ABSTRACT
The political condition of Bengal at that time was extremely unstable. In the great days of the Mughal Empire provincial governors had been immediately responsible to the court at Delhi, but as the power of the Central Government declined the system of direct control broke down. Vansittart then allowed the Nawab of Bengal to get rid of his Hindu pro-British advisers and soon discovered that the nawab had made his position so strong that he could afford to defy the Company’s wishes. Iri strict legal theory the British Government could have left matters just where they were and the Company could have carried on as the nominal agent of the Delhi authorities. A main element in Robert Clive’s policy after Plassey was the maintenance in power of the nawab’s Hindu officials, very much against the wishes of the nawab himself.
