Lord Clive v. Edmund Burke: Two perspectives on British Involvement in India
Robert Clive was born in 1725 into an upper middle-class family. At the age of 18, he was sent to India as a “writer” for the East India Company. He was soon granted a commission in the military and distinguished himself after defeating the French and their Indian allies in a number of battles. After the Battle of Plassey in 1757, Clive retuned to England with a substantial fortune, hoping to secure a seat in Parliament. His bid was unsuccessful, in part because of a growing concern about the ways in which merchant and “nabobs” were using their wealth to buy political influence. After 1765, as the situation in Bengal continued to worsen economically he was sent back to Bengal as Governor General. However, suspicions about his engaging in illegal activities continue to circulat. These included his “Black Jagir” as a “present” from Mir Jafar entitling him to 30,000 pounds per anum. When he returned to England, he won his Parliamentary seat, as well as being made a count. From 1772, he spent his time defending himself and his reputation. As a member of Parliament and a peer he could only be tried in Parliament, not in the criminal courts. The trial continued for several months, with much public interest and ultimately Clive was acquitted. On November 22, 1774, he committed suicide.
By the mid 18th-century the events following the Battle ofPlassey became a topic of great public interest in England, and investment in the Company spiked. After its initial projections of profit were not met (a debate exists over price speculation in London and corruption within the Company), and the Company began to lose money, there were calls for Parliament to investigate how the EIC was run, even after Clive’s death and successive trials of other governor generals such as Hastings also occurred. However, the criticism was not limited to charges of financial impropriety. Some, such as Edmund Burke, also took issue with what they called the EIC’s and Clive’s mistreatment of the Indian population. To Burke, there were certain moral failings in the officers of the EIC which were responsible for any misconduct. Burke had earlier opposed Parliamentary intervention in the EIC’s affairs, but by the 1780s, he had begun to call for tighter regulation and the application of Western standards of authority and legality in British-held India.
Vocabulary:
Augean Stable: A reference to the myth of Hercules. For his fifth labor, Hercules was required to clean the stables of King Augeas, which held a great number of cattle. “Cleaning the Augean Stable” would be a metaphor for a very unpleasant task of cleaning up a great deal of filth, or in this case, corruption.
Duanee/Diwani: A right granted to a Nawab, allowing him to collect revenue for his lord in exchange for a percentage of the collection.
Mir Jafar: Nawab established in Bengal following Plassey in 1757. He had little or no authority and he was mostly a puppet Nawab for the East India Company.
Select Committee: Small group of men, including Clive, who managed issues in Bengal from Calcutta. A smaller group in the “Secret” committee handled sensitive political and trade items.
Court of Directors: Head of the East India Company, based in London, wielding ultimate authority over the Select Committee.
Famine of 1769-70: It is estimated that a third of the rural population of Bengal perished. Both the loss of Company income and accusations of hoarded rice stocks helped to prompt Parliament’s investigation of the EIC’s affairs.
Henry Vansittart: Clive’s successor as Governor-General of Bengal in 1760.
New Covenants: The rules and regulations Clive produced while in his second term as Governor-General of Bengal which were supposed to help create a more stable and less corrupt administration.
Writer: A clerk or secretary.
Indostan = India
Nabob = Nawab
Questions:
- What was Clive accused of and how did he respond to these accusations?
- In what ways do Burke and Clive present different arguments about what the conquest of Bengal means to the British nation?
- How does each author appeal to what they perceive to be the sympathies of their audience—look for specific phrases and page numbers.
- What are Burke’s motivations? Why do you think his viewpoints were less popular in the late eighteenth century?
- How should a historian approach a primary source such as this? What are the problems and opportunities they pose?