Person · French colonial governor · France
Joseph François Dupleix
Governor-general of French India from 1742, who worked out the method that decided the fate of the subcontinent: intervene in Indian succession disputes, install a claimant, and collect territory and revenue as the price. Dismissed and recalled in 1754, he died in Paris in debt.
- Date
- 1697–1763
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Confidence
- Not assessed
- Location
- 11.934, 79.830
Worth knowing
Clive learned the method from him and applied it with better financial backing at Arcot and then in Bengal. The Company's Indian empire is, in its mechanics, Dupleix's invention carried out by his opponents.
About the place
Placed at Pondicherry, the capital he governed from for twelve years and rebuilt after its first British siege. He died in France.
Connections (3)
- PrecursorPlassey (Palāśī)
Dupleix demonstrated between 1746 and 1754 that a few hundred European-trained troops could decide an Indian succession war and that the winner would pay in revenue rights. Clive watched it at Arcot, learned it, and applied it in Bengal with the Company's credit behind him — Plassey in 1757 is Dupleix's method executed by his opponents with better funding. France recalled Dupleix for the expense; Britain let Clive keep going, which is most of the difference between the two empires.
- Imperial administration ofPuducherry (Pondicherry)
Dupleix governed French India from Pondicherry for twelve years, rebuilt the town, and turned a trading station into the capital of a client system reaching from the Carnatic to Hyderabad. His recall in 1754 was a decision by directors in Paris that the political method cost more than the trade earned — a judgement the Company in London declined to make about Bengal.
- AnalogueRobert Clive
Clive learned the subsidiary-alliance method from the man he defeated. Dupleix invented it: back a claimant, lend him drilled infantry, take districts as payment. Clive applied it in Bengal with the revenues of a province rather than a company's credit behind him, which is the whole difference in outcome. The British Indian empire is, in its mechanics, Dupleix's design executed by his opponents.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Joseph François Dupleix”. Alfred Martineau, Dupleix et l’Inde française (4 vols, 1920–28); the French India records, Archives nationales d’outre-mer.
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