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Internet Modern History Sourcebook
Robert Clive:
Speech in Commons on India, 1772
Clive's victory Plassey in 1757 enabled the East India Company established its rule
over large areas of India. Clive here recounts some of the consequences in a speech to the
House of Commons.
: . . Indostan was always an absolute despotic government. The inhabitants,
especially of Bengal, in inferior stations, are servile, mean, submissive, and humble. In
superior stations, they are luxurious, effeminate, tyrannical, treacherous, venal, cruel.
The country of Bengal is called, by way of distinction, the paradise of the earth. It not
only abounds with the necessaries of life to such a degree, as to furnish a great part of
India with its superfluity, but it abounds in very curious and valuable manufactures,
sufficient not only for its own use, but for the use of the whole globe. The silver of the
west and the gold of the east have for many years been pouring into that country, and
goods only have been sent out in return. This has added to the luxury and extravagance of
Bengal.
From time immemorial it has been the custom of that country, for an inferior never to
come into the presence of a superior without a present. It begins at the nabob, and ends
at the lowest man that has an inferior. The nabob has told me, that the small presents he
received amounted to 300,000 1. a year; and I can believe him; because I know that
I might have received as much during my last government. The Company's servants have ever
been accustomed to receive presents. Even before we took part in the country troubles,
when our possessions were very confined and limited, the governor and others used to
receive presents; and I will take upon me to assert, that there has not been an officer
commanding his Majesty's fleet; nor an officer commanding his Majesty's army; not a
governor, not a member of council, not any other person, civil or military, in such a
station as to have connection with the country government, who has not received presents.
With regard to Bengal, there they How in abundance indeed. Let the House figure to itself
a country consisting of 15 millions of inhabitants, a revenue of four millions sterling,
and a trade in proportion. By progressive steps the Company have become sovereigns of that
empire. Can it be supposed that their servants will refrain from advantages so obviously
resulting from their situation? The Company's servants, however, have not been the authors
of those acts of violence and oppression, of which it is the fashion to accuse them. Such
crimes are committed by the natives of the country acting as their agents and for the most
part without their knowledge. Those agents, and the banyans,' never desist, till,
according to the ministerial phrase, they have dragged their masters into the kennel; and
then the acts of violence begin. The passion for gain is as strong as the passion of love
... Let us for a moment consider the nature of the education of a young man who goes to
India. The advantages arising from the Company's service are now very generally known; and
the great object of every man is to get his son appointed a writer to Bengal; which is
usually at the age of 16. His parents and relations represent to him how certain he is of
making a fortune; that my lord such a one, and my lord such a one, acquired so much money
in such a time; and Mr. such a one, and Mr. such a one, so much in such a time. Thus are
their principles corrupted at their very setting out, and as they generally go a good many
together, they inflame one another's expectations to such a degree, in the course of the
voyage, that they fix upon a period for their return before their arrival.
Let us now take a view of one of these writers arrived in Bengal, and not worth a
groat. As soon as he lands, a banyan, worth perhaps 100,000 1. desires he may have
the honour of serving this young gentleman, at 4s. 6d. per month. The Company has provided
chambers for him, but they are not good enough;-the banyan finds better. The young man
takes a walk about the town, he observes that other writers, arrived only a year before
him, live in splendid apartments or have houses of their own, ride upon fine prancing
Arabian horses, and in palanqueens and chaises; that they keep seraglios, make
entertainments, and treat with champaigne and claret. When he returns he tells the banyan
what he has observed. The banyan assures him he may soon arrive at the same good fortune;
he furnishes him with money; he is then at his mercy. The advantages of the banyan advance
with the rank of his master, who in acquiring one fortune generally spends three. But this
is not the worst of it: he is in a state of dependence under the banyan, who commits acts
of violence and oppression, as his interest prompts him to, under the pretended sanction
and authority of the Company's servant. Hence, Sir, arises the clamour against the English
gentlemen in India. But look at them in a retired situation, when returned to England,
when they are no longer nabobs and sovereigns of the east: see if there be any thing
tyrannical in their disposition towards their inferiors: see if they are not good and
humane masters: Are they not charitable? Are they not benevolent? Are they not generous?
Are they not hospitable? If they are, thus far, not contemptible members of society, and
if in all their dealings between man and man, their conduct is strictly honourable: if, in
short, there has not yet been one character found amongst them sufficiently flagitious for
Mr. Foote to exhibit on the theatre in the Haymarket, may we not conclude, that if they
have erred, it has been because they were men, placed in situations subject to little or
no control?
Source:
From D. B. Horn and Mary Ransome, eds., English Historical Documents, 1714-1783 (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1957), pp. 809-811.
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