Prof S,Bain's statement - "Nawab Siraj-ud-Doula was a spoiled prince/king. He was not a leader of the grass-root people of Bengal"- reflects colonial and ahistorical viewpoint. I do not know whether he is abreast of Prof Sushil Chaudhuri's ( ex prof & HoD of history, Univ of Calcutta) research-findings some of which he narrated during his interview to a Bengali TV channel in Kolkata on the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Plassey(23 June 2007).He worked at not only archives of British East India Company but that of Dutch and French EIC in 2004-7. Besides, his treatise for general readers -Palashir ajana kahini (The Unknown Story of Palashi)- blasted the slanderous account of Siraj. K M Mohsin too endorsed the same perception.
Even the British colonial historian Scrafton who was in Bengal during those days stated that Siraj deceived none and was committed to defend his country.Even before 1752, the English EIC had thought of political domination of Bengal. Mind you, Alexander Dow , noted historian of that period, wrote, "At that time, Bengal was one of the richest, most populous and best cultivated kingdoms in the world.... We may date the commencement of decline from the day on which Bengal fell under the dominion of foreigners".
Nick Robins in another treatise The Corporation that Changed the World: How the East India Company Shaped the Modern Multinational too stated that British and French historians waged a 'veritable smear campaign against Sirajuddaula.
The British would have fostered him had he been only drunkard and a debauch. He gave up both when he was chosen the heir by Nawab Alivardy touching Quoran.
Historian Narahari Kaviraj considers Siraj as the first royal personality who fought against the establishment of British Raj in undivided Bengal.
The conspiracy and the subsequent Palashi 'revolution' was not only engineered and encouraged by the British but they tried their best till the last moment before the battle to persuade the Indian conspirators to stick to the British 'project'. The general notions that the conspiracy was 'Indian-born', that the British had no 'calculated plotting' behind it, that they had little or no role at all in the origin and/or development of the conspiracy, that it was the 'internal crisis' in Bengal which 'inevitably brought in the British' and that the British conquest of Bengal was almost 'accidental' are hardly tenable any more. The English won the victory at Palashi owing to the strength of their conspiracy leading to treason within Sirajuddaula's camp. The defeat of the nawab was political and not a military one.
K M Mohsin's From Prosperity to Decline: Eighteenth Century Bengal, in an interview to a Bengali TV channel on 23 June this year, he made very important revelations from archival work in the Uk and Holland – Dutch East India Company – he disclosed that).
The very worst of this smear campaign may be found in a book by John Zephaniah Holwell's A Genuine Narrative of the Deplorable Deaths of English Gentlemen and Others. Holwell alleged that, on 20 June 1756, after the capture of Fort William, Sirajuddaula's men forced 146 Europeans into an 18 by 14-foot room, causing the death of 123 due to suffocation. Holwell was one of the survivors of what came to be known as the Black Hole incident. Holwell, as a leader of a defeated force whose evidence is not corroborated by any independent information, could easily be considered an unreliable witness J H Little wrote in 1916 that it was a "gigantic hoax". Around the same time, Akshay Kumar Maitra , lawyer and history-scholar, proved the absurdity of so many killings , and Rabindranath Tagore praised Maitra in an article. The Black Hole myth was introduced by inspired historians in 1818, over seven decades after the incident. Among those that defended Lord Curzon's decision to build Holwell Monument in the very early years of the 19th Century were C R Wilson and S C Hill. Today's historians mostly accept Little et al ] As early as 1915, J H Little blasted the idea of the Black Hole in an article titled 'The Black Hole – The Question of Holwell's Veracity' The British have, however, kept it alive. In an introduction to a collection of essays and recollections titled Calcutta and published by Lonely Planet, Simon and Rupert Winchester once again dig it out, calling it "the best known account of barbarism in India". Indeed, stories such as that of the Black Hole incident seem to be clung to as a defence of 'un-British rule in India', fuel for the argument that the Indians were fit only to be colonised and that they deserved no better treatment than what they were given. The Black Hole incident itself is frequently presented as an alibi for the conspiracy to annex Bengal.
Kali Kinkar Dutta (in his book Sirajuddoula) and Akshay Kumar Maitreya (in a similarly titled book in Bengali) and even Rabindranath Tagore considered Sirajuddaula to be nothing short of an unflinching and gallant opponent of British colonisation. At least one British historian of Sirajuddaula's time joins them in their praise. Luke Scrafton, director of the East India Company from 1765 to 1768, wrote: "The name of Sirajuddaula stands higher in the scale of honour than does the name of Clive. He was the only one of the principal actors who did not attempt to deceive." Scrafton adds that the young man had taken an oath on the Koran at Alivardi's deathbed that he would thenceforth not touch any intoxicating liquor, and that he kept his promise. Scrafton , despite being on the pay roll of the alien company , was a bit conscientious to state that the young Nabab did not deceive anyone and was genuine towards royal commitment Or take EEIC official historian Robert Orme's views in 1778 he wrote "in conception he was not slow, but absurd; obstinate, sullen, and impatient of contradiction; but notwithstanding this insolent contempt of mankind, innate cowardice, the confusion of his ideas rendered him suspicious of all those who approached him, excepting his favourites, who were buffoons and profligate men, raised from menial servants to be his companions: with these he lived in every kind of intemperance and debauchery, and more especially in drinking spiritous liquors to an excess, which inflamed his passions and impaired the little understanding with which he was born. Chaudhury thinks, based on his research, Siraj was maligned by French and British historians, who were actually military/civilian officer-turned historians. The hint is inspired historiography
Sorry for the lengthy. In fact, I wrote on this in August 2007 issue of Himal Southasian.
I am not a Pundit/scholar unlike Prof Bain.
All I write is to draw his critical attention.
SR
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