Robert Clive: Why the founder of British Indian empire slit his own throat

Economic Times

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iStock Robert Clive the first British Governor of the Bengal Presidency 18th Century
On a grey November morning in 1774, London was buzzing with a shocking story. Robert Clive, Baron Clive of Plassey, called by some the founder of Britain's Indian Empire and by others its 'most shameless plunderer', was dead.Horace Walpole, the witty politician, told friends Clive had 'cut his own throat.' Lady Mary Coke, an English noblewoman, wrote in her diary that he had 'killed himself.' Some said a razor was found by his side, others whispered about opium. The coroner's report gave no clear cause, but many believed Britain's most famous 'nabob' had ended his own life. It was, some thought, a fitting end for a man whose rise had been as ruthless as his fall.
Also Read: After Jhansi ki Rani, another queen fought the BritishRobert Clive was born in 1725 in the small Shropshire village of Styche. As a boy, he was described in books as restless, quick-tempered, and full of ambition. Local tales say he once climbed a church tower and sat on the edge, legs dangling high above the ground, showing early that he was not easily scared.
At around 19, with little to keep him in England, Clive sailed to Madras as a junior clerk for the East India Company. It was 1744, and the Company was still a trading business, not yet an empire. But India at that time was divided between rival princes and competing European powers. In this chaos, Clive's boldness, cunning, and skill for planning found their place.
By 1751, the French-backed Chanda Sahib threatened British influence in southern India. Clive, still only a junior officer, proposed seizing Arcot, a bold strike deep in enemy territory. Marching 200 British troops and 300 sepoys through monsoon rains, he took the town without resistance. For 50 days, his force held against an army ten times its size.Historian Thomas Babington Macaulay romanticised this siege, '…the commander who had to conduct the defence… had been bred as a book-keeper… After three desperate onsets, the besiegers retired… the garrison lost only five or six men.'William Pitt the Elder, Prime Minister, called him a 'heaven-born general,' a title Clive wore proudly, though he had never had formal military training.Also Read: When Bengali gym bros flexed muscles against the BritishSix years later came the event that made Clive's name, and his fortune. In 1756, Siraj-ud-Daulah, the new Nawab of Bengal, took control of Calcutta. After the 'Black Hole' incident, where many British captives died, Clive set out to retake the city.On 23 June 1757, at Plassey, Clive faced 50,000 men with only 3,000. But the real battle had been fought in secret, key Nawabi commanders, including Mir Jafar, had already been promised British gold and power. The Nawab's army broke apart before any large fight.Some in Britain called it military genius. Others saw it as plain bribery and betrayal. Either way, Bengal, the richest province in India, passed into Company control. Historians agree this was a turning point in the creation of British rule in India.Clive returned to England in 1760 with a fortune that made him one of the wealthiest men in the country, £234,000 in cash from Bengal's new ruler, plus a jagir worth £30,000 a year. He bought estates, secured a seat in Parliament, and in 1762 was made Baron Clive of Plassey. Pitt repeated his 'heaven-born general' praise.But the public mood was shifting. To many, Clive and his fellow 'nabobs' were symbols of greed. In Parliament, he was accused of plunder and corruption. His infamous defence, that he was 'astonished at my own moderation' given how much more he might have taken, only deepened his villainous image.
Also Read: Narco-colonialism: How Britain exploited Indians for its drug trade with China By 1765, Bengal's finances were collapsing under Company misrule. Clive returned, this time to consolidate rather than conquer. At the Treaty of Allahabad, he secured from the Mughal Emperor the diwani, the right to collect taxes in Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. This single stroke made the Company the true ruler of Bengal.He restructured the army, raised salaries to curb petty graft, and banned officials from accepting private gifts, not out of altruism, but to ensure the Company's monopoly on wealth. When he left in 1767, he had built the fiscal skeleton of the British Raj, a system designed to feed London's coffers at Bengal's expense.Back in England, famine in Bengal (1769–1773) stirred outrage. Critics linked it to the Company's revenue demands, and Clive was twice called before Parliament. Though exonerated in 1773, the inquiries dragged on his health and reputation. Edmund Burke and other MPs painted him as the embodiment of imperial greed.Clive's body failed him, too. He suffered from gallstones, dulled the pain with opium, and sank into depression. On 22 November 1774, he was found dead at his home in Berkeley Square. Horace Walpole told the story of the razor. Historic UK later wrote bluntly that he 'committed suicide by cutting his own throat.'Some still call Clive the 'Founder of the British Empire in India.' Others, like historian William Dalrymple, have called him 'a vicious asset-stripper.' The National Army Museum calls him 'a greedy speculator.' Perhaps, as noted in many modern reports, he was both: a man who built the foundations of Britain's Indian empire while filling his own pockets. His life's story is one of conquest without mercy, wealth without pity, and an end as dark as the means by which he rose.