New History of the Marathas v2.c33.20

v2.c33.20

Clive, separately interviewed the various persons concerned and fixed his line of action. He met the Emperor and obtained from him for the East India Company the office of the Diwani of the three provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, that is, the exclusive power to collect the revenues and dispose of them, without the responsibility for the provincial administration and without the appearance of complete annexation. Clive put this in a solemn document and had it sanctioned by the Emperor. He similarly dealt with Shuja-ud-daula and the Nawab of Bengal and bound them in separate treaties, which formed the basis upon which the future Empire was to be gradually built up. This was indeed a clever stroke of policy quickly executed within the first week of August⁵ by which the British rulers obtained the substance of power without accepting the administrative management. The Emperor, the suzerain authority, the Wazir of Oudh and the Nawab of Bengal, who were the links of an indivisible chain, the central master and provincial servants in the traditional Mughal hierarchy, came to be permanently separated under the scheme of Clive, having nothing to do with one another and at the same time unable to stand independently on one’s own resources without the Company’s armed help for their sustenance.