Q. The East India Company had thought that they had found an ideal puppet in Mir Kasim. Mir Kasim, however, belied the expectation of the company. Examine critically. [UPSC- 2021]

Ans:

• Mir Jafar felt restless by the exacting attitude of the English in Bengal. He failed to meet further demands of the English with an empty treasury. As he was running short of fund his interest in the Government began to decline. The people of Bengal began to despise him for his inefficiency to maintain the administration smoothly.
• The treachery of Mir Jafar and his failure to make the payments due to the Company, annoyed the English.
• Under these circumstances the English planned to look for an alternative successor who was none but Mir Kasim, the son-in-law of Mir Jafar. He promised to pay the British more than Mir Jafar.
• Vansittart, the new Governor of Calcutta, agreed to support Mir Kasim’s claim after a treaty between Mir Kasim and the Company was signed in 1760. Important features of the treaty were as follows:
  • Mir Kasim agreed to cede to the Company the districts of Burdwan, Midnapur and Chittagong.
  • The Company would get half of the share in chunam trade of Sylhet.
  • Mir Kasim agreed to pay off the outstanding dues to the Company.
  • Mir Kasim promised to pay a sum of rupees five lakh towards financing the Company’s war efforts in southern India.
  • It was agreed that Mir Kasim’s enemies were the Company’s enemies, and his friends, the Company’s friends.
  • It was agreed that tenants of the nawab’s territory would not be allowed to settle in the lands of the Company, and vice-versa.
• This treaty led East India Company to believe that they had found an ideal puppet in Mir Kasim.
• But Mir Kasim, who ruled from 1761 to 1763, was the able nawab. He was more talented, vigorous and ambitious than his father-in-law Mir Jafar. He did not appreciate the idea of being a mere puppet in the hands of the British. He always tried to remain away from their undue authority.

• After assuming power, Mir Kasim shifted the capital from Murshidabad to Munger in Bihar.
  • The move was taken to allow a safe distance from the Company at Calcutta.
• His other important steps were reorganising the bureaucracy with the men of his own choice.
• He undertook some reformation, under which there was a reduction in expenditure on administration and palaces, there was regular payment of salaries, new taxes were imposed
• In order to fortify his position against the English, he reorganized his troops and set up factories for the manufacture of arms.
• He trained his army in the western fashion and realized the arrears of the state in order to replenish his empty coffer.
• Unable to stop the misuse of dastaks, the new nawab abolished internal duties altogether, so that the Indian merchants could also enjoy the same privilege.
  • The British protested against this and insisted upon having preferential treatment as against other traders.
• In spite of several complaints of Vansittart, he did not reduce his military forces. All these measures of Mir Kasim gradually incurred displeasure of the English.
• The Nawab-Company tussle over transit duty led to the outbreak of wars between the English and Mir Kasim in 1763. The English gained successive victories in three successive battles (between June to September 1763) before the Battle of Buxar, which eventually compelled Kasim to flee to Allahabad where he met Shuja-ud-Daulah.

All these measures of Mir Kasim incurred displeasure of the English.  The English did not like this display of independence and as a retaliatory measure, again replaced him with Mir Jafar. ©selfstudyhistory.com