The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company

by William Dalrymple

In December 1762, just as Amyatt was about to leave Calcutta, Mir Qasim made a deft political move. After putting up with Ellis’s violence and aggression for two years, the Nawab finally concluded it was time to fight back and resist the encroachments of the Company. He decided to make a stand. Realising his officials were only rarely successful in forcing armed Company outposts to pay the due taxes and customs duties, he abolished such duties altogether, across his realm, ‘declaring that so long as he failed to levy duties from the rich, he would hold back his hand from doing so in the case of the poor’.92 In this way he deprived the English of their unfair advantage over local traders, even if it meant enormous losses for him personally, and for the solvency of his government. Shortly afterwards, on 11 March 1763, armed clashes began to break out between Mir Qasim’s men and those of the Company. There were scuffles in Dhaka and Jafarganj, where Mir Qasim’s representatives, backed now by his new army, began resisting the depredations of the Company managers, frequently facing off against their sepoy escorts; one of Mir Qasim’s officials went as far as issuing an order to execute anyone who claimed EIC protection.