British rulers,The Bengal lancers. the last day of the underchild.blogspot.com |
Mir Jafer,Nawob of Bengal in his oldage. pinimage.com |
Upon
former Nawob of Bengal - Siraj's death, Mir Jafer became the Nabob on 24th
June,1757; in reality, he was a puppet in the hands of cunning British.
For
the British, the job was not yet over, they had to wait patiently for a complete
take over of rich Bengal.
Mir Jaffer, as any normal person would anxiously do in the beginning, enjoyed all the trappings that would come with so exalted a position like Nawob, but subsequently over a period of time, as the ancient wheeze goes, ''Familiarity breeds contempt,'' he began to lose interest in the pelf and power. But now, he had become a true patriot and was much concerned about the future of Bengal and its people. He was much perturbed by the following -
1. Too much interference in his administration by the British India company people; He was unable to do anything on his own.
2. More often than not he was forced to give costly gifts to Robert Clive and his cronies.
3. Reparation fee of Rs.170,000.00 fees/month fixed by the company.
The government coffers, having become empty, there was lapse in payment to the money-hungry British. Further, Jafer realized that the British wanted to gobble up the other neighboring kingdoms as well. He very much regretted his folly and the grave mistake of having betrayed Siraj and his own country/motherland. He sadly felt, at last, the crown of power on his head was, in reality, a crown of thorns. Literally the British masters put the new Nawob on leash;a puppet ruler at their beck and call. After sometime, he slowly became non-cooperative and refused to go along with them on all matters.
Undivided Bengal before Aug,1947, leics.gov.uk |
Since they set their greedy mind on the complete take over of Bengal, the British felt Mir Jafer was of no use to them and they had to install some body as the next Nawob who could wag his tail and be at their service. They had come to the conclusion Mir Qasim, a close relative of Jafer, would be the right person for the job. In
the meantime the British forced Jafer to resign from Nawabship to
replace him by Mir Qasim.
Now Mir Qasim, next puppet, was waiting for his turn to take over the reins of Bengal, then the most prosperous region north of Vindhya Mountains. But Qasim was altogether a different man and not what the British had thought of him.
Ref:
en. wikipedia. org