bengalis and a rather glowing account of the wealth of Bengal. From his account, one comes to believe that indeed there was a 'Golden Bengal' at that time and in the earlier decades: “Indostan was always an absolute despotic government. The inhabitants, especially of Bengal, in inferior stations, are servile, mean, submissive, and humble. In superior stations, they are luxurious, effeminate, tyrannical, treacherous, venal, cruel. The country of Bengal is called, by way of distinction, the paradise of the earth. It not only abounds with the necessaries of life to such a degree, as to furnish a great part of India with its superfluity, but it abounds in very curious and valuable manufactures, sufficient not only for its own use, but for the use of the whole globe. The silver of the west and the gold of the east have for many years been pouring into that country, and goods only have been sent out in return. This has added to the luxury and extravagance of Bengal.”

Clive then speakse about the mental conditioning of the young writers of the company and their bloated expectations of fortune from their presence in Bengal: “The advantages arising from the Company's service are now very generally known; and the great object of every man is to get his son appointed a writer to Bengal; which is usually at the age of 16. His parents and relations represent to him how certain he is of making a fortune; that my lord such a one, and my lord such a one, acquired so much money in such a time; and Mr. such a one, and Mr. such a one, so much in such a time. Thus are their principles corrupted at their very setting out, and as they generally go a good many together, they inflame one another's expectations.”

Clive vividly describes how the young writers were corrupted from the very time they arrived in India and put the entire blame on the Indian merchants and their unscrupulous conduct and greed. He was met at the port by a banyan who desired that he may have the honour of serving this young gentleman at a nominal wage. The Company has provided chambers for him, but they are not good enough-the banyan finds better. Clive states: “The young man takes a walk about the town, he observes that other writers, arrived only a year before him, live in splendid apartments or have houses of their own, ride upon fine prancing Arabian horses, and in palanqueens and chaises; that they keep seraglios, make entertainments, and treat with champaigne and claret. When he returns he tells the banyan what he has observed. The banyan assures him he may soon arrive at the same good fortune; he furnishes him with money; he is then at his mercy. He is in a state of dependence under the banyan, who commits acts of violence and oppression, as his interest prompts him to, under the pretended sanction and authority of the Company's servant.”

About the conduct of the company officials in India, Clive concludes: “if they have erred, it has been because they were men, placed in situations subject to little or no control.”