The East India Company's Own Private Army & the Battle of Plassey (1757)
Military History: The British Empire
Chapter 2 · The East India Company's Own Private Army & the Battle of Plassey (1757)
A Trading Company With Soldiers
The East India Company was chartered in 1600 to trade, not to conquer. For well over a century its soldiers were mostly guards for fortified trading posts (called "factories") at Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta. That changed in the 1740s, when the War of the Austrian Succession spilled into southern India and the French and British companies began fighting each other through rival Indian princes in the Carnatic Wars.
Three Presidency Armies
The Company's forces grew up separately in its three "presidencies" — Bengal, Madras, and Bombay — each with its own army, officers, and traditions. They weren't merged into a single Indian Army until well after the 1857 Rebellion (Chapter 5).
The Sepoy
From the word sipahi (soldier). Indian infantry recruited, paid, and drilled in the European style under British officers. Sepoys, not European troops, made up the large majority of every Company army from the start.
A Lesson Learned From the French
The French governor Dupleix was the first to show, in the 1740s, that a small number of European-drilled sepoys could beat much larger traditional Indian armies. The British copied the idea and turned it against him.
The Road to Plassey
- April 1756 Siraj-ud-Daulah, aged about 23, becomes Nawab of Bengal. He objects to the Company strengthening Calcutta's fortifications without his permission and abusing its trade privileges.
- 20 June 1756 Siraj captures Calcutta. British prisoners are held overnight in a small cell in Fort William — the "Black Hole of Calcutta."
- January 1757 A relief force under Robert Clive and Admiral Charles Watson, sent from Madras, retakes Calcutta.
- March 1757 Clive and Watson capture the French settlement at Chandernagore, removing Siraj's most likely European ally.
- Spring 1757 Clive enters a secret conspiracy with Mir Jafar, Siraj's own senior commander, and the Jagat Seth banking house.
- 23 June 1757 The Battle of Plassey.
The Battle Itself
| Company (Clive) | Nawab (Siraj-ud-Daulah) | |
|---|---|---|
| Infantry | About 750 Europeans, 2,100 sepoys | About 30,000 |
| Cavalry | None to speak of | About 20,000 |
| Artillery | 8 cannon, 2 howitzers, ~100 gunners | Dozens of heavy guns (sources vary widely), plus about 50 French gunners |
| Casualties | About 22 killed, 50 wounded | About 500 killed and wounded |
On paper this was a hopeless fight for Clive — outnumbered by more than ten to one. What decided it happened in three stages.
Around midday a heavy monsoon shower swept the field. Clive's gunners covered their powder with tarpaulins; the Nawab's gunners didn't, and much of their powder was soaked. When Siraj's forces advanced afterward expecting the British guns to be silenced too, they ran into grapeshot instead.
Mir Madan, one of Siraj's few genuinely loyal commanders, led a cavalry charge and was mortally wounded by British grapeshot. Losing him shook Siraj badly, and he turned for advice to the men who were already plotting against him — who told him to pull back.
Mir Jafar commanded a large part of the Nawab's army and simply kept it out of the battle. With much of his force standing idle and his own centre withdrawing, Siraj fled. Clive's troops advanced into an army that was already breaking apart.
The Conspiracy Behind It
Mir Jafar
Siraj's commander-in-chief, promised the throne of Bengal in return for switching sides. He got it — as a Company puppet.
The Jagat Seths
Bengal's most powerful banking family, who had their own grievances with Siraj and backed the plot with money and influence.
Omichund and the Two Treaties
A merchant who threatened to expose the plot unless he was paid a huge sum. Clive had two treaties drawn up: a real one on white paper, and a fake one on red paper promising Omichund his payment. The fake was shown to him; he never received the money.
After the battle Siraj fled his capital, Murshidabad, was captured in early July, and was killed on the orders of Mir Jafar's son, Miran. Mir Jafar became Nawab, and the Company collected enormous payments from the new regime — Clive himself became one of the richest men in Britain.
Why Plassey Mattered Militarily
- 1757 The Company becomes the real power behind the throne of Bengal, one of India's richest provinces.
- 1764 At the Battle of Buxar, Company forces under Hector Munro defeat a combined army of the Nawab of Bengal, the Nawab of Awadh, and the Mughal emperor — a genuine, hard-fought battle, unlike Plassey.
- 1765 The Mughal emperor grants the Company the diwani — the right to collect Bengal's revenue — which in turn pays for an ever-larger army.
Questions to Sit With
Quick Reference — Chapter 2
- The Company had three separate presidency armies (Bengal, Madras, Bombay), mostly made up of European-drilled Indian sepoys — an approach first proven by the French under Dupleix
- Siraj-ud-Daulah took Calcutta in June 1756; the Black Hole of Calcutta's famous death toll comes from one survivor, Holwell, and is seriously disputed by modern historians
- Plassey, 23 June 1757: roughly 3,000 Company troops against about 50,000; heavy rain soaked the Nawab's powder, Mir Madan was killed, and Mir Jafar kept much of the army out of the fight
- The outcome was arranged by conspiracy — Mir Jafar, the Jagat Seths, and the two-treaty trick played on Omichund
- Buxar (1764) and the diwani (1765) turned the Company into a revenue-collecting territorial power able to pay for an ever-larger army
What's Next
Chapter 3: The Seven Years' War's Real Colonial Theaters: Quebec & the Fall of French India.