📖 PART 1: The Coming of the Europeans

Aurangzeb was the last of the powerful Mughal emperors. After his death in 1707, many Mughal governors (subadars) and big zamindars asserted their authority and established regional kingdoms, weakening the power of Delhi.

East India Company Comes East

• Mercantilism: A business enterprise that makes profit primarily through trade, buying goods cheap and selling them at higher prices. The EIC was a mercantile trading company.
• The royal charter could not prevent other European powers from entering the Eastern markets. The Portuguese were already in India (Vasco da Gama discovered the sea route in 1498). By the early 17th century, the Dutch and French had also arrived.
• The Problem: All the companies were interested in buying the exact same things: fine qualities of cotton and silk, and spices like pepper, cloves, cardamom, and cinnamon.

Fierce Competition

The urge to secure markets led to fierce battles between trading companies. Through the 17th and 18th centuries, they sank each other's ships, blockaded routes, and fortified their trading posts.

⚔️ PART 2: East India Company Begins Trade in Bengal

• The first English factory was set up on the banks of the river Hugli in 1651. Factors (company traders) operated from here.
• As trade expanded, the Company persuaded merchants and artisans to settle near the factory. By 1696, it began building a fort around the settlement (Fort William in Calcutta).
• It bribed Mughal officials to grant the Company zamindari rights over three villages, one being Kalikata (Kolkata).
• It persuaded Emperor Aurangzeb to issue a farman — a royal edict granting the Company the right to trade duty-free. Only the Company had this right, but Company officials carrying out private trade also refused to pay duty, causing massive revenue loss for Bengal.

🔥 PART 3: How Trade Led to Battles

Conflicts arose between the EIC and the Nawabs of Bengal (Murshid Quli Khan, Alivardi Khan, and Sirajuddaulah).

• The Nawabs refused to grant the Company concessions, demanded heavy tributes for the right to trade, denied it the right to mint coins, and stopped it from extending its fortifications.
• They claimed the Company was depriving the Bengal government of revenue and undermining the Nawab's authority.
• The Company, on its part, declared that the unjust demands of the local officials were ruining their trade, and that trade could flourish only if duties were removed.

The Battle of Plassey (1757)

• Sirajuddaulah asked the Company to stop meddling in his dominion, stop fortification, and pay revenues. They refused.
• He marched with 30,000 soldiers, captured the English factory at Kassimbazar, and then captured Calcutta.
• In response, Robert Clive led the Company's army against Sirajuddaulah at Plassey in 1757.
• Result: Robert Clive won the Battle of Plassey. The main reason for the defeat of the Nawab was that the forces led by Mir Jafar, one of Sirajuddaulah's commanders, never fought the battle. Clive had secured his support by promising to make him Nawab after crushing Sirajuddaulah.
• Importance: The Battle of Plassey was the first major victory the Company won in India.

The Battle of Buxar (1764)

• After Plassey, Mir Jafar was made the puppet Nawab. But he soon protested, so the Company deposed him and installed Mir Qasim in his place.
• When Mir Qasim complained, he in turn was defeated in a battle fought at Buxar (1764), and Mir Jafar was reinstated.
• In 1765, the Mughal emperor appointed the Company as the Diwan of the provinces of Bengal. The Diwani allowed the Company to use the vast revenue resources of Bengal to finance its trade and maintain troops.

👑 PART 4: Company Rule Expands

The Company rarely launched direct military attacks on an unknown territory. Instead, it used a variety of political, economic, and diplomatic methods to extend its influence:

1. Residents

After the Battle of Buxar, the Company appointed Residents in Indian states. They were political/commercial agents whose job was to serve and further EIC interests. Through them, Company officials began interfering in the internal affairs of Indian states (Deciding who would be the successor to the throne, etc).

2. Subsidiary Alliance

• They were to be protected by the Company, but had to pay for the "subsidiary forces" the Company was supposed to maintain.
• If the rulers failed to make the payment, a part of their territory was taken away as penalty. (The Nawab of Awadh and Nizam of Hyderabad lost territory this way).

3. The Doctrine of Lapse

• Many kingdoms were annexed applying this doctrine: Satara (1848), Sambalpur (1850), Udaipur (1852), Nagpur (1853), Jhansi (1854).
• Awadh was annexed in 1856 on the ground of "misgovernment" — to free the people from bad administration.

⚔️ PART 5: Wars with Marathas and Mysore

Tipu Sultan — The "Tiger of Mysore"

• Mysore had grown in strength under leaders like Haidar Ali and his son Tipu Sultan. It controlled the profitable spice trade (pepper, cardamom) on the Malabar coast.
• In 1785, Tipu Sultan stopped the export of sandalwood, pepper, and cardamom through ports of his kingdom, and formed a close relationship with the French in India, modernising his army with their help.
• The British saw Haidar and Tipu as ambitious, arrogant, and dangerous. Four Anglo-Mysore Wars were fought. The Company finally won in the Battle of Seringapatam (1799). Tipu Sultan was killed defending his capital.

War with the Marathas

• Following their defeat in the Third Battle of Panipat (1761), the Marathas were divided into many states under different chiefs (sardars) belonging to dynasties like Sindhia, Holkar, Gaikwad, and Bhonsle. They were held together under a Peshwa (Principal Minister).
• The British subdued the Marathas using a series of Anglo-Maratha Wars.
• The Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817-19) crushed Maratha power. The Peshwa was removed and sent away to Bithur near Kanpur with a pension.

🏛️ PART 6: Setting Up a New Administration

New Justice System (1772)

• Each district was to have two courts: A Criminal Court (faujdari adalat) and a Civil Court (diwani adalat).
• Maulvis and Hindu pandits interpreted Indian laws for European district collectors in civil courts. The criminal courts were still under a qazi and a mufti but under supervision of the collectors.
• NBD: To combat confusion from different interpretations of local laws by Pandits/Maulvis, a digest of Hindu laws was compiled by 11 pandits in 1775 (translated by N.B. Halhed), and a code of Muslim laws was compiled in 1778.
• Under the Regulating Act of 1773, a new Supreme Court was established in Calcutta, along with a sadar nizamat adalat (court of appeal).

The Collector

The principal figure in an Indian district became the Collector. His main job was to collect revenue/taxes and maintain law and order with the help of judges, police officers, and darogas.

The Company Army

• The Mughal army was mainly cavalry (sawars) and infantry (paidal). They didn't feel the need for a large professional infantry.
• The British army (Sepoy Army) changed this. They began recruiting peasants and training them as professional soldiers (sepoys).
• As warfare technology changed from the 1820s, the cavalry requirements of the Company's army declined (they were fighting in Burma/Egypt where soldiers needed muskets and matchlocks). The infantry regiments became more important.