Mir Kasim
The East India Company installed Mir Kasim as Nawab of Bengal, only to find that he had a mind of his own.
1757-1764
King George III 1760-1820
The East India Company installed Mir Kasim as Nawab of Bengal, only to find that he had a mind of his own.
1757-1764
King George III 1760-1820
Robert Clive’s victory against the Nawab of Bengal at Plassey in 1757 made him and his employers, the East India Company, quite literally kingmakers. But Clive now retired to London, leaving Bengal to the new Nawab, Mir Jafar, and Company policy to Henry Vansittart, Clive’s successor in Calcutta.
AFTER the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the East India Company rewarded Mir Jafar for his betrayal of Siraj-ud-Daulah by creating him Nawab of Bengal in Siraj’s place.* Jafar, however, failed to fulfil his promises of large payments from his Treasury once in power, and when his son-in-law Kasim offered to do better, the Company gave him Jafar’s throne.
It was not long before the Company’s high-handed attitude began to grate on Mir Kasim too.* The movement of goods in Bengal was heavily taxed, but the Company’s international trade was exempted. Some Company employees, however, began to dabble in domestic trade, hiding behind the exemption to cut out Indian competitors.
In 1763, Kasim agreed a compromise with Henry Vansittart, Governor of Bengal, but the Council in Calcutta vetoed it. A further two-man delegation to Munger was informed that the Company’s special status was now over.* Kasim kept one envoy hostage; the other was dismissed back to Calcutta, only to be murdered on his homeward road.
Robert Clive returned to Bengal in 1765 (after the events in the story) and began tackling its culture of backhanders and privileges. He likened reforming the Company to the myth of Heracles and the Augean Stables.
Find Munger in Bihar on Google maps. Munger was Kasim’s new capital in place of Murshidabad; it lay in a bend of the River Ganges, and over a hundred miles further from Calcutta – a gesture of independence. Kasim abolished the tax entirely, eliminating the Company’s advantage and helping ordinary Indians.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Why did the British East India Company depose Mir Jafar as Nawab of Bengal?
They claimed that he owed them money.