Double Government in Bengal

After the battle of Buxar and the Allahabad treaty of 1765 English East India Company began to get in the administration of Bengal.

After Battle of Buxar Robert Clive became the Governor of Bengal. After getting the position of Governor of Bengal, he introduced a system in the administration of Bengal known as the ‘Double Government in Bengal’, otherwise called ‘Dual system of Administration of Bengal’.

Under this Dual System of Administration the powers of administration were completely bagged by the company without taking any responsibility, all the responsibility given to the Nawab of Bengal.

In Bengal during that period there were two parts of administration. That is, Nizamath (which refers to civil) and Diwani (which refers to revenue). The company acquired both Diwani and Nizamath right, Diwani right from Mughal Emperor and Nizamath right from the Nawab.

After acquiring the Diwani right, the company assigned Deputy Subahdar to collect revenue from the province. The company appointed Muhammad Reza Khan in Bengal and Raja Sitah Roy in Bihar as deputy Subahdar. When the company was given the right to collect revenue of Bengal to Muhammad Reza Khan, he had also the right of Nizamath. So, the company becomes the agent of Mughal Emperor to collect revenue from Bengal and Bihar.

Since, both the Nizamath and Diwani / Zamindari right controlled indirectly by the company, the company become the ruler of Bengal. During the period of Robert Clive the company began to exploit more the Bengal and Bihar provinces. So, the company never minded the welfare of the common people. The lack of responsibility of the company leads to decline the agricultural field of Bengal. It leads to the very bad condition of Bengal. Even though the conditions were very bad the company and its servants try to monopolize the trade and commerce and there by exploit Bengal and other nearest places. This was the major reason of the ‘Great Famine’ of 1770 in Bengal.

The company enjoyed as a ruler of Bengal with power and without responsibility. Since the ‘Dual System of Administration’, English East India Company got the power and Nawab had the responsibilities, the weaknesses of the administration were imposed on Nawab and its people. In theory the result was it leading to collapse of agricultural field of Bengal especially common people and farmers.