The East India Company: arrival and expansion to 1857

O Level Pakistan Studies History · Cultural and historical background to the Pakistan Movement: Mughal decline and the religious thinkers. A short explanation of the idea, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid, a worked example and practice questions with answers.

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The idea

The East India Company was set up in 1600 to trade in Eastern goods such as spices and cloth. It began with trading posts, the first important one at Surat, and later held Madras, Bombay and Calcutta.

As Mughal power fell, the Company turned from trade to rule. Victory at Plassey (1757) gave it control over the Nawab of Bengal. After Buxar (1764) the emperor granted it the Diwani, the right to collect the revenue of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.

It then spread by war, by treaties called subsidiary alliances and by annexation. Sindh was taken in 1843 and the Punjab in 1849. After that the British searched for a safe frontier in the north-west.

Rules to remember

Common mistake

Do not say Plassey gave the Company the Diwani. Plassey (1757) gave it power over the Nawab; the Diwani came after Buxar (1764).

Worked example

Which event gave the Company a legal right to collect the taxes of Bengal: Plassey or Buxar?

  1. Plassey (1757) was a victory over the Nawab of Bengal. It let the Company put its own man in power, but gave no legal right from the emperor.
  2. At Buxar (1764) the Company defeated a force that included the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II.
  3. The emperor then granted the Diwani, the right to collect revenue in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.

Answer: Buxar. The Diwani that followed it made the Company the legal revenue collector of Bengal.

Practice questions

Try each one, then open the answer.

1. Under Lord Wellesley's subsidiary alliance system, what did an Indian ruler have to accept?

  1. A
    paying for British troops and giving up his foreign policy
  2. B
    the loss of his state if he died without a natural male heir
  3. C
    English in place of Persian as the language of his law courts
  4. D
    a Mughal governor sent from Delhi to supervise his government
Show answer

Answer: A. Subsidiary alliances made rulers dependent on the Company without formal annexation. Losing a state for lack of an heir was Dalhousie's Doctrine of Lapse.

2. What did the Company gain from Emperor Shah Alam II after the Battle of Buxar (1764)?

  1. A
    the throne of Delhi and the imperial title
  2. B
    control of the Punjab and the city of Peshawar
  3. C
    the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa
  4. D
    the right to appoint every Mughal provincial governor
Show answer

Answer: C. The Diwani (1765) was the right to collect the revenue of these provinces, giving the Company the wealth of Bengal. It did not take the throne of Delhi.

3. In which battle did Robert Clive defeat Siraj-ud-Daula, the Nawab of Bengal, in 1757?

  1. A
    Buxar
  2. B
    Panipat
  3. C
    Seringapatam
  4. D
    Plassey
Show answer

Answer: D. Plassey (1757) gave the Company control of Bengal through a puppet Nawab. Buxar followed in 1764.

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