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23rd June, the Plassey Day

A black day in the history of betrayal

Published : Wednesday, 23 June, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 826

A black day in the history of betrayal

A black day in the history of betrayal

Today is 23rd June, the historic Plassey Day. This year marks the 264th anniversary of the Battle of Plassey. There has been a lot of emotional writing about the battle of Plassey. The amount of emotionless and objective writing is relatively low. The battle lasted only nine hours--from eight in the morning to five in the afternoon. Again, victory and defeat were decided in the last two hours. At that time, only 3,000 of Clive's troops overpowered about 50,000 of the Nawab's troops.

This war had immediate and far-reaching significance. In fact, the war was part of a deep and well-organized conspiracy. On this day in 1757, the sun of Bengal's independence set for 200 years--due to the conspiracy of local merchants, traitors and wily English traders. Nawab Sirajuddaula of Bengal, Bihar and Odisha was defeated in the battle of farce. The history of Plassey on 23 June is the history of turning the real golden Bengal into a crematorium.

After the death of Nana Alivardi Khan in 1756 On 10 April Sirajuddaula ascended the throne of Bengal-Bihar-Odisha. He was only 22 years old then. The English had a conflict with the young Nawab for various reasons. Besides, Mir Jafar and Khala Ghaseti Begum, loyal followers of Alivardi Khan, grandfather of Siraj, were longing for the throne. They communicated with the English and plotted against the Nawab. On 23 April 1757, the Calcutta Council passed a resolution in favour of dethroning the Nawab.

To implement this proposal, the English general Lord Clive appointed Umi Chand, an elite member of the royal court, as his agent. Mir Zafar, the protagonist of this conspiracy, was able to detect it and the Nawab removed him from the post of Chief of Army Staff. Mir Zafar, an expert in cunning, touched the Holy Qur'an and took an oath. The Nawab's mind melted and Mir Zafar was reinstated as the Commander-in-Chief.

On 12 June 1757, the British troops in Calcutta joined the army at Chandannagar. Leaving a small force there to defend the fort, they marched with the remaining troops on 13 June. On the way from Calcutta to Murshidabad, despite the presence of Nawab's troops at Hughli, Katwar Fort, Agradwip and Plassey, none of them blocked the way of the British force. The Nawab realized that the generals were also involved in the conspiracy. But there was nothing to do till then.

On the morning of 23rd June, the British were ready for a face-to-face battle in the desert of Plassey. The British gathered troops in the mango orchard called 'Lakshbagh'. At eight o'clock in the morning, Mir Madan suddenly attacked the British forces. Unable to withstand his onslaught, Clive took refuge in the mango orchard with his army. Clive was a little upset. Mir Madan was slowly advancing. But Mir Zafar, Yar Latif, Roy Durlav stood indifferently to where the troops had gathered. With a little help from them, Mir Madan could have forced the British to accept defeat.

When it suddenly rained in the afternoon, the ammunition of Sirajuddaula got wet. Yet the brave Mir Madan continued to fight the English. But Mir Madan died of gunshot wounds. Mir Zafar betrayed and ordered his troops to return to the camp. Taking this opportunity, the English attacked the Nawab. The battle ended in the afternoon and the Nawab's camp came under the control of the English. 7 European and 16 native soldiers were killed on the British side.

Seeing no way out, Sirajuddaula set out for Murshidabad with two thousand troops to defend the capital. But no one helped him to save the capital. On 3 July 1757, Sirajuddaula was captured from the banks of the river Mahananda and sent to the capital Murshidabad. The next day, on 4 July, another traitor, Mohammadi Beg, killed Sirajuddaula on the orders of Mir Zafar under the supervision of his son Miron. He was buried near the tomb of Nawab Alivardi Khan at Khoshbagh in Murshidabad.

Since ascending the throne, Siraj had to face constant conspiracies. Surprisingly, in the Battle, Sirajuddaula's 50,000  could not match with 3,200 enemy. Today we need to rethink the lost context of history of the battleground of Plassey.  1757 is a stigmatized chapter in the history of Bengal. However, Robert Clive wrote in his autobiography about the Battle, "If the locals wanted to resist the British that day, they could have killed them with sticks and brickbats." Their political awareness was unimaginably low.

What a terrible fate befell the whole nation in the battle of Plassey! A few hours of farce took away the freedom of the whole nation. When people understood the implications of the Battle of Plassey, they had nothing to do. Sirajuddaula never betrayed the people of his country under any circumstances. He never voluntarily sold his homeland. He was the only main protagonist on the tragic stage in the desert of Plassey. Sirajuddaula was a shining example of patriotism, the last symbol of Bengal's independence. History has not forgiven any of those who betrayed the country, and the conspirators suffered tragic consequences.

23 June is a day of stigma in our national life as well as a day of learning. We had to pay the price with 200 years of slavery. In the end, freedom is the greatest thing in the country Resources. Patriotism is the biggest deposit of the country. This fact must be remembered by every citizen in every sphere of life. Everyone must love the country from everyone's position. And after the Plassey disaster, the exploited and deprived class did not stop struggle for freedom even for a day.

That is why the British authorities considered the common people as their only opponents. As a result, the British were forced to roll up their sleeves after two hundred years of struggle. After the liberation of the Indian Subcontinent from British colonial rule, two new independent states, Pakistan and India, were born. Following this, Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation in 1971. On the historic Plassey Day, we pay our deep respects to the last Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daulah, and his loyal patriot warriors.
The writer is editor and publisher,
Daily Shastho tathya; health
adviser, Central Committee of the
Human Rights Review Society











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