Impact of the highly improbable – Part 4

As said in my previous post, the decline of Mughal dynasty and finally its fall cannot be seen separately from the rise and end of British East India Trading Company which entered the soils of India in 1602. 

The British East India Trading Company was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but it ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China.  

Commonly styled the “The Honourable East India Company, and abbreviated, HEIC; the Company was colloquially referred to as John Company, and in India as “Company Bahadur”.

The East India Company traded mainly in cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, tea, and opium.

The Company long held a privileged position in relation to the British Government.  As a result, it was frequently granted special rights and privileges, including trade monopolies and exemptions.

The above does sound good for the company at the outset but it was a hidden black swan. The privilege was more of a bane than a boon for the company, though it never realized at that point of time.

The unique privilege given by the British Government to the company caused resentment amongst its competitors, who saw unfair advantage in the Company's position. Despite this resentment, the Company remained a powerful force for over 250 years.

This was how the Colonial India looked at that time. The British Indian Empire: (Source: Wikipedia)

 

This was the company’s flag after 1801 (Source: Wikipedia)

 Let us now see how the company entered India and how the Mughals never realized that their entry was the first step of discrete invasion. The invasion was not in the form of war where there was wielding of swords but it was in the form of smart “Trade”.

English traders frequently engaged in hostilities with their Dutch and Portuguese counterparts in the Indian Ocean. The Company achieved a major victory over the Portuguese in the Battle of Swally in 1612.

The Company decided to explore the feasibility of gaining a territorial foothold in mainland India, with official sanction of both countries, and launched a diplomatic mission.

In 1612, Sir Thomas Roe was instructed by James I to visit the Mughal Emperor Nuruddin Salim Jahangir (r. 1605 - 1627) to arrange for a commercial treaty which would give the Company exclusive rights to reside and build factories in Surat and other areas. In return, the Company offered to provide the Emperor with goods and rarities from the European market.

This mission was highly successful as Jahangir sent a letter to James through Sir Thomas Roe.

When he accepted the treaty for granting exclusive rights he never realized that it would change the frontiers of the empire he ruled. It was not a single Black Swan which the Mughals ignored. It was a flock which merrily entered the Mughal Empire and went ahead undisturbed to shake its foundation.

The following are some of the black swans which we can identify looking back

1.      The Company, benefiting from the imperial patronage, soon expanded its commercial trading operations. The Mughals never noticed the dangerous growth of the company as a threat.

2.      The status of the Company was further enhanced by the restoration of monarchy in England. By a series of five acts around 1670, King Charles II provisioned it with the rights to autonomous territorial acquisitions, to mint money, to command fortresses and troops and form alliances, to make war and peace, and to exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction over the acquired areas

3.      The Child’s War

Wondering what is Child’s War. The child’s war was indeed not a child’s play.

It was the oldest of wars fought by the British in the Indian Soils. It lasted for 4 years from 1686 – 1690.

Though the War itself may not be a popular one, it was a very significant black swan which was the root cause for the shift in Empire.

Who fought and who won? Why an insignificant war became so significant?

To be continued…