Cultural Commentary. *The Battle of Plassey was a decisive victory of the British East India Company over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies on 23 June 1757

*The Battle of Plassey was a decisive victory of the British East India Company over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies on 23 June 1757. The battle established the Company rule in Bengal which expanded over much of India for the next hundred years. The battle took place at Plassey (anglicised version of Palashi) on the banks of the Bhagirathi River, about 150 km north of Calcutta and south of

Murshidabad, then capital of Bengal. The belligerents were Nawab Siraj-ud-daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, and the British East India Company.

* Robert Clive. T he foundations of the British empire in India were, it is said, laid by Robert Clive, known to his admirers as the "conqueror of India". Clive first arrived in India in 1743 as a civil servant of the East India Company; he later transferred to the military service of the Company and returned to England in 1753, where he able to follow a comfortable life-style. But his penchant for extravagance and ostentatious displays of wealth, just as much as his electoral loss in his attempt to gain a seat in the House of Commons, opened him to the attacks of his creditors and political opponents. Meanwhile, in Bengal, where the British and the French were contesting for supremacy, the Company required the services of an able commander. Clive was eager to return to India; and soon the summons came. He arrived in India in 1756 and at once secured the British forces in Madras. He then moved to Calcutta, which had been captured by the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-daulah, and early in 1757 he recaptured Bengal. Later that year, on June 23rd, he defeated the Nawab, largely b y means of bribes, at the so-called Battle of Plassey. http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/British/Plassey.html