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OMICHUND (d. 1767)

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 104 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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OMICHUND (d. 1767) , an See also:Indian whose name is indelibly associated with the treaty negotiated by See also:Clive before the See also:battle of See also:Plassey in 1757. His real name was See also:Amir Chand; and he was not a See also:Bengali, as stated by See also:Macaulay, but a See also:Sikh from the See also:Punjab. It is impossible now to unravel the intrigues in which he may have engaged, but some facts about his career can be stated. He had See also:long been See also:resident at See also:Calcutta, where he had acquired a large See also:fortune by providing the " investment " for the See also:Company, and also by acting as intermediary between the See also:English and the native See also:court at See also:Murshidabad. In a See also:letter of Mr See also:Watts of later date he is represented as saying to the See also:nawab (Suraj-ud-daula) : " He had lived under the English See also:protection these See also:forty years; that he never knew them once to break their agreement, to the truth of which he took his See also:oath by touching a See also:Brahman's See also:foot; and that if a See also:lie could be proved in See also:England upon any one, they were See also:spit upon and never trusted." Several houses owned by him in Calcutta are mentioned in connexion with the fighting that preceded the tragedy of the See also:Black Hole in 1756, and it is on See also:record that he suffered heavy losses at that See also:time. He had been arrested by the English on suspicion of treachery, but afterwards he was forward in giving help to the fugitives and also valuable See also:advice. On the recapture of Calcutta he was sent by Clive to accompany Mr Watts as See also:agent at Murshidabad. It seems to have been through his See also:influence that the nawab gave reluctant consent to Clive's attack on See also:Chandernagore. Later, when the treaty with Mir Jafar was being negotiated, he put in a claim for 5% on all the treasure to be recovered, under See also:threat of disclosing the See also:plot. To defeat him, two copies of the treaty were See also:drawn up: the one, the true treaty, omitting his claim; the other containing it, to be shown to him, which See also:Admiral See also:Watson refused to sign, but Clive directed the admiral's See also:signature to be appended. When the truth was revealed to Omichund after Plassey, Macaulay states (following See also:Orme) that he sank gradually into See also:idiocy, languished a few months, and then died.

As a See also:

matter of fact, he survived for ten years, till 1767; and by his will he bequeathed £2000 to the Foundling See also:Hospital (where his name may be seen in the See also:list of benefactors as " a black See also:merchant of Calcutta ") and also to the Magdalen Hospital in See also:London. (J. S.

End of Article: OMICHUND (d. 1767)

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