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| Robert Clive, theguardian.com |
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| British empire of exploitation..psephizo.com |
The statue of Robert Clive still stands in Whitehall, London, but few pause to reflect on the darker legacy he left behind in India. In 2004, the British auction house Christie’s sold Mughal-era treasures worth £4.7 million—items looted during Clive’s campaigns in Bengal. These rare artifacts, once part of royal collections, had been passed down through Clive’s descendants. Among them was a 17th-century jewelled jade flask, previously exhibited at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, which alone fetched £2.9 million. Originally part of Emperor Muhammad Shah’s imperial trove, it may have been plundered by Persian invader Nadir Shah in 1739, then passed into the hands of Bengal’s Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah—and ultimately seized by Clive after Plassey in 1757.
Clive, reportedly, often coerced Indian elites—nawabs, kings, and zamindars—into offering “gifts” during his visits. His manipulation of both Mir Jafar and Mir Qasim was more than political; it was financial plundering under the guise of diplomacy. The Nawabs, despite being nominal rulers, watched helplessly as their treasuries were emptied by East India Company officials.
Christie’s auction listed more: a fly whisk with curved agate and ruby studs sold for £901,000; a gem-studded dagger went for £733,000; a sapphire-inlaid hookah fetched £94,000; and a pale green jade bowl sold for £53,000. Not bad for a man who began his career as a lowly clerk in Madras. When Clive left India in 1767, his personal fortune was an astronomical £401,102—a vast sum at the time.
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| Robert clive' s statue, Londontheweek.in(Getty images) |
One of the first Indian words to enter the English dictionary was loot. Clive can single-handedly take credit for that. The weight of the word—as well as the enormity of it—is on display at Powis Castle in Wales, which has the largest private collection of Indian artefacts in private hands in Britain, courtesy Clive and his eldest son, Edward. But it goes beyond just plunder. Clive systematically presided over the first corporate takeover of a country. The East India Company (EIC) stripped Bengal of its wealth to turn Britain into a rich country and later an empire. His first loot is valued at £250 million in today’s money. https://www.theweek.in/theweek/cover/2020/08/13/thug-of-hindustan.html............
Ironically, when he was reappointed Governor of Bengal in 1764, he was tasked with eradicating corruption in the Company. Yet Clive himself had institutionalized extortion. In Parliament, during a 1772 inquiry, he famously declared: “I stand astonished at my moderation.” Although exonerated, his public image suffered.
Few know that by 1774, tormented by depression, addiction to laudanum, and public disgrace, Clive died by suicide at just 49. One could argue it was poetic justice—perhaps even a spiritual reckoning by the ghosts of the Indian kings he looted, who, in death, reclaimed what was once theirs.
https://the-past.com/feature/clive-in-india-a-legacy-of-controversy/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/04/east-india-company-original-corporate-raiders
https://www.theweek.in/theweek/cover/2020/08/13/thug-of-hindustan.html
