Virtual Experience: Battle of Calcutta Part 2

In the summer of 1756, the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daulah, attacked the East India Company stronghold of Calcutta. The ill-prepared Company factors were quickly overwhelmed and defeated. The survivors took shelter in a Dutch fort some miles away from Calcutta while the city passed into the hands of Manikchand, Siraj-ud-Daulah’s commander. But the victory was to be short-lived. Unbeknownst to the young Nawab, a force unlike any that had ever been seen in Bengal, was forming in the East India Company’s southern stronghold of Madras and within a few months, it would retake Calcutta. Siraj himself would come very close to being taken captive. This is the story of how the East India Company took Calcutta back, a battle that would foreshadow the fateful Battle of Plassey, which was to come almost exactly a year after Siraj’s first attack.

Experience Leader: Deepanjan Ghosh