Micro-history Lost in a Global Narrative? Revisiting the Grant of the Diwani to the English East India Company

On 23 October 1764, the combined forces of the Nawab of Bengal, Mir Qasim, Nawab of Awadh, Shuja ud Doula and Mughal Emperor Shah Alam were defeated in the battle of Buxar. The Emperor sent khil’at in which he himself had been robed, to Major Munroe for his victory. The Emperor also sent khil’at to Governor Vansittart and Major Carnac in Bengal. Subsequently, a firman of the Emperor dated 12 August 1765 granted to the Company the diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa as a ‘free gift’. This diwani, i.e. the right to collect revenue, was received by the then Governor of the Company, Robert Clive, in an imperial durbar held in Allahabad. This episode is seen as the first step in the rise of British empire in India. The interesting aspect of the above-mentioned episode is that at the time when the Emperor made this grant of diwani to the Company, he had no control over the provinces of Bihar, Bengal and Orissa. While Bihar and Bengal had been declared independent since the 1740s, Orissa had come to be occupied by the Marathas. The immediate implications of this grant therefore seem to be lost in the grand narrative of the rise of the British empire in India.