At this time India was ready to become the prize of the first conqueror
who to the dash of the soldier added the skill of the administrator. For
the forty years since the death of the emperor Aurangzeb, the power of
the Great Mogul had gradually fallen into the hands of his provincial
viceroys or _subadhars_. The three greatest of these were the nawab of
the Deccan, or south and central India, who ruled from Hyderabad, the
nawab of Bengal, whose capital was Murshidabad, and the nawab or wazir
of Oudh. The prize lay between Dupleix, who had the genius of an
administrator, or rather intriguer, but was no soldier, and Clive, the
first of a century's brilliant succession of those "soldier-politicals,"
as they are called in the East, to whom Great Britain owes the conquest
and consolidation of its greatest dependency. Clive successively
established British ascendancy against French influence in the three
great provinces under these nawabs. But his merit lies especially in the
ability and foresight with which he secured for his country, and for the
good of the natives, the richest of the three, Bengal. First, as to
Madras and the Deccan, Clive had hardly been able to commend himself to
Major Stringer Lawrence, the commander of the British troops, by his
courage and skill in several small engagements, when the peace of
Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) forced him to return to his civil duties for a
short time. An attack of the malady which so severely affected his
spirits led him to visit Bengal, where he was soon to distinguish
himself. On his return he found a contest going on between two sets of
rival claimants for the position of viceroy of the Deccan, and for that
of nawab of the Carnatic, the greatest of the subordinate states under
the Deccan. Dupleix, who took the part of the pretenders to power in
both places, was carrying all before him. The British had been weakened
by the withdrawal of a large force under Admiral Boscawen, and by the
return home, on leave, of Major Lawrence. But that officer had appointed
Clive commissary for the supply of the troops with provisions, with the
rank of captain. More than one disaster had taken place on a small
scale, when Clive drew up a plan for dividing the enemy's forces, and
offered to carry it out himself. The pretender, Chanda Sahib, had been
made nawab of the Carnatic with Dupleix's assistance, while the British
had taken up the cause of the more legitimate successor, Mahommed Ali.
Chand