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Mîrzâ Mahmûd Sirâj ad Dawla, more popularly known as Siraj-Ud-Daulah, (1729 – July 2, 1757) was the last independent Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. The end of his reign marks the start of British East India Company rule in India.
Early years
Mahmud Siraj had at one time become impatient to succeed his maternal grandfather Ali Vardi Khan. He turned to open rebellion and besieged Patna. His co-conspirators were quickly killed off in the struggle and with characteristic lack of determination, Siraj quickly surrendered. Ali Vardi Khan forgave his errant grandson and in 1753 officially made him the successor to the throne, creating no small amount of division in the family and the royal court.
The Nawab years
Mahmud Siraj succeeded Ali Vardi Khan as the Nawab of Bengal in April 1756 at the age of 27, and took the name Siraj-Ud-Daulah. He resented British presence in Bengal and managed to capture Kolkata from the British in June 1756. During this time, he is alleged to have put 146 British subjects in a 20 by 20 foot chamber, in what is now known as the Black Hole of Calcutta; only 23 were said to have survived the overnight ordeal. The account of this incident by one survivor - Howell - obtained wide circulation in England and helped gain support for the East India Company's continued conquest of India.
After Siraj-Ud-Daulah lost Battle of Plassey to the British because of the treachery of his former army chief Mir Jafar he escaped to Murshidabad and then to Patna by boat. He was eventually arrested by Mir Jafar's soldiers. After few days Siraj Ud Daulah, the last independent ruler of Bengal, was brutally executed on July 2, 1757 by Mohammad Ali Beg under orders from Mir Jafar.
The character of Siraj-Ud-Daulah
Although proclaimed as a freedom fighter in modern India and Bangladesh for his opposition to the British, the great historians of the period - British, French and Indian - tell us that he was nothing but an opportunistic degenerate braggart. What is certain is that his opposition to the British was not out of any nationalistic fervor, merely a desire to strengthen his own power and curb the growing influence of the English.
"Siraj-ud-daula has been pictured", says the biographer of his vanquisher, Robert Clive, "as a monster of vice, cruelty and depravity.". In 1778, Robert Orme wrote of the relationship with his maternal grandfather Ali Vardi Khan:
"Mirza Mahmud Siraj, a youth of seventeen years, had discovered the most vicious propensities, at an age when only follies are expected from princes. But the great affection which Allaverdy Vardi had borne to the father was transferred to this son, whom he had for some years bred in his own palace; where instead of correcting the evil dispositions of his nature, he suffered them to increase by overweening indulgence: born without compassion, it was one of the amusements of Mirza Mahmud's childhood to torture birds and animals; and, taught by his minions to regard himself as of a superior order of being, his natural cruelty, hardened by habit, rendered him as insensible to the sufferings of his own species as of the brute creation *: in conception he was not slow, but absurd; obstinate, sullen, and impatient of contradiction; but notwithstanding this insolent contempt of mankind, innate cowardice, the confusion of his ideas rendered him suspicious of all those who approached him, excepting his favourites, who were buffoons and profligate men, raised from menial servants to be his companions: with these he lived in every kind of intemperance and debauchery, and more especially in drinking spiritous liquors to an excess, which inflamed his passions and impaired the little understanding with which he was born. He had, however, cunning enough to carry himself with much demureness in the presence of Allaverdy, whom no one ventured to inform of his real character; for in despotic states the sovereign is always the last to hear what it concerns him most to know."
Two Muslim historians of the period wrote of him, and both made specific mention of his exceptional cruelty and arrogance.
Ghulam Husain Salim wrote:
"Owing to Siraj ud Dowla’s harshness of temper and indulgence, fear and terror had settled on the hearts of everyone to such an extent that no one among his generals of the army or the noblemen of the city was free from anxiety. Amongst his officers, whoever went to wait on Siraj ud Dowla despaired of life and honour, and whoever returned without being disgraced and ill-treated offered thanks to God. Siraj ud Dowla treated all the noblemen and generals of Mahabat Jang Vardi Khan with ridicule and drollery, and bestowed on each some contemptuous nickname that ill-suited any of them. And whatever harsh expressions and abusive epithet came to his lips, Siraj ud Dowla uttered them unhesitatingly in the face of everyone, and no one had the boldness to breath freely in his presence."
Ghulam Husain Tabatabai had this to say about him:
"Making no distinction between vice and virtue, he carried defilement wherever he went, and, like a man alienated in his mind, he made the house of men and women of distinction the scenes of his depravity, without minding either rank or station. In a little time he became detested as Pharaoh, and people on meeting him by chance used to say, ‘God save us from him!'"
External links
- "Riyazu-s-salatin", A History of Bengal, Ghulam Husain Salim (translated from the Persian): viewable online at the Packard Humanities Institute
- "Seir Mutaquerin", Ghulam Husain Tatabai (translated from the Persian): viewable online at the Packard Humanities Institute
Notes
- Riyazu-s-salatin, A History of Bengal - a reference to Siraj-Ud-Daul's character may be found here
- The Seir Mutaqherin, Vol 2 - a discussion of Sirj-Ud-Daulah's character here
"Siraj Ud Daulah"