Robert Clive

The Lord Clive
Clive in military uniform c. 1770s
Governor of the Presidency of Fort William
In office
1757–1760
Preceded byRoger Drake
as President
Succeeded byHenry Vansittart
In office
1764–1767
Preceded byHenry Vansittart
Succeeded byHarry Verelst
Personal details
Born(1725-09-29)29 September 1725
Styche, Shropshire, England
Died22 November 1774(1774-11-22) (aged 49)
London, England
Spouse
(m. 1753)
Children9, including Edward
Alma materMerchant Taylors' School
NicknameClive of India
Military service
Branch/serviceBengal Army
Years of service1746–1774
RankMajor-general
UnitBritish East India Company
CommandsCommander-in-Chief of India
Battles/warsWar of the Austrian Succession
Battle of Madras
Siege of Cuddalore
Siege of Pondicherry
Tanjore Expedition
Second Carnatic War
Siege of Trichinopoly
Siege of Arcot
Battle of Arnee
Battle of Chingleput
Seven Years' War
Battle of Vijaydurg
Battle of Chandannagar
Battle of Plassey
Map of India in 1765, showing the territory administered by the East India Company (pink): Bengal and the Northern Circars, during the time of Clive.

Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, KB, FRS (29 September 1725 – 22 November 1774), also known as Clive of India,[1][2][3] was the first British Governor of the Bengal Presidency. Clive has been widely credited for laying the foundation of the British East India Company (EIC) rule in Bengal.[4][5][6][7][8][9] He began as a writer (the term used then in India for an office clerk) for the EIC in 1744 and established Company rule in Bengal by winning the Battle of Plassey in 1757.[10] In return for supporting the Nawab Mir Jafar as ruler of Bengal, Clive was guaranteed a jagir of £30,000 (equivalent to £5,100,000 in 2023) per year which was the rent the EIC would otherwise pay to the Nawab for their tax-farming concession. When Clive left India in January 1767 he had a fortune of £180,000 (equivalent to £30,500,000 in 2023) which he remitted through the Dutch East India Company.[11][12]

Blocking impending French mastery of India, Clive improvised a 1751 military expedition that ultimately enabled the EIC to adopt the French strategy of indirect rule via puppet government. Hired by the EIC to return (1755) to India, Clive conspired to secure the company's trade interests by overthrowing the ruler of Bengal, the richest state in India. Back in England from 1760 to 1765, he used the wealth accumulated from India to secure (1762) an Irish barony from the then Whig PM, Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, and a seat for himself in Parliament, via Henry Herbert, 1st Earl of Powis, representing the Whigs in Shrewsbury, Shropshire (1761–1774), as he had previously in Mitchell, Cornwall (1754–1755).[13][14]

Clive's actions on behalf of the EIC have made him one of Britain's most controversial colonial figures. His achievements included checking French imperialist ambitions on the Coromandel Coast and establishing EIC control over Bengal, thereby furthering the establishment of the British Raj, though he worked only as an agent of the East India Company, not of the British government. Vilified by his political rivals in Britain, he went on trial (1772 and 1773) before Parliament, where he was absolved from every charge. Historians have criticised Clive's management of Bengal during his tenure with the EIC, in particular regarding responsibility in contributing to the Great Bengal Famine of 1770, which killed between one and ten million people.

  1. ^ G. A. Henty (1 March 2012). With Clive in India: Or, The Beginnings of an Empire. The Floating Press. ISBN 978-1-77545-628-5. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  2. ^ John Basil Watney (1974). Clive of India. Saxon House. ISBN 9780347000086. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  3. ^ "Hundreds sign petition to remove 'Clive of India' statue in UK". India Today. 9 June 2020. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  4. ^ He "was celebrated in so many subsequent histories as the founder of 'British India.'" Emma Rothschild, The Inner Life of Empires: An Eighteenth-Century History (Princeton UP, 2011) p. 45.
  5. ^ C. Brad Faught, Clive: Founder of British India (2013)
  6. ^ Lord Clive: The Founder of the British Empire in India, a Drama in Five Acts. St. Joseph's Industrial School Press. 1913.
  7. ^ Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India. Macmillan. 12 August 2000. ISBN 9780312263829.
  8. ^ "Robert Clive".
  9. ^ "Robert Clive (1725–74) | Statue by John Tweed, 1912".
  10. ^ Sibree, Bron (19 September 2019). "The Anarchy: how the East India Company looted India, and became too big to fail, explored by William Dalrymple". Post Magazine (Book review).
  11. ^ Clive of India, by John Watney, published 1974, p.149
  12. ^ Spear, T.G Percival (1 March 2023). "Robert Clive - Clive's Administrative Achievements".
  13. ^ "CLIVE, Robert (1725–74), of Styche Hall, nr. Market Drayton, Salop; subsequently of Walcot Park, Salop; Claremont, Surr.; and Oakley Park, Salop". The History of Parliament.
  14. ^ "Robert Clive – Biography, papers and letters written by him". britishonlinearchives.co.uk. British Onlive Archives. Archived from the original on 9 January 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2017.