Robert Clive was born at Styche, the Clive family estate, near Market Drayton in Shropshire, on 25 September 1725 to Richard Clive and Rebecca Gaskell Clive.[1] The family had held the small estate since the time of Henry VII. The family had a lengthy history of public service: members of the family included an Irish chancellor of the exchequer under Henry VIII, and a member of the Long Parliament. Robert's father, who supplemented the estate's modest income as a lawyer, also served in Parliament for many years, representing Montgomeryshire.[2] Robert was their eldest son of thirteen children; he had seven sisters and five brothers, six of whom died in infancy.[3] Clive's father was known to have a temper, which the boy apparently inherited. For reasons that have not been documented, Clive was sent to live with his mother's sister in Manchester while still a toddler. Biographer Robert Harvey suggests that this move was made because Clive's father was busy in London trying to provide for the family.[4] Daniel Bayley, the sister's husband, reported that the boy was "out of measure addicted to fighting".[5][6] He was a regular troublemaker in the schools he was sent to (and may have been expelled from).[7] When he was older he and a gang of teenagers established a protection racket that vandalised the shops of uncooperative merchants in Market Drayton. Clive also exhibited fearlessness at an early age. He is reputed to have climbed the tower of St. Mary's Parish Church in Market Drayton and perched on a gargoyle, frightening those down below.[8] St. Mary's in Market Drayton, whose tower Clive is reputed to have climbedWhen Clive was nine his aunt died, and, after a brief stint in his father's cramped London quarters, returned to Shropshire. There he attended the Market Drayton Grammar School, where his unruly behavior (and improvement in the family's fortunes) prompted his father to send him to Merchant Taylors' School in London. His bad behavior continued, and he was then sent to a trade school in Hertfordshire to complete a basic education.[3] Despite his early lack of scholarship, in his later years he devoted himself to improving his education. He eventually developed a distinctive writing style, and a speech in the House of Commons was described by William Pitt as the most eloquent he had ever heard.[2

good info!....:)

It looks so realistic and crystal clear.simply loved this photo. Many thanks to R.B.S.I.

Thank You, Mr Tahir for making it readily available!

Nothing great about an Opium addict who committed suicide, who would not have had any success if not for the infighting in the subcontinent where the mindset is as it is till today......he would have not had any success if the people of the land stood together.....

The revolution that had entirely recast the East India Company’s position in India served only to foreshadow a much longer revolution in attitudes towards the new Empire of the East. Several distinct strands were evident within the broad patchwork of Indian issues brought before the British public after 1765, and in different ways they each illustrated the fact that the possession of a new territorial Empire represented much more than the uncomplicated extension of metropolitan influence into another sphere of overseas activity. By 1770, there was still widespread ignorance about many aspects of Indian society and culture, but informed opinion now recognized that the Company’s overseas possessions were no longer distant Imperial outposts that contributed little to the well-being of the mother country. By the beginning of the 1780s, other aspects of the British relationship with India were also being reassessed. The metropolitan uncertainties and anxieties about the Indian Empire that had been so evident during the 1770s and 1780s were gradually replaced by a general sense of optimism about the future.

The above incident followed immediately after the battle at Buxar and is also referred to as the Allahabad treaty. While the Diwani gave the Company the right to collect taxes in the region of Bengal orissa and Bihar,in return the Company paid an annual tribute of 300,000 pounds to the Emperor. A translation of the farman as reported in the Universal Magazine, London 1766. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10200233020005790&set=a.10200233016165694.197760.1161288053&type=3&theater

The Treaty of Allahabad - the document itself - as depicted above, being passed with solemn symbolism from the hands of Shah Alam II into the those of Robert Clive* - is currently on display at the British Library in London. It is tucked away in a quiet corner of the 'Mughal India: Art, Culture & Empire' exhibition - where I recently spent several long minutes gawping at it through four inches of glass. Benjamin West's marvelous painting of the scene - one of his finest works - is on permanent loan to the National Trust - and can be viewed at Powis Castle in Wales ( Clive's son married into the Herbert family - the ancestoral owners ). *Mr Murthy : Robert Clive suffered from what we might term in this day and age as ' manic depression' - hence his addiction to opium (originally perscribed to him for medicinal purposes) and his eventual suicide. Clive - famously - first attempted to take his own life as a young man, shortly after his arrival at Madras... but the pistol that he held to his head failed to fire - and we can only speculate how history might have unfolded if Clive's flint-lock had been in working order.

According to the Enc Britannica, " In 1788, however, the chief of the Rohillas (warlike Afghan tribes settled in India), Ghulām Qādir, seized Delhi and, enraged at his failure to find treasure, blinded Shah ʿĀlam. Shah ʿĀlam spent his last years under the protection of the Maratha chief Sindhia, and, after the Second Maratha War (1803–05), of the British. With power only inside his palace, he saved more than a million rupees in his treasury. He was called “King of Delhi” by the British, who issued coins bearing his name for 30 years after his death." I recall reading somewhere else that his children and he were made to dance and their women were molested by Ghulam Qadir and his troops. I think Dalrymple's 'The Last Mughal' covers this topic briefly.

There is a place in Delhi called "Andha Mughal"( Around Pulbangash) where perhaps Shah Alam lived....he was scared to go to red fort!!!

Thanks,Mr. Chatterjee for sharing this rare picture! "Facts" jaay bhar meh !

The picture is as ironical as they come, depicting a fugitive emperor in a quest for former dominions as an imperious sovereign granting the right to manage taxes of the Bengal subah to eager tradesmen. In fact, the emperor, then Prince Ali Gauhar, had offered the Deewani of Bengal (excluding Orissa and Bihar) to Clive himself six years earlier when the former had pretensions to retake the area or, at the least, to have it resume its annual tribute to Delhi. Clive had then refused, secure in the knowledge of his being the supreme military power in the region. The grant in question here was accepted in lieu of the districts of Allahabad and Kara, themselves received as a part of the settlement with Oudh. Clive also agreed to an annual payment Rs. 26 Lakh, once again defrayed in part by the Oudh deal of Rs. 50 Lakh and by the collections in Bengal. 1765 was also the year when the Nizamat, or the military and criminal administration, of the region fell into British hands after Mir Jafar's death. Deducting related expenses for such work, muscled still by the Nawab's government, the EIC could yet boast profits of 50%. It is a shame that just when the subcontinent was responsible for a quarter of manufactured goods traded the world over, political instability within it and between England and France strangled all of the prosperity. As for Clive, he was much aided by opportunistic nobles and the general use of deceit to gain the ground he did. There aren't many military exploits he could boast of. The battles of Arcot, Plassey and Buxar weren't won under his direct command. His rapacious nature towards the single minded pursuit of profit affords little to recast him other than a reckless, but shrewd, general of the Company. Considering the anarchy of the region, and it's economic potential, it wouldn't be too hard to imagine someone else filling in had his pistol fired its contents into his temple at Madras. The same, perhaps, cannot be said of Shivaji, Napoleon or Wellington who rank comfortably among the most brilliant generals in history.

Hardly ever we talk of Clive, nor, any ill of him,while referring to the oBattle of Plassey! He, to my mind , has been forgotten but not forgiven by "history"!

This what you call story telling through photos.

this was likely after the battle of buxor