That battle at Buxar was being won by Shuja ud daulah. However, even as the indolent Nawab took it easy and when his troops ~ who had nearly encircled the British army led by the King’s officer Hector Munro ~ the Awadh troops preferred to loot the English baggage than win the war… Buxar was what cost East India its independence at a time when the Maratha power had yet to emerge from its Panipat loss. The remaining decade of Shuja’s rule was spent as a supplicant to the British, the Diwani was granted the following year, Allahabad and Chunar forts lost and Benaras passed to the ‘topikars’. See ‘The Mastery of Hindustan’ for a clear illustrated annotated account of the political and military moves around 23 October 1764…