The Battle of Plassey 1757

The Strategic Context: The Conflict in Bengal

The Battle of Plassey was the culminating engagement of a long-running conflict between the English East India Company and the Nawabs of Bengal for the control of the commercial resources of the richest province of the declining Mughal Empire. The Company had established its first factory at Hughli in the 1650s, and the Company had gradually extended its commercial operations in the province over the next century, principally through the export of Bengal textiles to the markets of the Indian Ocean and Europe. The transformation of the Company from a trading corporation to a territorial power occurred in the mid-eighteenth century, particularly after the Afghan invasion of Nadir Shah in 1739 had weakened the effective authority of the Mughal emperor in Bengal.

The Nawab of Bengal at the time of the battle, Siraj-ud-Daulah, had succeeded his grandfather Alivardi Khan in 1756, and his brief reign was marked by a series of disputes with the Company. The principal dispute concerned the Company’s use of the privileges granted by previous nawabs, particularly the right to trade without paying the customary customs duties. Siraj-ud-Daulah attempted to enforce the payment of customs on the Company’s goods, and the Company, determined to maintain its privileged position, dispatched a small force under Robert Clive to the frontier of Bengal. The capture of Calcutta by Siraj-ud-Daulah in June 1756, and the subsequent tragedy of the Black Hole, was the immediate prelude to the conflict.

Robert Clive and the Recovery of Calcutta

Robert Clive returned to Bengal in October 1756 with a substantial force from Madras, and he recovered Calcutta in the following January. The recapture of Calcutta was the prelude to a series of operations against the nawab’s forces, and by the spring of 1757 Clive was in a position to dictate terms to Siraj-ud-Daulah. The Treaty of Alinagar, signed in February 1757, restored the Company’s privileges and permitted the Company to fortify its factory at Calcutta, and Clive subsequently used the breathing space provided by the treaty to prepare for a decisive engagement.

The decision to bring the nawab to a decisive engagement was taken by Clive in the spring of 1757, when a conspiracy of disaffected officers at the nawab’s court offered to defect to the Company in return for the installation of one of their number, Mir Jafar, as the new Nawab of Bengal. The principal conspirators were Mir Jafar, the commander of the nawab’s army, and Jagat Seth, the banker of the court. The conspiracy, which was communicated to Clive by a number of intermediaries, offered the prospect of a decisive British victory at minimal cost, and Clive determined to stake his fortunes on the gamble.

The Two Armies

The British force that fought at Plassey was a small but well-trained and well-equipped body, perhaps three thousand strong, of whom roughly a third were Europeans and the remainder were Sepoys of the Madras army. The force included a small but well-served artillery train, with several pieces of European field artillery, and the infantry was disciplined in the European linear tactics of the period. The British force was, in effect, a small task force, and its success depended on the defection of the principal nawab’s commanders at the critical moment.

The nawab’s army, by contrast, was a substantial force, perhaps fifty thousand strong, including a large body of cavalry, a substantial infantry contingent armed with matchlocks, and a substantial artillery train. The army was drawn up on the plain of Plassey (modern Palashi) under the command of the nawab himself, and it included the principal officers of the nawab’s government. The army was, however, weakened by the conspiracy at its heart, and the defection of Mir Jafar at the critical moment of the battle was a decisive factor in the outcome.

The Battle

The battle opened on the morning of 23 June 1757 with a heavy rainfall that continued for several hours. The British force, sheltered in a grove of mango trees, was largely unaffected by the rain, but the nawab’s army, drawn up in the open plain, was seriously hampered by the wet conditions, and the matchlock-armed infantry in particular was unable to keep its powder dry. Clive used the breathing space provided by the rain to negotiate with the nawab’s officers, and he succeeded in persuading Mir Jafar to keep his contingent out of the battle.

The battle proper opened in the afternoon, when the rain had ceased. The British force advanced in line against the nawab’s centre, and the nawab’s cavalry made a series of charges against the British line. The charges were repulsed by the disciplined volleys of the British Sepoy infantry, and the nawab’s army, deprived of the support of Mir Jafar’s contingent, was unable to make any impression on the British position. After several hours of inconclusive fighting, the nawab’s army withdrew, and Siraj-ud-Daulah fled the field, accompanied by a small body of attendants. The British loss in the battle was trivial, perhaps a few dozen killed and wounded, while the nawab’s losses were substantially greater, perhaps five hundred killed and wounded.

The Outcome and the Establishment of British Influence

The British victory at Plassey was decisive, and it effectively placed Bengal under British control. Mir Jafar was installed as the new Nawab of Bengal, in accordance with the conspiracy, and the new nawab was required to grant the Company a series of substantial concessions, including the right to collect the revenues of three districts of Bengal, the right to free trade throughout the province, and the right to fortify the Company’s factory at Calcutta. The grant of the three districts, the land of the twenty-four parganas, gave the Company a substantial territorial base in Bengal, and the Company’s effective control of the province was the foundation of the subsequent British expansion into the subcontinent.

The Battle of Plassey is engagements in the history of British India, and it has been the subject of an extensive historical literature. The conspiracy with Mir Jafar, the defection at the critical moment, and the relatively small size of the British force have all contributed to the battle’s reputation as a turning point in Indian history. The decline of the Mughal Empire, examined on the Mughal decline page, was effectively initiated by the battle, for the nawab of Bengal was the principal subordinate of the Mughal emperor in eastern India, and the effective transfer of his authority to the Company marked the beginning of the end of the imperial structure. The closely related engagement at Buxar in 1764, treated on the Battle of Buxar page, confirmed the British position, and the Treaty of Allahabad of 1765 laid the political and economic foundations of British India.

Sources

• P.J. Marshall, Bengal: The British Bridgehead (NCHI II.2, 1987), ch. 2.