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[[Robert Clive|Lord Robert Clive]], Governor-General of India, commenced his third tour of duty in [[Bengal]] in April 1765. It will be recalled that, at the [[Battle of Plassey]] in 1757, Clive had assisted Mir Jaffar to displace the usurper, Siraj-ud-Dowlah, as Nawab of Bengal. In gratitude, Mir Jaffar had granted the [[East India Company]] – and Clive himself - many privileges. These included the payment of the costs and expenses of the Company’s [[Bengal Army]]. During the course of 1765, the two concluded a final agreement whereby the Company would control and receive revenues (diwani) from a very large area of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. In exchange, the Company would itself assume responsibility for paying its Bengal Army.
It was customary in India to pay soldiers, garrisoned or on field service away from the Presidency, an allowance, supposedly to cover their extra costs of living. Although this allowance, called ‘batta’ was originally meant to be a privilege, it was commonly considered a right and complaints and disputes about it were frequent in all three of the Company’s Armies. To curry favour with the officers of the Bengal Army, Mir Jaffar had been allowing them ‘double batta’. Now, from 1st January 1766, the Company paid for its own army and, despite protestation from many of its officers, double batta was withdrawn.
