CORE Key Points at a Glance

  1. 1

    British imperialism in India moved from trade to territorial power through Bengal after Plassey in 1757 and Buxar in 1764.

  2. 2

    Parliamentary control began with the Regulating Act, 1773, which created the Governor-General of Fort William in Bengal.

  3. 3

    Revenue imperialism deepened under Lord Cornwallis and Permanent Settlement in 1793, giving zamindars fixed revenue obligations.

  4. 4

    Lord Wellesley and Subsidiary Alliance converted protection into dependency; Hyderabad accepted the system in 1798.

  5. 5

    Military annexation and legal annexation met in Seringapatam in 1799 and Dalhousie's Doctrine of Lapse from 1848.

  6. 6

    The Revolt of 1857 from Meerut to Delhi turned military grievance into a wider anti-Company crisis.

  7. 7

    The Government of India Act, 1858 and Lord Canning's proclamation shifted authority from Company to Crown.

  8. 8

    Resistance was not only elite: Santhal, Indigo, Munda, Bijolia and Aauwa movements show tribal, peasant and regional opposition.

CORE Bengal as the first bridge from commerce to conquest

The Battle of Plassey on 23 June 1757 marks the first decisive political turn in Company rule because Robert Clive defeated Siraj ud-Daulah in Bengal and Mir Jafar was installed as a dependent nawab. Plassey did not create a regular empire overnight, but it gave the East India Company control over Bengal's revenue-bearing politics and made private trade, military pressure and court intrigue work together. The Battle of Plassey therefore belongs with the Bengal treasury, the Fort William interest and the shift from coastal factories to inland authority. Rajasthan's later experience with Company agents in Ajmer and Marwar shows the same pattern in another region: a commercial power became a political arbiter before it appeared as a direct ruler.

The Battle of Buxar on 22 October 1764 made the Bengal position firmer. The Company's army defeated Mir Qasim of Bengal, Shuja-ud-Daula of Awadh and the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II; the result led to the Company's diwani rights in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa in 1765. Buxar matters more than a battlefield list because it gave legal revenue authority to a corporation that still claimed to be only a trading body. The same revenue logic later entered Rajputana through tribute, loans and political agency, and Rajasthan's Aauwa and Bijolia memories grew in a world already shaped by this Company state.

PREDICTED Predicted RAS Questions

Based on PYQ trends and 2026 syllabus analysis

1 1M Arrange the following in correct chronological order: Plassey, Buxar, Regulating Act, Permanent Settlement. 1 marks · 0 words

Model Answer

The sequence is 1757 Plassey, 1764 Buxar, 1773 Regulating Act and 1793 Permanent Settlement. Option B reverses the two Bengal battles and misplaces the two administrative events. Option C begins with an Act that came after both Plassey and Buxar. Option D places the 1773 Act before the 1764 Buxar battle, which is impossible.

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