Punjab

by Rajmohan Gandhi

Two days after Panipat, the British—rulers of Bengal from 1757—defeated the French in a crucial encounter at India’s southern end. Three years later, in another critical battle at Buxar in eastern India, Bengal-based British forces defeated a combination of Mughal nobles backed by Shah Alam II. One consequence of this 1764 event was that the East India Company successfully claimed the revenues of Bihar and Orissa as well. Another consequence was that the autonomous territory, west of Bihar, of Awadh, in earlier times a Mughal province, consented to British ‘protection’. The Company was moving westward. Delhi too was now in its sights though not in its hands. The Company ‘recognized’ Shah Alam II as India’s ‘emperor’ but he was only a title-holder without resources. The Marathas, still the leading Indian power despite their Panipat defeat, also recognized Shah Alam II and hoped to use him. Since Abdali seemed unwilling to occupy Delhi, it appeared that before long either the British or the Marathas would control that capital.