Robert Clive
Topic: Europeans in India and the Rise of Company Rule · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 4 "The Colonial Era in India"
Meaning
Robert Clive was an officer of the English East India Company. He did more than anyone else to turn the Company from a trading body into a ruling power in Bengal. He won the Battle of Plassey in 1757 not by fighting better but by a secret deal. Later, he got the Company the diwani of Bengal in 1765. The diwani was the right to collect land revenue, which is a tax on land.
Example
Before Plassey, Clive made a secret deal with Mir Jafar, commander of Nawab Siraj-ud-daulah's army, and promised him the throne. At Palashi in 1757, Mir Jafar's troops, who were most of the Nawab's army, stood aside, and Clive's smaller force won. In 1765, after the Battle of Buxar, the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II granted the diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa to the Company.
Don't confuse with
- Warren Hastings: he was the first Governor-General, from 1773. Clive's key work came earlier, at Plassey in 1757 and with the diwani in 1765.
Related concepts
- Divide and rule
- Dastak
- Black Hole of Calcutta
- Siraj-ud-daulah
- Battle of Plassey
- Mir Jafar
- Mir Qasim
- Battle of Buxar 1764
- Treaty of Allahabad 1765
- Diwani of Bengal