Sinopsis
A first-hand window into the 1757 upheaval that reshaped Bengal and British power.
Memoirs of the Revolution in Bengal, Anno Dom. 1757 by Watts, William, active 1737-1758, originally published in 1760, offers a contemporary account of the crisis around Plassey. Written amid imperial rivalry, it traces Bengal's court politics and European maneuvering. Its clear, compact narrative preserves voices, motives, and immediate consequences.
Readers encounter the volatile rise of Meer Jaffeir and Suraja Dowlat's hostility toward the English. The memoir observes alliance making, mercantile interests, and battlefield decisions with restrained, document-based clarity. Students of East India Company history and the Battle of Plassey will find a primary source that foregrounds Indian and British actors without modern overlay. The tone is judicious, factual, and focused on causes and effects.
Essential reading for colonial South Asia studies and eighteenth-century political history.
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Reseña del editor
Originally published in 1760.
The revolution in Bengal was the product of a number of unrelated causes. The imminence of the Seven Years’ War prompted the British to send out Clive with a force to Madras in 1755. Succession troubles in Bengal combined with British mercantile incompetence to produce a crisis at a moment when the French in south India were still awaiting reinforcements from France.
—Encyclopædia Britannica
EXCERPT FROM Memoirs of the Revolution in Bengal, Anno Dom. 1757
The late Revolution in Bengal is so extraordinary in its Nature, of such immediate Consequence to the East India Company, and may possibly be of such Importance to the Nation, that a short and perspicuous Relation of this memorable Transaction cannot but be acceptable to the Public. Such a Relation will give a distinct Idea of Things, as to which the World has hitherto had but confused Notions; dispose all Events relating thereto in their proper Places, so that their Motives and Consequences may be clearly understood; and supply those Chasms, that disturb the Order and destroy the Connection between the Narratives which have been written occasionally of particular Points of Fact. Besides, it will explain the Conduct of those who have been chiefly instrumental in bringing such an hazardous, as well as arduous Attempt as this to a happy Conclusion; will shew why it was thought necessary, and on what Account it was originally undertaken; the many, and some of them formidable, Obstacles that were in the Way; and how these were either gradually removed, or gloriously overcome. In a Word, when thoroughly and circumstantially explained, it will open as singular and surprizing a Scene to the View of the inquisitive and judicious Reader, as perhaps he will find in any History respecting our own Times, which, let me have Leave to say, are those that concern us most.
But previous to the Narrative, it will be expedient to give a concise Account of the Inhabitants, and the State of the Government in that Country, where this surprizing Political Catastrophe fell out; and without being well acquainted with which, these succinct Memoirs would not only be less intelligible, but, which is yet worse, would become also very liable to be misunderstood.
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