SynopsisThe Battle of Plassey, fought on 23 June 1757, changed the course of Indian history forever. When the short, sharp hostilities between the forces of the nawab of Bengal, Siraj-uddaulah, and East India Company troops led by Robert Clive, an ambitious soldier of fortune, ended, Britain was on its way to becoming the dominant force in the region. The eighteenth century was a time of great political churn in the subcontinent. After the death of Emperor Aurangzeb, the Mughal empire began to slowly fracture. In the east, the nawabs of Bengal, who ruled in the name of the Mughals, took the opportunity to break free. By the middle of the century, Siraj-ud-daulah succeeded his grandfather, Alivardi Khan, to the throne of Bengal. The young nawab clashed frequently with the Company as it looked to aggressively expand and safeguard its interests. Their skirmishes led inexorably to Plassey,
a decisive battle in a mango orchard by the banks of the Bhagirathi-Hugli. But what was Plassey all about, besides a young nawab who stood in the way of a company’s business plans and a country’s dreams of conquest? Was it really a battle or was it won before it began? What were the politics of the time that permitted Plassey? Why did the British so desperately want Bengal? Who were the faces beyond a callow Siraj and a crafty Clive, the two main combatants? What are the stories behind the spurned general, the ambitious and hateful aunt, the rude and covetous cousin, the insulted banker, the grasping merchant? And how was—is—Plassey seen? By the victors and the vanquished? The colonizer and the colonized? Why does Plassey remain such a fascinating story even today?
Using multilingual sources and a multidisciplinary approach, Sudeep Chakravarti answers all these questions and a myriad others with great insight and nuance. Impeccably researched and brilliantly told, Plassey is the best account yet of one of the turning points in Indian history.
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Binding: HardBack
About the author
udeep Chakravarti began his career in journalism in 1985 at the South Asia bureau of Asian Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company. In 1988, he moved to Sunday magazine, then the second largest newsweekly in India, published by Kolkata-based Ananda Bazar Patrika Group, where he was Business Editor.
He joined India Today as Business Editor in 1991, in time to witness the kick-start to India’s economic liberalisation. Until he left in end-2002 he held a variety of positions with India Today Group, progressively as Business Editor, Senior Editor, Deputy Editor, and Executive Editor in a multi-tasking role that encompassed print, the Internet, television, and the Group’s then-nascent books division. He was also Director of the India Today Conclave, a global platform for dialogue that he blueprinted and established. After briefly consulting for the private sector, he joined Hindustan Times as Consultant Editor in mid-2003. Here, he was part of the Group’s think-tank. He acted as a bridge between the CEO and Chairperson’s offices, and editorial, marketing and advertising departments.
He has edited numerous special volumes (among them, a three-volume Millennium Series for India Today) and a book, The Other India (Books Today, 2000), and co-edited The India Today Book of Cartoons (Books Today, 2000), and The Peace Dividend: Progress for India and South Asia (Lotus Roli, 2004). Sudeep is a Professional Member of the World Future Society, a Washington D.C.-based organisation of futurists. He was earlier invited to the Club of Asia by Strategic Intelligence; and in 2004, to the Indo-German Young Leaders Forum by the BMW-Herbert Quandt Foundation. He attended Mayo College, Ajmer, Rajasthan, and St Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, where he obtained an Honours degree in History.
