Siraj ud-Daulah
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Mîrzâ Mohammad Sirâjud Dawla, more popularly known as Siraj-Ud-Daulah, (1729 – July 2, 1757) was the last independent Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. The end of his reign marks the start of British East India Company rule in India.
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[edit] Early years
Siraj's father Zain Uddin was the ruler of Bihar and his mother Amina Begum was the youngest daughter of Nawab Ali Vardi Khan. Since Ali Vardi had no son, Siraj, as his grandson, became very close to him and since his childhood was seen by many as successor to the throne of Murshidabad. Accordingly, he was raised at the nawab's palace with all necessary education and training suitable for a future nawab. Young Siraj also accompanied Ali Vardi in his military ventures against the Marathas in 1746.
Ali Vardi Khan in 1752 officially declared his grandson Crown Prince and successor to the throne, creating no small amount of division in the family and the royal court.
[edit] The Nawab years
Mirza Mohammad Siraj succeeded Ali Vardi Khan as the Nawab of Bengal in April 1756 at the age of 23, and took the name Siraj-Ud-Daulah. He, as the direct political desciple of his grand father, was aware of global British interest of colonization and hence, resented British politico-military presence in Bengal.He was annoyed at the company's alleged involvement with and instigation to some of his own courtyards conspiracy to oust him. His charges against the company were mainly three-fold.First, that they strengthened the fortification around the Fort William without any intimation and approval; second, that they grossly abused the trade privileges granted to them by the Mughal rulers by which the government incurred heavy loss of customs duties; and third, that they gave shelter to his officers like Krisnadas, son of Rajballav who fled Dhaka after misappropriation of government funds.Hence, when the East India Company started further enhancement of military preparedness at Fort William in Calcutta, Siraj,as the ruler of Bengal, ask the company to stop it.As the company did not heed to his derectives, he raised his army and captured Kolkata from the British in June 1756. During this time, he is alleged to have put 146 British subjects in a 20 by 20 foot chamber, in what was later known as the Black Hole of Calcutta; only 23 were said to have survived the overnight ordeal. While some later historians have claimed that the entire incident was a figment of imagination invented by the British to belittle him, the account of this incident by one survivor - Holwell - obtained wide circulation in England and helped gain support for the East India Company's continued conquest of India in those days.
Sirajuddaula's nomination to the nawabship caused jealousy and enmity of Ghaseti Begum (eldest sister of Siraj's mother), Raja Rajballabh, mir jafar ali khan and shawkat jang (Siraj's cousin). Ghaseti Begam possessed huge wealth, which was the source of her influence and strength. Apprehending serious opposition from her, Sirajuddaula seized her wealth from Motijheel Palace and placed her in confinement. The nawab also made certain changes in high government positions giving them to his own favourites. Mir Mardan was appointed Bakshi (Paymaster of the army) in place of Mir Jafar. Mohanlal was elevated to the post of peshkar of his Dewan Khana and he exercised great influence in the administration. Eventually Siraj suppressed Shaukat Jang, governor of Purnia, who was killed in a clash.
The accession of Sirajuddaula threatened the position of the dominant section of the ruling group in Murshidabad, which was engaged in accumulation of wealth during the time of the earlier nawabs. With his assuming the reins of government, this group apprehended that he would be a danger to their continuous enjoyment of the sources of accumulation of wealth, as he was trying to raise another group to counterpoise the old one which usurped the power of the nawab to a great extent. Sirajuddaula's accession was a threat to the British also because he made it absolutely clear that unlike the previous nawabs he would not put up with the abuse of dastaks by the British and their illegal private trade. The threat came at a crucial time when the private trade of the Company's servants was facing a severe crisis.
[edit] The Battle of Plassey
After Siraj-Ud-Daulah lost Battle of Plassey to the British, a victory aided by the treachery of his former army chief Mir Jafar he escaped to Murshidabad and then to Patna by boat. He was eventually arrested by Mir Jafar's soldiers. After few days Siraj Ud Daulah, the last independent ruler of Bengal, was brutally executed on July 2, 1757 by Mohammad Ali Beg under orders from Mir Jafar.He left behind his mother Amina Begum, wife Begum Lutfunnissa, daughter Umme Zohra and brother Mirza Mehdi to mourn his tragic death.Till date he is considered to be the pioneer martyr in protecting independence in most of the history books of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
[edit] The character of Siraj-Ud-Daulah
Although proclaimed as the pioneer freedom fighter in modern India, Bangladesh and Pakistan for his opposition to the British annexation, many historians of the period tell us that he was cruel and his opposition to the British was not out of any nationalistic fervor, but an expression of his desire to strengthen his own power. In his personal arena, he was leading a reckless life during his teenage which came to the notice of his grand father. But to keep the promise he made to his dear grand father at his death bed, he gave up gambling and drinking alcohol totally after becoming the nawab. He was a fierce fighter against the Marathas and the pirates of Southern Bengal as a prince during 1740's, but his forces were later totally routed by the greatly outnumbered British.
"Siraj-ud-daula has been pictured", says the biographer of Robert Clive, "as a monster of vice, cruelty and depravity.". In 1778, Robert Orme wrote of the relationship with his maternal grandfather Ali Vardi Khan:
"Mirza Mahmud Siraj, a youth of seventeen years, had discovered the most vicious propensities, at an age when only follies are expected from princes. But the great affection which Allaverdy [Ali Vardi] had borne to the father was transferred to this son, whom he had for some years bred in his own palace; where instead of correcting the evil dispositions of his nature, he suffered them to increase by overweening indulgence: born without compassion, it was one of the amusements of Mirza Mahmud's childhood to torture birds and animals; and, taught by his minions to regard himself as of a superior order of being, his natural cruelty, hardened by habit, rendered him as insensible to the sufferings of his own species as of the brute creation [animals]: in conception he was not slow, but absurd; obstinate, sullen, and impatient of contradiction; but notwithstanding this insolent contempt of mankind, innate cowardice, the confusion of his ideas rendered him suspicious of all those who approached him, excepting his favourites, who were buffoons and profligate men, raised from menial servants to be his companions: with these he lived in every kind of intemperance and debauchery, and more especially in drinking spiritous liquors to an excess, which inflamed his passions and impaired the little understanding with which he was born. He had, however, cunning enough to carry himself with much demureness in the presence of Allaverdy, whom no one ventured to inform of his real character; for in despotic states the sovereign is always the last to hear what it concerns him most to know."
Two Muslim historians of the period wrote of him, and both made specific mention of his exceptional cruelty and arrogance.
Ghulam Husain Salim wrote:
"Owing to Siraj ud Dowla’s harshness of temper and indulgence, fear and terror had settled on the hearts of everyone to such an extent that no one among his generals of the army or the noblemen of the city was free from anxiety. Amongst his officers, whoever went to wait on Siraj ud Dowla despaired of life and honour, and whoever returned without being disgraced and ill-treated offered thanks to God. Siraj ud Dowla treated all the noblemen and generals of Mahabat Jang [Ali Vardi Khan] with ridicule and drollery, and bestowed on each some contemptuous nickname that ill-suited any of them. And whatever harsh expressions and abusive epithet came to his lips, Siraj ud Dowla uttered them unhesitatingly in the face of everyone, and no one had the boldness to breath freely in his presence."
Ghulam Husain Tabatabai had this to say about him:
"Making no distinction between vice and virtue, he carried defilement wherever he went, and, like a man alienated in his mind, he made the house of men and women of distinction the scenes of his depravity, without minding either rank or station. In a little time he became detested as Pharaoh, and people on meeting him by chance used to say, ‘God save us from him!'"
[edit] References
- Akhsaykumar Moitrayo, Sirajuddaula, Calcutta 1898
- BK Gupta, Sirajuddaulah and the East India Company, 1756-57, Leiden, 1962
- Kalikankar Datta, Sirajuddaulah, Calcutta 1971
[edit] External links
- "Riyazu-s-salatin", A History of Bengal, Ghulam Husain Salim (translated from the Persian): viewable online at the Packard Humanities Institute
- "Seir Mutaquerin", Ghulam Husain Tatabai (translated from the Persian): viewable online at the Packard Humanities Institute
