SURAJ - ud - DOWLA succeeded Alivardi 1756 as subandar of Bengal. On the 18th June, instigated by the Dutch and French, lie appeared before Calcutta with a large force, on which the women and children of the British residenta were sent away in a ship to a place of safety. Ile had previously manifested aversion to the English. owing to the governor of Calcutta having refused to deliver up one of the principal officers of fi nance under the nawab's late uncle, the governor of Dacca, whom the nawab had resolved to plunder. After a weak defence, the Calcutta garrison capitu lated, and 140 of them were placed at night in a guard-room scarcely 18 feet square, and 123 of them died before morning. Of those still alive many were delirious. The guard- room became known as the Black Hole of Calcutta. On 2(1 January 1757, Calcutta was retaken by a force which had been despatched from Madras under Clive and Admiral Watson, and on the 4th of February Suraj-ud-Dowla's army was surprised and defeated by Clive. Overtures were then made by the nawab, and. on the Oth February 1757 a treaty was concluded, by which he agreed not to molest the Company in the enjoyment of their privileges, to permit all goods belonging to the Company to pass freely by land or water without paying any ditties or fees, to restore the factories and plundered property, to permit the Company to fortify Calcutta and to establish a mint. War
having broken out between France and Great Britain, Clive attacked the settlement of Chan dernuggur, but Suraj-ud-Dowla furnished the French with arms and money, and was preparing to Make common cause against the.British. At this juncture a confederacy was formed among Suraj-ud-Dowla's chief officers to depose him. The British joined this confederacy., and concluded a treaty with Mir Jafer Ali Khan, and at the battle of Plessey, which was fought on the 23d June 1757, the power of Suraj-ud-Dowla was completely broken, and Jafar Ali was installed by Clive as subandar of Bengal. Suraj-tid-Dowla fled from the battle-field of Pla.ssey, on a camel, to the city of .Murshidabad, which he left in disguise, and hired a boat to take him up the river to Patna. But at Itajnialud the boatmen refused to go on farther till next day, and he concealed himself in a garden, where he was recognised in the morning and delivered to his enemies, who put him to death.