The Battle of Plassey

Calcutta is the birthplace of the British Empire of India. History marks the date from the Battle of Plassey, fought about seventy miles north of Calcutta, June 23d, 1757. The story of events that led up to this battle covers the whole history of the East India Company, chartered by Queen Elizabeth in 1600, transferred to the Crown under Queen Victoria in 1857. The city of Calcutta itself does not date farther back than the famous Battle of Plassey. The old fortified English factory of the East India Company, which was the nucleus of the present capital, was built upon a low marshy plain on the bank of the Hoogley river, the western branch of the delta of the Ganges, and considered to be the true outlet of that sacred river. The factory was located in the midst of a few straggling native villages, bordered on three sides by dense jungles, infested with tigers. The factory was fortified, and had a garrison of three hundred men; yet this insignificant English stronghold became very soon the depository of the rich merchandise of the valley of the Ganges, and the envy of all the native Rajahs of Bengal, in which territory it was located.

Here, then, at Calcutta, culminated the success of that small band of intelligent Englishmen who first set out for India, under the name and the protection of trade. Here they laid aside their intention of simple traders; here they mounted their guns and enrolled native soldiers, made laws, punished evil-doers, and rewarded the industrious. Here, from one step to another, they finally became the legislators and rulers of the whole country.

In 1707 the Nawab, or native governor of lower Bengal, was Jafar Khan. By birth a Brahman, but reared in Persia as a slave, he united the ability of a Brahman with the character of a fanatic. He removed his capital to Murshidabad, in the immediate neighborhood of the "abode of Kali," where the English had their factory. His successors continued to occupy his capital, but all looked on with envy at the growing trade of the East India Company. Finally, in 1756, Surajah Dowlah, grandson of Jafar Khan, succeeded as Rajah when but an impetuous youth of eighteen years. Within two months he marched with a large army upon Calcutta, ostensibly in pursuit of a member of his family who had escaped from his vengeance.

Many of the English fled down the river in their ships; the remainder, men and women, were driven at the point of the bayonet into the military jail of the English Fort William, a room about twenty feet square, with only two small iron-barred windows. This has been known ever since as the famous "Black Hole of Calcutta." Lord Macaulay has given the best description of it:

"One hundred and forty-six persons, men and women, were thrust into a dungeon twenty feet square, and the door shut ruthlessly upon them. When they realized the horrors of their position, they strove in vain to burst the door. They offered large bribes to their jailers in vain. The Nawab was asleep, and none dare wake him. Many of the unhappy sufferers went mad with despair, and fought for places at the windows, trampling each other down in their frantic efforts. The jailers in the meantime held lights to the bars and shouted with laughter at the struggles of their victims.

"At length the tumult of voices died down into low moans. The day broke. The Nawab (from which we get our word Nabob) awoke from his debauch and allowed the door to be opened. But it was some time before the soldiers could pile up the bodies of the dead to make a way for the living to crawl out; only twenty-three (out of one hundred and forty-six) were apparently alive. A ditch was dug, and the one hundred and twenty-three dead bodies were flung in and covered up." One woman survived, only to be placed in the harem of Surajah Dowlah.

The young Rajah now placed his own garrison in Fort William and forbade Englishmen to live in the neighborhood of Calcutta, even changing the name to Alinagore--"The Port of God."

When the news of the fall of Calcutta reached Madras, which belonged to the East India Company, a great cry for revenge went up, and within forty-eight hours Colonel Clive and a detachment of three thousand men, two thousand being trusted natives, were marching northward, bound for the Hoogley. A naval armament under Admiral Watson was also despatched; but under adverse winds it did not reach the Hoogley river until December.

In the meantime, Clive had reached the scene of the Black Hole, had routed the garrison of Fort William, recovered Calcutta, and stormed and sacked Hoogley, a town on the river where the naval reinforcement might reach him.

To get some idea of how this march from Madras to Calcutta was accomplished in the days before railroads, we read that each gun, or cannon, was drawn by forty yoke of oxen, and a trained elephant was behind it to push it over rough ground and up steep ascents. Calcutta retaken, the retreating army of the Rajah had to be pursued. On marched the little army of Clive to attack sixty thousand Orientals. The twelve English officers held a council with Clive, and tried to dissuade him from the attack, when the village of Plassey was reached. The Colonel weighed the arguments on both sides, then ordered the attack, and won the famous Battle of Plassey, which made the English masters of Bengal.