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| Tomb of Mir Jafar and others Jafargnijsur.wordpress.com/ |
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| House of Mir Jafar, now in ruins. Murshidabad,wikivisually.com |
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| Robert Clive and bengal ruler. /wikivisually.com |
The cemetery was originally built by Mir Jafar over an area of 3.51 acres. The atmosphere here is poignant and grim because here lie the Nawabs and their royal family members who were once part of an era marked by splendor and glory, Now, their mortal remains have turned into dust, so are their wealth, power and pride.
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Given below is a brief history of man who is tagged as a traitor by the later generation of Indians, Now, Jafar's greed and vengeance made him take the extreme step - betraying his own land to a dishonest, money-mongering British East India Company that, in the later centuries, exploited the subcontinent in every conceivable way one could imagine acting as a proxy government for the British Crown that kept its eyes closed through out the colonial era.
Mir Jafar Ali Khan Bahadur (c. 1691 – 5 February 1765), the first Nawab with support from East India company, was from the line of Najafi Nawab of Bengal. Second son of Sayyid Ahmad Najafi, he colluded with the English company and toppled the ruling Nawab of Bengal Siraj-ud-daulah, his own relative. Mir Jafar and Nawab Siraj had political and administrative differences and were not on equal terms. Nawab Siraj had several confrontations with the British company who refused to pay customs duty /taxes to the ruler and violated the trade agreement. Further, without his consent the British began to expand and fortify the fort. After the Black Hole incident (June 1756) at Ft. William, the relationship between the ruling Nawab and the British company nose-dived. The British, being diabolical and cunning, wanted Nawab Siraj to be ousted so that they could install a puppet Nawab in his place and with his help they could extract as much favors as possible. Robert Clive employed his close associates to find a few black sheep in the Nawab's family and after a long scrutiny, they targeted Mir Jafar and his cronies who were at loggerheads with Nawab Siraj-ud-dualah. At the meeting with the British, Mir Jafar and his associates agreed to be loyal to the British in their confrontation with the Nawab and in the ensuing battle between the company and Nawab Siraj. They promised that they would support them indirectly. Mir jafar's position as the chief of Nawab's Army was quite helpful in this respect. The battle of Plassey (June 1757) between the Nawab and his French aaly on one side and the British went in favor of the latter because of the timely betrayal of Mir Jafar and other army commanders on the battlefield. The horrible thing is Mir Jafar had let down his own relative for personal gain, pelf and power in favor of a foreign power. This betrayal by Mir Jafar was an 'important historical event' in World History because he was indirectly instrumental in the start of British Imperialism that affected almost every continent across the world. Had Mir Jafar not helped Robert Clive at the right moment, Clive would not have laid the foundation for the British Empire. In this respect the British owed as much to Mir Jafar as they would to Clive.
Soon after the war, as conspired by the British, Nawab Siraj was killed by his relative - Mir Qasim's son. As desired by the British Mir Jafar became the Nawab of Bengal in 1757 with military support from the British company for getting rid of unfriendly Nawab Siraj. Soon the new Nawab realized his folly of having supported the English company as the corrupt officials began making several demands from him in the form of money and jewelry Nawab Mir Jafar earned the ere of the British as he had contacts with the Dutch East India company,
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| Robert Clive, with Nawab Mir Jafar after the Battle of Plassey,/wikivisually.com |
Later, Mir Jafar's place was taken over by his son-in-law Mir Qasim who proved to the British that he was a hard nut to crack. The British failed to get some concessions from him. The Battle of Buxar was fought on 22 October 1764 between the British East India Company's army led by Hector Munro and the combined army of Mir Qasim, the Nawab of Bengal, Suja ud-dullah, the Nawab of Awadh and the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II. The victorious British company became more powerful and annexed the whole of Bengal including parts of Orissa and Bihar. With the defeat in Buxar, Mir Qasim was ceremoniously removed from the position of Nawab. Mir Jafar, being shrewd as he was, managed to regain the good will of the British; he was again installed Nawab in 1764 and held the position until his death on 17 January 1765.
Even today Mir Jafar is considered as the most despicable and selfish character in Indian history who betrayed his own country, his people and his own relatives. It was a big break for the British and they had never tuned back since the take over of Bengal. Vast revenue from Bengal, to a great extant, improved the British economy. The excess money from Bengal was used for further expansion of the British empire.
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