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CLIVE OF INDIA

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the merchants of London obtained a charter to form The East India Company. During the Stuart period it built trading posts at Surat (1613), Madras (1639), Bombay (1661) and Calcutta (1686).

The French merchants had also formed a similar company and they had posts at Chandernagore and Pondicherry. Led by a brilliant soldier, Dupleix, they decided to drive their rivals out of India by forming alliances with local native princes. It was when the French and British were both trying to secure the throne for a local prince whom they supported that the first big battle occurred between their forces.

At Madras, at the age of nineteen Clive (Robert), joined the East India Company, as a writer, but in 1747 he quitted the civil for the military service. It was a perilous time for British interests in India. The French under Dupleix had gained important privileges and large grants of territory and in alliance with Chunda Sahib, Nabob of Arcot, were threatening the very existence of the British establishments, In 1751 Clive, who had already a reputation for skill and courage, marched on the large city of Ascot with 200 British troops and 300 Sepoys, and took it, although strongly garrisoned, without a blow, withstood a siege by Chunda Sahib for nearly two months, and at last routed the enemy, took possession of important posts, and returned to Madras completely victorious.

In 1753 he sailed to England to recover his health, and was received with much honour. Two years later he was back in India, in his governorship of St David's. In 1756 Surajah Dowlah, the Nabob of Bengal, demanded that the British should cease fortifying Calcutta. This demand was refused, because the British feared an attack from the French.

Robert Clive

The angry nabob Suraj-ud-Dowlah attacked the British, destroyed the factories, took Calcutta, the British inhabitants, men, women and children, were imprisoned throughout the whole of a hot Indian summer night, and from reports of the time it appears that few survived.and over 120 prisoners died in the " Black Hole of Calcutta ."

Robert Clive was immediately sent to Calcutta with a small army of 3,000 men and eight guns . He made contact with the man who was the treasurer at the court of Surajah Dowlah, Meer (Mir) Jaffir, who he had learnt wanted to depose the cruel Nabob. The Nabob's force of 50,000 men and 40 guns was completely beaten in the battle of Plassey .

Meer Jaffier now became the new nabob, and Clive was made governor of Calcutta. Here he was equally successful against the encroachments of the Dutch, defeating their forces both by sea and land. France tried to carry the Seven Years' War into Southern India and an army was sent to make France supreme. This was foiled by a powerful British fleet which easily mastered the small French force. After the British victory at Wandewash in 1760, all the hopes that the French had of victory vanished and the British were left to become the principal merchant trading country in India. Dupleix, the French leader, returned to France, where he died in disgrace.

Clive now visited England again, where his success was highly applauded without much inquiry as to the means; and in 1761 he was raised to the Irish peerage with the title of Lord Clive, Baron of Plassey.In 1764 fresh troubles in India brought him back, but now as president of Bengal, with command of the troops there. Before his arrival, however, Major Adams had already defeated the Nabob of Oude, and Lord Clive had only the arranging of the treaty by which the Company obtained the disposal of all the revenues of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. In 1767 he finally returned to England. In 1773 a motion supported by the minister was made in the House of Commons, that ' Lord Clive had abused the powers with which he was in trusted ;' but it was rejected for a resolution that ' Lord Clive had rendered great and meritorious services to his country.' His health was by this time broken, and in one of his habitual fits of melancholy he put an end to his life, November 22, 1774.

Clive made the British supreme in Bengal, but it was nearly a hundred years before Britain had control over the greater part of India.

Next Warren Hastings, took responsiblity :-

He was grandson of the rector of Daylesford. He was educated at Westminster School, and in 1750 he set out for Bengal in the capacity of a writer in the service of the East India Company. When stationed at Cossimbazar he was taken prisoner by Surajah Dowlah on the capture of the place (1756). Having made his escape, he served as a volunteer under Clive in 1757. He was representative of the Company at Moorshedabad from 1758 to 1761. In the latter year he removed to Calcutta having obtained a seat in the Bengal Council, but returned to England in 1764. As he lost the bulk of his means by unfortunate Indian investments, he again entered the Company's service, and sailed for India in 1769. In consequence of the misgovernment of the Nabob of Bengal the Company had deprived him of all real power, and now wished to have the country more directly under their control. Warren Hastings was its chief instrument in this undertaking, and in 1772 became president of the Supreme Council of Calcutta. Mohammed Reza Khan, the administrator of the revenues of Bengal, was now accused by an unprincipled character named Nuncomar of corruption and abuses of power.

Warren Hastings
In this prosecution Hastings acted as the tool of the Company.

First Governor-general of India was born at Daylesford in Worcestershire 1732, and died there 1818. Mohammed and Shitab Roy, dewan of Behar (who had been similarly accused), were afterwards honourably acquitted, but meantime the reorganization desired by the Company had been carried out.

In 1773 the Company's powers were considerably modified by an act of parliament and Hastings now received the title of Governor-general of India. As the majority of the Council disapproved of Hastings' past policy, Nuncomar, his old ally, took advantage of the circumstance to accuse him of peculation (1776). The accusations were favourably received by the Council, when Nuncomar was suddenly accused by a Calcutta merchant of forgery, was tried, and executed - a fate which he undoubtedly deserved. In 1776 the directors of the Company petitioned government for his removal from the Council, but Hastings resigned, and a successor to him was appointed. In 1777 one of the members of the Council died, and Hnstings, having thus procured a casting vote, withdrew his resignation, and returned to office.

He now displayed extraordinary resource in meeting dangerous movements on the part of the Mahrattas, the Nizam of the Deccan, and Hyder Ali of Mysore, and to procure the needful money was less than scrupulous in his treatment of the rulers of Benares and Oude.
He thus gave good grounds for censure, and a motion for his recall was passed in the House of Commons. Fox's India Bill was thrown out in 1783, but next year Pitt's bill, establishing the board of control, passed, and Hastings resigned. He left India in 1785, and was impeached by Burke in 1786, being charged with acts of injustice and oppression, with maladministration, receiving of bribes, &c. This celebrated trial, in which Burke, Fox, and Sheridan thundered against him, began in 1788, and terminated in 1795 with his acquittal, but cost him his fortune.

Warren Hastings

The Company in 1796 settled on him an annuity of £4000 a year, and lent him £50,000 for eighteen years free of interest. He passed the remainder of his life in retirement at Daylesford. which he purchased.

		At Madras, at the age of nineteen Clive (Robert), joined the East India Company, as a writer, but in 1747 he quitted the civil for the military service. It was a perilous time for British interests in India. The French under Dupleix had gained important privileges and large grants of territory and in alliance with Chunda Sahib, Nabob of Arcot, were threatening the very existence of the British establishments, In 1751 Clive, who had already a reputation for skill and courage, marched on the large city of Ascot with 200 British troops and 300 Sepoys, and took it, although strongly garrisoned, without a blow, withstood a siege by Chunda Sahib for nearly two months, and at last routed the enemy, took possession of important posts, and returned to Madras completely victorious. In 1753 he sailed to England to recover his health, and was received with much honour. Two years later he was back in India, in his governorship of St David's. In 1756 Surajah Dowlah, the Nabob of Bengal, demanded that the British should cease fortifying Calcutta. This demand was refused, because the British feared an attack from the French.
Robert Clive

		He was grandson of the rector of Daylesford. He was educated at Westminster School, and in 1750 he set out for Bengal in the capacity of a writer in the service of the East India Company. When stationed at Cossimbazar he was taken prisoner by Surajah Dowlah on the capture of the place (1756). Having made his escape, he served as a volunteer under Clive in 1757. He was representative of the Company at Moorshedabad from 1758 to 1761. In the latter year he removed to Calcutta having obtained a seat in the Bengal Council, but returned to England in 1764. As he lost the bulk of his means by unfortunate Indian investments, he again entered the Company's service, and sailed for India in 1769. In consequence of the misgovernment of the Nabob of Bengal the Company had deprived him of all real power, and now wished to have the country more directly under their control. Warren Hastings was its chief instrument in this undertaking, and in 1772 became president of the Supreme Council of Calcutta. Mohammed Reza Khan, the administrator of the revenues of Bengal, was now accused by an unprincipled character named Nuncomar of corruption and abuses of power.
Warren Hastings		In this prosecution Hastings acted as the tool of the Company.
First Governor-general of India was born at Daylesford in Worcestershire 1732, and died there 1818.		Mohammed and Shitab Roy, dewan of Behar (who had been similarly accused), were afterwards honourably acquitted, but meantime the reorganization desired by the Company had been carried out.

		He now displayed extraordinary resource in meeting dangerous movements on the part of the Mahrattas, the Nizam of the Deccan, and Hyder Ali of Mysore, and to procure the needful money was less than scrupulous in his treatment of the rulers of Benares and Oude. He thus gave good grounds for censure, and a motion for his recall was passed in the House of Commons. Fox's India Bill was thrown out in 1783, but next year Pitt's bill, establishing the board of control, passed, and Hastings resigned. He left India in 1785, and was impeached by Burke in 1786, being charged with acts of injustice and oppression, with maladministration, receiving of bribes, &c. This celebrated trial, in which Burke, Fox, and Sheridan thundered against him, began in 1788, and terminated in 1795 with his acquittal, but cost him his fortune.
Warren Hastings