By Brig® Mehboob Qadir
Email: clay.potter@hotmail.com

Sometimes a small piece of land becomes a cause for years of war between nations and at the other an unintended slight towards a royal kin for terrible bloodshed for decades.Although in chivalrous times battles were invariably a one day affair but not many were as decisive and comprehensive in their effects as the one we are going to talk about which was a battle unique in its strategic effects in many ways.The Battle of Plassey was fought in June 1757 between Nawab Sirajud Daula of Bengal and the British East India Company’s Forces under Lord Clive South of Murshid Abad, the capital of united Bengal.A tiny British Force defeated a sixteen times larger Bengal Army with canons and cavalry in just under 11 hours.Not that every British soldier was a Goliath nor their commanding general Lord Clive a Hercules reincarnate, it was a sad but salutary saga of bribery,undeserved ambition, treachery and cowardice by 

Nawab’s commander in chief and his principal military and civil accomplices.Rang a bell ?

That is what we will discuss and also touch upon their uncanny similarity in most ways but the last which might eventually unfold God forbid, with our own unfortunate twist of events on the national stage, as we proceed to unveil the familiar manipulations by these power and treasure hungry characters resulting in the catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Plassey.A defeat which cost us almost a continent and 200 years of colonial slavery.It may not be in the interest of the flow of the narrative to compare our sack full of betrayals at every step of the discussion but a discerning reader would be able to easily pick up the scarlet thread.However the aim is not to discuss battle skills of the adversaries but look at the larger canvas; the great treachery practiced by the topmost pillars of the Bengal kingdom to bring about its humiliating downfall. 

Nawab Sirajud Daula had succeeded to the throne of Bengal, Bihar and Odissa just a year ago and found East India Company intrusively involved in economic and political affairs of his kingdom under the guise of a concession accorded to them by his grandfather Nawab Ali Virdi Khan.The British did not oblige and that resulted in minor military engagements, sack of British trading post in Calcutta and its retaking.It was Plassey on the banks of Hoogly River where Sirajud Daula decided to finally take on the East India Company marauders. This is where that unforgivable plot of treachery against Sirajud Daula by his own commander in chief Mir Jaffer, played out in its entire tragic ugliness. Of 50,000 troops, more than 45000 troops were held back by the traitor commanders when the battle commenced , the remaining under Sirajud Daula’s direct command could not beat trained British musket fire and were defeated after a pitched battle.Sirajud Daula escaped but a few days later was captured and murdered by Mir Jaffer’s son Miran.His remains disrespected and paraded in bazars of Murshidabad.Mir Jaffer was proclaimed the Nawab albeit under the British overlordship.He had to cough out huge war indemnity to the victorious British emptying his treasury to the last copper coin.He did not like this arrangement and soon fell out with his British mentors to his inevitable disadvantage.His secret liaisons with the Dutch upset the British who removed him unceremoniously after two and a half years replacing him by Mir Qasim and yet another puppet. There was none to shed a grieving tear for him as he had already forfeited public affection after his treachery in battle against the motherland.Traitors are never honored by the people whom they betray nor mourned.

This was a treason of epic proportions which opened the gates of undivided India for subjugation by the British crown and rule for the next 200 years.A continental event of this proportions had to invariably draw the attention of folklorists and caught the fancy of the people at large.So it did and did it in a really big way from the shores of the Indian Ocean to the peaks and valleys of Himalaya, from the tip of Kanya Kumari to the Khyber Pass.As we proceed we will pick on some of it only to show how indelibly such earthshaking events affect people’s passion for the brave and hatred for the traitors, just as we have a recent somewhat comparable lingering sentiment about watershed events of 9 th April 2022.The story of the Bengal sell out as etched in the public memory lives on as one of the most disdainful chapters of the Indian Sub Continent’s history.

So tell the story tellers of Murshidabad.Exactly 266 years ago on a hot and humid evening on 22nd Junein 1757 a secret meeting took place in a sprawling Bengal palace.It was held in the personal bedroom of the lord master.There were only three men present; the Bengali noble, his son and a ranking British officer, William Watts.This officer was fluent in local language as also Persian.He made the Bengali noble swear on Quran and over his son’s life that they would help the Brirish in battle against Siraj ud Daula as requested, in return the noble will be rewarded with power and the kingdom.The noble also extracted a promise from the officer.That done the British decided to open the battle next day regardless of the fact that the East India Company had merely 3100 men under arms whereas the Nawab had 50,000

troops, heavy guns and cavalry.It was neither superlative bravery nor drunken madness but a perfect game of premeditated deception and treachery.Siraj ud Daula led the center with 5000 troops whereas the remaining were arrayed behind him and commanded by Rai Durlabh,Mir Jaffer and Yar Lutuf Khan all the three already bought and subverted by the British.As the battle started to become critical they pulled their troops back and let the forward contingent be mauled which resulted in inevitable defeat.

It was a comprehensive conspiracy not merely by the top military commanders but civilian accomplices, rich businessmen and aspirants for the prized positions in the post war power arrangement of the Bengal

Kingdom.This is where there is an uncanny resemblance to our current power construct. Like ours Mir Jaffer felt slighted by Siraj ud Daula for his incompetence and bloated ambition who tried to reduce his clout.Yar Lutuf Khan and Rai Durlabh were the senior commanders and direct beneficiaries of Mir Jaffer’s patronage much to the regret of the other abler commanders.The Jagat Seth brothers Mehtab Chand and Swarup Chand were incorporated to bankroll expenses with the promise to compensate in future.Ummi Chand was the indispensable go between confidante.This man turned out to be the most used but the worst loser in the end and died insane, and we have our own Ummi Chands.Mir Jaffer as is usual with his ilk soon became disaffected with his British mentors’ supercilious demands who got rid of him when no more useful and installed another lacky Mir Qasim, likes of whom are always found drooling for power over the foot mats of the powerful wagging their expectant tails.Sounds quite familiar in the musical chair of CMs, PMs and quite a few others played out in our country after the notorious VoNC.They say Mir Jaffer’s palace ruins are known as the Traitor’s Palace( Ghaddar Mahal) and its main gate as Treacher’s Gate todate.While likes of Sirajud Daula and Tipu Sultan are revered even when they lost battles and were killed, Mir Jaffers ,Mir Sadiqs, Rani Jindaan and Teja Singh will for ever be despised by the people even when their conspiracies succeeded. Rani Jindaan was instrumental in dismantling Sikh empire and General Teja Singh willfully ceded Battle of Sutlej to the British which eventually led to the fall of Punjab Sikh empire.

People’s memory does not forget its heroes and villains and history always records dispassionately.The sun has gone past the equator and shadows are lengthening. The fork of history is right in front, make your choice which way to go before the dusk falls.The horizon is already beginning to become orange and birds are slowly flying back towards their perches tweeting earnestly, getting to be time to settle down for the night.