Butterfly Effect: The Battle of Plassey.

Almost a decade ago, I remember taking a train to a little known town in the district of Nadia in West Bengal. We were going to visit the ancestral home of my grandmother (from my mother’s side). On the way, I saw this:

The railway station of the town of Plassey

I distinctly remember my mom, who was my main source of local historical anecdotes, telling us the story of this great battle that was fought in Plassey (or Palashi, as the locals call it) that changed the course of Indian history (and the history of the world). Not many people know about this.

The Battle of Plassey, fought in 1757, was a decisive victory of the British East India company over Siraj-ud-Daulah (then nawab of Bengal) at that time. The battle helped the East India Company firmly seize control of the province of Bengal. Bengal (called Bengal Subah) at that point of time was one of the richest provinces in the world. It was richer than any European state at that time. Known as the “Paradise of Nations”, its inhabitant’s living standards and real wages were probably the highest in the world. The eastern part of Bengal was globally prominent in industries such as textile manufacturing and shipbuilding, and it was a major exporter of silk and cotton textiles, steel, saltpeter, and agricultural and industrial produce in the world. It’s capital Jahangir Nagar, today’s modern Dhaka, had a population exceeding a million people.

Map of Bengal around 1750s

It was a battle of immense consequences, yet as a military encounter it was pretty unimpressive. Siraj-ud-Daulah was merely twenty three year old when the battle was fought. The Bengal Army lost the battle mainly because Siraj’s main ally and his main general Mir Jafar Ali Khan betrayed him. A major section of their Bengal cavalry and infantry never showed up on the day of the battle severely affecting the young nawab’s morale. Mir Jafar was not the only person who defected. Yar Lutuf Khan and Rai Durlabh defected as well, pretty much reducing the Bengali force to nearly a third of the expected number. Siraj’s nemesis in the battle, on the other hand, was probably one of the best Britain had to offer. It was none other than Robert Clive — the “unstable sociopath”. [2]

That being said, Siraj-ud-Daulah was himself pretty unstable and spoilt. Apparently [3], he had a harsh temper and consistently used violent language against his advisors and generals. He was pretty well known for his wickedness and cruelty. Mir Jafar and the others who defected, probably did that out of contempt for their king.

A whopping 50000 men defected and this resulted in a complete and decisive defeat of the Bengal nawab.

The battle itself was short lived. The French artillery opened fire first, followed by the Bengali guns. The British guns returned fire. Due to the close proximity of the Bengali cavalry to the French guns, Clive’s bombardment missed the artillery but caused damage to the cavalry, forcing the nawab to pull them back for protection. When the nawab’s infantry advanced, Clive’s field guns opened fire with grapeshot along with volleys of infantry musket fire, and the Bengali troops were held back. Mir Jafar, with around one-third of the Bengali army, failed to join in the fighting, despite pleas from the nawab, and remained isolated on one flank.

The battle appeared to be heading for a stalemate when it started to rain. Clive had brought tarpaulins to keep his powder dry, but the Bengalis had no such protection. Thinking that the British guns were rendered as ineffective as his own by damp powder, the nawab ordered his cavalry to charge. However, the British guns opened fire and slaughtered many of the cavalry, killing their commander Mir Madan Khan. The nawab panicked at the loss of this valued general and ordered his forces to fall back, exposing the French artillery contingent. This was rushed by the British and captured. With the French cannon taken, the British bombarded the nawab’s positions without reply and the tide of the battle turned. The demoralized young nawab fled on a camel and was later assassinated by Mir Jafar’s men. The battle lasted for merely eleven hours.

Nevertheless, the consequences of this particular battle was monumental. This battle triggered a series of events that essentially changed the world as we know it. Lets look at some of the aftermaths of the battle:

1. This battle gave the British much needed confidence and resources that they used to completely control of Bengal. The British installed Mir Jafar as a puppet king and made him pay huge amounts of reparations to the British. The British used the money to hire a larger army and eventually take over all of Bengal. At that time Britain was already turning into a global power due to their colonization of America and Africa. But this was the first time the British were able to gain control of a land that was immensely rich and had huge resources. And this wasn’t a land of people who were “underdeveloped” without access to modern technologies. Bengal during that time was perhaps one of the most industrially developed land in the world. And British victory over Bengal wasn’t exactly a true “conquest”, and had none of the glory of say Alexander’s conquest of Persia. Granted, the British were more organized and seemed to have more capable generals (mainly because their generals were well trained, not spoilt children of generational monarchs). But this particular victory, and a lot of consequent victories were often a result of strategic manipulation and bribing the local population to exploit the immense diversity and (consequently) competing goals that different Indian factions had against one another.
2. As an aftermath of the battle, British were eventually able to gain full control of Bengal (and eventually all of India). And thus began a massive campaign of de-industrialization of Bengali Industries. And this directly contributed to the first Industrial Revolution which started in Britain because they could get the raw materials they needed from Bengal at severe concessions. Looking at the numbers, Bengal was responsible for 12.5% of the world’s GDP at that time (one of the richest province in the world). In less than hundred and fifty years it was one of the poorest provinces in the world, with a GDP of less than 1% of the world at that time.
3. Interestingly, even though the industrial revolution started in Britain due to the economic exploitation of Bengal, Bengal (and India in general) itself was never industrialized. One of the richest and one of the most technologically modern province in the world (under Mughal rule) never again regained its industrial might. Bengal was later subdivided into several smaller states. Due to improper governance, most of Bengal and India (in general) missed out on the rapid industrial development that happened all across the world in the 19th and the early 20th century.
4. Bengal gave Britain, the resources and the economic might required to accumulate a larger army and then colonize a bunch of other new states and provinces all over the world.
5. The horrible governance of British resulted in major famines in Bengal in 1770s, in the 1800s and then again in 1900s. The last major famine in Bengal during World War 2 (in 1943) resulted in an estimated 2.1–3 million, out of a population of 60.3 million, dead of starvation, malaria, and other diseases aggravated by malnutrition, population displacement, unsanitary conditions and lack of health care. The British colonial policies had bled the entire province dry.

It’s interesting that a seemingly inconsequential battle triggered a chain of events of such far reaching consequence. The first industrial revolution changed the course of modern history. The consequent victories of Britain in India and finally control over the subcontinent changed the course of Indian and British history. And it all started with a battle between an “unstable sociopath” and “a spoiled brat” in a little known town of Palashi.