Treasure Seekers: Empires of India Page #4
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When the door opened the next morning,
at least 40 British were dead.
"The Black Hole of Calcutta"
they called it,
and the incident sparked uproar.
It was just what Clive had been
waiting for.
Here was a chance to really
take control of India
and make a name for himself.
Clive and his troops hit Bengal
like a monsoon.
In 1757, he swept into Calcutta and
forced the Nawab's troops to withdraw.
With promises of lucrative deals,
Clive then strong armed
an Indian prince
into joining him in a
military alliance against Siraj.
With typical guile,
Clive secured the allegiance of his
Indian allies with fraudulent treaties.
Finally, he marched into Bengal
over 2,000 Indian sepoys.
It was an impressive force
but nothing compared to what Siraj
mustered against him.
by the French
and 50 pieces of state of the art
heavy artillery.
The two armies met near a town
called Plassey.
The Nawab's superiority
may have seemed overwhelming
but Clive knew that discipline,
not numbers, was the key.
The Europeans had already
gone through something
like a bureaucratic
military revolution
in the organization of their armies.
Everyone is trained to act in unison
and it is not heroic battle action
which matters but the discipline
of formation
and quick succession to anybody who
falls in the field of battle,
exactly as one faceless bureaucrat
is replaced by another.
Clive was outnumbered enormously,
but he could use his resources
much more effectively.
Faced by the disciplined phalanxes
of the British trained troops,
the Mughal army fell apart.
Clive's triumph at Plassey
effectively gave India to the British.
Although the British empire in India
would not be formally declared
for another 100 years,
India now belonged to the
British East India Company.
Clive became known as the Master of
Bengal and lost no time
in turning his position into an
astonishingly lucrative business.
He had learned the technique years
ago as a quartermaster in Madras.
Indian merchants were prepared
to do anything
to ensure their continued good
relations with the East India Company.
On the same principle,
the Prince of Bengal now paid Clive
huge sums to ensure his favor.
On top of this Clive was collecting
trade and land revenues.
Within the space of two years
he had amassed a huge fortune.
But with the action over,
it was not long before Clive slumped
into another cycle of depression,
accompanied now by agonizing pains in
his stomach, gout and prostration.
In 1760 he returned to England
as Clive of India a very rich,
very famous and very sick man.
When Clive returned to London,
one of the only things that could
drag him from his gloom
was the prospect of
a spending spree.
He now had wealth, recognition,
fame in India
the only thing he didn't have was
social position in England.
He decided he would buy his way
into the English upper classes.
He hungrily set out to amass property
and social status in equal measure.
at S0tyche, and bought four more
London's Berkeley Square,
two more estates in England
and one in Ireland too.
He engineered himself a seat in
Parliament and one for his father also.
Clive's money was huge
but not limitless.
The one thing Robert Clive wanted
more than anything else was
to be accepted by the establishment
and the aristocracy
and for people to consider him
a gentleman.
He did flash his money around.
And sadly, people considered him
to be rather vulgar.
They didn't like this chap coming
back from India out of nowhere
and big houses and,
you know, sort of buying his own
furniture if you like.
Clive soon found himself mired
in the intricacies of the
English class system.
Try as he might, spend as he might,
the inner circles of the aristocracy
would not let him in.
His rough manners only made things
worse for him.
They called him a 'nabob',
English slang based on the Hindi
word 'Nawab' or ruler.
The nabob is a pejorative
expression for an Englishman
who has given up to bad stomach,
bad digestion,
overindulgence in India.
and made a lot of money.
They're something like robber barons
in fact.
And their idea was to
make a fortune here and then
establish themselves in England
as respectable notables.
And try to make a political
career there.
Now in England they were looked upon
as adventurers who were slightly seedy,
and Clive was a classic example
of that.
The English aristocracy closed
its doors in Clive's face.
But Clive was not to be put off.
Still intent on his social climb,
Clive decided to try a different tack.
To enhance his reputation, he agreed
to return to India in a different role.
No longer just the businessman,
but now statesman as well.
In 1765,
only five years after leaving,
the 40 year old Clive returned
to India
as governor of the
British East India Company.
He now cast himself as a high minded
champion of British interests.
Clive's mission was to clean up the
practices of the British in India.
Clive's victory at Plassey,
profiteering had run wild in Bengal.
The British had achieved an effective
trade monopoly.
British merchants and soldiers
strong armed
Bengali traders
just as Clive himself had once done.
Resentment was seething.
Clive countered the growing unrest
with a tone of patrician contempt
for all the practices
that had made him rich.
The confusion we behold,
what does it arise from?
Rapacity and luxury;
the unreasonable desire of many
to acquire in an instant,
what only a few can
or ought to possess.
Clive launched reforms outlawing
the abuses he had instituted.
In a whirlwind 20 months
British East India Company.
By the end of it he was drained.
And it was now that disaster struck.
In 1769 the monsoon rains
failed in Bengal.
And in 1770 famine set in.
Hundreds of thousands died
as much as one third of the population.
Share prices for the East India
Company's stock plummeted.
By 1772 the Company's credit
had failed.
Meanwhile stories were
circulating that
English merchants were hoarding rice
as Indians starved.
There was a public outcry
against the company.
People looked for a scapegoat.
Fingers pointed at Clive.
It was a bitter irony.
Only as Clive was at last making
to clear up the morass of greed
in India,
was he finally accused of being
its cause.
A parliamentary committee was formed
to investigate the company
and Clive's role in it.
The accusation?
Extortion and profiteering in India.
As usual, energized by the prospect
of a fight,
Clive rose magnificently to his own
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