Company Receives Diwani of Bengal

August 12, 1765

The Mughal emperor - a prisoner in all but name - granted the East India Company the right to collect revenue from Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. A trading corporation suddenly ruled twenty million people and their harvests. London shareholders received dividends; Bengali peasants got a new landlord in Calcutta. The arrangement produced enormous wealth for the Company and devastating famine for Bengal within five years.