Robert Clive challenged the Mughals and the same challenge later became the foundation of British rule over the entire Indian subcontinent.
The British rule over India did not start suddenly on a single day. This was a long process, in which the British, who came as traders, gradually became claimants to political power. In this sequence, an important question arises that who was the first Englishman to directly confront the Mughals with the ambition of ruling India? Historically, we get the answer to this question in the form of Robert Clive. Although Clive did not directly attack the imperial Mughal court, he challenged the Nawabs, the real foundation of Mughal power in Bengal and eastern India, and this challenge later became the foundation of British rule over the entire Indian subcontinent.
In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries the East India Company came to India only for the purpose of trade. Their goal was profitable trade in spices, textiles, silk, indigo and other goods. At that time India was ruled by the Mughal Empire, whose capital was Agra and later Delhi. The early British officers took orders from the Mughal emperors and Subedars, built factories and warehouses, took tax concessions and expanded trade. The thinking of the British of that period was basically that of a businessman, not a ruler. But as the Mughal Empire started weakening in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, provincial Subedars, Nawabs and powers like Maratha, Sikh, Jat etc. started emerging. This disintegration of power became an opportunity for the British.
The rise of Robert Clive
Robert Clive (1725-1774) was a young man from an ordinary English family, who reached Madras, today’s Chennai, as a clerk in the army of the East India Company. Initially he was not a great military leader, but the circumstances of the crisis gave him an opportunity to move forward. Clive’s first big name emerged in the Carnatic Wars, where both the French and the British were trying to increase their influence in South India with the help of Indian princely states. These wars made Clive understand that if the British took advantage of the internal conflicts of the Indian powers, they could gain not only trade but also political and military power.
Robert Clive had reached Madras (today’s Chennai) as a clerk in the army of the East India Company.
Bengal’s prosperity and British ambition
Till the middle of the eighteenth century, Bengal was the most prosperous province of India. The Mughal emperor remained nominal, but the real power was in the hands of the Nawabs of Bengal. Bengal’s fertile land, trading ports, textile industry and revenue made it one of the richest provinces in Asia. The British officials of the East India Company were enjoying immense business benefits from here. They started interfering in local administration, misusing Dastak (tax-free trade passes) and challenging the Nawab’s revenue system. Nawab of Bengal Siraj-ud-Daula considered this increasing British interference as a direct challenge to his authority and the sovereignty of the Mughal Empire.
Battle of Plassey became the turning point
The most important point of beginning of political control over India, both symbolically and practically, is considered to be the Battle of Plassey of 1757. Siraj-ud-Daula, the Nawab of Bengal, who was formally still a powerful Subedar under the Mughal Emperor. On the other hand, the army of the East India Company, which was commanded by Robert Clive, and which also included a large number of Indian soldiers.
Clive did not adopt only military strategy. He also made full use of conspiracies and secret agreements. He made a secret treaty with the Nawab’s commander Mir Jafar and some influential people of the court, promising to make him the Nawab and give him wealth. When the battle of Plassey took place in June 1757, Mir Jafar and his companions remained inactive at the crucial moment. As a result Siraj-ud-Daula was defeated and the British won. This battle was not simply a conflict between two armies; This was the first successful and organized attack by the British on the real basis of Mughal power in India—provincial Nawabi rule.
Red Fort of the Mughals.
Robert Clive started the war directly
Before Clive, the British took orders from the Mughal rulers, paid bribes or tribute, but did not openly challenge their authority militarily and politically. At Plassey, Clive waged a war directly against a Nawab – the legitimate representative of the Mughal power – and defeated him. After Plassey, Clive and the company went beyond mere commercial gains and started interfering in government. The company’s interference in the appointment and change of Nawabs increased. Would also get a share in the revenue.
All this shows that now the aim of the British was not only trade but also rule. Although the Mughal emperor of Delhi was still formally recognized as supreme ruler, real power in Bengal now came into the hands of Clive and Company. Later, through the Treaty of Allahabad in 1765, the Company received the Diwani (revenue rights) of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, which directly indicated a huge reduction in the sovereignty of the Mughal Emperor. For these reasons, if one asks who was the first influential Englishman to take on the Mughal power structure with the intention of ruling India, then historically the most prominent name that emerges is Robert Clive.
The British expanded after Clive
Clive’s success led the East India Company to believe that by interfering in Indian politics and taking advantage of the rivalries between local kings, they could gradually dominate the entire country. In the Battle of Buxar (1764), the British defeated the combined forces of the Nawab of Bengal, the Nawab of Awadh and the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II. This was the turning point where the company not only took on a Nawab but also directly competed with the Mughal Emperor. After this, the role of the British increased from that of traders to that of heirs of the native empire. They started taking tax collection, justice, military power and diplomacy into their own hands. All this was an extension of the process whose solid foundation had been laid by Clive’s policies and the victory at Plassey.
Clive’s legacy
The character of Robert Clive is very controversial in history. After Plassey, he and the company officials sent an unaccounted amount of money from Bengal to England. This had a negative impact on the local economy. Later, disastrous results like the famine of 1770 also emerged. Clive has often been portrayed as a hero in English history, but from the Indian point of view he is mostly remembered as a scheming colonialist. His biggest strength was tactical diplomacy and factionalism more than the army.
It became clear during Clive’s time that the Mughal emperors were now rulers in name only, and real power was shifting into the hands of the Company. Thus, Clive Mughal was one of the first people to change the political map of North India, due to which the roots of the British rule became deeper by 1857.
In this way, if we look at every sequence of historical events, we come to know that Robert Clive was the first major Englishman who went beyond the role of a mere businessman and laid the foundation of English dominance in India through wars, conspiracies and treaties, competing for power with the provincial structure of the Mughal Empire (especially the Nawab of Bengal). Therefore, when the question arises, who was the first Englishman to take on the Mughals to rule India? So looking at the historical facts and broader perspective the answer is – Robert Clive. Which practically challenged the Mughal power through the Battle of Plassey and its subsequent policies and prepared the way for the British rule.
Also read: How was the condition of Dalits during the Mughal era, what did Dr. Ambedkar say?