Clive, Robert, Baron Clive of Plassey

Clive, Robert, Baron Clive of Plassey (1725-1774), British governor of Bengal, who was one of the founders of British rule in India.

Clive was born on September 29, 1725, near Market Drayton in England. In 1743 he accepted the position of writer, the lowest rank of clerical employee in the East India Company, and assumed his duties in the city of Madras in 1744, where he picked quarrels and once attempted suicide. The same year war broke out between France and Great Britain, and Madras was captured by the French. Clive eventually escaped and accepted a commission in the British army in 1747 as an ensign. Displaying conspicuous military ability, Clive thus began a distinguished career as one of the great British Empire builders. In 1751, with a small force of about 500 British and Indian soldiers, Clive, then a captain, captured Arcot, a stronghold of France's Indian allies 105 km (65 mi) west of Madras, compelling the French to give up their siege of the British-held town of Trichinopoly (now Tiruchirappalli). The French and their Indian allies, numbering 10,000, then laid siege to Clive's forces in Arcot. After an 11-week defence in the citadel of the town, Clive and his small band defeated the French. These and later victories broke French power in southern India and gave the British a stronghold in that region. In 1753 Clive returned to England, where he was welcomed as a hero. Having unsuccessfully stood for Parliament, he was in India again by 1756, as governor of Fort St David. In June of that year, the Indian leader Siraj-ud-Dawlah, who was the nawab of Bengal and viceroy of the region's Mughal sovereigns, captured Calcutta from the British. In January of the following year, Clive recaptured Calcutta, meeting little resistance from the nawab; they made peace the following month, but Clive began to look for a more docile replacement. By this time, war had again broken out between the French and the British, and Clive captured Chandernagore, the principal French settlement in India. The French out of the way, Clive promptly broke the peace with the nawab and on June 23, 1757, with less than 3,000 troops and with the help of a traitor within the enemy ranks, defeated Siraj-ud-Dawlah and his army of 50,000 at Plassey; this victory permanently embedded British power in India.

Having installed a more compliant nawab and secured the place of the East India Company in Bengal, Clive returned to England in 1760 and bought a seat in Parliament with the gifts and bribes he had received from the Indians. He was elevated to the Irish peerage in 1762 and knighted in 1764. The following year he returned to India as governor and commander in chief of Bengal. He ended the disorder and corruption that had developed while he was away, restored discipline to the armed forces, and reformed the civil service and the running of the Company itself. He also obtained from the Mughal emperor of India decrees giving the British East India Company control over Bengal and other key regions in India, thus establishing the empire of British India.

Ill health forced Clive to resign his office. On his return to England in 1767, the enemies he had made in India and England accused him of having used his offices in India for personal enrichment and caused Parliament to impeach him. He defended himself brilliantly, but although Parliament acquitted him of the charges in 1773, the acquittal was so qualified as to make him feel disgraced. This feeling, continued illness, and addiction to opium at length resulted in his suicide on November 22, 1774.