At
the outset the East India Company's main aim was not to rule India,
but to make money by way of trading. Taxes were collected for them by
a Company - appointed deputy - nawab.
After
Robert
Clive's
diabolical victory in the Battle
of Plassey
in 1757, the puppet government of a new Nawab
of Bengal - Mir Jaffer ,
was maintained by the East India Company. However, after the invasion
of Bengal by the Nawob
of Oudh
in 1764 and his subsequent defeat in the Battle
of Buxar,Bengal
on October 23,1764 which was fought by East India company led by
Hector Monroe agianst combined Mughal rulers of Mir
Qasim,
the Nawab
of Bengal,
Shuja-ud-Daulah
the Nawab
of Awadh,
and the Mughal
King
Shah
Alam II,
the Company obtained the Diwani rights (revenue authority) over
100,000, 000 acres (400,000.00 sq. km) - treaty of Allahabad - which
included the rights to administer and collect land-revenue (land tax)
in Bengal, the region of present-day Bangladesh,
West
Bengal,
Bihar, Jharkhand and U.P.
Shah Allam was forced to pay a fine of five million rupees. After
negotiation, the Treaty of Allalabad was signed. All his pre-war
possessions were returned except for the districts of Karra
and Allahabad.
He became a pensioner, with a monthly pension of 450,000.00 rupees.
Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula was restored to Oudh,
with a subsidiary force and a guarantee of defence. Mir Qasim, the
(puppet) Nawab of Bengal, was ruined by the defeat and later he was
deposed by the company. In 1772, the Company also obtained the
Nizāmat of Bengal (the "exercise of criminal jurisdiction")
and thereby full sovereignty of the expanded Bengal
Presidency.
During the period, 1773 to 1785, very little changed; the only
exceptions were the addition of the dominions of the Raja
of Banares
to the western boundary of the Bengal Presidency, and the addition of
Salsette
Island
to the Bombay
Presidency.
The
East India company became a Mughul revenue agent for Bengal and
later Bihar and by 1793 company's control was virtual.
In
short the scheming British subsequently through a web of intrigues,
betrayal and espionage reduced once prosperous Indian Maharajas and
Nawobs to panhandlers seeking alms (pensions) from them and they
never felt ashamed of their lousy treatment of Indian rulers who were
once cooperative and hospitable to them when they opened up trading
posts in various parts of India.
A
Dictionary of Modern History (1707 - 1947), Parshotam Mehra, ISBN
9780195615524,
1985 ed., Oxford University Press
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Buxar
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