Rulers of India: Lord Clive

by G. B. Malleson

On the 25th of June Clive started on his tour northward. His presence was urgently needed on the frontier, for he had to deal with two humiliated princes, the Nawáb-Wazír of Oudh, and the actual inheritor of the empire of the Mughal, Sháh Alím, now a houseless fugitive, his capital occupied by the Afgháns, possessing no resources but such as might accrue from the title which he bore.

At Murshidábád, which he took on his way upwards, Clive had to settle with the young Súbahdár the system which it would be incumbent upon him to introduce into the three provinces, as governor under the over-lordship of the English. The positions of the native ruler and the western foreigner had become completely inverted since the period, only nine years distant, when Siráj-ud-daulá marched against Calcutta to expel thence those who were his vassals. The system to be imposed now on the Súbahdár provided that he should become a Nawáb-Názim, responsible for the peace and for the maintenance of public order in the three provinces, for the administration of justice, and for the enforcing of obedience to the law; that there should be a Diwán, or chief minister, empowered to collect the yearly revenue of the provinces, responsible for all disbursements, and for the payment of the surplus into the Imperial treasury. This system had prevailed in the time of the Emperor Aurangzeb. But there was this important difference. In Clive's scheme, whilst Nujm-ud-daulá would be Nawáb-Názim, the East India Company would occupy, from that time forth and for ever, the position of Diwán; and the Imperial treasury would be the treasury of the Company. The scheme was agreed to by the young Nawáb and his surroundings. But in working it, one part was found to place a power that would be abused in the hands of the Nawáb-Názim. Accordingly, a few months later, that prince was relieved of the responsibility for the maintenance of the public peace, for the administration of justice, and for the enforcing of obedience to the law. In a word, the Company became the rulers of the three provinces, the Nawáb-Názim a cypher. Nay, more, the sum of money which the Nawáb-Názim was to have at his disposal was limited to fifty-three lakhs of rupees; from this he was to defray the entire expenses of his court. Was it for such a result, might the shade of Mír Jafar inquire, that the nobles of the three provinces combined to betray Siráj-ud-daulá?

After having thus settled the affairs of the Company at Murshidábád, Clive proceeded by way of Patná to Benares, to meet there his friend General Carnac and the suppliant Nawáb-Wazír of Oudh. This interview was, in the eyes of Clive, likely to be fraught with the most important consequences, for he was bent on the securing of a frontier for the English possessions such as would offer the best points of defence against invasion; for, in his view, it was to be permanent.

It ought not to be attributed as a great political fault to Clive that his mind had not realized the fact that to maintain it is often necessary to advance. In a word, it would be most unfair to judge the action of 1765-6 by the lights of the experience of the century which followed. Up to the year 1757 the unwarlike inhabitants of Bengal had been the prey of the Mughal or the Maráthá. But in 1765, so far as could be judged, neither was to be feared. The Maráthá power had suffered in 1761, on the field of Pánípat, near Delhi, one of the most crushing defeats ever inflicted on a people, and Clive had no power of divining that the genius of a young member of one of their ruling families, who escaped wounded from the field, would, in a few years, raise the Maráthá power to more than its pristine greatness. As for the Mughal, his power was gone for ever; the representative prince was at the very moment a fugitive at Allahábád, not possessed of a stiver. What was there to be feared from him or from his family? In the three provinces the English possessed the richest parts of India. It was surely good policy, he argued, if he could by treaty with his neighbours, and by occupying the salient points which covered them, render them unassailable.

After some preliminary conversation with the Nawáb-Wazír, Clive found that it would be necessary to proceed to Allahábád to confer there with the titular emperor, Sháh Alím. He found that prince full of ideas as to the possibility of recovering with the aid of Clive his lost possessions in the north-west. Nothing was further from Clive's mind than an enterprise of that character, and, with his accustomed tact he soon convinced the two princes that it was necessary first to settle the English frontier before discussing any other subject. He then proceeded to develop his plan. He demanded the cession of the fortress of Chanár to the English; the provinces of Karra and Allahábád to the Emperor, to be held, on his behalf, by the English; the payment by the Nawáb-Wazír of fifty lakhs, for the expenses of the war just concluded; an engagement from him never to employ or give protection to Mír Kásim or to Samru; permission to the East India Company to trade throughout his dominions, and to establish factories within them. The Nawáb-Wazír agreed to every clause except to that regarding the factories. He had observed, he stated, that whenever the English established a footing in a country, even though it were only by means of a commercial factory, they never budged from it; their countrymen followed them; and in the end they became masters of the place. He then pointed out how, in nine years, the small factory of Calcutta had absorbed the three provinces, and was now engaged in swallowing up places beyond their border. He would not, he finally declared, submit his dominions to the same chance. Recognizing his earnestness, and having really no desire to plant factories in Oudh, Clive wisely gave way on that one point. He carried, however, all the other points. It was further arranged that the Zamíndár of Benares, who had befriended the English during the war, should retain his possessions in subordination to the Nawáb-Wazír; that a treaty of mutual support should be signed between the English, the Nawáb-Wazír, and the Súbahdár of the three provinces; and that should English troops be required to fight for the defence of the Nawáb-Wazír's country, he should defray all their expenses.

Subsequently at Chaprá, in Bihár, Clive met the Nawáb-Wazír, the representative of Sháh Alím, agents from the Ját chiefs of Agra, and others from the Rohillá chiefs of Rohilkhand. The avowed purpose of the meeting was to form a league against Maráthá aggression, it having been recently discovered that that people had entered into communications with Sháh Alím for the purpose of restoring him to his throne. Then it was that the question of the English frontier was discussed. It was eventually agreed that one entire brigade should occupy Allahábád, to protect that place and the adjoining district of Karra;¹ that a strong detachment of the second brigade should occupy Chanár; two battalions Benares; and one Lucknow. On his side the Emperor granted firmans bestowing the three provinces upon the East India Company 'as a free gift without the association of any other person,' subject to an annual payment to himself and successors of twenty-six lakhs of rupees, and to the condition that the Company should maintain an army for their defence.

¹ Karra was a very important division and city in the time of the Mughals, and is repeatedly referred to by the native historians whose records appear in Sir H. Elliot's history. See vols. ii, iii, iv, v and viii. The city is now in ruins.

On the 19th of May following the Súbahdár of the three provinces died. The arrangements made by Clive had deprived the position of all political importance. The individuality of the person holding that once important office was therefore of little importance. The next heir, a brother, naturally succeeded. The only change made on the occasion was the reduction of the allowance for all the expenses of the office from fifty-three to forty-one lakhs of rupees.

On one point Clive continued firm. Although, practically, the English had now become the masters of the three provinces, the Súbahdár only the show-figure, he insisted that the former should still remain in the background. The revenue was still to be collected in the name, and nominally on behalf of the native prince. The utmost he would permit in a contrary direction was to appoint English supervisors, to see that the native collectors did their duty. Beyond that he would not go. In the eyes of the world of India the three provinces were to continue a Súbah, administered by a Súbahdár. The control of the English was to remain a matter for arrangement with the actual ruler, their real power only to be prominently used when occasion might require, and then, likewise, in the name of the Súbahdár.