Battle Of Buxar 1764

Causes

• Mir Qasim was a young, energetic and ambitious ruler. Wanting to be independent he shifted his capital to Monghyr (Munger), a place far away from He also employed foreign experts to train his army.
• Mir Qasim took a drastic step to abolish all inland duties, thus placing the Indian merchants on the same as the The English decided to overthrow him and war broke out between Mir Kasim and the Company in  1763.
• Mir Qasim escaped to Oudh (Awadh) to organise a confederacy with Shuja-ud-daula, the Nawab of Oudh and the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II in a final bid to oust the English from Bengal. The Combined armies of the three powers numbering between 40,000 to 60,000 met the English army of 7,072 troops commanded by Major Munro in the battle of Buxar on October 22, 1764.

Course/Events

• The combined armies were defeated by the Mir Qasim fled from the battle and the other two surrendered to the English.
  

  Results

• Clive was sent out to India as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the British possession in Bengal in 1765 and he made political settlements with Shuja-ud-Daula of Awadh and Emperor Shah Alam II concluding the Treaty of Allahabad (16 August 1765) which ended the Battle of Buxer.
• By the Treaty Shuja-ud-Daulah was confirmed in his possessions on the following  conditions:
• a. The Nawab surrendered Allahabad and Kara to Emperor Shah Alam;
• b. He agreed to pay Rs. 50 lakh to the Company as war indemnity;
• c. He confirmed Balwant Singh, Zamindar of Benares in full possession of his   estate;
• d. While also being forced to maintain English troops for the defence of the state.
• Fugitive Emperor Shah Alam was taken under the Company’s protection and was to reside at Allahabad where he was assigned Allahabad and Kara ceded by the Nawab of The Emperor in turn issued a firman on 12 Aug 1765 granting to the Company in perpetuity the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa in return for the Company making an annual payment of Rs. 26 lakhs to him and providing for expenses of Nizamat of said provinces which was fixed at Rs. 53  lakhs.
• The Battle of Buxar made the English virtually the masters of Bengal as it also proved their military superiority and unchallenged
• As a result of his success in Bengal, Robert Clive was appointed the first Governor General of Bengal and he consolidated the British power both in Bengal and in the Deccan.
• The Company acquired Diwani functions from Emperor Shah Alam II (12th August 1765) and Nizamat functions from Subedar of For the exercise of Diwani functions, the company appointed two Deputy Diwans, Mohammad Reza Khan for Bengal and Raja Shitab Roy for Bihar. Md. Reza Khan acted as deputy Nizam. This arrangement was known as Dual Government wherein the administration of Bengal was carried out by two heads with the Nawab of Bengal being the nominal head and the Company, as the Diwan controlled the revenue as well as police and judicial powers.

In time, the Company authorities in England stopped sending money from England to purchase Indian goods, instead they purchased goods from revenues of Bengal and sold them abroad. Clive compelled servants of the Company to sign ‘covenants’ prohibiting acceptance of presents and forbade ‘servants’ of the Company from indulging in private trade and made payment of internal duties obligatory. A Society of Trade was formed in August 1765 with monopoly of trade in salt, betelnut and tobacco, but he abolished it in January1765. Clive issued an order with effect from 1st January 1766 according to which double allowance would be paid only to officers on service outside frontiers of Bengal and Bihar.

Mir Zafar is called as Gaddar-E-Hind.