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The Battle of Buxar was fought on 23 October 1764 between the forces under the command of the
British East India Company led by Hector Munro and the combined army of Mir Qasim, the Nawab of
Bengal; Shuja-ud-Daula the Nawab of Awadh and the Mughal King Shah Alam II[3] The battle fought
at Buxar, then within the territory of Bengal, a town located on the bank of the Ganges river about
130 km west of Patna, was a decisive victory for the British East India Company.
Contents
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Battle[edit]
British troops engaged in the fighting numbered 7,072[4] comprising 857 British, 5,297
Indian sepoys and 918 Indian cavalry. The alliance army's numbers were estimated to be over
40,000. By other sources,the combined army of the Mughals, Awadh and Mir Qasim consisting of
40,000 men were defeated by British army consisting 10,000 men.
The Mughal camp was internally broken due to a quarrel between the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam
II and Shuja-ud-Daula theNawab of Awadh; Mir Qasim was reluctant to engage the British and went
off collecting tribute. The lack of basic co-ordination among the three desperate allies was
responsible for their decisive debacle.
Mirza Najaf Khan commanded the right flank of the imperial army and was the first to advance his
forces against the anticipating Hector Monroe at daybreak, the British lines quickly formed within
twenty minutes and reversed the advance of theMughals. According to the
British, Durrani and Rohilla cavalry were also present and fought during the battle in various
skirmishes. But by midday the battle was over and Shuja-ud-Daula blew up large tumbrils and three

massive magazines of gunpowder. Leaving 6,000 fellow Mughal loyalists and 133 pieces of artillery
on the battlefield.

The Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II, as a prisoner of the British East India Company, 1781

Hector Monroe divided his army into various columns and particularly pursued the Mughal Grand
Vizier Shuja-ud-Daula the Nawab of Awadh, who responded by blowing up his boat-bridge after
crossing the river, thus abandoning the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II and members of his own
regiment. Mir Qasim also fled with his 3 million rupees worth of Gemstones and later even
committed suicide. Mirza Najaf Khan reorganized formations around Shah Alam II, who retreated
and then chose to negotiate with the victorious British.
British losses are said to have been 1,847 killed and wounded, while the three Indian allies
accounted for 2,000 dead; many more were wounded. The victors captured 133 pieces of artillery,
6,000 Mughals and over 1 million rupees of cash. Immediately after the battle Hector
Monroe decided to greatly assist the Marathas, who were described as a "warlike race", well known
for their relentless and unwavering hatred towards the Mughal Empire and its Nawabs and
the Sultanate of Mysore.

Aftermath[edit]

State of the Mughal Empire in the year 1765.

The prime victim, Shah Alam II, signed the Treaty of Allahabad that secured Diwani Rights for the
Company to collect and manage the revenues of almost 100,000,000 acres (400,000 km2) of real
estate, which form parts of the modern states of West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Uttar
Pradesh, as es. Mir Qasim, who was not a general, was quietly replaced. He also received a small
share of the total land revenue, initially fixed at 2 million rupees.
The Treaty of Allahabad heralded the establishment of the rule of the East India Company in oneeighth of India proper with a single stroke. The battles of Plassey and Buxar secured a permanent
foothold for the British East India Company in the rich province of Bengal, and secured its political
ascendancy in the entire region. Buxar should be seen in conjunction with the third battle of
Panipat in January 1761 in terms of its impact on consolidating British presence in north-east India.
By the treaty of 1752, the Marathas had essentially taken over administration of all the subahs of the
Mughal empire, and had established their right to collect Chauth across these subahs. In return, they
would protect the north-west frontier of the Mughal empire from Afghan invasion. This resulted in
nine years of Maratha-Afghan struggle to establish control over the empire, and the subah of Punjab,
which was claimed by both. However, due to the Marathas' defeat at the third battle of Panipat, and
their subsequent ten-year hiatus from North Indian affairs, the British were able to establish a
foothold in North Indian affairs. Buxar was an important step in that direction.
Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula was restored to Oudh, with a subsidiary force and guarantee of defence, the
emperor Shah Alam II solaced withAllahabad and a tribute and the frontier drawn at the boundary
of Bihar. For Bengal itself the Company took a decisive step.
In return for restoring Shah Alam II to Allahabad, the Company got from him the imperial grant of the
diwani or revenue authority in Bengaland Bihar. This had hitherto been enjoyed by the nawab of
Bengal. Thus now there was a double government, the nawab retaining judicial and police functions
but the Company exercising the revenue power. The Company was acclimatised, as it were, into the
Indian scene by becoming the Mughal revenue agent for Bengal and Bihar. There was as yet no
thought of direct administration, and the revenue was collected by a Company-appointed deputynawab, Muhammad Reza Khan.

The Nawab of Bengal, Mir Qasim

But this arrangement made the British East India Company the virtual ruler of Bengal, since it
already possessed decisive military power. All that was left to the Nawab was the control of the
judicial administration. But he was later forced to hand this over to the Company in 1793. Thus the
company's control was virtually complete.
In spite of all this the East India Company was again on the verge of bankruptcy, which stirred the
British to a fresh effort at reform. On the one hand Warren Hastings was appointed with a mandate
for reform; on the other an appeal was made to the British state for a loan. The result was the
beginnings of state control of the Company and the thirteen-year governorship of Warren Hastings.
Hastings's first important work was that of an organiser. In the two and a half years before
the Regulating Act came into force he put in order the whole Bengal administration. The Indian
deputies who had collected the revenue on behalf of the Company were deposed and their places
taken by a Board of Revenue in Calcutta and English collectors in the districts. This was the real
beginning of British administration in India.
It should also be noted that when the Marathas finally did send a large force back into North India in
1771, they were able to persuade Shah Alam II to leave British protection and
enter Maratha protection. They then established Maratha regency over Delhi, which they essentially
held till their defeat in the Second Anglo-Maratha War of 1803.