The East India Company's Diwani: How Bengal Financed British Empire

In 1765, a single treaty changed the course of South Asian history. The East India Company acquired the diwani — the right to collect Bengal's taxes — making a trading company the de facto ruler of India's richest province. This episode unpacks the Battle of Buxar that made it possible, the puppet Nawab Najimuddin who signed it away, and the vast wealth that flowed from Murshidabad to London. We follow the 'Company Raj' through the Dual System of government, the famine of 1770 that killed millions while tax revenues were still collected in full, and the first Governor-General Warren Hastings' reforms. Along the way we meet figures like Mir Qasim, who tried to resist; Major Hector Munro, the Scottish commander at Buxar; and Shah Alam II, the Mughal emperor who was a helpless spectator. We also explore the economic machinery: the Bengal treasury, the rise of Calcutta as a colonial capital, and the silver that greased the wheels of British industrialisation. If you've ever wondered how a corporation conquered a subcontinent, this episode traces the exact moment it happened.

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