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<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{short description|18th-century Nawab of Bengal}}<br />
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{{Use dmy dates}}<br />
{{Infobox noble<br />
| name = Mīr Qasim<br />
| native_name = মীর কাশিম<br />
| titletext = <br />
| more = <br />
| image = Mir Qasim.jpg<br />
| alt = <br />
| caption = <br />
| succession = [[Nawabs of Bengal|Nawab Nazim of Bengal and Bihar]]<br />
| reign = 20 October 1760 – 7 July 1763 (Declared deposed by the [[East India Company]]){{citation needed|date=June 2020}}<br />
| predecessor = [[Mir Jafar]]<br />
| successor = [[Mir Jafar]]<br />
| death_date = {{Death date|df=yes|1777|05|08}}<br />
| death_place = Kotwal near [[Delhi]]<br />
| spouse = Nawab Fatima Begum Sahiba, daughter of [[Mir Jafar]] and Shah Khanum<br />
| issue = {{startplainlist}}<br />
* Mirza Ghulam Uraiz Ja'afari<br />
* Mirza Muhammad Baqir ul-Husain<br />
* Nawab Muhammad Aziz Khan Bahadur<br />
* Nawab Badr ud-din Ali Khan Bahadur<br />
{{endplainlist}}<br />
| full name = Mīr Muhqammad qasim Ali khan<br />
| noble family =Najafi<br />
| father = Mir Razi Khan<br />
| image_size = <br />
| module = {{Infobox military person<br />
| embed = yes<br />
| allegiance = [[Mughal Empire]]<br />
| branch = [[Nawab of Bengal]]<br />
| rank = [[Subedar]], [[Nawab]]<br />
| battles = [[Bengal War]] <br /> [[Battle of Buxar]]<br />
}}<br />
}}<br />
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'''Mir Qasim''' ({{lang-bn|মীর কাশিম}}; died 8 May 1777) was the [[Nawab of Bengal]] from 1760 to 1763. He was installed as Nawab with the support of the [[East India Company|British East India Company]], replacing [[Mir Jafar]], his father-in-law, who had himself been supported earlier by the East India Company after his role in winning the [[Battle of Plassey]] for the British. However, Mir Jafar eventually ran into disputes with the East India Company and attempted to form an alliance with the [[Dutch East India Company]] instead. The British eventually defeated the Dutch at [[Battle of Chinsura|Chinsura]] and overthrew Mir Jafar, replacing him with Mir Qasim.<ref name="Banglapedia">{{cite book |last=Shah |first=Mohammad |year=2012 |chapter=Mir Qasim |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Mir_Qasim |editor1-last=Islam |editor1-first=Sirajul |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam |editor2-last=Jamal |editor2-first=Ahmed A. |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |edition=Second |publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bangladesh]]}}</ref> Qasim later fell out with the British and fought against them at [[Battle of Buxar|Buxar]]. His defeat has been suggested as a key reason in the British becoming the dominant power in large parts of [[North India|North]] and [[East India]].<ref>{{cite book |last=McLynn |first=Frank |title=1759: The Year Britain Became Master of the World |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7bncduYFrVYC&pg=PA389 |publisher=Grove Press |page=389 |isbn=978-0-8021-4228-3}}</ref><br />
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==Early life and family==<br />
Mir Syed Qasim was the son of Mir Muhammad Razi Khan, and claimed descent from [[Ali al-Ridha]].{{Citation needed}} His paternal grandfather, Sayyid Husayn Ridhwi, entered the [[Mughal Empire]] during the reign of [[Aurangzeb]], who married him to the daughter of Mir Hadi (Sheikh Sulayman Fazail). Ridhwi was conferred the title of Imtiaz Khan, and made the ''Waqia-navis'' (Interior Minister) and subsequently the [[Dewan]] of [[Bihar]]. Qasim's grandfather also wrote [[Persian poetry]] under the [[pen name]] of ''Khalis'', and a lengthy ''[[Diwan (poetry)|diwan]]'' is attributed to him.<ref>{{cite journal|page=177|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.280586/page/n199/mode/2up|journal=The Journal of the Bihar Research Society|volume=32|year=1946|publisher=Bihar Research Society|title=Bihar in the time of Aurangzeb|author=[[Syed Hasan Askari|Askari, Syed Hasan]]}}</ref><br />
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Qasim was married to Fatima Begum, a daughter of [[Mir Jafar]] and Shah Khanum, and a granddaughter of Nawab [[Alivardi Khan]] of Bengal.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Murshidabad Guide: A Brief Historical Survey of Murshidabad, from 1704 to 1969|page=27|author=Ali Khan, Syed Muhammad Reza|year=1975|publisher=Shaykh Pear Mohammed}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=From Plassey to Pakistan: The Family History of Iskander Mirza, the First President of Pakistan|year=2002|author=Mirza, Humayun|publisher=[[University Press of America]]|isbn=9780761823490}}</ref> Prior to becoming the [[Nawab of Bengal]], he served as the [[Faujdar]] of [[Rangpur Division|Rangpur]] for roughly two decades.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Proceedings|page=332|publisher=[[Indian History Congress]]|title=Note on the northern frontier of Bengal from Murshid Kuli Khan to Warren Hastings|year=1970|volume=31|author=Majumdar, A. B.}}</ref><br />
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== Life ==<br />
[[File:The Navab's arrival before Clive's position.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The Nawab's arrival before Clive's position.]]<br />
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Upon ascending the throne, Mir Qasim rewarded the East India Company with lavish gifts.He also granted it the right to collect revenue of the districts of [[Burdwan]],[[Midnapore]] and [[Chittagong]].{{Citation needed}} However, Qasim soon ran into disputes with the Company over trade issues, as they objected to Qasim's attempt to levy [[Tariff|import and export tariffs]] on their goods. In particular, they objected to a 9% [[Duty (economics)|duty]] imposed of all foreign traders. The relationship between Qasim and the company slowly deteriorated, and he shifted his capital from [[Murshidabad]] to [[Munger]] in present-day [[Bihar]] where he raised an army, financing his new troops by streamlining tax collection.<ref name="Banglapedia" /><br />
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Qasim vigorously opposed the East India Company's position that their Mughal license (''a [[Dastak (trade permit)|dastak]]'') meant that they could trade without paying taxes (other local merchants with ''dastaks'' were required to pay up to 40% of their revenue as tax). Frustrated at the British refusal to pay these taxes, Mir Qasim abolished taxes on the local traders as well. This upset the advantage that the European traders had been enjoying so far, and hostilities built up. Mir Qasim invaded the Company offices in [[Patna]] in 1763, killing several Europeans including the Resident. Mir Qasim allied with [[Shuja-ud-Daula]] of [[Avadh]] and [[Shah Alam II]], the incumbent [[Mughal Empire|Mughal emperor]] against the British. However, their combined forces were defeated in the [[Battle of Buxar]] in 1764.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fDxyDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA90 |title=Through The Ages History & Civics class 8 |last=Gupta |first=Tapati Das |publisher=S. Chand Publishing |isbn=9789352534173 }}</ref> Qasim also launched a brief invasion of [[Hindu]] [[Kingdom of Nepal]] in 1763 during the reign of [[Maharajadhiraja]] [[Prithvi Narayan Shah]], the first [[King of Nepal]]. Kanak Singh Baaniya, Chief Minister of Makwanpur, had requested Qasim's intervention against Shah after he had taken Bikram Sen, the king of Makwanpur, [[hostage]]. Qasim dispatched a military force under the command of his general Gurgin Khan to invade Nepal. Khan was swiftly defeated by Shah's army, and retreated.{{citation needed}}<br />
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Unlike [[Siraj-ud-Daulah]] before him, Mir Qasim was an effective and popular ruler. Their victory at Buxar established the East India Company as a powerful force in the province of Bengal in a much more real sense than [[Battle of Plassey|at Plassey]] seven years earlier and [[Battle of Chinsurah|at Bedara]] five years earlier. By 1793 the East India company had abolished the ''Nizamat'' (referring to the Mughal suzerainty) and became completely in charge of the former Mughal province.<br />
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== Death ==<br />
Having lost all his men and influence after his defeat at Buxar, Qasim was expelled from his camp by [[Shuja-ud-Daula]] on 23 October 1764; fleeing to [[Rohilkhand]], [[Allahabad]], [[Gohad]] and [[Jodhpur]], and eventually settling at Kotwal, near [[Delhi]] ca. 1774.{{Citation needed}}<br />
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Mir Qasim died in obscurity and abject poverty possibly from [[Edema|dropsy]], at Kotwal, near Delhi on 8 May 1777.{{Citation needed}}<br />
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==See also==<br />
* [[Mughal Empire]]<br />
* [[Shia Islam in India]]<br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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==Further reading==<br />
* {{Cite book |last= Dalrymple |first= William |year= 2019 |title= The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company |location= New York |publisher= Bloomsbury publishing |type= Hardcover |isbn= 978-1-63557-395-4}}<br />
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{{s-start}}<br />
{{s-hou|||(Unknown)|8 May|1777}}<br />
{{s-bef|before=[[Saulat Jang]]}}<br />
{{s-ttl|title=[[Faujdar]] of [[Rangpur Division|Rangpur]]|years=1740 – 20 October 1760}}<br />
{{s-aft|after=[[Abid Ali Khan]]}}<br />
|-<br />
{{s-bef|before=[[Mir Jafar]]}}<br />
{{s-ttl|title=[[Nawab of Bengal]]|years=20 October 1760 – 7 July 1763}}<br />
{{s-aft|after=[[Mir Jafar]]}}<br />
{{end}}<br />
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{{Bengal Zamindars}}<br />
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{{Indian Independence Movement}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Qasim, Mir}}<br />
[[Category:1777 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:Indian Shia Muslims]]<br />
[[Category:Nawabs of Bengal]]<br />
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]</div>Devinderkumar