Battle of Plassey

The battles of Plassey is traditionally regarded as the starting point of the British domination in India, the founding document of the British Raj. The June 23rd 1757 with the accesses of the small village of Palasî between Calcutta and Murshidâbâd, the forces of the English Compagnie of the Eastern Indies under the command of Robert Clive demolish the army of Surâj ud-Daulâ, the Dîvân of the Bengal supported by the French.

Context

In 1756, Sîrâj ud-Daulâ orders to the British, then in conflict with the French, to cease strengthening the town of Calcutta, in accordance with their agreement. The city is then the principal possession of the English Compagnie of the Eastern Indies (CAIO) in India. Sîrâj ud-Daulâ also is very irritated by Krisnadâs, the son of the civil servant Hindou of the court Râj Ballabha, which had stolen an important sum when it was in station with Dhâkâ, then had taken refuge, in Calcutta, under British protection. This ultimatum having been without effect, it takes the city the June 20th and occupies it with the fortified town of Fort William.

Robert Cleaves, a lieutenant-colonel of the CAIO then takes the head of a troop stationed with Madras and goes to the Bengal.

The battle

Cleave leads the 900 men of the 39e regiment of Infanterie and 2200 Cipaye S. Opposite him, cut off in the camp from Palasî, are approximately 50.000 men armed with heavy Artillerie. During the battle a storm of Monsoon, lasting an hour almost, soaks the men on the two sides and soaks the ground. The Indian weapons became ineffective, their powder having been insufficiently protected. When the Indian cavalry charges in the hope that the British weapons are in the same state, it meets a heavy fire.

The battle does not last more few hours, its result having been decided well before the men meet on the battle field. Indeed, Clive, which is wary of the French influence, had agreed with Mîr Jafar to offer the throne of Bengal to him when it gets rid of the young person dîvân. Also a great number of soldiers of the dîvân were bought and go prematurely, throw their weapons or turn over them against their own camp One does not count that 23 dead and 49 wounded in the British rows.

Surâj ud-Daulâ takes refuge in Murshidâbâd but it is captured soon and assassinated and Mîr Jafar seizes the capacity by paying with CAIO a sum so enormous that it empties the treasure of the dîvân which then becomes a puppet in the hands of the Company.

This inaugural battle of British Raj carries in it the germs of the strategy of conquest of the sub-continent by the CAIO, where it holds little of the promises that it makes, where it respects little many treaties which it signs ( cf the Guerres of Mysore ), where it gains many battles by buying its adversaries and uses the Désinformation ( cf the Black hole of Calcutta ).

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