3. great stress laid on the doctrine of transmigration;

4. great importance assigned to self-mortification, austerity,

and abstract meditation, as an aid to the suppression of all

action;

5. concentration of all human desires on the absolute

extinction of all being.

There is still a sixth, which is perhaps the most noteworthy

of all; viz., that the Buddha recognized no supreme deity. The

only god, he affirmed, is what man himself can become. A

Buddhist, therefore, never really prays, he only meditates on

the perfections of the Buddha and the hope of attaining

Nirvana. … Brahmanism and Buddhism [in India] appear to have

blended, or, as it were, melted into each other, after each

had reciprocally parted with something, and each had imparted

something. At any rate it may be questioned whether Buddhism

was ever forcibly expelled from any part of India by direct

persecution, except, perhaps, in a few isolated centres of

Brahmanical fanaticism, such as the neighbourhood of Benares.

Even in Benares the Chinese traveller, Hiouen Thsang, found

Brahmanism and Buddhism flourishing amicably side by side in

the 7th century of our era. In the South of India the Buddha's

doctrines seem to have met with acceptance at an early date,

and Ceylon was probably converted as early as B. C. 240, soon

after the third Buddhist council held under King Asoka. In

other parts of India there was probably a period of

Brahmanical hostility, and perhaps of occasional persecution;

but eventually Buddhism was taken by the hand, and drawn back

into the Brahmanical system by the Brahmans themselves, who

met it half way and ended by boldly adopting the Buddha as an

incarnation of Vishnu. … Only a small section of the

Buddhist community resisted all conciliation, and these are

probably represented by the present sect of Jains [who are

found in large numbers in various parts of India, especially

on the western coast]. Be the actual state of the case as it

may, nothing can be clearer than the fact that Buddhism has

disappeared from India (the island of Ceylon being excepted),

and that it has not done so without having largely contributed

towards the moulding of Brahmanism into the Hinduism of the

present day."

_M. Williams,

Hinduism,

chapter 6._

ALSO IN:

_M. Williams (now Sir Monier Monier-Williams),

Buddhism._

_H. Oldenburg,

Buddha._

_P. Bigandet,

Life and Legend of Gaudama._

_A. Lillie,

Buddha and the Early Buddhists._

_W. W. Rockhill,

The Life of the Buddha._

INDIA: A. D. 977-1290.

Under the Ghaznavide and Mameluke empires.

"Aryan civilisation was … germinating, but it was in

uncongenial soil. Like the descendants of Abraham and Jacob,

the invaders mingled with the heathen and learned their ways.

The older inhabitants were barbarous, multilingual, indolent;

worshippers less of many gods than of many devils. The fusion

that ensued was not happy; though the origin and growth of the

caste system prevented complete union, it facilitated some of

its evils; the character of the Aryan settlers became

disastrously affected; the want of commercial communication by

land and sea tended to perpetuate stagnation. This was the

state of things upon which the rising tide from Central Asia

began to flow with resistless pertinacity after the

Mongolo-Turkish power became established on the Oxus and the

Helmand. It was not to be wondered at if the Arabs made no

wide or lasting Indian conquests in the early ages of the

Musulman era. At a time when they were engaged with the

Christian Empires of the East and the West, when they were

spreading the power of the crescent from the borders of

Khorásán to the Pillars of Hercules, the warriors of Islam had

perhaps but little temptation to undertake further adventure.

Certain it is that beyond the confines of Makran and a part of

Sindh (occupied less than a hundred years after the

Hijra)—the Arab conquests did not spread in India. It was

Nasir-ud-Din Sabuktigin—certainly a Merv captive and

popularly believed a scion of the Sassanian dynasty that once

ruled Persia—by whom the first Muslim invasion of Hindustan

was made in durable fashion. His master, Alptigin, having fled

from the oppression of the Samani dynasty of Bukhara in 962 A.

D., had founded a principality at Ghazni. Sabuktigin acquired

his favour, and was able, soon after his death, to acquire the

succession in 977 A. D. He established his power in the

Punjab; and his armies are said to have penetrated as far as

Benares. On his death, 997 A. D., his son, the celebrated

Sultan Mahmud, succeeded to the Empire extending from Balkh to

Lahore, if not to Hansi [see TURKS: A. D. 999-1183]. During a

reign of over thirty years he invaded Hindustan twelve times,

inflicting terrible carnage on the Hindus, desecrating their

idols, and demoralising their temples. Mathura, Kanauj,

Somnath; to such distant and divergent points did his

enterprises reach. Mahmud died 1030 A. D., and was buried at

Ghazni, where his monument is still to be seen. For about one

hundred years the dynasty continued to rule in the Punjab and

Afghanistan, more and more troubled by the neighbouring tribe

of Ghor, who in 1187 A. D. took Lahore and put an end to the

Ghaznavide dynasty. A prince of the Ghorians—variously known,

but whose name may be taken as Muhammad Bin Sam—was placed in

a sort of almost independent viceroyalty at Ghazni. In 1191 A.

D. he led an army against Sirhind, south of the Sutlaj river.

Rai Pithaura, or Pirthi Rai, a chief of the Chauhans (who had

lately possessed themselves of Dehli), marched against the

invaders and defeated them in a battle where Bin Sam had a

narrow escape from being slain. But the sturdy mountaineers

would not be denied. Next year they returned" and defeated

Pithaura. "The towns of Mirat and Dehli fell upon his defeat;

and their fall was followed a year later by that of Kanauj and

Benares. The Viceroy's brother dying at this juncture, he

repaired to his own country to establish his succession. He

was killed in an expedition, 1206 A. D., and the affairs of

Hindustan devolved upon his favourite Mameluke, Kutb-ud-din

Aibak. … When Muhammad bin Sam had gone away, to rule and

ultimately to perish by violence in his native highlands, his

acquisitions in Hindustan came under the sway of Kutb-ud-din

Aibak, a Mameluke, or Turkish slave, who had for a long time

been his faithful follower. One of the Viceroy's first

undertakings was to level to the ground the palaces and

temples of the Hindus at Dehli, and to build, with the

materials obtained by their destruction, a great Mosque for

the worship of Allah. … From 1192 to 1206, the year of Bin

Sam's death, Kutb-ud-din Aibak ruled as Viceroy.

{1706}

But it is recorded that the next Emperor—feeling the

difficulty, perhaps, of exercising any sort of rule over so

remote a dependency—sent Aibak a patent as 'Sultan,'

accompanied by a canopy of state, a throne and a diadem.

Becoming Sultan of Hindustan, the distinguished and fortunate

Mameluke founded what is known as 'the Slave dynasty.' …

Aibak died at Lahore, in 1210, from an accident at a game now

known as 'polo.' He was contemporaneous with the great Mughul

leader Changiz Khan, by whom, however, he was not molested.

The chief event of his reign is to be found in his successful

campaigns in Behar and Northern Bengal. … The Musulman power

was not universally and firmly established in the Eastern

Provinces till the reign of Balban (circ. 1282). At the death

of Aibak the Empire was divided into four great portions. The

Khiljis represented the power of Islam in Bihar and Bengal;

the North-West Punjab was under a viceroy named Ilduz, a

Turkman slave; the valley of the Indus was ruled by another of

these Mamelukes, named Kabacha; while an attempt was made at

Dehli to proclaim an incompetent lad, son of the deceased, as

Sultan. But the Master of the Horse, a third Mameluke named

Altimsh, was close at hand, and, hurrying up at the invitation

of influential persons there, speedily put down the movement.

… Altimsh, having deposed his feeble brother-in-law, became

Suzerain of the Empire. His satraps were not disposed to

obedience; and bloody wars broke out, into the details of

which we need not enter. It will be sufficient to note that

Ilduz was defeated and slain A. D. 1215. Two years later

Kabacha came up from Sindh, and seems [to] have enlisted some

of the Mughul hordes in his armies. These formidable

barbarians, of whom more anon, were now in force in Khorasan,

under Changiz in person, assisted by two of his sons.

See MONGOLS: A. D. 1153-1227.

They drove before them the Sultan of Khwarizm (now Khiva), and

occupied Afghanistan. The fugitive, whose adventures are among

the most romantic episodes of Eastern history, attempted to

settle himself in the Panjab; but he was driven out by Altimsh

and Kabacha in 1223. Two years later Altimsh moved on the

Khiljis in the Eastern Provinces, occupied Gaur, their

capital; and proceeding from thence made further conquests

south and north at the expense of the Hindus. In 1228 he

turned against Kabacha, the mighty Satrap of Sindh, who was

routed in battle near Bakkhar, where he committed suicide or

was accidentally drowned. In 1232-3 the Sultan reduced Gwalior

(in spite of a stout resistance on the part of the Hindus

under Milak Deo), slaying 700 prisoners at the door of his

tent. In 1234 he took the province of Malwa; where he

demolished the great temples of Bhilsa and Ujain. In the

following year this puissant warrior of the Crescent succumbed

to the common conqueror, dying a natural death at Dehli, after

a glorious reign of twenty-six (lunar) years. … His eldest

son, who had conducted the war against the Khiljis, had died

before him, and the Empire was assumed by a younger son,

Rukn-ud-din Firoz. … [In 1241] Lahore was taken by the

Mughols with terrific carnage. Troubles ensued; Dehli was

besieged by the army that had been raised for its defence

against the Mughols; in May 1242 the city was taken by storm

and the new Sultan was slain. His successor, Ala-uddin I., was

a grandson of Altimsh, incompetent and apathetic as young men

in his position have usually been. The land was partitioned

among Turkish satraps, and overrun by the Mughols, who

penetrated as far as Gaur in Bengal. Another horde, led by

Mangu, grandson of Changiz, and father of the celebrated

Kiblai Khan, ravaged the Western Punjab. The Sultan marched

against them and met with a partial success. This turned into

evil courses the little intellect that he had, a plot was

organised for his destruction. Ala-ud-din was slain, and his

uncle Nasir-ud-din was placed upon the vacant throne in June

1246. Nasir's reign was long, and, so far as his personal

exploits went, would have been uneventful. But the risings of

the Hindus and the incursions of the Mughols kept the Empire

in perpetual turmoil." Nasir was succeeded in 1286-7 by his

grandson, Kai Kobad. "This unfortunate young man was destined

to prove the futility of human wisdom. Educated by his stern

and serious grandfather, his lips had never touched those of a

girl or a goblet. His sudden elevation turned his head. He

gave himself up to debauchery, caused his cousin Khusru to be

murdered, and was himself ultimately killed in his palace at

Kilokhari, while lying sick of the palsy. With his death

(1290) came to an end the Mameluke Empire of Hindustan."

_H. G. Keene,

Sketch of the History of Hindustan,

book 1, chapters 1-2._

ALSO IN:

_J. T. Wheeler,

History of India,

volume 4, part 1, chapter 2._

_A. Dow,

History of Hindustan

(from the Persian of Ferishta),

volume 1._

INDIA: A. D. 1290-1398.

From the Afghans to the Moghuls.

"In 1290 the last Sultan of the Afghan slave dynasty was

assassinated, and a Sultan ascended the throne at Delhi under

the name of Jelal-ud-din. He was an old man of seventy, and

made no mark in history; but he had a nephew, named

Ala-ud-din, who became a man of renown," and who presently

acquired the throne by murdering his uncle. "When Ala-ud-din

was established on the throne at Delhi he sent an army to

conquer Guzerat." This conquest was followed by that of

Rajputana. "Meanwhile the Moghuls [Mongols] were very

troublesome. In the previous reign the uncle of Ala-ud-din had

enlisted 3,000, and settled them near Delhi; but they were

turbulent, refractory, and mixed up with every rebellion.

Ala-ud-din ordered them to be disbanded, and then they tried

to murder him. Ala-ud-din then ordered a general massacre.

Thousands are said to have been put to death, and their wives

and children were sold into slavery. Ala-ud-din was the first

Muhammadan sovereign who conquered Hindu Rajas in the Dekhan

and Peninsula. … Ala-ud-din sent his general Malik Kafur to

invade these southern countries, ransack temples, and carry

off treasure and tribute. The story is a dreary narrative of

raid and rapine. … Ala-ud-din died in 1316. His death was

followed by a Hindu revolt; indeed Hindu influences must have

been at work at Delhi for many years previously. Ala-ud-din

had married a Hindu queen; his son had married her daughter.

Malik Kafur was a Hindu converted to Islam. The leader of the

revolt at Delhi in 1316 was another Hindu convert to Islam.

The proceedings of the latter rebel, however, were of a mixed

character. He was proclaimed Sultan under a Muhammadan name,

and slaughtered every male of the royal house. Meanwhile his

Hindu followers set up idols in the mosques, and seated

themselves on Korans.

{1707}

The rebels held possession of Delhi for five months. At the

end of that time the city was captured by the Turkish governor

of the Punjab, named Tughlak. The conqueror then ascended the

throne of Delhi, and founded the dynasty of Tughlak Sultans.

The Tughlak Sultans would not live at Delhi; they probably

regarded it as a Hindu volcano. They held their court at

Tughlakabad, a strong fortress about an hour's drive from old

Delhi. The transfer of the capital from Delhi to Tughlakabad

is a standpoint in history. It shows that a time had come when

the Turk began to fear the Hindu. The conqueror of Delhi died

in 1325. He was succeeded by a son who has left his mark in

history. Muhammad Tughlak was a Sultan of grand ideas, but

blind to all experiences, and deaf to all counsels. He sent

his armies into the south to restore the Muhammadan supremacy

which had been shaken by the Hindu revolt. Meanwhile the

Moghuls invaded the Punjab, and Muhammad Tughlak bribed them

to go away with gold and jewels. Thus the imperial treasury

was emptied of all the wealth which had been accumulated by

Ala-ud-din. The new Sultan tried to improve his finances, but

only ruined the country by his exactions. … Then followed

rebellions and revolutions. Bengal revolted, and became a

separate kingdom under an independent Sultan. The Rajas of the

Dekhan and Peninsula withheld their tribute. The Muhammadan

army of the Dekhan broke out into mutiny, and set up a Sultan

of their own. Muhammad Tughlak saw that all men turned against

him. He died in 1350, after a reign of twenty-five years. The

history of Delhi fades away after the death of Muhammad

Tughlak. A Sultan reigned from 1350 to 1388, named Firuz Shah.

He is said to have submitted to the dismemberment of the

empire, and done his best to promote the welfare of the

subjects left to him; but it is also said that he destroyed

temples and idols, and burnt a Brahman alive for perverting

Muhammadan women. In 1398-99, ten years after the death of

Firuz Shah, Timur Shah invaded the Punjab and Hindustan [see

TIMOUR]. The horrors of the Tartar invasion are indescribable;

they teach nothing to the world, and the tale of atrocities

may well be dropped into oblivion. It will suffice to say that

Timur came and plundered, and then went away. He left officers

to rule in his name, or to collect tribute in his name. In

1450 they were put aside by Afghans;—turbulent Muhammadan

fanatics whose presence must have been hateful to the Hindus.

At last, in 1525, a descendant of Timur, named the Baber,

invaded India, and conquered the Punjab and Hindustan."

_J. T. Wheeler,

Short History of India,

part 2, chapter 1._

ALSO IN:

_M. Elphinstone,

History of India: Hindu and Mahometan,

book 6. chapters 2-3._

INDIA: A. D. 1398-1399.

Timour's invasion of the Punjab.

See TIMOUR.

[Image: Map of India, about the close of the Sixteenth Century,

and map of the growth of the Anglo-Indian Empire.]

INDIA: A. D. 1399-1605.

The Saiyid and the Lodi dynasties.

The founding of the Moghul Empire by Babar and Akbar.

"The invasion of Taimur … dealt a fatal blow to an authority

already crumbling. The chief authority lingered indeed for

twelve years in the hands of the then representative, Sultan

Mahmud. It then passed for a time into the hands of a family

which did not claim the royal title. This family, known in

history as the Saiyid dynasty, ruled nominally in Northern

India for about 33 years, but the rule had no coherence, and a

powerful Afghan of the Lodi family took the opportunity to

endeavour to concentrate power in his own hands. The

Muhammadan rule in India had indeed become by this time the

rule of several disjointed chiefs over several disjointed

provinces, subject in point of fact to no common head. Thus,

in 1450, Delhi, with a small territory around it, was held by

the representative of the Saiyid family. Within fourteen miles

of the capital, Ahmad Khan ruled independently in Mewat.

Sambhal, or the province now known as Rohilkhand, extending to

the very walls of Delhi, was occupied by Darya Khan Lodi. …

Lahore, Dipalpur, and Sirhind, as far south as Panipat, by

Behlul Lodi. Multan, Jaunpur, Bengal, Malwa, and Gujarat, each

had its separate king. Over most of these districts, and as

far eastward as the country immediately to the north of

Western Bihar, Behlul Lodi, known as Sultan Behlul, succeeded

on the disappearance of the Saiyids in asserting his sole

authority, 1450-88. His son and successor, Sultan Sikandar

Lodi, subdued Behar, invaded Bengal, which, however, he

subsequently agreed to yield to Allah-u-din, its sovereign,

and not to invade it again; and overran a great portion of

Central India. On his death, in 1518, he had concentrated

under his own rule the territories now known as the Punjab;

the North-western Provinces, including Jaunpur; a great part

of Central India; and Western Bihar. But, in point of fact,

the concentration was little more than nominal." The death of

Sikandar Lodi was followed by a civil war which resulted in

calling in the Tartar or Mongol conqueror, Babar, a descendant

of Timour, who, beginning in 1494 with a small dominion (which

he presently lost) in Ferghana, or Khokland, Central Asia, had

made himself master of a great part of Afghanistan (1504),

establishing his capital at Kabul. Babar had crossed the

Indian border in 1505, but his first serious invasion was in

1519, followed, according to some historians, by a second

invasion the same year; the third was in 1520; the fourth

occurred after an interval of two or three years. On his fifth

expedition he made the conquest complete, winning a great

battle at Panipat, 53 miles to the north-west of Delhi, on the

24th of April, 1526. Ibrahim Lodi, son and successor of

Sikandar Lodi, was killed in the battle, and Delhi and Agra

were immediately occupied. "Henceforth the title of King of

Kabul was to be subjected to the higher title of Emperor of

Hindustan." Babar was in one sense the founder of the Mughal

(synonymous with Mongol) dynasty—the dynasty of the Great

Moguls, as his successors were formerly known. He died in

1530, sovereign of northern India, and of some provinces in

the center of the peninsula: But "he bequeathed to his son,

Humayun, … a congeries of territories uncemented by any bond

of union or of common interest, except that which had been

concentrated in his life. In a word, when he died, the Mughal

dynasty, like the Muhammadan dynasties which had preceded it,

had shot down no roots into the soil of Hindustan."

_G. B. Malleson,

Akbar,

chapters 4-5._

{1708}

Humayun succeeded Babar in India, "but had to make over Kabul

and the Western Punjab to his brother and rival, Kamran.

Humayun was thus left to govern the new conquest of India, and

at the same time was deprived of the country from which his

father had drawn his support. The descendants of the early

Afghan invaders, long settled in India, hated the new

Muhammadan hordes of Babar even more than they hated the

Hindus. After ten years of fighting, Humayun was driven out of

India by these Afghans under Sher Shah, the Governor of

Bengal. While flying through the desert of Sind to Persia, his

famous son Akbar was born in the petty fort of Umarkot (1542).

Sher Shah set up as emperor, but was killed while storming the

rock fortress of Kalinjar (1545). His son succeeded. But,

under Sher Shah's grandson, the third of the Afghan house, the

Provinces revolted, including Malwa, the Punjab, and Bengal.

Humayun returned to India, and Akbar, then only in his

thirteenth year, defeated the Afghan army after a desperate

battle at Panipat (1556). India now passed finally from the

Afghans to the Mughals. Sher Shah's line disappears; and

Humayun, having recovered his Kabul dominions, reigned again

for a few months at Delhi, but died in 1556. … Akbar the

Great, the real founder of the Mughal Empire as it existed for

two centuries, succeeded his father at the age of fourteen.

… His reign lasted for almost fifty years, from 1556 to

1605, and was therefore contemporary with that of our own

Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603). His father, Humayun, left but a

small kingdom in India, scarcely extending beyond the

Districts around Agra and Delhi. … The reign of Akbar was a

reign of pacification. … He found India split into petty

kingdoms, and seething with discordant elements; on his death,

in 1605, he bequeathed it an empire. The earlier invasions by

Turks, Afghans, and Mughals, had left a powerful Muhammadan

population in India under their own Chiefs. Akbar reduced

these Musalman States to Provinces of the Delhi Empire. Many

of the Hindu kings and Rajput nations had also regained their

independence: Akbar brought them into political dependence

upon his authority. This double task he effected partly by

force of arms, but in part also by alliances. He enlisted the

Rajput princes by marriage and by a sympathetic policy in the

support of his throne. He then employed them in high posts,

and played off his Hindu generals and Hindu ministers against

the Mughal party in Upper India, and against the Afghan

faction in Bengal. … His efforts to establish the Mughal

Empire in Southern India were less successful. … Akbar

subjugated Khandesh, and with this somewhat precarious

annexation his conquests in the Deccan ceased. … Akbar not

only subdued all India to the north of the Vindhya mountains,

he also organized it into an empire. He partitioned it into

Provinces, over each of which he placed a governor, or

viceroy, with full civil and military control."

_W. W. Hunter,

Brief History of the Indian People,

chapter 10._

"I wish briefly and fairly to state what the Emperor Akbar did

for the improvement of the country and the people of

Hindostan. He improved the system of land-assessment, or

rather he improved upon the improvements instituted by Shir

Shah. He adapted an uniform and improved system of

land-measurement, and computed the average value of the land,

by dividing it into three classes, according to the

productiveness of each. This computation being made, one-third

of the average produce was fixed as the amount of tax to be

paid to the state. But as this was ordinarily to be paid in

money, it was necessary to ascertain the value of the produce,

and this was done upon an average of the nineteen preceding

years, according to local circumstances; and if the estimate

was conceived to be too high, the tax-payer was privileged to

pay the assessment in kind. … The regulations for the

collection of the revenue enforced by Akbar were well

calculated to prevent fraud and oppression, and, on the whole,

they worked well for the benefit of the people; but it has

been said of them, and with truth, that 'they contained no

principle of progressive improvement, and held out no hopes to

the rural population, by opening paths by which it might

spread into other occupations, or rise by individual exertions

within its own.' The judicial regulations of Akbar were

liberal and humane. Justice, on the whole, was fairly

administered. All unnecessary severity—all cruel personal

punishments, as torture and mutilation, were prohibited,

except in peculiar cases, and capital punishments were

considerably restricted. The police appears to have been well

organised. … He prohibited … trials by ordeal … ; he

suppressed the barbarous custom of condemning to slavery

prisoners taken in war; and he authoritatively forbade the

burning of Hindoo widows, except with their own free and

uninfluenced consent. … That something of the historical

lustre which surrounds the name of the Emperor Akbar was

derived rather from the personal character of the man than

from the great things that he accomplished, is, I think, not

to be denied. His actual performances, when they come to be

computed, fall short of his reputation. But his merits are to

be judged not so much by the standard of what he did, as of

what he did with the opportunities allowed to him, and under

the circumstances by which he was surrounded. Akbar built up

the Mogul Empire, and had little leisure allowed him to

perfect its internal economy."

_J. W. Kaye,

The Administration of the East India Company,

part 1, chapter 2._

ALSO IN: 3

_W. Erskine,

History of India under Baber and Humayun._

_A. Dow,

History of Hindostan, from Ferishta,

volume 2._

_J. T. Wheeler,

History of India,

volume 4, chapter 4._

INDIA: A. D. 1498-1580.

Portuguese trade and settlements.

In May, 1498, Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese navigator, reached

Calicut, on the southwest (Malabar) coast, being the first

European to traverse the ocean route to India, around the Cape

of Good Hope (see PORTUGAL: A. D. 1463-1498). He met with a

hostile reception from the natives of Malabar; but the next

voyager from Portugal, Alvarez Cabral, "who came out the

following year, was very favourably received, being allowed to

establish a factory on the mainland and to appoint a 'factor'

(or consul, as we say now) to represent Portugal there. This

factor seems to have had some difficulties with the natives,

chiefly owing to his own high-handed actions, which resulted

in the murder of himself and the destruction of the factory.

Alvarez Cabral therefore sailed up to Cochin, and was received

with great friendliness by the chiefs of that part of the

country, who allowed him again to set up agencies at Cochin

and at Cananore. But the vengeance of the ruler of Malabar

pursued them; and the Portuguese, together with their native

allies, had to fight desperately for their safety.

{1709}

They were almost exhausted with the struggle when in 1504

large reinforcements were sent from Portugal, bombarded

Calicut, the capital of Malabar, and established the name and

fame of the Portuguese as an important power in India

generally. A regular maritime trade with India was now firmly

set on foot, but the Portuguese had to struggle hard to

maintain it. The Mohammedans of India called in the aid of

Egypt against them, and even the republic of Venice joined

these enemies, in hopes of crushing this new rival to their

ancient trade. In 1508 a powerful expedition was sent out from

Egypt against the newcomers, a tremendous battle took place,

and the Portuguese were defeated. But by a desperate effort

Almeida, the Portuguese viceroy, collected all his forces for

a final blow, and succeeded in winning a magnificent naval

victory which once and for all firmly established the

Portuguese power in India. Two years afterwards Almeida's

rival and successor, Alfonso de Albuquerque, gained possession

of Goa (1510), and this city became the centre of their Indian

dominion, which now included Ceylon and the Maldive Islands,

together with the Malacca and Malabar coasts. In 1511 the city

of Malacca was captured, and the city of Ormuz in 1515. The

next few years were spent in consolidating their sovereignty

in these regions, till in 1542 the Portuguese colonists

practically regulated all the Asiatic coast trade with Europe,

from the Persian Gulf … to Japan. … For nearly sixty years

after this date the king of Portugal, or his viceroy, was

virtually the supreme ruler—in commercial matters at any

rate—of the southern coast of Asia. The Portuguese were at

the climax of their power in the east. The way in which

Portuguese trade was carried on is an interesting example of

the spirit of monopoly which has, invariably at first and very

often afterwards, inspired the policy of all European powers

in their efforts of colonisation. The eastern trade was of

course kept in the hands of Portuguese traders only, as far as

direct commerce between Portugal and India was concerned; but

even Portuguese traders were shut out from intermediate

commerce between India and other eastern countries, i. e.,

China, Japan, Malacca, Mozambique, and Ormuz. This traffic was

reserved as a monopoly to the crown; and it was only as a

great favour, or in reward for some particular service, that

the king allowed private individuals to engage in it. The

merchant fleet of Portugal generally set sail from Lisbon,

bound to Goa, once a year about February or March. … This

voyage generally took about eighteen months, and, owing to the

imperfect state of navigation at that time, and the lack of

accurate charts of this new route, was frequently attended by

the loss of several ships. Immense profits were, however, made

by the traders. On arriving back at Lisbon the Portuguese

merchants, as a rule, did not themselves engage in any trade

with other European countries in the goods they had brought

back, but left the distribution of them in the hands of Dutch,

English, and Hansa sailors who met them at Lisbon. … The

colonial empire of Portugal, so rapidly and brilliantly

acquired, came to a disastrous close. It lasted altogether

hardly a century. The avarice and oppressions of its viceroys

and merchants, the spirit of monopoly which pervaded their

whole policy, and the neglect both of the discipline and

defences necessary to keep newly-acquired foreign possessions,

hastened its ruin. By 1580 the Portuguese power in the east

had seriously declined, and in that year the crown of Portugal

was united to that of Spain in the person of Philip II. The

Spaniards neglected their eastern possessions altogether, and

engaged in wars with the Dutch which had the effect, not only

of wasting a great portion of their own and the Portuguese

fleet, but of positively driving the Dutch into those very

eastern seas which the Portuguese had once so jealously kept

to themselves. Only Goa and Diu and a few other small stations

remained out of all their magnificent dominion."

_H. de B. Gibbins,

History of Commerce in Europe,

book 3, chapter 1 (sections 94-97)._

ALSO IN:

_E. McMurdo,

History of Portugal,

volume 3, books 2-5._

_Commentaries of the Great Afonso Dalboquerque

(Hakluyt Society Publications)._

_E. Grey,

Introduction to Travels of Pietro della Valle

(Hakluyt Society Publications)._

_H. M. Stephens,

Albuquerque._

INDIA: A. D. 1600-1702.

Beginnings of English trade.

The chartering of the English East India Company.

Its early footholds in Hindostan.

The founding of Madras, Bombay and Calcutta.

The three Presidencies.

"For some time it appears to have been thought by other

European Powers, that the discovery of the passage round

Africa by the Portuguese gave them some exclusive claim to its

navigation. But after the year 1580 the conquest of Portugal

by Spain, and the example of the Dutch who had already formed

establishments not only in India but the Spice Islands,

aroused the commercial enterprise of England. In 1599 an

Association was formed for the Trade to the East Indies; a sum

was raised by subscription, amounting to £68,000; and a

petition was presented to the Crown for a Royal Charter. Queen

Elizabeth wavered during some time, apprehending fresh

entanglements with Spain. At length, in December 1600, the

boon was granted; the 'Adventurers' (for so were they termed

at that time) were constituted a body corporate, under the

title of 'the Governor and Company of Merchants of London

trading into the East Indies.' By their Charter they obtained

the right of purchasing lands without limitation, and the

monopoly of their trade during fifteen years, under the

direction of a Governor, and twenty-four other persons in

Committee, to be elected annually. … In 1609, the Charter of

the new Company was not only renewed but rendered

perpetual,—with a saving clause, however, that should any

national detriment be at any time found to ensue, these

exclusive privileges should, after three years' notice, cease

and expire. It does not seem, however, that the trade of the

new Company was extensive. Their first voyage consisted of

four ships and one pinnace, having on board £28,742 in

bullion, and £6,860 in goods, such as cloth, lead, tin,

cutlery, and glass. Many other of their voyages were of

smaller amount; thus, in 1612, when they united into a Joint

Stock Company, they sent out only one ship, with £1,250 in

bullion and £650 in goods. But their clear profits on their

capital were immense; scarcely ever, it is stated, below 100

per cent. During the Civil Wars the Company shared in the

decline of every other branch of trade and industry.

{1710}

But soon after the accession of Charles II. they obtained a

new Charter, which not only confirmed their ancient privileges

but vested in them authority, through their agents in India,

to make peace and war with any prince or people, not being

Christians, and to seize within their limits, and send home as

prisoners, any Englishmen found without a licence. It may well

be supposed that in the hands of any exclusive Company this

last privilege was not likely to lie dormant. … The period

of the Revolution was not so favourable to the Company as that

of the Restoration. A rival Company arose, professing for its

object greater freedom of trade with the East Indies, and

supported by a majority in the House of Commons. It is said

that the competition of these two Companies with the private

traders and with one another had well nigh ruined both. … An

Union between these Companies, essential, as it seemed, to

their expected profits, was delayed by their angry feelings

till 1702. Even then, by the Indenture which passed the Great

Seal, several points were left unsettled between them, and

separate transactions were allowed to their agents in India

for the stocks already sent out. Thus the ensuing years were

fraught with continued jarrings and contentions. … After the

grant of the first Charter by Queen Elizabeth, and the growth

of the Company's trade in India, their two main factories were

fixed at Surat and Bantam. Surat was then the principal

sea-port of the Mogul Empire, where the Mahometan pilgrims

were wont to assemble for their voyages towards Mecca. Bantam,

from its position in the island of Java, commanded the best

part of the Spice trade. But at Surat the Company's servants

were harassed by the hostility of the Portuguese, as at

Bantam, by the hostility of the Dutch. To such heights did

these differences rise that in 1622 the English assisted the

Persians in the recovery of Ormuz from the Portuguese, and

that in 1623 the Dutch committed the outrage termed the

'Massacre of Amboyna,'—putting to death, after a trial, and

confession of guilt extorted by torture, Captain Towerson and

nine other Englishmen, on a charge of conspiracy. In the final

result, many years afterwards, the factories both at Bantam

and Surat were relinquished by the Company. Other and newer

settlements of theirs had, meanwhile, grown into

importance.—In 1640 the English obtained permission from a

Hindoo Prince in the Carnatic to purchase the ground adjoining

the Portuguese settlement of St. Thomé, on which they

proceeded to raise Fort St. George and the town of Madras. …

In a very few years Madras had become a thriving town.—About

twenty years afterwards, on the marriage of Charles II. to

Catherine of Braganza [1661], the town and island of Bombay

were ceded to the King of England as a part of the Infanta's

dowry. For some time the Portuguese Governor continued to

evade the grant, alleging that the patent of His Majesty was

not in accordance with the customs of Portugal; he was

compelled to yield; but the possession being found on trial to

cost more than it produced, it was given up by King Charles to

the East India Company, and became one of their principal

stations. Nor was Bengal neglected. Considering the beauty and

richness of that province, a proverb was already current among

the Europeans, that there are a hundred gates for entering and

not one for leaving it. The Dutch, the Portuguese, and the

English had established their factories at or near the town of

Hooghly on one of the branches—also called Hooghly—of the

Ganges. But during the reign of James II. the imprudence of

some of the Company's servants, and the seizure of a Mogul

junk, had highly incensed the native Powers. The English found

it necessary to leave Hooghly, and drop twenty-five miles down

the river, to the village of Chuttanuttee. Some petty

hostilities ensued, not only in Bengal but along the coasts of

India. … So much irritated was Aurungzebe at the reports of

these hostilities, that he issued orders for the total

expulsion of the Company's servants from his dominions, but he

was appeased by the humble apologies of the English traders,

and the earnest intercession of the Hindoo, to whom this

commerce was a source of profit. The English might even have

resumed their factory at Hooghly, but preferred their new

station at Chuttanuttee, and in 1698 obtained from the Mogul,

on payment of an annual rent, a grant of the land on which it

stood. Then, without delay, they began to construct for its

defence a citadel, named Fort William, under whose shelter

there grew by degrees from a mean village the great town of

Calcutta,—the capital of modern India. … At nearly the

same period another station,—Tegnapatam, a town on the coast

of Coromandel, to the south of Madras,—was obtained by

purchase. It was surnamed Fort St. David; was strengthened

with walls and bulwarks, and was made subordinate to Madras

for its government. Thus then before the accession of the

House of Hanover these three main stations,—Fort William,

Fort St. George, and Bombay,—had been erected into

Presidencies, or central posts of Government; not, however, as

at present, subject to one supreme authority, but each

independent of the rest. Each was governed by a President and

a Council of nine or twelve members, appointed by the Court of

Directors in England. Each was surrounded with fortifications,

and guarded by a small force, partly European and partly

native, in the service of the Company. The Europeans were

either recruits enlisted in England or strollers and deserters

from other services in India. Among these the descendants of

the old settlers, especially the Portuguese, were called

Topasses,—from the tope or hat which they wore instead of

turban. The natives, as yet ill-armed and ill-trained, were

known by the name of Sepoys,—a corruption from the Indian

word 'sipahi,' a soldier. But the territory of the English

scarcely extended out of sight of their towns."

_Lord Mahon (Earl Stanhope);

History of England, 1713-1783,

chapter 39 (volume 4)._

ALSO IN:

_J. Mill,

History of British India,

book 1 (volume 1)._

_P. Anderson,

The English in Western India,

chapters 1-10._

_H. Stevens, editor.,

Dawn of British Trade to East Indies:

Court Minutes of the East India Company, 1599-1603._

_J. W. Kaye,

The Administration of the East India Company,

chapters 3-4._

INDIA: A. D. 1602-1620.

Rise of the Dutch East India Company.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1594-1620.

{1711}

INDIA: A. D. 1605-1658.

Jahangir and Nur Mahal.

Shah Jahan and the Taj Mahal.

Seizure of the throne by Aurungzebe.

"Selim, the son and successor of Akbar, reigned from the year

of his father's death until 1627, having assumed the title of

Jahangir, or 'Conqueror of the World'; that is to say, he

reigned, but he did not govern. Before he came to the throne,

he fell in love with a poor Persian girl," whom his father

gave in marriage to one of his officers. "On his advent to the

throne, Jahangir … managed to get the husband killed, and

took the widow into his harem. He subsequently married her,

and she ruled, not him alone, but the whole empire. … [She

was first called Nur Mahal, 'Light of the Harem,' then Nur

Jahan, 'Light of the World.'] It was during this reign, in

1615, that the first English ambassador, Sir Thomas Roe,

arrived in Hindustan from James I.; and proceeding to Ajmere,

where Jahangir was staying at the time with his court, he made

him several presents, amongst which, we are told, a beautiful

English coach gave the Emperor the most satisfaction. He

received the ambassador with great distinction, showed him

marked attention at all public receptions, and granted a

firmân to the English to establish a factory at Surat. … The

later years of Jahangir's reign were disturbed by family

intrigues, in which the Empress Nur Jehan took a prominent

part, endeavouring to secure the succession for her

son-in-law; but after the death of the Emperor, his oldest

living son, Shah Jahan, pensioned and forced the Empress into

retirement … and … 'dispatched all the males of the house

of Timour, so that only himself and his children remained of

the posterity of Baber, who conquered India.' In some respects

the reign of Shah Jahan was unfortunate. He lost his Afghan

dominions, and gained but little by his invasions of the

Dekhan, which were carried on by his rebellious son and

successor, Aurungzeb; but in another direction he did more to

perpetuate the glory of the Mughal dynasty than any other

emperor of his line. Amongst other handsome buildings, he

erected the most beautiful the world has ever possessed. …

This was the well-known Taj Mahal at Agra, a mausoleum for his

favourite Empress Arjamund, known as Mumtaz-i-Mahal [of which

name, according to Elphinstone, Taj Mahal is a corruption],

'the Exalted One of the Seraglio.' … When Shah Jahan had

attained his 66th year (according to some writers, his 70th),

he was seized with a sudden illness, the result of his

debauched life, and as it was reported that he was dead, a

civil war broke out amongst his sons for the possession of the

throne. These were four in number, Dara (the oldest), Shuja,

Aurungzeb, and Murad (the youngest); and in the conflict

Aurungzeb, the third son, was ultimately successful. Two of

the brothers, Dara and Murad, fell into the power of the

last-named and were put to death by his orders. Shuja escaped

to Arracan, and was murdered there; and as for the Emperor,

who had recovered, Aurungzeb confined him in the fort at Agra,

with all his female relatives, and then caused himself to be

proclaimed in his stead [1658]. Towards the close of Shah

Jehan's life [which came to an end in 1666], a partial

reconciliation took place between him and his son, who,

however, did not release him from his confinement."

_J. Samuelson,

India, Past and Present,

part 1, chapter 7._

ALSO IN:

_J. T. Wheeler,

History of India,

volume 4, chapters 5-7._

Sir T. Roe,

Journal of Embassy

(Pinkerton's Collection of Voyages, volume 8).

_M. Elphinstone,

History of India: Hindu and Mahometan,

book 10._

INDIA: A. D. 1662-1748.

The struggle of Aurungzebe with the Mahrattas.

The Mahratta empire.

Invasion of Nadir Shah.

Sack of Delhi and great Massacre.

"Aurungzebe had reigned five years before he succeeded in

destroying all his kinsmen. … About that time, in the year

1662, a new and extraordinary power in Southern India began to

attract attention. The Mahrattas appear to have been nothing

more than the Hindoo peasantry, scattered throughout some of

the mountainous districts of the Mahomedan kingdoms of

Ahmednuggur, Beijapoor and Golconda, and united into a body

only by the prejudices of caste, of which their rank was the

lowest, that of Sudra. In the confusion incidental to the

constant wars in which these states were engaged, some of the

head men of their villages set up for themselves, and one of

them, Shahji Borla, became powerful enough to play a

conspicuous part at the time of the annexation of Ahmednuggur

to the Mogul empire. His son Sevaji, setting out from this

vantage ground, strengthened his hands by the silent capture

of some hill forts in Beijapoor, and eventually raising the

standard of revolt against that government, introduced a

spirit of union amidst the scattered masses of his people, and

may thus be considered the founder of the Mahratta empire. In

1662 he commenced his predatory expeditions into the Mogul

territory, and in ten years he found himself at the head of a

regular government with the title of Rajah, and strong enough

to encounter and defeat the imperial forces in a field battle.

This was the critical moment in the progress of the Mogul

empire. Aurungzebe was called away for two years by the

chronic disturbances beyond the Indus; his strength was wasted

by the ceaseless wars of the Deccan; and being goaded to

madness by the casual insurrection of some Hindoo devotees in

the centre of his dominions, he replaced the capitation tax on

infidels, and fulminated other decrees against that portion of

his subjects of such extravagant intolerance that they at

length looked upon the progress of their co-religionists, the

Mahrattas, with more longing than alarm. In 1679, the western

portion of Rajahstan was in arms against the empire, and

continued in a state of hostility more or less active during

the whole reign. Even the emperor's eventual successes in the

Deccan, in overthrowing the kingdoms of Beijapoor and

Golconda, contributed to his ruin; for it removed the check of

regular government from that distracted portion of the

country, and … threw into the arms of the Mahrattas the

adventurous and the desperate of the population. Sevaji died,

and successors of less talent filled the throne of the

robber-king; but this seems to have had no effect upon the

progress of the inundation, which now bursting over the

natural barriers of the peninsula, and sweeping away its

military defences, overflowed Malwa and a portion of Guzerat.

Aurungzebe fought gallantly and finessed craftily by turns;

… and thus he struggled with his destiny even to extreme old

age, bravely and alone. He expired in his 89th year, the 50th

of his reign, on the 21st of February, 1707. … During the

next twelve years after the death of Aurungzebe, no fewer than

five princes sat upon the throne, whose reigns, without being

distinguished by any great events, exhibited evident

indications of the gradual decline of the empire.

{1712}

During that period the Sikhs, originally a sect of Hindoo

dissenters, whose peculiarity consisted in their repudiation

of all religious ceremonies, having first been changed into

warriors by persecution, began to rise by the spirit of union

into a nation; but so weak were they at this time that in 1706

the dying energies of the empire were sufficient almost for

their extirpation. … Mahomed Shah succeeded to the throne in

1719. The Mahratta government was by this time completely

consolidated, and the great families of the race, since so

celebrated, had begun to rise into eminence: such as that of

the Peshwa, the official title of a minister of the Rajah; of

Holkar, the founder of which was a shepherd; and of Sindia,

which sprang from a menial servant. … A still more

remarkable personage of the time was Asof Jah, whose

descendants became the Nizams [regulators or governors—the

title becoming hereditary in the family of Asof, at Hyderabad]

of the Deccan. … While the empire was … rent in pieces by

internal disturbances, a more tremendous enemy even than the

Mahrattas presented himself from without. A revolution had

taken place in Persia, which seated a soldier of fortune upon

the throne; and the famous Nadir Shah, after capturing

Candahar, found it necessary, according to the fashion of

conquerors, to seize upon the Mogul territories, Ghizni and

Cabul, and when at the latter city to continue his march into

Hindostan. In 1739, he arrived at Kurnaul, within 70 miles of

Delhi, and defeated the emperor in a general engagement. …

The two kings then proceeded to Delhi after the battle, where

Nadir, in consequence, it is said, of an insurrection of the

populace, set fire to the city and massacred the inhabitants

to a number which has been variously estimated at from 30,000

to 150,000. He then proceeded to the main business of his

invasion, robbing first the treasury and afterwards the

inhabitants individually, torturing or murdering all who were

suspected of concealing their riches, and at length returned

to his own dominions, having obtained a formal cession of the

country west of the Indus, and carrying with him in money and

plate at least twelve millions sterling, besides jewels of

great value, including those of the Peacock Throne [the throne

of the Great Mogul, made solidly of gold and adorned with

diamonds and pearls,—the enamelled back of the throne being

spread in the form of a peacock's tail.]

_Tavernier's Travels,

translated and edited by V. Ball,

book 2, chapter 8 (volume 1)._

From this period to the death of the Emperor Mahomed Shah, in

1748, the interval was filled up with the disturbances which

might be expected."

_Leitch Ritchie,

History of the Indian Empire,

book 1, chapter 5 (volume 1)._

The Asof or Asaf Jah mentioned above had become, in 1721, the

Prime Minister of the Emperor Muhammad Shah, "In a little more

than three years he had thrown up in disgust an office which

the levity of the young monarch hindered him from discharging

to his satisfaction; and had repaired to the Deccan, where he

founded the State which still subsists under the name of 'The

Nizam's Dominions.' Nominally, it was the Subah [province]

erected on the ruins of the old Musalman kingdoms; but in the

decline of the Empire it became a hereditary and

quasi-independent province, though the ruler never took the

royal title, but continued to retain the style of an Imperial

Viceroy, as 'Nizam-ul-mulk,' which his descendant still

bears."

_H. G. Keene,

Madhava Rao Sindhia,

chapter 1._

"The different provinces and viceroyalties went their own

natural way; they were parcelled out in a scuffle among

revolted governors, rebellious chiefs, leaders of insurgent

tribes or sects, religious revivalists, or captains of

mercenary bands. The Indian people were becoming a masterless

multitude swaying to and fro in the political storm, and

clinging to any power, natural or supernatural, that seemed

likely to protect them. They were prepared to acquiesce in the

assumption of authority by anyone who could show himself able

to discharge the most elementary functions of government in

the preservation of life and property. In short, the people

were scattered without a leader or protector; while the

political system under which they had long lived was

disappearing in complete disorganization. It was during this

period of tumultuary confusion that the French and English

first appeared upon the political arena in India."

_Sir A. Lyall,

Rise of the British Dominion in India,

chapter 4, sections 1-2._

ALSO IN:

_S. Lane-Poole,

Aurangzib,

chapters 9-12._

_A. Dow,

History of Hindostan, from Ferishta,

volume 3._

_J. G. Duff,

History of the Mahrattas,

volume 1, and volume 2, chapter 1._

_C. R. Markham,

History of Persia,

chapter 12._

INDIA: A. D. 1665-1743.

Commercial undertakings of the French.

Their settlement at Pondicherry.

"Many expeditions to India had been made [by the French]

earlier than the time of Colbert's East India Company,

chartered in the year 1665. The first French ships, of which

there is any record, that succeeded in reaching India, were

two despatched from one of the ports of Brittany in 1601.

These ships were, however, wrecked on the Maldive Islands, and

their commander did not return to France for ten years.

Voyages were undertaken in 1616, 1619, and again in 1633, of

which the most that can be said is that they met with no great

disaster. The attempt to found settlements in Java and

Madagascar, which was the object of these voyages, completely

failed. The first operations of the French East India Company

were to establish factories in Hindostan. Surat, a large

commercial city at the mouth of the Taptee, was fixed upon for

the principal depot. The abuses and lavish waste of the

officers entrusted to carry out Colbert's plans, brought the

company to an end in five years. An attempt in 1672 to form a

colony at Trincomalee, on the north-east coast of Ceylon, was

frustrated by the hostility of the Dutch. Afterwards the

French made an attempt on Meliapoor or Thomé, belonging to the

Portuguese. They were soon expelled, and the survivors sought

refuge at Pondicherry [1674], a small town which they had

purchased on the same coast of the Carnatic. In 1693,

Pondicherry was taken by the Dutch, who improved the

fortifications and general condition of the town. At the peace

of Ryswick, in 1697, the settlement was restored to the

French. For half a century Pondicherry shared the neglect

common to French colonies, and owed more to the probity and

discretion of its governors than to the home government. M.

Martin, and subsequently Dumas, saved the settlement from

ruin. They added to the defences; and Dumas, being in want of

money for public purposes, obtained permission from the King

of Delhi to coin money for the French settlers. He also

procured the cession of Karikal, a district of Tanjore. On the

other hand, several stations and forts had to be given up."

_J. Yeats,

Growth and Vicissitudes of Commerce,

part 3, chapter 7._

ALSO IN:

_G. B. Malleson,

History of the French in India,

chapters 1-3._

_H. Martin,

History of France: Age of Louis XIV.,

volume 1, chapter 2._

{1713}

INDIA: A. D. 1743-1752.

Struggle of the French and English for supremacy in the Deccan.

Clive against Dupleix.

The founding of British empire.

"England owes the idea of an Indian empire to the French, as

also the chief means by which she has hitherto sought to

realize it. The war of the Austrian succession had just broken

out [1743] between France and England.

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1743.

Dupleix, the governor of the settlements of the French East

India Company, proposed to the English company a neutrality in

the eastern seas; it was rejected. The English probably

repented of their presumption when they saw Captain Peyton,

the commander of a squadron of three liners and a frigate,

after an indecisive engagement with the French admiral,

Labourdonnais, take flight to the Bay of Bengal, leaving

Madras, then the most flourishing of the English settlements,

defenceless. Dupleix and Labourdonnais were the first of that

series of remarkable Frenchmen who, amidst every

discouragement from home, and in spite of their frequent

mutual dissensions, kept the French name so prominent in India

for more than the next half century, only to meet on their

return with obloquy, punishment, even death. Labourdonnais,

who was Admiral of the French fleet, was also Governor of

Mauritius, then called the Isle of France. He had disciplined

a force of African negroes. With French troops and these, he

entered the narrow strip of coast, five miles long, one mile

broad, which was then the territory of Madras, bombarded the

city, compelled the fort (which had lost five men) to

surrender. But his terms were honourable; the English were

placed on parole; the town was to be given up on payment of a

moderate ransom (1746). Dupleix, however, was jealous; he

denied Labourdonnais powers; broke the capitulation; paraded

the Governor and other English gentlemen in triumph through

Pondicherry. In vain did Admiral Boscawen besiege the latter

place; time was wasted, the trenches were too far, the rains

came on; Boscawen raised the siege, crippled in men and

stores; was recalled by the news of the peace of

Aix-la-Chapelle, and, to close his career of misfortune, lost

several ships and 1,200 men on the Coromandel coast (1748-9).

News of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, however, produced a

very temporary cessation of hostilities, Madras being

restored, with fortifications much improved. The English

fortunes seemed at their lowest in India; the French rising to

their full height. Dupleix conceived the bold plan of

interfering in the internal politics of the country.

Labourdonnais had disciplined the negro; Dupleix disciplined

the native Indian. … Labourdonnais had beaten off the

so-called Nawab of the Carnatic, when he attempted to take

Madras; the event produced an immense sensation; it was the

first victory obtained for a century by Europeans over the

natives of India. Dupleix was strong enough to be reckoned a

valuable ally. But on the English side a young man had

appeared who was to change the whole course of events in the

East. Robert Clive, an attorney's son from Market Drayton,

born in 1725, sent off at eighteen as a writer to Madras—a

naughty boy who had grown into an insubordinate clerk, who had

been several times in danger of losing his situation, and had

twice attempted to destroy himself—ran away from Madras,

disguised as a Mussulman, after Dupleix's violation of the

capitulation, obtained an ensign's commission at twenty-one,

and began distinguishing himself as a soldier under Major

Lawrence, then the best British officer in India."

_J. M. Ludlow,

British India,

lecture 7._

"Clive and others who escaped [from Madras] betook themselves

to Fort St. David's—a small English settlement a few miles

south of Pondicherry. There Clive prepared himself for the

military vocation for which nature had clearly destined him.

… At Fort St. David's the English intrigued with the native

chiefs, much as the French had done, and not more creditably.

They took sides, and changed sides, in the disputes of rival

claimants to the province of Tanjore, under the inducement of

the possession of Devi-cottah, a coast station at the mouth of

the Coleroon. There was no great honour in the results, any

more than in the conception, of this first little war. We

obtained Devi-cottah; but we did not improve our reputation

for good faith, nor lessen the distance between the French and

ourselves in military prestige. But Dupleix was meantime

providing the opportunity for Clive to determine whether the

Deccan should be under French or English influence. … The

greatest of the southern princes, the Nizam al Mulk, Viceroy

of the Deccan, died in 1748; and rivals rose up, as usual, to

claim both his throne and the richest province under his

rule—the Carnatic. The pretenders on one side applied to the

French for assistance, and obtained reinforcements to the

extent of 400 French soldiers and 2,000 trained sepoys. This

aid secured victory; the opposing prince was slain; and his

son, the well-known Mohammed Ali, 'the Nabob of Arcot' of the

last century, took refuge, with a few remaining troops, at

Trichinopoly. In a little while, the French seemed to be

supreme throughout the country. Dupleix was deferred to as the

arbiter of the destinies of the native princes, while he was

actually declared Governor of India, from the Kistna to Cape

Comorin—a region as large as France, inhabited by 30,000,000

of people, and defended by a force so large that the cavalry

alone amounted to 7,000 under the command of Dupleix. In the

midst of this dominion, the English looked like a handful of

dispirited and helpless settlers, awaiting the disposal of the

haughty Frenchman. Their native ally had lost everything but

Trichinopoly; and Trichinopoly itself was now besieged by the

Nabob of the Carnatic and his French supporters. Dupleix was

greater than even the Mogul sovereign; he had erected a column

in his own honour, displaying on its four sides inscriptions

in four languages, proclaiming his glory as the first man of

the East; and a town had sprung up round this column, called

his City of Victory. To the fatalistic mind of the native

races it seemed a settled matter that the French rule was

supreme, and that the English must perish out of the land.

Major Lawrence had gone home; and the small force of the

English had no commander. Clive was as yet only a commissary,

with the rank of captain, and regarded more as a civilian than

a soldier.

{1714}

He was only five-and-twenty. His superiors were in extreme

alarm, foreseeing that when Trichinopoly was taken, the next

step would be the destruction of Madras. Nothing could make

their position worse; and they caught at every chance of

making it better. Clive offered to attack Arcot, the capital

of the Carnatic, in the hope that this would draw away the

besiegers from Trichinopoly; and the offer was accepted. The

force consisted of 200 British and 300 native soldiers,

commanded, under Clive, by four factors and four military men,

only two of whom had ever been in action. Everything was

against them, from numbers and repute to the weather; but

Clive took Arcot [September 11, 1751], and (what was much more

difficult) kept it. The garrison had fled in a panic; but it

was invested by 10,000 men before the British had repaired

half its dilapidations and deficiencies, or recruited their

numbers, now reduced to 320 men in all, commanded by four

officers. For fifty days, amidst fatigue, hunger, and a

hundred pressing dangers, the little band sustained the siege.

… A series of victories followed, and men and opinion came

round to the side of the victors. There was no energy at

headquarters to sustain Clive in his career. … In his

absence, the enemy appeared again before Fort George, and did

much damage; but Clive came up, and 100 of the French soldiers

were killed or taken. He uprooted Dupleix's boasting monument,

and levelled the city to the ground, thereby reversing the

native impression of the respective destinies of the French

and English. Major Lawrence returned. Dupleix's military

incapacity was proved, and his personal courage found wanting

as soon as fortune deserted him. Trichinopoly was relieved,

and the besiegers were beaten, and their candidate prince put

to death. Dupleix struggled in desperation for some time

longer before he gave up the contest; and Clive had his

difficulties in completing the dislodgement of the French. …

He did it; but nearly at the sacrifice of his life. When the

British supremacy in the Deccan was completely established, he

returned [1752] in bad health to England. … He left behind

him Dupleix, for whom a summons home in disgrace was on the

way."

_H. Martineau,

History of British Rule in India,

chapter 6._

ALSO IN:

_G. B. Malleson,

History of the French in India,

chapters 3-6._

_G. B. Malleson,

Founders of the Indian Empire: Lord Clive,

chapters 1-6._

_Colonel Sir C. Wilson,

Lord Clive,

chapters 2-4._

INDIA: A. D. 1747-1761.

The Duranee power in Afghanistan.

Conflict of the Afghans and the Mahrattas.

Great defeat of the latter at Panniput.

Fall of the shattered Moghul empire.

The state of things which invited British conquest.

On the death of Nadir Shah, who was murdered in 1747, his

Afghan kingdom was acquired by a native chief, Ahmed Abdalee,

who, first a prisoner and a slave to Nadir Shah, had become

one of the trusted officers of his court and army. "Ahmed

Abdalee had acquired so great an ascendency among the troops

that upon this event [the death of Nadir Shah] several

commanders and their followers joined his standard; and he

drew off toward his own country. He fell in with and seized a

convoy of treasure, which was proceeding to the camp. This

enabled him to engage in his pay a still larger body of his

countrymen. He proclaimed himself king of the Afghauns; and

took the title of Doordowran, or pearl of the age, which being

corrupted into Dooranee,[or Duranee], gave one of their names

to himself and his Abdallees. He marched towards Candahar

which submitted to his arms; and next proceeded to Cabul …

and this province also fell into the hands of the Afghaun."

Lahore was next added to his dominions, and he then, in 1747,

invaded India, intent upon the capture of Delhi; but met with

sufficient resistance to discourage his undertaking, and fell

back to Cabul. In 1748, and again in 1749, he passed the

Indus, and made himself master of the Punjab. In 1755-6 he

marched to Delhi, which opened its gates to him and received

him, pretendedly as a guest, but really as a master. A plague

breaking out in his army caused him to return to his own

country. He "left his son Governor of Lahore and Multan;

disordered by revolutions, wasted and turbulent. A chief …

incited the Seiks [Sikhs] to join him in molesting the

Dooranees; and they gained several important advantages over

their principal commanders. They invited the Mahratta

generals, Ragonaut Raow, Shumsheer Bahadur, and Holkar, who

had advanced into the neighbourhood of Delhi, to join them in

driving the Abdalees from Lahore. No occupation could be more

agreeable to the Mahrattas. After taking Sirhind, they

advanced to Lahore, where the Abdalee Prince made but a feeble

resistance and fled. This event put them in possession of both

Multan and Lahore. … The whole Indian continent appeared now

about to be swallowed up by the Mahrattas. … Ahmed Shah [the

Abdalee, or Dooranee] was not only roused by the loss of his

two provinces, and the disgrace imprinted on his arms, but he

was invited by the chiefs and people of Hindustan, groaning

under the depredations of the Mahrattas, to march to their

succour and become their King. … For some days the Dooranees

hovered round the Mahratta camp; when the Mahrattas, who were

distressed for provisions, came out and offered battle. Their

army, consisting of 80,000 veteran cavalry, was almost wholly

destroyed; and Duttah Sindia, their General, was among the

slain. A detachment of horse sent against another body of

Mahrattas, who were marauding under Holkar in the

neighbourhood of Secundra, surprised them so completely that

Holkar fled naked, with a handful of followers, and the rest,

with the exception of a few prisoners and fugitives, were all

put to the sword. During the rainy season, while the Dooranee

Shah was quartered at Secundra, the news of this disaster and

disgrace excited the Mahrattas to the greatest exertions. A

vast army was collected, and … the Mahrattas marched to

gratify the resentments, and fulfil the unbounded hopes of the

nation. … They arrived at the Jumna before it was

sufficiently fallen to permit either the Mahrattas on the

other side, or the Dooranees, to cross. In the meantime they

marched to Delhi, of which after some resistance they took

possession; plundered it with their usual rapacity, tearing

away even the gold and silver ornaments of the palace;

proclaimed Sultan Jewan Bukht, the son of Alee Gohur [or Shah

Alum, absent son of the late nominal Emperor at Delhi,

Alumgeer II., who had recently been put to death by his own

vizir], Emperor; and named Sujah ad Dowlah, Nabob of Oude, his

Vizir.

{1715}

Impatient at intelligence of these and some other

transactions, Ahmed Shah swam the Jumna, still deemed

impassable, with his whole army. This daring adventure, and

the remembrance of the late disaster, shook the courage of the

Mahrattas; and they entrenched their camp on a plain near

Panniput. The Dooranee, having surrounded their position with

parties of troops, to prevent the passage of supplies,

contented himself for some days with skirmishing. At last he

tried an assault; when the Rohilla infantry … forced their

way into the Mahratta works, and Bulwant Raow with other

chiefs was killed; but night put an end to the conflict.

Meanwhile scarcity prevailed and filth accumulated in the

Mahratta camp. The vigilance of Ahmed intercepted their

convoys. In a little time famine and pestilence "raged. A

battle became the only resource [January 7, 1761]. The Abdalee

restrained his troops till the Mahrattas had advanced a

considerable way from their works; when he rushed upon them

with so much rapidity as left them hardly any time for using

their cannon. The Bhaow was killed early in the action;

confusion soon pervaded the army, and a dreadful carnage

ensued. The field was floated with blood. Twenty-two thousand

men and women were taken prisoners. Of those who escaped from

the field of battle, the greater part were butchered by the

people of the country, who had suffered from their

depredations. Of an army of 140,000 horse, commanded by the

most celebrated generals of the nation, only three chiefs of

any rank, and a mere residue of the troops, found their way to

Deccan. The Dooranee Shah made but little use of this mighty

victory. After remaining a few months at Delhi, he recognized

Alee Gohur as Emperor, by the title of Shah Aulum II.; and

entrusting Nujeeb ad Dowlah with the superintendence of

affairs, till his master should return from Bengal, he marched

back to his capital of Cabul in the end of the year 1760

[1761]. With Aulum-geer II. the empire of the Moguls may be

justly considered as having arrived at its close. The unhappy

Prince who now received the name of Emperor, and who, after a

life of misery and disaster, ended his days a pensioner of

English merchants, never possessed a sufficient degree of

power to consider himself for one moment as master of the

throne."

_J. Mill,

History of British India,

book 3, chapter 4 (volume 2)._

"The words 'wonderful,' 'strange,' are often applied to great

historical events, and there is no event to which they have

been applied more freely than to our [the English] conquest of

India. … But the event was not wonderful in a sense that it

is difficult to discover adequate causes by which it could

have been produced. If we begin by remarking that authority in

India had fallen on the ground through the decay of the Mogul

Empire, that it lay there waiting to be picked up by somebody,

and that all over India in that period adventurers of one kind

or another were founding Empires, it is really not surprising

that a mercantile corporation which had money to pay a

mercenary force should be able to compete with other

adventurers, nor yet that it should outstrip all its

competitors by bringing into the field English military

science and generalship, especially when it was backed over

and over again by the whole power and credit of England and

directed by English statesmen. … England did not in the

strict sense conquer India, but … certain Englishmen, who

happened to reside in India at the time when the Mogul Empire

fell, had a fortune like that of Hyder Ali or Runjeet Singh

and rose to supreme power there."

_J. R. Seeley,

The Expansion of England,

course 2, lecture 3._

ALSO IN:

_J. G. Duff,

History of the Mahrattas,

volume 2, chapters 2-5._

_G. B. Malleson,

History of Afghanistan,

chapter 8._

_H. G. Keene,

Madhava Rao Sindhia,

chapter 2._

INDIA: A. D. 1755-1757.

Capture of Calcutta by Surajah Dowlah.

The tragedy of the Black Hole.

Clive's recovery of the Fort and settlement.

Clive remained three years in England, where he sought an

election to Parliament, as a supporter of Fox, but was

unseated by the Tories. On suffering this disappointment, he

re-entered the service of the East India Company, as governor

of Fort St. David, with the commission of a lieutenant-colonel

in the British army, received from the king, and returned to

India in 1755. Soon after his arrival at Fort St. David, "he

received intelligence which called forth all the energy of his

bold and active mind. Of the provinces which had been subject

to the house of Tamerlane, the wealthiest was Bengal. No part

of India possessed such natural advantages both for

agriculture and for commerce. … The great commercial

companies of Europe had long possessed factories in Bengal.

The French were settled, as they still are, at Chandernagore

on the Hoogley. Higher up the stream the Dutch traders held

Chinsurah. Nearer to the sea, the English had built Fort

William. A church and ample warehouses rose in the vicinity. A

row of spacious houses, belonging to the chief factors of the

East India Company, lined the banks of the river; and in the

neighbourhood had sprung up a large and busy native town,

where some Hindoo merchants of great opulence had fixed their

abode. But the tract now covered by the palaces of Chowringhee

contained only a few miserable huts thatched with straw. A

jungle, abandoned to water-fowl and alligators, covered the

site of the present Citadel, and the Course, which is now

daily crowded at sunset with the gayest equipages of Calcutta.

For the ground on which the settlement stood, the English,

like other great landholders, paid rent to the government; and

they were, like other great landholders, permitted to exercise

a certain jurisdiction within their domain. The great province

of Bengal, together with Orissa and Bahar, had long been

governed by a viceroy, whom the English called Aliverdy Khan,

and who, like the other viceroys of the Mogul, had become

virtually independent. He died in 1756, and the sovereignty

descended to his grandson, a youth under twenty years of age,

who bore the name of Surajah Dowlah. … From a child Surajah

Dowlah had hated the English. It was his whim to do so; and

his whims were never opposed. He had also formed a very

exaggerated notion of the wealth which might be obtained by

plundering them; and his feeble and uncultivated mind was

incapable of perceiving that the riches of Calcutta, had they

been even greater than he imagined, would not compensate him

for what he must lose, if the European trade, of which Bengal

was a chief seat, should be driven by his violence to some

other Quarter. Pretexts for a quarrel were readily found.

{1716}

The English, in expectation of a war with France, had begun to

fortify their settlement without special permission from the

Nabob. A rich native, whom he longed to plunder, had taken

refuge at Calcutta, and had not been delivered up. On such

grounds as these Surajah Dowlah marched with a great army

against Fort William. The servants of the Company at Madras

had been forced by Dupleix to become statesmen and soldiers.

Those in Bengal were still mere traders, and were terrified

and bewildered by the approaching danger. … The fort was

taken [June 20, 1756] after a feeble resistance; and great

numbers of the English fell into the hands of the conquerors.

The Nabob seated himself with regal pomp in the principal hall

of the factory, and ordered Mr. Holwell, the first in rank

among the prisoners, to be brought before him. His Highness

talked about the insolence of the English, and grumbled at the

smallness of the treasure which he had found; but promised to

spare their lives, and retired to rest. Then was committed

that great crime, memorable for its singular atrocity,

memorable for the tremendous retribution by which it was

followed. The English captives were left at the mercy of the

guards, and the guards determined to secure them for the night

in the prison of the garrison, a chamber known by the fearful

name of the Black Hole. Even for a single European malefactor,

that dungeon would, in such a climate, have been too close and

narrow. The space was only twenty feet square. The air-holes

were small and obstructed. It was the summer solstice, the

season when the fierce heat of Bengal can scarcely be rendered

tolerable to natives of England by lofty halls and by the

constant waving of fans. The number of the prisoners was 146.

When they were ordered to enter the cell, they imagined that

the soldiers were joking; and, being in high spirits on

account of the promise of the Nabob to spare their lives, they

laughed and jested at the absurdity of the notion. They soon

discovered their mistake. They expostulated; they entreated;

but in vain. The guards threatened to cut down all who

hesitated. The captives were driven into the cell at the point

of the sword, and the door was instantly shut and locked upon

them. Nothing in history or fiction, not even the story which

Ugolino told in the sea of everlasting ice, after he had wiped

his bloody lips on the scalp of his murderer, approaches the

horrors which were recounted by the few survivors of that

night. They cried for mercy. They strove to burst the door.

Holwell who, even in that extremity, retained some presence of

mind, offered large bribes to the gaolers. But the answer was

that nothing could be done without the Nabob's orders, that

the Nabob was asleep, and that he would be angry if anybody

woke him. Then the prisoners went mad with despair. They

trampled each other down, fought for the places at the

windows, fought for the pittance of water with which the cruel

mercy of the murderers mocked their agonies, raved, prayed,

blasphemed, implored the guards to fire among them. The

gaolers in the mean time held lights to the bars, and shouted

with laughter at the frantic struggles of their victims. At

length the tumult died away in low gaspings and moanings. The

day broke. The Nabob had slept off his debauch, and permitted

the door to be opened. But it was some time before the

soldiers could make a lane for the survivors, by piling up on

each side the heaps of corpses on which the burning climate

had already begun to do its loathsome work. When at length a

passage was made, twenty-three ghastly figures, such as their

own mothers would not have known, staggered one by one out of

the charnel-house. A pit was instantly dug. The dead bodies,

123 in number, were flung into it promiscuously and covered

up. … One Englishwoman had survived that night. She was

placed in the harem of the Prince at Moorshedabad. Surajah

Dowlah, in the mean time, sent letters to his nominal

sovereign at Delhi, describing the late conquest in the most

pompous language. He placed a garrison in Fort William,

forbade Englishmen to dwell in the neighbourhood, and directed

that, in memory of his great actions, Calcutta should

thenceforward be called Alinagore, that is to say, the Port of

God. In August the news of the fall of Calcutta reached

Madras, and excited the fiercest and bitterest resentment. The

cry of the whole settlement was for vengeance. Within

forty-eight hours after the arrival of the intelligence it was

determined that an expedition should be sent to the Hoogley,

and that Clive should be at the head of the land forces. The

naval armament was under the command of Admiral Watson. Nine

hundred English infantry, fine troops and full of spirit, and

1,500 sepoys, composed the army which sailed to punish a

Prince who had more subjects than Lewis XV. or the Empress

Maria Theresa. In October the expedition sailed; but it had to

make its way against adverse winds, and did not reach Bengal

till December. The Nabob was revelling in fancied security at

Moorshedabad. He was so profoundly ignorant of the state of

foreign countries that he often used to say that there were

not ten thousand men in all Europe; and it had never occurred

to him as possible, that the English would dare to invade his

dominions. But, though undisturbed by any fear of their

military power, he began to miss them greatly. His revenues

fell off. … He was already disposed to permit the company to

resume its mercantile operations in his country, when he

received the news that an English armament was in the Hoogley.

He instantly ordered all his troops to assemble at

Moorshedabad, and marched towards Calcutta. Clive had

commenced operations with his usual vigour. He took

Budgebudge, routed the garrison of Fort William, recovered

Calcutta, stormed and sacked Hoogley. The Nabob, already

disposed to make some concessions to the English, was

confirmed in his pacific disposition by these proofs of their

power and spirit. He accordingly made overtures to the chiefs

of the invading armament, and offered to restore the factory,

and to give compensation to those whom he had despoiled.

Clive's profession, was war; and he felt that there was

something discreditable in an accommodation with Surajah

Dowlah. But his power was limited. … The promises of the

Nabob were large, the chances of a contest doubtful; and Clive

consented to treat, though he expressed his regret that things

should not be concluded in so glorious a manner as he could

have wished. With this negotiation commences a new chapter in

the life of Clive. Hitherto he had been merely a soldier

carrying into effect, with eminent ability and valour, the

plans of others. Henceforth he is to be chiefly regarded as a

statesman; and his military movements are to be considered as

subordinate to his political designs."

_Lord Macaulay,

Lord Clive (Essays)._

ALSO IN:

_Sir J. Malcolm,

Life of Lord Clive,

chapter 3 (volume 1)._

_J. Mill,

History of British India,

book 4, chapter 3 (volume 3)._

_H. E. Busteed,

Echoes from Old Calcutta,

chapter 1._

{1717}

INDIA: A. D. 1757.

A Treacherous conspiracy against Surajah Dowlah.

His overthrow at the battle of Plassey.

The counterfeit Treaty with Omichund.

Elevation of Meer Jaffier to the Subahdar's throne.

The unsatisfactory treaty entered into with Surajah Dowlah had

been pressed upon Clive by the Calcutta merchants, who

"thought the alliance would enable them to get rid of the

rival French station at Chandernagore. The Subahdar gave a

doubtful answer to their proposal to attack this settlement,

which Clive interpreted as an assent. The French were

overpowered, and surrendered their fort. Surajah Dowlah was

now indignant against his recent allies; and sought the

friendship of the French officers. Clive, called by the

natives 'the daring in war,' was also the most adroit,

and,—for the truth cannot be disguised,—the most

unscrupulous in policy. The English resident at the Court of

Moorshedabad, under Clive's instructions, encouraged a

conspiracy to depose the Subahdar, and to raise his general,

Meer Jaffier, to the supreme power. A Hindoo of great wealth

and influence, Omichund, engaged in this conspiracy. After it

had proceeded so far as to become the subject of a treaty

between a Select Committee at Calcutta and Meer Jaffier,

Omichund demanded that a condition should be inserted in that

treaty, to pay him thirty lacs of rupees as a reward for his

service. The merchants at Calcutta desired the largest share

of any donation from Meer Jaffier, as a consideration for

themselves, and were by no means willing that £300,000 should

go to a crafty Hindoo. Clive suggested an expedient to secure

Omichund's fidelity, and yet not to comply with his

demands—to have two treaties drawn; a real one on red paper,

a fictitious one on white. The white treaty was to be shown to

Omichund, and he was to see with his own eyes that he had been

properly cared for. Clive and the Committee signed this; as

well as the red treaty which was to go to Meer Jaffier.

Admiral Watson refused to sign the treacherous document. On

the 19th of May, 1773, Clive stood up in his place in the

House of Commons, to defend himself upon this charge against

him, amongst other accusations. He boldly acknowledged that

the stratagem of the two treaties was his invention;—that

admiral Watson did not sign it; but that he should have

thought himself authorised to sign for him in consequence of a

conversation; that the person who did sign thought he had

sufficient authority for so doing. 'He (Clive) forged admiral

Watson's name, says lord Macaulay. … The courage, the

perseverance, the unconquerable energy of Clive have furnished

examples to many in India who have emulated his true glory.

Thank God, the innate integrity of the British character has,

for the most part, preserved us from such exhibitions of 'true

policy and justice.' The English resident, Mr. Watts, left

Moorshedabad. Clive wrote a letter of defiance to Surajah

Dowlah, and marched towards his capital. The Subahdar had come

forth from his city, as populous as the London of a century

ago, to annihilate the paltry army of 1,000 English, and their

2,000 Sepoys disciplined by English officers, who dared to

encounter his 60,000. He reached the village of Plassey with

all the panoply of oriental warfare. His artillery alone

appeared sufficient to sweep away those who brought only eight

field pieces and two howitzers to meet his fifty heavy guns.

Each gun was drawn by forty yoke of oxen; and a trained

elephant was behind each gun to urge it over rough ground or

up steep ascents. Meer Jaffier had not performed his promise

to join the English with a division of the Subahdar's army. It

was a time of terrible anxiety with the English commander.

Should he venture to give battle without the aid of a native

force? He submitted his doubt to a Council of War. Twelve

officers, himself amongst the number, voted for delay. Seven

voted for instant action. Clive reviewed the arguments on each

side, and finally cast away his doubts. He determined to

fight, without which departure from the opinion of the

majority, he afterwards said, the English would never have

been masters of Bengal. On the 22nd of June [1757], his little

army marched fifteen miles, passed the Hooghly, and at one

o'clock of the morning of the 23rd rested under the

mangoe-trees of Plassey. As the day broke, the vast legions of

the Subahdar,—15,000 cavalry, 45,000 infantry,—some armed

with muskets, some with bows and arrows, began to surround the

mangoe-grove and the hunting-lodge where Clive had watched

through the night. There was a cannonade for several hours.

The great guns of Surajah Dowlah did little execution. The

small field-pieces of Clive were well served. One of the chief

Mohammedan leaders having fallen, disorder ensued, and the

Subahdar was advised to retreat. He himself fled upon a swift

camel to Moorshedabad. When the British forces began to

pursue, the victory became complete. Meer Jaffier joined the

conquerors the next day. Surajah Dowlah did not consider

himself safe in his capital; and he preferred to seek the

protection of a French detachment at Patna. He escaped from

his palace disguised; ascended the Ganges in a small boat; and

fancied himself secure. A peasant whose ears he had cut off

recognised his oppressor, and with some soldiers brought him

back to Moorshedabad. In his presence-chamber now sat Meer

Jaffier, to whose knees the wretched youth crawled for mercy.

That night Surajah Dowlah was murdered in his prison, by the

orders of Meer Jaffier's son, a boy as blood-thirsty as

himself."

_C. Knight,

Popular History of England,

volume 6, chapter 14._

ALSO IN:

_G. B. Malleson,

Founders of the Indian Empire: Clive,

chapters 8-10._

_G. B. Malleson,

Lord Clive (Rulers of India)._

_G. B. Malleson,

Decisive Battles of India,

chapter 3._

_E. Thornton,

History of British Empire in India,

volume 1, chapter 4._

INDIA: A. D. 1757-1772.

Clive's Administration in Bengal.

Decisive war with the Moghul Emperor and the Nawab of Oudh.

English Supremacy established.

"The battle of Plassey was fought on June 23, 1757, an

anniversary afterwards remembered when the Mutiny of 1857 was

at its height. History has agreed to adopt this date as the

beginning of the British Empire in the East. But the immediate

results of the victory were comparatively small, and several

years passed in hard fighting before even the Bengalis would

admit the superiority of the British arms.

{1718}

For the moment, however, all opposition was at an end. Clive,

again following in the steps of Dupleix, placed Mir Jafar upon

the Viceregal throne at Murshidabad, being careful to obtain a

patent of investiture from the Mughal court. Enormous sums

were exacted from Mir Jafar as the price of his elevation. …

At the same time, the Nawab made a grant to the Company of the

zamindari or landholder's rights over an extensive tract of

country round Calcutta, now known as the District of the

Twenty-four Parganas. The area of this tract was 882 square

miles. In 1757 the Company obtained only the zamindari

rights—i. e., the rights to collect the cultivator's rents,

with the revenue jurisdiction attached [see below: A. D.

1785-1793]. The superior lordship, or right to receive the

land tax, remained with the Nawab. But in 1759, this also was

granted by the Delhi Emperor, the nominal Suzerain of the

Nawab, in favour of Clive, who thus became the landlord of his

own masters, the Company. … Lord Clive's claims to the

property as feudal Suzerain over the Company were contested in

1764; and on the 23d June, 1765, when he returned to Bengal, a

new deed was issued, confirming the unconditional jagir to

Lord Clive for ten years, with reversion afterwards to the

Company in perpetuity. … In 1758, Clive was appointed by the

Court of Directors the first Governor of all the Company's

settlements in Bengal. Two powers threatened hostilities. On

the west, the Shahzada or Imperial prince, known afterwards as

the Emperor Shah Alam, with a mixed army of Afghans and

Marhattas, and supported by the Nawab Wazir of Oudh, was

advancing his own claims to the Province of Bengal. In the

south, the influence of the French under Lally and Bussy was

overshadowing the British at Madras. The name of Clive

exercised a decisive effect in both directions. Mir Jafar was

anxious to buy off the Shahzada, who had already invested

Patna. But Clive marched in person to the rescue, with an army

of only 450 Europeans and 2,500 sepoys, and the Mughal army

dispersed without striking a blow. In the same year, Clive

despatched a force southwards under Colonel Forde, which

recaptured Masulipatam from the French, and permanently

established British influence throughout the Northern Circars,

and at the court of Haidarabad. He next attacked the Dutch,

the only other European nation who might yet prove a rival to

the English. He defeated them both by land and water; and

their settlement at Chinsurah existed thenceforth only on

sufferance. From 1760 to 1765, Clive was in England. He had

left no system of government in Bengal, but merely the

tradition that unlimited sums of money might be extracted from

the natives by the terror of the English name. In 1761, it was

found expedient and profitable to dethrone Mir Jafar, the

English Nawab of Murshidabad, and to substitute his

son-in-law, Mir Kasim, in his place. On this occasion, besides

private donations, the English received a grant of the three

Districts of Bardwan, Midnapur, and Chittagong, estimated to

yield a net revenue of half a million sterling. But Mir Kasim

soon began to show a will of his own, and to cherish dreams of

independence. … The Nawab alleged that his civil authority

was everywhere set at nought. The majority of the Council at

Calcutta would not listen to his complaints. The Governor, Mr.

Vansittart, and Warren Hastings, then a junior member of

Council, attempted to effect some compromise. But the

controversy had become too hot. The Nawab's officers fired

upon an English boat, and forthwith all Bengal rose in arms

[1763]. Two thousand of our sepoys were cut to pieces at

Patna; about 200 Englishmen, who there and in other various

parts of the Province fell into the hands of the Muhammadans,

were massacred. But as soon as regular warfare commenced, Mir

Kasim met with no more successes. His trained regiments were

defeated in two pitched battles by Major Adams, at Gheriah and

at Udha-nala; and he himself took refuge with the Nawab Wazir

of Oudh, who refused to deliver him up. This led to a

prolongation of the war. Shah Alam, who had now succeeded his

father as Emperor, and Shuja-ud-Daula, the Nawab Wazir of

Oudh, united their forces, and threatened Patna, which the

English had recovered. A more formidable danger appeared in

the English camp, in the form of the first sepoy mutiny. This

was quelled by Major (afterwards Sir Hector) Munro, who

ordered 24 of the ringleaders to be blown from guns, an old

Mughal punishment. In 1764, Major Munro won the decisive

battle of Baxar [or Buxar], which laid Oudh at the feet of the

conquerors, and brought the Mughal Emperor as a suppliant to

the English camp. Meanwhile, the Council at Calcutta had twice

found the opportunity they loved of selling the government of

Bengal to a new Nawab. But in 1765, Clive (now Baron Clive of

Plassey in the peerage of Ireland) arrived at Calcutta, as

Governor of Bengal for the second time. Two landmarks stand

out in his policy. First, he sought the substance, although

not the name, of territorial power, under the fiction of a

grant from the Mughal Emperor. Second, he desired to purify

the Company's service, by prohibiting illicit gains, and

guaranteeing a reasonable pay from honest sources. In neither

respect were his plans carried out by his immediate

successors. But the beginning of our Indian rule dates from

this second governorship of Clive, as our military supremacy

had dated from his victory at Plassey. Clive landed, advanced

rapidly up from Calcutta to Allahabad, and there settled in

person the fate of nearly half of India. Oudh was given back

to the Nawab Wazir, on condition of his paying half a million

sterling towards the expenses of the war. The Provinces of

Allahabad and Kora, forming the greater part of the Doab, were

handed over to Shah Alam himself, who in his turn granted to

the Company the diwani or fiscal administration of Bengal,

Behar, and Orissa, and also the territorial jurisdiction of

the Northern Circars. A puppet Nawab was still maintained at

Murshidabad, who received an annual allowance from us of

£600,000. Half that amount, or about £300,000, we paid to the

Emperor as tribute from Bengal. Thus was constituted the dual

system of government, by which the English received all the

revenues and undertook to maintain the army; while the

criminal jurisdiction, or nizamat, was vested in the Nawab. In

Indian phraseology, the Company was diwan and the Nawab was

nizam. The actual collection of the revenues still remained

for some years in the hands of native officials. … Lord

Clive quitted India for the third and last time in 1767.

{1719}

Between that date and the governorship of Warren Hastings, in

1772, little of importance occurred in Bengal beyond the

terrible famine of 1770, which is officially reported to have

swept away one-third of the inhabitants. The dual system of

government, established in 1765 by Clive, had proved a

failure. Warren Hastings, a tried servant of the Company,

distinguished alike for intelligence, for probity, and for

knowledge of oriental manners, was nominated Governor by the

Court of Directors, with express instructions to carry out a

predetermined series of reforms. In their own words, the Court

had resolved to 'stand forth as diwan, and to take upon

themselves, by the agency of their own servants, the entire

care and administration of the revenues.' In the execution of

this plan, Hastings removed the exchequer from Murshidabad to

Calcutta, and appointed European officers, under the now

familiar title of Collectors, to superintend the revenue

collections and preside in the courts. Clive had laid the

territorial foundations of the British Empire in Bengal.

Hastings may be said to have created a British administration

for that Empire."

_Sir W. W. Hunter,

India (article in Imperial Gazetteer of India)

volume 4, pages 389-394._

ALSO IN:

_W. M, Torrens,

Empire in Asia: How we came by it,

chapters 4-6._

_Sir C. Wilson,

Lord Clive,

chapters 7-9._

_G. B. Malleson,

Decisive Battles of India,

chapter 7._

INDIA: A. D. 1758-1761.

Overthrow of French domination in the Carnatic.

The decisive Battle of Wandiwash.

"In 1758 the fortunes of the French in India underwent an

entire change. In April a French fleet arrived at Pondicherry.

It brought a large force under the command of Count de Lally,

who had been appointed Governor-General of the French

possessions in India. … No sooner had he landed at

Pondicherry than he organised an expedition against Fort St.

David; but he found that no preparations had been made by the

French authorities. There was a want alike of coolies, draught

cattle, provisions, and ready money. But the energy of Lally

overcame all obstacles. … In June, 1758, Lally captured Fort

St. David. He then prepared to capture Madras as a preliminary

to an advance on Bengal. He recalled Bussy from the Dekhan to

help him with his Indian experiences; and he sent the Marquis

de Conflans to succeed Bussy in the command of the Northern

Circars. [A strip of territory on the Coromandel coast, which

had been ceded to the French in 1752 by Salabut Jung, Nizam of

the Dekhun, was so called; it stretched along 600 miles of

seaboard, from the Carnatic frontier northwards.] … The

departure of Bussy from the Northern Circars was disastrous to

the French. The Raja of Vizianagram revolted against the

French and sent to Calcutta for help. Clive despatched an

English force to the Northern Circars, under the command of

Colonel Forde; and in December, 1758, Colonel Forde defeated

the French under Conflans [at Condore, or Kondur, December 9],

and prepared to recover all the English factories on the coast

which had been captured by Bussy. Meanwhile Count de Lally was

actively engaged at Pondicherry in preparations for the siege

of Madras. He hoped to capture Madras, and complete the

destruction of the English in the Carnatic; and then to march

northward, capture Calcutta, and expel the English from

Bengal. … Lally reached Madras on the 12th of December,

1758, and at once took possession of Black Town. He then began

the siege of Fort St. George with a vigour and activity which

commanded the respect of his enemies. His difficulties were

enormous. … Even the gunpowder was nearly exhausted. At

last, on the 16th of February, 1759, an English fleet arrived

at Madras under Admiral Pocock, and Lally was compelled to

raise the siege. Such was the state of party feeling amongst

the French in India, that the retreat of Lally from Madras was

received at Pondicherry with every demonstration of joy. The

career of Lally in India lasted for two years longer, namely

from February, 1759, to February, 1761; it is a series of

hopeless struggles and wearying misfortunes. In the Dekhan,

Salabut Jung had been thrown into the utmost alarm by the

departure of Bussy and defeat of Conflans. He was exposed to

the intrigues and plots of his younger brother, Nizam Ali, and

he despaired of obtaining further help from the French.

Accordingly he opened up negotiations with Colonel Forde and

the English. Forde on his part recovered all the Captured

factories [taking Masulipatam by storm, April 7, 1759, after a

fortnight's siege], and drove the French out of the Northern

Circars. He could not however interfere in the domestic

affairs of the Dekhan, by helping Salabut Jung against Nizam

Ali. In 1761 Salabut Jung was dethroned and placed in

confinement; and Nizam Ali ascended the throne at Hyderabad as

ruler of the Dekhan. In the Carnatic the French were in

despair. In January, 1760, Lally was defeated by Colonel Coote

at Wandiwash, between Madras and Pondicherry. Lally opened up

negotiations with Hyder Ali, who was rising to power in

Mysore; but Hyder Ali as yet could do little or nothing. At

the end of 1760 Colonel Coote began the siege of Pondicherry.

Lally … was ill in health and worn out with vexation and

fatigue. The settlement was torn by dissensions. In January,

1761, the garrison was starved into a capitulation, and the

town and fortifications were levelled with the ground. A few

weeks afterwards the French were compelled to surrender the

strong hill-fortress of Jingi, and their military power in the

Carnatic was brought to a close." On the return of Count Lally

to France "he was sacrificed to save the reputation of the

French ministers. … He was tried by the parliament of Paris.

… In May, 1766, he was condemned not only to death, but to

immediate execution."

_J. T. Wheeler,

Short History of India,

part 3, chapter 2._

"The battle of Wandewash, … though the numbers on each side

were comparatively small, must yet be classed amongst the

decisive battles of the world, for it dealt a fatal and

decisive blow to French domination in India."

_G. B. Malleson,

History of the French in India,

chapter 12._

ALSO IN:

_G. B. Malleson,

Decisive Battles of India,

chapter 4._

INDIA: A. D. 1767-1769.

The first war with Hyder Ali.