THE REIGN OF MISRULE IN BENGAL
Clive had chosen Mr. Vansittart to succeed him as President of the
Council in Bengal because he believed he had recognized in him a man
who would do all in his power to put down the growing system of
venality and corruption. I have already shown how he had written to
him before he quitted India. The words he had used were: 'The
expected reinforcements will, in my opinion, put Bengal out of all
danger but that of venality and corruption.' But Clive had not
sufficiently considered that the very fact that the new President had
been selected from Madras instead of from amongst the men who had
served under his immediate orders was likely to cause jealousy among
the latter; that Vansittart, notwithstanding his estimated lofty
moral nature,[1] had no strength of character; {150}no such
persuasive powers as could win men to his side; no pre-eminent
abilities; no force of will, such as Clive himself would have
displayed, to dominate or, in case of great emergency, to suspend a
refractory colleague. He was but one of the herd, well-meaning,
opposed in principle to the venality and corruption then in vogue,
but, in every sense of the term, ordinary. Even with respect to the
two vices he denounced, he was an untried and untempted man.
[Footnote 1: One anecdote will demonstrate the extent of the 'lofty
moral nature' attributed by Clive to Mr. Vansittart. After Clive had
been a year or so in England he wrote to Vansittart requesting him to
select for him and despatch to him an elephant, as he wished to
present one to the King. Vansittart chose and despatched the elephant
for presentation to his Majesty, not as a gift from Clive, but as
from himself.]
His capacity for rule was put to the test very soon after he had
assumed the reins of office. Those reins had not, as I have said,
been handed to him by Clive. He had taken them from Mr. Holwell at
the very end of July (1760). In the interval an event had occurred
which had changed the general position in Bengal. Five months after
Clive had quitted Calcutta (July 2, 1760) Miran, the only son of the
Subahdar, Mir Jafar, was struck dead by lightning. The reader may
recollect the passage in his letter to Mr. Pitt, wherein Clive
referred to this young man. He had described him as 'so cruel,
worthless a young fellow, and so apparently an enemy to the English,
that it will be almost unsafe trusting him with the succession.' If
another successor, with an unquestionable title, had been immediately
available, the death of Miran would have been no calamity. But there
was no such successor. The next son in order of succession had seen
but thirteen summers. Outside of that boy and his younger brothers
were many claimants, not one of them with an indefeasible title. Mir
Jafar himself {151}was older even than his years. It devolved then,
with the tacit consent of the nobles, on the Council at Calcutta, to
nominate the successor to Miran. Such was the state of affairs when
Mr. Vansittart arrived, and took his seat as President of the
Council.
It happened that there were in Bengal at this time two officers who
had rendered conspicuous service to the State, Majors Calliaud and
Knox. During the very month in which Clive had quitted Calcutta,
these officers had marched with such English troops and sipahis as
were available, to assist in the repelling of an invasion made by the
titular King of Delhi, prompted, it was believed, by Miran, and had
repulsed, with great loss to the enemy, an attempt made to storm the
city of Patna. Vansittart, who knew Calliaud well alike as a friend
and as a man trusted by Clive, summoned him to attend the Council
upon the deliberations of which the future of Bengal depended. The
discussions were long and somewhat heated. The party in the Council
which represented most accurately the opinions of Clive, as rendered
in his letter to Mr. Pitt, already referred to,[2] was of opinion
that whilst Mir Jafar should be allowed to reign during the remainder
of his life, opportunity should be taken of his death to transfer the
direct {152}administration to the English. If this opportunity had
been taken to carry out some such policy it is probable that the
evils which followed would have been avoided.
[Footnote 2: Clive's letter had been written during the life of
Miran. After detailing his character and the growing infirmities of
Mir Jafar, he had added: 'so small a body as 2000 Europeans will
secure us against any apprehensions from either the one or the other;
and, in case of their daring to be troublesome, enable the Company to
take the sovereignty upon themselves.']
The discussions were still proceeding when there arrived an envoy
from the Subahdar, his son-in-law, Mir Muhammad Kasim, a man of
ability, tact, great persuasive powers, no scruple, and, in a certain
sense, a patriot. Mir Kasim had coveted the succession vacant by the
death of Miran. He had divined the plans of the English; he hated
them as the enemies of the race of conquerors who had ruled Bengal
and its people for centuries. He despised them as venal: and he had
resolved to use them for his own advantage. He had brought with him a
bag full of promises, and, though nominally the representative of Mir
Jafar, had come resolved to work for his own interests.
Admitted into the secret deliberations of the Council, Mir Kasim soon
realized that, with the single exception of Major Calliaud, he could
buy them all. Even the scrupulousness of Mr. Vansittart vanished
before his golden arguments. He bought them. For certain specified
sums of money to be paid by him to each member of Council,[3] these
official Englishmen covenanted to dethrone their ally of Plassey, Mir
Jafar, and to seat on the _masnad_ his son-in-law, Mir Kasim. Three
days after the signature of the treaty Mir {153}Kasim set out to make
his preparations for the coming event, and two days afterwards Mr.
Vansittart started for Murshidabad to break the news to Mir Jafar.
His very first official act had been a violation of the principle
prescribed to him by Clive as the one the non-indulgence in which
would secure the English from all danger.
[Footnote 3: He included even Major Calliaud, but without the
consent, and after the departure from India, of that officer.]
The events which followed must be stated very briefly. Vansittart
obtained from Mir Jafar his resignation. The one condition stipulated
by the old man was that thenceforth he should reside, under the
protection of the English, at Calcutta, or in its immediate vicinity.
For that city he started the following morning (September 19). Mir
Kasim proceeded to Patna to complete the arrangements which had
followed the repulse of the invasion of Bihar by the troops of Shah
Alim, and was there formally installed by Shah Alim himself as
Subahdar of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa.
Mir Kasim possessed all the capacities of a ruler. He knew thoroughly
the evils under which the three provinces were groaning, and he
proceeded with all the energy of a nature which never tired to reform
them. He moved his capital to Mungir, a town with a fortress, on the
right bank of the Ganges, commanding Northern and Eastern Bihar, and
nearly midway between Calcutta and Benares. He then proceeded to
reform his infantry on the English system, enlisting in his service
two well-known soldiers of mixed or Armenian descent, Samru and
{154}Markar, to command brigades of their own, and to aid in the
training of the other soldiers. So far he achieved success. But when
he proceeded to alleviate the misery of his people, he found that the
fatal gift of the salt monopoly enabled the English to thwart all his
efforts. For not only did the English use the authority they
possessed to the great impoverishment of the soil, but they gave to
their friends and dependents licences exempting from the payment of
duty in such profusion, that the people of Bengal and Bihar suffered
to an extent such as, in the present day, can with difficulty be
credited. Never, on the one side, was there so insatiable a
determination to become rich, no matter what misery might be thereby
caused to others; never, on the other, a more honest endeavour, by
sacrifices of any kind, to escape the ruin caused by such cruel
exactions.
At last, when he had exhausted appeal after appeal to the Calcutta
authorities, Mir Kasim recognized that his only chance of escape from
the pressure too hard to be borne, was to appeal to the God of
Battles. He was ready; the English, he believed, were not. He had
excellent fighting material; generals who would not betray him. On
the other hand, he knew that Clive and Calliaud had quitted India,
and he did not believe that either had his equal amongst the men on
the spot. Accordingly, just after he had received a demand from
Calcutta, compliance with which would have completed the ruin then
{155}impending, he took the bold step of abolishing all transit
duties, and of establishing free-trade throughout his territories.
Anticipating the consequences of this bold act, he notified to his
generals to be prepared for any movement the English might make.
Here, in the space allotted,[4] it must suffice to state that the
English, amazed that such a worm as the Subahdar of the three
provinces should dare to question their commands, sent two of their
number to remonstrate with him. But, whilst they were negotiating,
another Englishman, one of their own clique, a civil officer named
Ellis, furious at the idea of stooping to negotiate, made
preparations to seize the important city of Patna. At the head of a
small force he did surprise (June 25, 1763) that city during the
hours before daybreak, but the garrison of the citadel and of a large
stone building refused to admit him. Little caring for this, he
permitted his men to disperse to plunder. Meanwhile the commander of
the Subahdar's troops, Mir Mehdi Khan, had started for Mungir to
represent to his master the turn events had taken. On his way
thither, a few miles from the city, he encountered the troops in his
master's service commanded by Markar, the Armenian. Markar, as in
duty bound, at once marched on Patna, found the English still
plundering, drove them out of the city, and forced them to take
refuge in a factory outside of it. {156}There he besieged them, and
thence he forced them to retreat (June 29). Meanwhile the Subahdar
had despatched his other brigade, under Samru, to Baksar, to cut off
the retreat of the English, whilst he urged Markar to follow them up.
Markar followed, caught, and attacked them between the two
places--the 1st of July--and completely defeated them. The English,
of whom there were 300, aided by 2,500 natives, fought with their
usual courage; but they were badly led, were discouraged, and were
completely beaten. Those who did not fall on the field were taken
prisoners, re-conveyed to Patna, and were there eventually put to
death.
[Footnote 4: For a detailed account of the events preceding and
following this action on the part of Mir Kasim, the reader is
referred to the author's _Decisive Battles of India_, New Edition,
pp. 133-174.]
Such was the mode in which the war began. Had not the English
possessed, though they knew it not until experience had taught them,
a commander not inferior to any of the men who had done so much for
the glory of their country in the East, it is probable that Mir
Kasim, who, according to a contemporary writer,[5] 'was trained to
arms,' and who 'united the gallantry of the soldier with the sagacity
of the statesman,' would have driven them to their ships.
[Footnote 5: The author of an admirable book, written at the time,
entitled, _Transactions in India from 1756 to 1783_.]
From such a fate they were saved by the skill, the devotion, the
supreme military talents of Major John Adams. This officer, placed in
command, defeated Mir Kasim's army, after a very bloody battle, at
Katwa (July 19); again, a few days later, after a most stubborn
resistance, at Gheria. But neither {157}of these battles was decisive
of the war. When, however, the month following, Adams stormed the
immensely strong position of Undwa Nala, defended by 40,000 men, and
captured 100 pieces of cannon, Mir Kasim recognized that the war was
over. He made no attempt to defend either Rajmahal, Mungir, or Patna.
On the fall of the latter city (November 6) he fled to Oudh to take
refuge there with the Nawab-Wazir, and to instigate him to espouse
his cause.
It is only necessary to add that he succeeded in persuading that
prince to attempt the venture. He attempted it, however, only to
repent his audacity, for, after much manoeuvring, the English, led by
Munro, afterwards Sir Hector--who, after an interval of the incapable
Carnac, had succeeded Adams, killed by the climate and the fatigues
of the campaign--inflicted a crushing defeat upon him on the plains
of Baksar (October 23, 1764); then Munro, pursuing his victorious
course, occupied successively Benares, Chanar, and Allahabad. In
March, 1765, the English overran Oudh, occupying Lucknow and
Faizabad; then went on to beat the enemy at Karra, and again at Kalpi
on the Jumna. Then the Nawab-Wazir, 'a hopeless wanderer,' threw
himself on the mercy of the conquerors. These behaved to him with
conspicuous generosity, repaid by his successors in late years. The
English frontier was, however, not the less advanced, practically, as
far as Allahabad. Such was the military position when Clive returned
to Calcutta as Governor in May, 1765.
{158}Meanwhile the English, on the outbreak of the war with Mir
Kasim, had restored Mir Jafar, receiving the usual gratuities for
themselves and stipulating for exemptions from all duties except two
and a half per cent. on salt. As for Mir Kasim, it is only necessary
to add that he died some years later at Delhi in extreme poverty.
With all his faults he was a patriot.
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