Monghyr Mutiny

The mutiny arose after the East India Company's governor of Bengal, Robert Clive, implemented an order to reduce the batta field allowance paid to its army officers.

The planning was carried out in secret and Clive did not learn of the impending mutiny until he received a note from Barker, via Fletcher, on 25 April stating that he had uncovered it.

Clive determined that the centre of the mutiny was Fletcher's brigade at Monghyr Fort and, on 6 May, set off with a small number of men for this post.

[1] Upon landing at Calcutta he found the military situation had been saved by the company's victory at the Battle of Buxar but the administration in a poor state.

Tax revenues from Bengal and Bihar were increased and he sought to restrict rampant corruption by forbidding company officials from accepting gifts or entering into commercial trade.

[4] The officers in the company army had previously supplemented their salaries by engaging in large scale commercial trading, at the expense of military efficiency.

The officer corps had demonstrated a lack of discipline in the disorder following the distribution of price money after the February 1756 Battle of Vijaydurg, during which a number of deaths occurred.

[7] This had originally been awarded to cover officers' expenses in the field and the responsibility for payment had transferred to Mir Jafar, who doubled the allowance, while the troops were in his service.

The double batta was retained for the Second Brigade while they were posted to active duty in the territory of the Nawab of Oudh, Shuja-ud-Daula, to deter a possible Maratha invasion.

This would cease upon their return to Allahabad, where they were permitted a full batta payment on account of the high living expenses at that post.

[9] In compensation for Bengal officers, Clive allocated them a portion of the company's profits on the salt, betel-nut and tobacco monopolies.

[11] An investigation later thought the mutiny had its origin at the Monghyr garrison where secret committees of officers, disguised as masonic lodges, met to plan the restoration of the batta.

[14] The plan was for all officers to resign their commissions en masse on 1 June 1766 if the batta order was not rescinded, though as a bargaining strategy they would agree to serve unpaid for a further two weeks to allow Clive time to meet their demands.

[12][10] Acknowledging that some officers may be dismissed from the service as a result of the action a subscription was raised among the mutineers and some of the civilians in Calcutta to pay for passage to Britain and for replacement commissions in the British Army for any such man.

[16][12] Clive first learnt of the impending mutiny by a letter from Fletcher, dated 25 April, in which he stated that the officers of his brigade had communicated their intentions to resign their commissions.

Fletcher enclosed a letter from Barker which stated that he had uncovered the impending mutiny at a court martial held after a captain had attempted to force an ensign to hand over his commission.

[10] However, Clive worried that the threatened Maratha invasion or a spread of the mutiny to his Indian regiments would compel him to reach a settlement.

[12] Clive wrote to Calcutta on 29 April to notify the company leadership of the mutiny and to request as many spare officers, cadets in training and European volunteers as could be found be sent to reinforce him.

[27] Clive gathered the few reliable officers he had to hand - his aide-de-camp John Carnac, his body guard and five others - plus a number of sepoys and marched for Monghyr on 6 May.

[26][10] En route he intercepted an express package containing the commissions of officers from Barker's brigade sent to the company leadership in Calcutta.

[32][33] They slept on the ground and the next morning Smith proposed to Fletcher that the sepoys be brought into the fort to take charge of the principal entrances.

[32] Smith's sepoys seized the signal battery overlooking the barracks which seemed to forestall the European other ranks, who had drawn arms and seemed to be making moves to join their officers.

[36] Clive and Carnac arrived at Monghyr on the morning of 15 May and immediately gave orders for a general inspection of the brigade to take place the following day.

A small number of fresh officers sent out from Calcutta reached the post and, with around a dozen more expected in the coming days, Clive felt able to leave Monghyr on 17 May to check on Smith's Brigade on the frontier.

[43] The officers dismissed were ordered to leave Calcutta and British India; two refused to do so and barricaded themselves in their rooms, they were arrested a number of days later.

Efforts to track down the civilians who had financed the mutiny proved unsuccessful; they had sent their communications by private means and often disguised as letters to ladies, which were unlikely to be intercepted and read.

[47] The court-martial heard that Fletcher may have been aware of the planned mutiny as early as December, but had not passed on this information to Clive until his letter of 25 April.

[54] Clive's private secretary, Henry Strachey, made a report on the mutiny to a secret committee of the British House of Commons, which was published publicly in 1773.

[1] Fletcher, upon his return to Britain, lobbied in parliament for his reinstatement and was posted to command the Madras Army in 1772, after Clive withdrew his opposition.