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| Nawob Mir Qasim in the harem.Bengal. flickr.com |
The East India Company was very keen to take complete control over Bengal and it had to cover several miles to get to the destination. Undaunted, they kept moving towards the target despite hurdles on the way which ought to be cleared with skill and tactics.With timely approach, one by one they got them out of their way.
On
the death of Sadiq Ali Khan (Mir Miran), the eldest son of Nawab Mir
Jafar, the traitor and puppet of the British, his soldiers demanded
their pay which had fallen into arrear for some years and started a
rebellion. They besieged the Nawab in the Chihil Satūn Palace, and
cut off supplies of food and water to make him come to terms with them. Now, he was in a deadly snake pit.
Mir Qasim Khan, upon knowing his father-in-law's crisis and predicament, decided to
take advantage of the opportunity knocking on his doors to come to
power. At the same time the British were waiting for the right moment
to pull Jaffer down the throne and in his place they were bent on
installing Mir Quasim who, they were sure, would toe their line.
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| Qasim tunnel,Munger, India bangladeshnews7.com |
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| MirQasim on the way to become Nawo. wikipedia.org |
Mir
Qasim Khan, in cahoots
with
Jagat
Seth
and the
English made
a few manipulations
and became the Nawob of Bengal(1760 to 1763) as
per the treaty of 1760. Qasim
showed his gratitude by way of showering lots of costly gifts on
the British;
the British got Midnapore,Chittagong and Burdwan areas to maintain the
British army for the benefit of Qasim's administration.
Having settled down and
enjoyed all the bebefits of his position as the Nawob, he decided to
pay attention to his rule. Unlike Jafer, Qasim was a talented and
smart man. The British slowly started poking their nose in very
section of the Nawob's office and frequently demading money and
costly gifts. Qasim wanted to take administrative decisions on his
own and too much interference fron the British forced him to move his
capital from Murshidabad to Munghyr so that the British would leave
him alone.
As for the British
traders not only did they violate the trade agreements but also
engaged in illegal trades which put a lot of strain on the Native
merchants who were paying heavy taxes.
He
had frequent confrontations
with the
British and refused to co-operate with them and,
now, they
realized
that Qasim won't go along with them and
he was a major road block to achieve full control over Bengal.
At last they made up their mind to get rid of him and decided to go to war with him
using some pretexts.
Ref:
wikipedia,org
murshidabad.net
.webp)
