The war between Mir Qasim and the company broke out in 1763. In the series of encounters that followed, Mir Qasim was worsted.

He escaped to Oudh and organised a confederacy with Nawab of Oudh and the Emperor Shah Alam II in a final bid to oust the English from Bengal.

The combined armies of the three powers numbering between 40,000 to 60,000 met an English army of 7, 072 troops commanded by Major Munro at the battle field of Bexar on 22nd October, 1764. Casualties on both sides were heavy. The English won the day; Bexar confirmed the decision of Plessey.

Now English power in Northern India became unchallengeable. The new Nawab of Bengal was their stooge, the Nawab of Oudh a grateful subordinate, the Emperor their pensioner. The whole territory up to Allahabad lay at their feet and road to Delhi open. Never after Bexar did the Nawabs of Bengal or Oudh ever challenge the superior position of the company; rather the years following witnessed the tightening of English grip over these regions.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

If the battle of Plessey had made the English a powerful factor in the politics of Bengal, the Victory of Bexar made them a great power of Northern India and contenders for the supremacy of the whole country.’ The English now faced the Afghans and Marathas as serious rivals in the final struggle for the Empire of Hindustan. If Plessey had imposed the European yoke on Bengal the victory of Bexar riveted the shackles of badge.

As G.B. Malles on puts it, ‘whether regarded as a duel between the foreigner and the native, or as an event pregnant with vast permanent consequences. Bexar takes rank amongst the most decisive battles every fought.

Not only did the victory of the English advanced the British frontier to Allahabad, but it bounded the rulers of Awadh to conqueror by ties of admiration, of gratitude, of absolute reliance and trust, ties which made them for the ninety-four years that followed the friends of his friend and enemies of his enemies’.

Thus the battle of Bexar proved to be a decisive struggle with far-reaching political consequences in the destiny of India.